The Topeka state journal., 1918-08-30
While Mrs. Main Waves Ban
ner, Husband Asks Divorce.
TOpekan Tired of Keeping the
Home Fires Burning.
She is IN WASHINGTON NOW
Arrested and in Jail for Aiding
Stuff Demonstration.
Mr. Main Says She Threw a
Rock at Him at Home.

Mrs. Effie Main, suffragette and
former Topeka club woman. now do
ing time in Ocoquan prison in Wash
ington. D. c., for making a suffrage
speech on the streets of the, national
capital. is now made the defendant in
a divorce suit.
w. w. Main, husband to Effie Bout
well Main, filed a petition today in the
Shawnee county district court, asking
for a divorce from his wife.
Mains complaint against his wife is
that she left him six months ago to
go to Washington. His feelings also
are hurt because he thinks she has
brought dishonor to his name on ac-
count of her numerous arrests and i'm
prisonments. Wishing to "clear his
name of the stain" Mrs. Main is all
legged to have brought upon it by her
arrest for a display of zeal in the
cause of women's enfranchisement.
Main asks his freedom
Threw Rock at Him.
Main also states that during the past
three years his wife frequently abb
sented herself from home against his
wishes and protests. Besides leaving
the home after he had said she should
4 mt, Mrs. Main is accused of having
| thrown a rock at her husband while
she was in a fit of anger. He states
further that she has thrown other
articles at him.
Mr. and Mrs. Main are joint own
ers, the husband says. of some real
estate in Topeka, and he wants \the
title to it, on the grounds that he trad
ed for it some property for which he
paid out his own money only.
Mrs. Main We'll Known.
Mrs. Main has been in the public
eye more or less for some time. She
belongs to a family which holds rather
| advanced" ideas on the subject of the
rights and privileges of the prolateriat-
| She read a paper before her club in
] Topeka about the time the draft law
| was passed which so startled the mem-
| bers that the club united to protest
against the doctrine she advocated, to
the effect that the law was unconsti-
/ tutionaI and could not and should not
| stand. Had she made the address
after the passing of the present es-
pionage law, she would doubtless have
/ been apprehended for its violation.
| Arrested in Washington.
Six months ago Mrs. Mainfwent to
! Washington to join in the agitation
| for a federal amendment granting the
| full franchise to women. The suf-
| frage cause was beginning to be lost
/ sight of at the capital, being pushed
/ off the boards by other considerations.
/ The suffragettes at work on the bill
/ had no intention of allowing the
| measure to die of neglect So the
! method of picketing was devised.
Mrs. Main stepped in as a picket and
| carried banners into the streets in
front of the White House. She was
arrested five times, and released on
! bail until the time of her fifth arrest
| The proba bil1ties are that she is now
| in prison serving a sentence.
| She. had tried to make speeches to
| the crowds that followed the pickets,
| but had been stopped by the police
| before she had been able to do more
than make a beginning. At last she
and some of her fellow pickets were
| able to arrange a surprise by which
| the police were not aware of what
was going forward until the address
| had proceeded to an advanced stage
Mrs. Main was then arrested for the
| fifth time. -
| She is a sister OF Irving Boutwell,
| who was tried on a charge of distrib-
| uting anti-war literature to soldiers
: on trains passing thru Topeka