New Britain herald., 1919-06-17
HIS WIFE GAMbLED.
 MINISTER ASSERTS
Rector Also Charges Her With
 Smoking

New York, June 17.-The Rev. Jeremiah Martyr Neifert, rector of St. Johns Episcopal church, at Presque Isle, Me, and former assist ant rector of St. Marks and St. James churches of this city, made vigorous and categorical denial of the charges of unfaithfulness brought against him by his wife when the trial of the divorce action was re- stunned yesterday before Justice Gie- gerich in supreme court.
 Statements made in court last week by Mrs. Emile Neifert and his two children, Isabelle, aged 16, and Mor- ton, aged IA, were chara cterized as deliberate falsehoods by the minister, who declared he saw in his wife's charges a desire to revenge herself on him by running his ministerial ca reer. He expressed a belief that his children were prompted to go on the stand and testify against him by the seeds of animosity which their mother had soWn in them against him.
 Counter charges were made against his wife whom he accused of undue friendlness with a former member of one of his New York parishes. Under the direct examination of his counsel he testified that he first started to drink after he had met her, and that the greater part of his drinking was done in her presence.
 Asserts His Wife Smokes.
 Mrs. Neifert also smoked cigarettes and played cards for money before their marriage, the minister asserted but he declared he found no fault with her smoking so long as she did it in his presence. It was only when she smoked cigarettes in public or in the presence of their children, he said, that he found it necessary to admonish her. He did not think such action befitted the wife of a minister
 Emphatic denial of anything but a feeling of friendship for Miss Caroline Elizabeth Cooper, the nurse named as correspondent, was made by Mr. Neifert. It was brought out in evi- dence yesterday that Miss Cooper had been divorced and had resumed her maiden name. MT. Neifert said he knew nothing of this until it was brought out during the trial, adding that had he known it before it would have made no difference in his treat ment of the nurse in his own home, where, he said he wanted her to act in the capacity of governess to his 1
 
 their mother.
 Did you not think it undignified, l indiscreet and unbecoming in a rec tor to play cards, drink wine and l attend moving picture theaters with l Miss Cooper?" asked counsel for Mrs Neifert.
 Do you want me to go around l with a placard on my back saying that l am a minister and a married l man whose wife had left me?" angri- l ly returned the defendant.
 Continuing his testimony, MT. Neil l fert said that one of the reasons he l was prompted to take Miss Cooper 1 into his household, even after he had recovered fully from an illness due | to rheumatism, was because of the l depleted state of his finances She was paying him S10 a week for her 1 room, he testified, and he thought it ! well to have a trained nurse near l who could take care of his children 1 in case of illness. Miss Cooper tes- tifed to leaving a $4 a week room in Harlem to board at the home of the minister.
 MT. Neifert characterized as false the statements of his son and daugh- ter that he frequently went around the mousse clad III paJamaS ana path robe. Miss Cooper, on the stand, made the same denial, saying she never in her life had owned a pair of pajamas. He also said his son had told a deliberate falsehood when he testified that on returning home late one afternoon, he had discovered his father leaving the nurses bed room, clad as described, and that the nurse left it a few minutes later, clad as was the rector
 Over the objections of the minis ter's counsel, MT. Neifert was ques- toned by the plaintiffs attorney re- garding a young woman who in 1901 disturbed the peace of the rectors household while he was an assistant rector of a New York parish. The young woman in question was a c1 he nf Ar Aaifert,S ereea=