The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-06-11

tire Of or metropolitan lifs ~
sinca.
Thsre have bsen only . lev
Ifbefats bleamists TO deal viii, n.
though criminals Of this tyre a.
always ct large. The man ~
marEiss . large number Of wonea
IN order 70 gst tAeir savings or III
inpuranes b . commoa figure in -
ccarts. To this type belongs q
modern French Bluebeard whon
crimes crowded the war news q
ths front pages Of the Paris news
papers, and to this type also -
longs the young California woman
who was recently accused Of hayine
poisoned four husbands.
but the new bigamy wavU 4
largely . by-product Of the VA.
The var separated families and
shuGled husbands and wives about
in . dangerous way without entirely
celebrating their trails. Men vers
thrown 20 violently out of their
routine that It seemed as II their
old life had ended-but alas, Il h,i
mot.
4 Happy Double Family.
Such . victim Of rapid ehAagD /
Antoine Ruyts, . Belgian. who VA
recently, brought into q New York
court, accused Of having a French
AZ we'll ~ . Belgian wife in hin
homo. Would Antoine kindly ex-
plain how he came to break ths
Law? Antoine would:
When the Germans descended
upon Belgium IL. 1914, Ruyts was
dwelling peacefully in Antwerp with
his wife. Charlotte, and their 1--WE
children. The Germans took Ant
werp. The family was broken up.
Antoine went to . prison camp.
Two years later, he escaped and
got through the lines into France,
He secured employment In Paris
and there made the acquaintance Of
Mime. Marie Pierre-Labar, an A.
trActive widow Of IS. The new en-
vironment was so different from the
old one in Belgium that it seemed
to Antoine Is il he had escaped To-
another planet He was not in love
with the widow Pierre-Labar, but
he liked her. and she was an excel
lent manager. And Charlotte, hs
thought, was doubtless dead.
The war over Antoine and the
widow came to America. At Ellis
Island they were told they could
mot enter unless they were mar
ried. Well, why not! To be held
up by a little thing like that! So I
mission priest at Ellis Island per.
formed the necessary ceremony.
But to his amazement Antoine
soon found that his past seemed
closer to him In this country than
it ever had in Paris. He began to
pine for his daughters. and last
November he wrote to his Belgian
wife Charlotte. to join him in Amer
lea, bringing 15-year-old Virginia
and the young Philomene with her.
In due time they arrived. An
tome wept tears Of Joy upon seeing
them, and sworc that the widow
Pierre-Labar should depart from
his life. As it happened. however,
the widow did not see things that
way 1t all. She continued to re-
main in the apartment OF Antoine.
recognising the household on a
new basis and managing it as be-
fore. Charlotte she took to work
! with her every day at the costum-
er's where she was employed, and
the children she placed in school
All might have gone well, as it
seems to do In so many Of these
bigamy cases, II the neighbors had
not discovered the circumstances
and had Antoine arrested.
Such cases present great difacul-
ties to well-meaning judges, espe-
cially when q man is found to have
two wives, both having children and
both dependent upon him for sup
port. II the wives don't object why
should the court? This was the
somewhat unusual position recently
taken BY the federal authorities in
the case Of an Italian Who came in
great distress to tn. police when be
suddenly found himself with two
wives and two sets Of children on
his hands. He had left his first
wife and their son In Italy while
he came to this country to make his
fortune. During the war, he sent
her the passage money to come to
America and join him, but hearing
nothing In reply, he assumed she
was dead. He thereupon married
a Pennsylvania widow, who is nov
the mother Of two babies. Thus
imagine the poor mans plight when
a few weeks ago wife No. ! and heI
son arrived from Italy, evincine
great delight at seeing him.
Sometimes q male relative, an
obliging brother or uncle. steps
nobly to the rescue in a situation Of
this kind, but In the absence Of such
q hero, some authorities think the
best solution is to set the bigamis1
free to work out his own dificul'
ties.