New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-04-24
Two Wives and
His 2 Children
Share 3 Rooms
Brooklyn Laborer Held on
Charge of'Having Belgian
as Well as French Mate;
Sequel to World War
Talk by Knocking Wood
Marriage With VII o W
Failed TO Ease Longing
to See His Daughters

Antoine Ruyts, Belgian, was held
for examination yesterday in Fifth
Avenue police court. accused of having
a French as we'll as a Belgian wife in
his home at 312 Fifty-third Street,
Brooklyn.
The international family in the taree
rooms occupied by Ruyts is by-prod-
uct Of the war. When the Germans
marched through Belgium, Ruyts was
living in Antwerp with his wife, Char
lotte. and ,heir five children When
the Germans took Antwerp the family
was broken up. Antoine was sert to
prison camp.
He made his escape in 1916 and got
through the lines into France He
settled in Paris and made the acqupin-
tance Of Nine Marie Pierre-Labar. a
sprightly widow of thirty-eight whose
buxomness contrasted favorably with
the pallid and fragile wife three years
younger who still was in Belgium,
whether living or dead Antoine did net
know.
1t was as if the horror of German
occupation had been the end of the
world and from its chaos Antoine had
escaped to another planet. He found
Paris pleasant planet and the widow
Plerre-Labar Not by any means it's
least attractive feature The old life
IN Antwerp faded gradually from An
tones recollection.
Married at Ellis Island
In January, 1920. he still had refused
to lon the rest of the world in taking
up things where they had been dropped
and decided to put a further barrier
between the present and the past by
coming to the United States with the
Widow Pierre-Labar. They came and
we're astonished to discover that thew
could not enter unmarried.
Ihere was only one thing TO be done
and, according to the police, Antoine
and the Widow Pierre Labar were mar
RED. The ceremony, it is alleged, was
performed by mission priest at Ellis
island and they entered the country as
man and wife
The Atlantic, however, failed to di
vorce Antoine from the past as com
pietely as he had hoped. He found
himself pining for. his daughters, and
last November he notified his Belgian
wife, Charlotte, to join him in America
and bring with her fifteen-year-old Vir
ginla and thirteen-year-o Philomene.
lney came, and Antoine is said to
nave sworn with hand on the head of
each of his beloved daughters that the
Widow Pierre-Labar no longer should
have any part in his life.
French Wife Rules Household
Things did not turn out that way.
q however. The widow Pierre-Labar is
said to have been the dominant figure
IN the crowded household, to have com
munlcated her wishes by telegraphic
system of drumming on the woodwork
with her fingers to the Flemish woman.
who could not or would not compre-
bend her French, and to have taken
Charlotte to work every day in the
costumer's on West Forty
Street, where she herself was employed
and to have brought her back at night.
Neighbors who wondered at the CON
tinual rappng that came from the
Ruyts apartment when the two women
were there finally got an inkling of the
situation and complained to the au-
thorities, with the result that an agent
for. the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children made an investiga-
ton and Anthoine was arrested. The
Widow Pierre-Labar and pale-faced,
silent Charlotte we're alone in the
apartment last night.