New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-08
Vile Charges
StOkes's Aids
With Perjury
Their Evidence Unbelievable
and Contradictory, Says
Littleion, i'm Brief Ask
ing Separation Verdict
Millionaire Called Satyr
Husband Insists i'm Final
Plea for Divorce That
His Case Has Bee, Proved

Justice Finch yesterday received
from Herbert c. Smyth, counsel for
". E: D. Stokes. who sued Mrs Helen
Elwood Stokes for divorce, and from
Martin w. Littleton, counsel for Mrs.
Stokes, who brought q counter claim
for separation, their briefs and reply
briefs In the case, which took about six
weeks to try and in which he reserved
decision.
Mr.. Smyth cites the testimony of
numerous witnesses as proof of the
charges made by the millionaire plain
tiff that Mrs. Stokes had been guilty
OF misconduct. He asks for decree
of divorce and also that the custody of
the two children, James and Helen,
now in the care of Mrs. Stokes, be
awarded to the father.
Mr.. Littleton in his brief seeks to
discredit the witnesses for Mr.. Stokes,
some of whose testimony he states
plainly was perjured, and attacks the
plaintiff for his treatment of Mrs.
Stokes and his efforts to obtain evil
dence compromising his wife.
Mr.. Littleton's request was that the
complaint be dismissed as being based
on unbelievable and contradictory evil
dence, and that the court sustain the
ccInter claim of the defendant for a
separation on the ground of cruel and
1nhuman treatment, which, it was al
legged, included attempts by the hus-
band to insult, humiliate and be-
smirch his wife.
In his reply to the brief of counsel
for Mr.. Stokes, Mr.. Littleton refers to
the divorce action brought in 1863 by
Edwin Forrest, the tragedian, as q
counter claim to suit by Mrs. For.
rest. Forrest, said the attorney, pre-
tended, Gust as Mr.. Stokes here pre-
tends, that ne had suddenly discovered
evidence Of her iniidelity." Mr.. Little
ton said that this made the Forrest and
Stokes cases analogous, except that
Forrest called no negro witnesses.
I'm the Forrest case, as in the one
now before the bar" continued Mr..
Littleton, cit was the malicious. ac-
cusing husband who sought out the
witnesses, procured their lying state
ments, prepared and coached them, and
saw to their production on the trial"
The Forrest case, he added, was de-
cided in favor of the wife, just as he
expects the Stokes case to be decided,
not on the quantity but on the quality
of the testimony.
Mr.. Stokes, who is sixty-nine years
old, thirty-four years older than his
wife, is described by Mr.. Littleton in
the following extract from the defend
ants brief:
HE was man of prurient mind and
devoted to promiscuous amours, utter
~ abandoned to every principle of vir-
tue and lost to every sentiment of
manly honor-one of the few people in
the world who have no kindly feeling
in their hearts. Almost from the be-
ginning he beat and terrified his wife.
AS early as July 6. 1911 (the couple
were married in February, 1919, She
wrote in her diary, will smashed
dishes at table, On July Is, Another
scene at Wills. I made a great mistake
in marrying
Indeed, the plaintiffs counsel cam
dldly confesses that his client has
faults along with his good qualities
But they must admit that this record
fails to disclose any of the latter. The
plaintiff showed little delicacy, if it
were moro than the gloating of a
sneering satyr, when he sent word to
Mrs. Miller (mother of Mrs. stolesS. as
she lay stricken with the news of her
daughters runaway marriage, that he
was not so bad as he was painted"
Mr.. Littleton referred to. the alleged
suggestion made by Mr.. Stokes to his
wife that she obtain collusive d.
vorce.
Tells of Wife's Enduring Love
"And yet Mrs. Stokes loved this man
and kept on loving him almost to the
end" he continued. "She was not
happy except for few days. Yet the
letters she wrote him testify to the
endurance of her love, and she spoke
the truth when she swore she loved
him up to the moment she entered the
courtroom, for until then she had
never brought herself to believe the
threat which was hurled at her when
she spurned his offer of freedom and
riches. How mysterious and how true
is the ancient saying, Husbands are
often adored for their coldness, hard
ness, arrogance and contemptuous-
ness"
Taking up in order the witnesses for
Mr.. Stokes, counsel for the wife points
out in some instances the alleged In
possibility of their stories, charging In
other instances that these witnesses
gave perjured testimony and that sew
eral of the men and women who took
the stand for Mr.. Stokes were still in
his pay at the time they testified. Mr..