The Washington times., 1921-04-13
STOKES LIAR
LAWYERS SAYS
Stormy Session in Divorce Trial.
Woman Appears as Star
Witness Against Wife.

space of ten feet in the old court
house in City Hall Park yesterday
two women faced each other-Mrs.
w. f. d. Stokes, fighting the charges
by which her husband is trying to
divorce her, and Genevieve De An
quinos, seeking on the witness stand
to support the charges.
PICKS WORDS CAREFULLY.
/ In tones so soft that Supreme Court
Justice Finch scarcely heard her,
Mrs. -, Anquinos began her testi-
mony. She picked words carefully.
glancing at Mrs. Stokes every few
minutes as though to note their ef-
feet. In the glances there was
lightly veiled resentment at first,
and Mrs. Stokes studied her, with
head slightly titled. as one might
view an extraordinary exhibit In
public.
Then abruptly, the young wife
laughed. 1t was when the witness
said she had taken up interior decora-
tion after becoming a manicurist.
Mrs. Stokes raised a gloved hand
mirth.
Mrs. De Anquinos's eyes assumed a
staring fixity. her pale cheeks hamed,
and thereafter the attitude of the two
women was undisguised. Constantly
their eyes met across the space, and
there was tina. in the glances that
passed between them, which was not
pleasant even for spectators to OBJ
serve.
CALLS STOKES LIAR.
The atmosphere Of enmity in the
court spread soon to the opposing
lawyers, till at times a physical clash
appeared imminent. Martin Littleton,
chief counsel for Mrs. Stokes, accused
w. Il. ID. Stokes, who Is suing for
divorce, OF signalling to the witness.
When Stokes denied IL, Littleton
called him IAN infamous liar" The
old man rose to resent 1t. ana Justice
Finch with difficulty calmed the
belligerants.
Meanwhile Mrs De Anquinos and
Mrs Stokes gazed steadily at each
other. Mrs. De Anauinos's eyes are
cold blue, and Mrs. Stokes's are green
fecked with gold. The witness is
.middle-aged. auburn-haircd and pallid
checked. She wore a heavy cloak OF
mink ornamented with claws and
tails. over a suit OF navy blue trimmed
with red stripes crossed with gold
threads. Her hat was a brown silk
sailor, with a bunch Of cherries hang
ing over the brim. Her stockings
were black silk, clocked with white,
and her pumps plain patent leather.
She toyed with a beaded bag, and
watch suspended from ribbon on
her neck as she spoke. Mrs. Stokes
smiles frequently, sometimes with lip
curling, often with obvious scorn, but
In Mrs. De Anquinos's face sheer re-
sentiment was ever dominant.
HARMED by LIT-TLETON.
harriad N m nrerCi-
lessly under cross-aXamination, for
she was the strongest witness pre-
sented by Stokes in tho attack on his
wife. She has testified to having seen
Mrs. Stokes and Edgar T. Wallace,
clad in ncgligee. and so little Of that
as to be negligible. She had been so
shocked, she said. at the sight that
she had ned the room in Wallace's
apartment
SO Littleton struck at her own
character so bitterly that Mrs. De Ar
quinos quivercd under the direct as
sault. Then she fought back, now
sullenly. now venomously. There was
the suggestion of cornered kitten in
her struggle, and she talked vivid
stream of vituperation wholly direct
cd at Mrs stokes. whose eyes gilt
tered contempt.
II evidence previously brought out
likencd the trial to a boudoir farce.
Yesterdays testimony made one think
of what is revealed when a plank Is
suddenly lifted in the floor of damp
celler. Littleton sought to reveal
Mrs. De Anquinos as the mother of
three children, on her own testimony.
though she had sworn she was child =
less. He asked her IL she had ever
received gentlemen in her bath al the
Hotel Maryland, and when she an
swered with ar emphatic negative he
said:
"Do you object to the word gen
tlemen'? Then tell us IL you ever
received men there" -
LAwYR ON HIS FEET.
Herbert c. Smythe, counsel for
stokes, leaped to the rail with a de-
punciation Of tho insult, declaring
that Mrs. Stokes had never been so
treated. Littleton retortcd:
"Oh. no; all you have charged
against her is three murders"
Littleton forced into evidence a pic
ture showing three girls In lingerie
and socks seated on the back of a
couch with their legs crossed. MrE
DC Anquinos said that she was ono
of them and that the other girls were
Evelyn Noyes and Clara Wells. Then
she commented:
rnaIlx, rnto pict,rc