Great Falls tribune., 1921-06-13
The Hdskii1 Letter = 'tssss's ss:s'1
TOO MANY SPOUSES.

I There have been only feW dehoeIL
ate hgamists to deal with, aitnousn
criminals of this type are always =.
large. The man who marries l1l!e !e
number Of women in order to eet tnell
savings or life insurance ls q common
figure in the, courts. To this type ya De
longs the modern French blueDearu
whose crimes crowded the war newe
Oft the front pages Of the Paris news
papers. and to this type also peionss
the young California woman VINO was
recently accused of having poisoned
four husbands. 1850
But the new bigamy wave is largely
q by-product Of the war. The war
separated families and shuffled nus
bands and wives about in a dangerous
way without entirely obliteratlng tne,r
trails. Men were thrown so vlolently
out Of their routine that 1t seemed az
il their old life had .ended-but' aias'
4 Happy Double Family. :
Such a victim of rapid change Is
Antoine Ruyts, Belgian, Who was re-
Gently brought inta New York court
accused of having French as wen as
q Belgian wife in his home. Would
Antoine kindly explain how ne came
to break the law? Antoine would:
When the Germans descended upon
BelRium in 1914, Ruyts was dwelling
peacefully in Antwerp with his WIFE
Charlotte, and their five children: me
Germans took Antwerp. The family
was broken up. Antoine went to a
prison camp.
Two years later, he escaped and got
through the lines into France. he Sc
cured employment in Paris and there
made the acquaintance of Nine. Pierre
Labar, an attractive widow OF 81. Ihe
new environment was so different from
the old one in Belgium that it seemed
to Antoine as if he had escaped to
another planet. He was not in love
with the widow Pierre-Labar, but ne
liked her, and she was an excellent
manager. And Charlotte, he thought,
was doubtless dead.
The war over, Antoine and the
widow came to America. At Ellis
Island they were told they could not
enter unless they were married. Well
why not? To be held up by a little
thing like that! SO 4 mission priest
at Ellis Island performed the neces-
sary ceremony.
But to his Amusement 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 America, bringing fifteen-year-
old Virginia and the younger Philo-
meme Yith her.
In due time they arrived. Antoine
wept tears Of joy upon seeing them,
and swore that the widow Pierre Labar
should depart from his life. As it
happened, however, the widow did not
see things that way at all. She con-
tinued to remain in the apartment Of
Antoine, teorSanizins the household
on new basis and managing it a. be-
fore. Charlotte she took to work with
her every day at the costumer'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, if the neighbors
had not discovered the circumstances
and had Antoine arrested.
Such cases present great difficulties
to well-meaning judges, especially when
a man is found to have two wives. both
having children and both dependent
upon him for support. II the wives
don't object, why should the court?
This was the somewhat unusual posi-
tion recently taken by the feleral
authorities in the case Of an Italian
who came in great distress to the police
when he 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 Dur
ing 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 Pennsylvania widow, who is
now the mother of two babies. Thus.
imagine the poor mans plight when
few weeks ago Wife No. / and her
son arrived from Italy, evincing great
delight at seeing him.
Sometimes near male relative, an
obliging brother or uncle. steps nobly
to the rescue in a situation of this
kind, but in the absence of such a
hero, some authorities think the best
solution is to set the bigamist free to
work out his own difficulties.