The New York herald., 1922-02-03
STOKES DESCRIBES
A FLIGHT FOR LIFE
Saved by a Cook From a Carv-
ing Knife, He Says, He Es-
capped by the Back Stairs.

w. e. d. Stokes. whose wife. Mrs.
Helen Elwood Stokes, is suing him in
the Supreme Court to regain dover
rights which she signed away few
months after they were married in 1911.
was on the witness stand, all day yester-
deavoring to convince Samuel Inter
nyer, counsel for his wife. that she
signed away her dover voluntarily, gave
al: illuminating picture Of various epi-
sodes in his married life. Mrs. Stokes
obtained a separation from him last year.
He declared that Mrs. Stokes clawed
and scratched him once when she wanted
$4,000 and he wouldn't oblige her, and
that friends cook saved him from her
wrath. He denied that he ever struck
her or any woman. but admitted that
his temper was short and that natural
gift of forcible language sometimes
hubbled up and welled out.
Mrs. Stokes has declared that long
deed" she signed and by which she
waived her dover in forty-nne pieces
o. real estate. including the Hotel An
sonia, was executed by her under duress.
He declared yesterday that he and she
s gned it while sitting TRANQUILITY at the
same desk, but later, when it was shown
t. him, admitted that their names were
written in different inks.
The attack on him by his wife. he
said, occurred at the home of Mrs. Philip
Learney in West Seventy y-second street.
Mrs. Stokes was visiting Mrs. Kear-
ney, and when / called on her there"
he testified. "she renewed a demand she
had made for $4,000. told her that
the condition of my finances-I had just
paid off some mortgages-did not leave
me in possession of such a sum, and
she flew into a rage and clawed and
scratched my face so gadly that I bear
some of the marks to-day. had to
run from her presence by way of a back
stairs, and she would have cut me with
carving knife had not Mrs. Kearney's
cook interviewed"
Stokes. while admitting that he some
times had recourse to speech not Gus
tomary In drawing rooms. denied that
he ever struck woman. and Mr.. Inter
myer logged his memory by reading
part of the testimony taken in the trial
which divorced him and his first wifea
now Mrs. Philip Lydig. There was a
statement In it by the first Mrs. Stokes
about his hitting her with a stick. He
said finally that he couldn't remember
anything about the incident X 1t ever
occurred.
1t is his contention that when he and
Helen Elwell became engaged he told
her that all the money he would ever be
able 10 give her was $500 month. and
that they signed an ante nuptial stipula-
lion agreeing to 1t. He said yesterday
that he had lost the paper. He relies
now on long deed" executed three
months aftcl they were married by
which she joined in a transfer of all his
property to the Merwyn Realty Corpora
ton. which he controls.
In accounting yesterday for the diff
ference in the inks I'm which his name
and hers are written he said that he
signed first with thick ink from the bot
tom of an old inkwell. and that before
she signed ink from a new bottle was
poured in on the old ink TO thin ii out.
1t is expected that the trial will end
to-day. When II is over Mr.. Stokes will
have to answer an application by his
wife In another part of the court, In
which she asks to have her present
alimony of $4,000 a year increased TO
100000.