The Washington times., 1922-04-30
Melville Which Recall the Old Private
Were Exposed and Broken Up by
Continued from Preceding Pa0e)

vile entered the Cowles Sanitarium, and
stayed until June 4.
After a while Mr. Melville began to
notice those "delusions" He says Mrs.
Melville began to talk about hollow
walls" and that "Dr. Cowles walked be.
tween them" She insisted that "Cowles
would enter her room through the fire.
place and crawl along the floor and then
suddenly appear at the foot Of her bed"
Finally Mrs. Melville protested against
staying any longer at the Cowles Sani-
tarium, insisting that her life was In dan.
ger, and demanded that she be taken
away.
Mr. Melville testified that there was
nothing wrong so far as he knew. with
the Cowles Sanitarium. and be was sure
there were no hollow walls and that Dr.
Cowles was a very nice man. He insisted
that there was no basis for his wife's
charges of Melvilles improper relations
with other women.
And here is a paragraph from Mr. Mel
ville's original complaint
within the last six months your peti.
TONER (Mr. Melville) has repeatedly asked
the alleged incompetent Chis wife) for ac-
cess to the securities with the Guaranty
Safe Deposit Company, and on each oc.
CaSiOn she, In great excitement has re-
piled that she would not give him access
tC the said securities. that he wished to
obtain them for improper purposes, and
that under no circumstances would she
permit him to have them"
So, everything considered and In view
of this last unreasonable or crazy attitude
of Mrs. Melville about keeping other peo-
pie out OF her safe deposit box. the suis
was brought to declare her a lunatic
1t took nearly Ave hours on the witness
stand before the lawyers finished up with
Mrs. Melville herself Five hours of ex.
animation and cross.examination is quite
a little ordeal for even very sane wo-
man. The jury took this into account.
and took careful note OF Mrs Melville's
calm, quick. unhesitating and conclusive
answers to all the questions There were
no delusions in her unclouded mind dur.
ing the five hours on the witness stand
Whatever Craziness the insanity experts
insisted were there In that crazy mind.
the tMr Melville's) lawyers we're BILE
to develop, and the jury promptly declared
her entirely sane.
Mrs Melville sums up her side OF the
thing in her affidavit which was filed in
answer to her husbands suit In this
My husband has begun an action
against me In this court claiming that
he deposited with me certain stocks
bonds securities and other property
amounting to the value Of 100000 This
action is now pending undetermined be
fore this court and | have filed my an
swer thereto. denying the allegations set
forth in the complaint. A trial will be
had OF that case and the decision OF
course will be binding upon both parties
my husband now however In advance
OF the trial OF that case and apparently
apprehensive OF an adverse result, seeks
to make IL impossible for me to defend
myself in that case by attempting to now
declare me incompetent or course " [
am declared incompetent. as he so ear
nestly wishes. 1t will mean that he has won
the action brought against me for the
stocks and bonds long before a trial OF
that action can be had.
while II is very clever move on his
part to anticipate judgment Of this court
and to make 1t impossible for me to de
fend an action brought against me in the
proper and lego' manner, have no doubt
that the court will not be deceived by such
evasive procedure, and | cannot believe
that this court will lend itself to any such
proceedings on the part OF my husband.
81 have always been able to take care
OF my business affairs alone, and | am
still able to do so without my husbands
Intervention or that of any committee
The allegation that I am incompetent is
ridiculous and preposterous on its face
The best proof of this is that my husband
admits that since 1918 he has had no &C
cess to the safe deposit box alone have
had charge OF all my funds ever since
1918 as, in fact. | did previous to that
date for great number Of years.
81 have read the affidavit OF my hus-
band, where he says that l went to Battle
Greek because I was IN an extremely ner.
vous condition and complained OF indi.
gestiOn. The fact is that I was at Battle
Creek solely because I had acidity of the
stomach and there was nothing the mat.
ter with my nerves or with my mentality.
! was not treated there for anything but
stomach ailment. During all this time
my husband would consult me about his
business affairs and never gave me the
slightest intimation that he suspected
that my mind was impaired. There can
be no question that he would not have
acted this way unless he knew, as he even
now knows. that | am perfectly sane and
normal
The incidents related by my husband
concerning the fire at the Hotel Plaza are
likewise untrue. | conducted myself in
a rather cool and collected manner on that
occasion, and certainly showed nothing
which would make anyone suspect that |