The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1922-03-14
HUSBAND A NEGRO,
SAYS WIFE IN SUIT
MARRIED IA YEARS AGO; HE
ADMITS MIXED B L 0 OIL
BUT NOT ETHIOPIAN.

! NEW YORK, n. Y.-Pryng, at
ter years into a locked closet which
her husband had forbidden her to eN-
plore, Mrs. Ingrid Bornn, OF, Chi
Icago, discovered a secret which result
/ ed in her appearance in court yester-
idav in support OF a petition that her
marriage be annulled on the ground
that her husband is a negro. The hus-
band. lose Bornn, for many years a
newspaper man in New York and now
Engaged in journalism in Chicago, adj
Imitted on the stand that he was not a
I Caucasion and that mixed blood flow
ed in his veins He doubted that he
4 had an Ethiopian strain.
Married IA Years.
Justice Callaghan in the Queens
county supreme court in Long Island
City took the case under Amusement.
Justice Callaghan gave both sides ten
days to file briefs.
The court admitted from the bench
a sympathetic attitude toward the
plaintiff. but commented on these teat-
ures OF the controversy: 1t had not
been established that Bornn had ne
gro blood. What difference did it make
II he had 1t appeared that from the
time the couple became acquainted III
1906 the wife had known as much OF
Bornns family as did he himself. Why
should annullment proceedings be
brought after the Bornns had lived to-
gether apparently happily, for four
teen years!
Mrs. Bornn's testimony tended
somewhat to answer the last query,
since she said it was her desire to go
back to Norway, where she was born
in 1888. She wished to take back with
her the couples two daughters, one
Is and the other II years old.
Contrasting Types,
Mrs. Bornn and her husband were
Istrikingly contrasting types in court.
She is a handsome blonde. He is dark
skinned, with straight black hair
land a black mustache, both tinged
with gray. The wife testified that her
husband had been engaged in news
paper work in this country since Il
few months after their marriage IN
London in 1900. He had been night
city editor of the Tribune here, then
had gone to the Journal of Commerce,
and a year ago went to the chicago
Journal of Commerce. Mrs. BOrnn IN
derstood that Bornn's home was in s..
Thomas. Danish West Indies; that his
father was a Holland DutChman and
his mother Spanlard.
How 1t Started.
In their home, so her testimony ran,
was a closet securely fastened, to
(which Bornn kept the key. After
Bornn had gone to Chicago, year
ago. temptation overcame her. She
found in the closet a photograph OF
Bornn, his seventeen brothers and Sis
tiers, and his mother and father. An
other photograph showed Bornn's
father and his seven brothers. There
was a pamphlet giving the history OF
the Bornn family. Mrs. Bornn was
mot allowed to testify more specifically
as to her discoveries, beyond saying
that what she learned led her to bring
the annulment action.
Part of the examination OF Bornn
was as follows:
Are you white 7" i am not. Any
one can see that"
Not a Negro.
Have you any negro blood III your
Iveins?" q don't know just what |
am. There probably is quite mixture
OF blood running through my veins,
but | do not believe there is any ne
gro blood there"
Peter Aubeck, of Richmond Hill;
Howard Lamb and Richard L. Bache,
of Woodhaven, all of whom had liv-
ed for some time in St Thomas, tes-
tilted that the family had the reputa-
ton in the community OF being ne
groes.