The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1922-10-06

Hugh L. Russell. an osteorath Of
Buffalo, was later ruled out OF Inc
case as privileged between a phya-
clan and patient. A letter presented
as being confession" by MrS.
Stillman to her husband, and writ
ten in moment OF hysteria" be.
fore Guys birth, also was rejected
by the court as privileged.
Mr.. Stillman's attorneys tried to
show that their client did not live
with his wife during the year pre-
ceding the birth of Guy Stillman.
and one of the witnesses called to
aid in this evidence was Mrs. Percy
A. Rockefeller, the bankers sister,
and niece of the founder OF the
Rockefeller fortune. .-..
Great Public Interests.
No domestic scandal-ever cerat-
ed, perhaps, greater public interest
than the Stillman case.
Mr.. Stillman filed his complaiT(
in July, 1920, in the little village Of
Carmel, N. Y, and it lay hidden
there unknown to but few. There
were rumblings of discord in the
Stillman family, however, during
the fall and winter of 1920, and
these were echoed in society maya :
zines. On the morning of March IL,
1921, the story broke into newspa-
pers, and from that time on thou
sands of columns of type were de-
voted to the case.
There has been a hearing in De-
cember, 1920, but outsiders did not
know it. Subsequent hearings also
were conducted in private but &C
IF tho nature nf the fpSti-
mony percolated into the ears of re-
porters. A few weeks after the ~
became publicly known the direc-
tors of the National City bank an
nounced that StiIlman had resigned
as president.
Mr.. Stillman's avowed purpose in
instituting the suit was to prove
Guy Stillman illegitimate. If his
paternity could have been tested by
allow ing Mrs. Stillman to start pro-
ceedings, the banker, his attorneys,
intimated, would have been willing
to be the defendant. -
Pending outcome of the case Mrs.
Stillman was awarded alimony OF
100000 a year, one of the largest
alimony grants ever made in this
sci fees and $12,500 for expenses.
Altogether Mr.. Stillman was be-
lieved to have spent far in excess
of 100000 il his divorce litigation.
The amount turned over to Mrs.
StiIlman's counsel for alfmony,
fees and expenses approached $780,
900. 40
Mrs. Stillman, in the final stages
of the case, charged that some OF
the Canadians who swore they saw
her misbehaving with Beauyais had
been bribed to give such testimony.
She contended that others were
tempted with money and promises
of a good time in New York to give
similar accounts.
To Offset the stories told about
her by half dozen French Cana :
dams summoned by the plaintif1
when hearings first opened, Mrs;
Stillman and her oldest son, Bud,
went to Canada last January, and
Drawing a blizzard that carried with
it a temperature of 40 below zero,
she drove by sleighs up the valley
Of the st. Maurice River in the pro
vince of Quebec, marshalling at the
camps and villages natives who had
known her and would testify that
her conduct had been of the best.
Many Witnesses Sworn.
These witnesses, numbering more
than a score, had their say in the
spring, when trial of the case was
Temporarily shifted to Montreal
Some of them denied it would have
been possible for Mr.. Stillman's
witnesses to have Deeped through
keyholes and from ladders at the
Stillman summer camp. as the
plaintiffs witnesses had described,
and others testified the relations
between Mrs. Stillman and Beau
yais were simply those of an en-
ployer and servant. One man tes-
titled, 1t was reported, that he had
been offered $1,000 to swear he wit
messed misconduct by Mrs. Stllman
and Beauvais, and another said he
had heard a conversation in which
Sc. 600 was offered for such evidence
of guilt. Mr.. Stillman's attorneys
denied the allegations of attempted
bribery.
The trial before the referee came
to a sensational close when counsel
for Mr.. Stillman put into evidence
four letters purporting to have been
written to Beauvais by Mrs. Still
man. They announced that Beau
yais had sold the letters only a few
DAYS before Mr.. Stillman's agents
for $4,000. Testimony to support
this was heard. Mrs. Stillman i'm
mediately denied authorship OF the
letters, and Beauvais later denied
that he had stolen them. But they
remained as evidence in the case.