“ A HUMAN ORCHID.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 914, 5 November 1910, Page 4

“ A HUMAN ORCHID.”

CURIOUS DIVORCE CASE

Mrs Eleanor Tanner secured a divorce at Eos Angeles recently, on the ground of wilful neglect on the part of her husband. The latter did not appear. He alleged through friends that he was not a bad sort of man at heart, and would have lived gladly with his wife and child, but, to tell the truth, he had beensterilised out of house and home by his wife’s alleged mania lor sterilisation.

Mr Tanner is a millionaire. Betty Tanner, her baby, known far and wide in California as the human orchid —so carefully, has she been reared —will inherit, if she lives, at least ,£5,000,000. Soon after Betty was born the Tanners went to Eos Angeles, so that she might live a healthy outdoor life, and never be infected by horrid germs, of which Mrs Tanner admittedly had a morbid dread. On her instructions, it seems, architects began planning a most curious house in one of the most fashionable residence districts of Eos Angeles. The mansion literally was built around Betty. First the ground was sterilised, and then every bit of the building material that went into the structure was sterilised. The walls of the nursery were made as nearly germ-proof as possible. Even the air Betty breathed was sterilised before it was allowed to enter the room.

Servants waited on the little miss, and saw to it that everything she touched —her toys, food and clothes —were sterilised, and thoroughly antiseptic. The father was not allowed to hold his little girl on his lap or even kiss her, and her mother did not pretend to take such liberties.

At last the atmosphere in his home became tco rarified for Tanner, and he absconded. For three years he has not been at home when Mrs Tanner and Betty were there. In the absence of his wife and daughter Tanner occasionally appeared and lived in the house for a few weeks at a time. The last time he was in Eos Angeles was in January of this year, when Betty was nearly five years of age. Mrs Tanner has made no request for alimony.