DOINGS IN DIVORCE.

NZ Truth, Issue 139, 15 February 1908, Page 6

DOINGS IN DIVORCE.

FLIGHTY FROLICS OF THE FAIR AND FRAIL Brutal, Beer-Swiping, Blustering Bullies of Husbands. JUSTICE BUTTON QUOTES THE SCRIPTURES, Tbe Astonishing Assertions of the Adsetts.

Arthur Thomas Livermore, carrier, and his brother Horace George Livermore, a cooper, of Wellington, had a rather astonishing experience of marriage. Elizabeth Lee said, "This is ao sudden!" to Arthur on August 21, 1897, and departed from him on the anniversary of the wedding ceremony, ten years later. Horace also married an Elizabeth, whose other name is Reid, and she got tired of him on the same day, and both husbands applied for orders for the re- t stitiition of conjugal rights before 'Justice Button on Wednesday. Barrister Wilford piloted the applications, and m the case of Thomas, counsel remarked that the missus married out of curiosity. Judge Button : Isn t that why most women marry ? Counsel: I don't know, your Honor. I've only been married once. It is. difficult to imagine what.Lizaie had to groAvl about, for Arthur fThomas gave her all his money. "She naturally became discontented because she, was never .refused anything," remarked the epigramatical WUford. ■'■'-I think there are some women built that way ,'•* agreed S'Honor, sympathetically: Arthur Thomas, stated m evidence that no child blessed the union, from which it would appear that tfie-miss-us; didn't have all she wanted. "The husband was surprised at the • "dissatisfaction of .the wife, who was not f Urtreated arid actually had 25s> a week pocket-money to do what she Ually well /pleased with. Elizabeth wants a Mttle adversity to make her appreciate Arthur Thomas. She departod with his brother's missus f or Ponsonby on the date mentioned, and although he had written m terms of entreaty to her, she NOW IGNORED HIS EXISTENCE. .Unfortunately she had money of her own.. An order was made for the restitution of conjugal rights. Horace George Livermore' married his Elizabeth, on January % 1899, and an heir was "born to the; family plate, but 'that interesting memento of the union Was taken away by ma when she 'sought a change of clittvate m the .Eden of the North. This Liz's disinclination to corner South again was even more marloed than Elizabeth Is. antipathy to travel. She was. ordered to return, to her love-lorn husband, a period, of three weeks being fixed for repentance m both cases. Richard Muir, plumber, and Alice, his wife, drank deeply from , love's wine-glass when, they became one m a Brisbane Presbyterian Ghurclli on December 10, 1889, but it was jprobab, ly-the climate that engendered dissatisfaction with hubby, for <jhe lady ,tpok her hoqlfc and other befongingson November 30, 1892, and ; !has not since returned. There were two children, Bert (16) and Dolly (14), and his astute Honor remarked upon *he fact that Dolly must have entered this miserable world after the disappearance of her mother. The learned Wilford inournftiJUy acknowledged the circumstance. "We don't w<ant to say anything* about that," he remarked, with significance. i ■ ■ "Why did she go? Did she give any reason- ?" ASKED THE MYSTIFIED BENCH. "No," replied the grass widower. •*'l went to vrork one morning, and flvfcen I came back she was away." Decree , nisi granted, to be made absolute m three months. It is not clear what drove Alfred George Butt to beer, hut sonic people might suspect that his i wife's .Christian name had something' to do with it. .Emberzine married opm on iApril 20, 1897, and nature gave them a little boy and. girl toj divert fcheir minds from the contemplation of Em.'s Christian moniker, hut four years ago Alfred George (who! made ithe horrible bloomer of describing himself as "Butts" instead c)f Butt m the marriage certificate), gave way %q Isitt's personal devil and wasted his substance m riotous living. ,Several witnesses- were called to; prove? .that theunhappy. Butt of fortune possessed all the characterisifios of an animated distillery, and although he gave the kids Bs< a week ion an Javeragc, ; Emberzino had to grajtt for her own crust. The much-employed Wilford represented these facts with ilue deference to an appreciative Oourt, and- a . decree nisi was granted an the grounds of drunkenness and failure to maf.ntain. Sarah Banaes's expe^iinynt ! . with marriage . wasn't a "particularly lengthy one. , Harry of that ijk took her for worse at. Dunedin on February 7, 1900, and they lived affec t.ionat6ly together and cohabited st Oamaru and , Dunedirt, when' a rift appeared m the marital luta. Sattah then obtained a separation otrder and an undertaking from Harry to pay sixteen bob a werik towards her support". He contributed £2 Bs, and getting tired of this arraßgememt, set, out for parts unkaown. Wherefor the ever-present Wilford demanded and obtained a decree nisi for desertion. A girl with a name like Amy Celoaia Jane CoJetuan P'arkinson might be expected to do something unusual, but when a linotype, operator named Charles Hounsiow married her m Brisbane, m 1893, ].te had no idea what sort of a cot .tract he had undertaken. The failure of youngsters to materialise may have been responsible, but A.C.J.CV.P. severed the connection m 1899., and shortly after married another :xian. Apparently she WASN'T PWXSFiOUTED FOR BIGAIVJiY, otherwise the fact wciuld have been mentioned by Solicitor Dunn, who appeared m the Wellington Divorce Court. The disgusteS punctuater of reporters' bad copy came over to .Godsownkuntry to forget his, late missus's appalling Christian names and to qualify for p divorce. Decree

What's m a name ? It is- true John Eaton Deadman won the love of h« Eliza Jane m 1891, and subsequently fathered eight children, who are all youthful Deadmen, but the couple were never entirely happy for reasons apart from the awesome name, and the missus got tired of it all the other day. Deadman is a Mauriceville - fanner, and Barrister Atkinson alleged that the woman, who was of a fliehtv disposition, wearied of the extreme deardness of Deadman and the surroundings, , and sought the pleasures and dissipations of tbe city on her very lonesome. The scenery around Maurioeville is principally comprised of dead tree stumps, arid bricks and lime and cow, and when the soul-starved woman visited the Exhibition she stopped m .., the city of the big fird and wouldn't come back, any more. March 10 last witnessed the renunciation of her dull, grey, dead ■ home m the wilds of Northern Wairarapa, and as hubby obtained a decree nisi, she needn't wear the name of Dea>dman any more. She didn't oppose the dissolution, although she instructed Lawyer Herdman .to prevent her being saddled with costs. The lady has means of her own, and after feeing the wife of a - deceased person m name for a considerable period, can afford ; TO BE A LIVE WOMAN m her middle age. . The case Douglas v, Douglas conjures up visions of pas^t Magistrate's Court proceedings, when Aimee Eunice, wife of William Alexander Douglas, builder went to Wanganui and had a 1 ' good time, while she left an old girl school-mate to look after the '. house for hubby. and subsequently fell out with the school pal, who labored under the disadvantage of possessing an unauthorised infant. Since September of last year Aimee Eunice would have nothing more to do with William Alexander, and that misunderstood tradesman employed the ever-recurring Wilford to obtain an order for the restitution of conjugal rights, which, won't be restituted as the operation is merely a qualifying provision for a divorce that will occur m the "future if it gets here 'before the King's assent to the new Divorce Law, which abolishes this "open door." Judge Button duly granted the order. , The married life of Harriet Eliza Adsett and Thomas A'dsett is dimly seen down the years through a haze of English and colonial beer. They married m King Ned's country In 1892, and the first exciting incident of the 'honeymoon was a black eye sustained by Harriet a week after the ceremony. This was a sample of the later conduct of Thomas, whose intellect was constantly adrift on a sea of beer and had a 'hard job to keep afloat. It was probably the cablegrams about the success of prohibition m Clutha that attracted the couple to this country, but. prior to this emigration the missus used to spend a lurid time. "I used , TO RUN HOME TO MOTHER, and became after me," she remarked to a sympathetic Divorce Court on Thurs-d&v on' the instigation of Solicitor Moran. "As he couldn't kick me, he used .to take off his belt and thrash me with it\ He promised if we came to New Zealand he would give up his bad companion's a>nd turn over a new leaf." On the way out Harriet camo up the, steamer stairway to view a beautiful sunset, and Thomas, whose nose rivalled the west, spoilt the poetry of the spectacle by kicking her with violence.. He was m the habit of putting his knee x in;the missus's, back and of reducing her to submission m that way. It was extremely painful. They went to live at Feilddng, and Adsett practised, being a beer barrel during working hours. When the woman retiredto bed .he would grip her by the throat and make remarks aibout what he would do to her if the law would only iet Mm. He chewed beastly tobacco, and squirted the juice m he£ face more than once. . Later they used to run the Excelsior Laundry m Wei ling-ton, 'but his brutality obliged the missus to leave him, and she had obtained no fewer than four separation orders, but he prevailed upon her to return to Mm. "I hope the Almighty will strike me "dead if I ever do it again," he would remark to her, with fervor. One of. Thomas's favorite amusements when m beer was to. seize the ' kettle and . threaten to throw the boiling water over his unhappy spouse. He used to hurl bricks, knives and household utensils at her, and the . missus became an expert m dodging objects as they were propelled through space. Four kids were born, but one only,' EmiJ" Amelia, survived the father's brutality. "They died young BECAUSE OF HIS ILL-USAGE," she said. . Adsett conducted his own case, and had a fool for a client, for his.crossexamination degenerated into an undignified wrangle, which his helpless Honor Button permitted, to the indignation .of the spectators!" The husband did get from the wife that her mother had been m a lunatic asylum for sixteen years. . Hilda Petterssen, wife of Oscar of, that ilk, who worked m the unhappy couple's laundry for eighteen months, testified to Adsett' s cruelty and immersion m beer. Once he took his wife by the neck and threw her out of the wash-house ; then he threw her down and scraped the side of her face with a pot Md. "Job took the potsherd and scraped himself withal," remarked Judge Button, with reliable Biblical recollection, but His Honor failed to find an application for the fact that Job sa+ down m ashes. It appears that the beastly husband used to lie around tight m his own stable, and he didn't know if he was putting the horse to bed or' himself. Emorilda May Bowden corroborated the beer and the stoush. Adsett : I would like to ask a

question about her character two years ago. Emerilda (hastily) :- That has got nothing to do with it. A'dsett : I had to sack her- on account o£ her character. The Bench held that this was not relevant, and relieved i?he young peison at a very awkward moment. Frank Shorter, brass boy on the A/rabura, used to live with the Adsetts, and he testified to the awfulness of A<dsett during that time. In cross-examination the youth denied that A'dsett had found, him ; TAMPERING WITH THE TILL one day ; and the missus had never sacked him for dishonesty; he left on his own account. His father didn't bring him over from Sydney for any sinister reason. He had been charged with something at Toowoomba, Queensland, but was discharged. Also, he wasn't m the habit of taking Mrs Adsett out m a clandestine manner on Thursdays. Adsett called himself, Patrick Joseph, Ffrinigan, L. Carpenter, arid' Ernest Hafstron to prove that he was a person of temperate habits, and often refused invitations to beler with indignation. Adsett remarked, "Mv wife told me to mv face that I would be better outside the place," and his meek response was, "If you get anybody to fill my place I'll walk out." And the missus retorted, with fervor, "I wish you would." He denied being an habitual drunkard, .and remarked that when lie first went into the washerv business he used to push a hand-cart, and had. worked it- up to a concern which his wife had disposed* of m March last for £500. He contended that this result didn't point to abnormal expenditure on beer. Adsett, who remarked that he never took whisky or shandy, tout liked his beer straight, said'the- wife had collared his lucrative business and then kicked him out. Moreover, she made Mm an offer of £60 to clear out of the country to enable her to take up j with another male person. He ac- j cused the woman of going to the Op- J era House t . ! WITH A MAN. ' -.'. , "I wasn't long out of the place before I heard she was -with other men. She hasn't got one-^-she's feot.;twp of them," remarked the chagrined husband, with bitterness. The wretched woman was m the habit of going to /the hospital to see the boy of a widower on whom she was shook,; and she had been seen at Berhampore, Island Bay, and Fullers' with men ; she had even had a late supper at George G-oodall's with a person m trousers. He characterised - tlieyhome of. his missus as being nothing less than a brothel, where drinking and strange men filled the. menu. Once he had personally kicked a woman out of the house for beening, l and later the- abandoned creature brought Ms own wife home m a cab suffering from an indisposition which induced him to send for a doctor, but which was subsequently, diagnosed as suffusion of beer to the brain. ADSETT'S INDIGNATION WAS SUPERB, and he observed that his only desire was to obtain possession of the surviving girl,' who was ten years of age. He denied ill-trbating the" missus. Barrister Moran regretted that these wild aspersions were not made m evidence to enable him to call rebutting testimony. After dilating upon the evidence, Justice Button believed the wife and her friends, and granted a decree, nisi, to be made absolute m three months, tout would allow no costs. Calling the girl, who has nice, dark eye-lashes, his sympathetic Honor asked,' "Would you like; to live with your mother or with your father .?" "With mother,",, replied the lasse, faintly, and the lady was accordingly given custody of the girfcen.