DOINGS IN DIVORCE.

NZ Truth, Issue 140, 22 February 1908, Page 4

DOINGS IN DIVORCE.

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

The 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 so 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 restitution of conjugal rights before Justice Button on Wednesday. Barrister Wilford piloted the applications, and in 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 Lizzie had to growl about, for Arthur Thomas gave her all his money. "She naturally became discontented because she was never refused anything," remarked the epigramatical Wilford. "I think there are some women built that way," agreed S'Honor, sympathetically. Arthur Thomas stated in evidence that no child blessed the union, from which it would appear that the missus didn't have all she wanted. The husband was surprised at the dissatisfaction of the wife, who was not ill-treated and actually had 25s a week pocket-money to do what she bally well pleased with. Elizabeth wants a little adversity to make her appreciate Arthur Thomas. She departed with his brother's missus for Ponsonby on the date mentioned, and allthough he had written in terms of entreaty to her, she NOW IGNORED HIS EXISTENtCE. 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 2, 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 climate in the Eden of the North. This Liz's disinclination to come South, again was even more marked than Elizabeth I's. antipathy to travel. She was ordered to return to her love-lorn husband, a period of three weeks being fixed for repentance in both cases. Decree nisi granted, to be made absolute in three months. It is not clear what drove Alfred George Butt to beer, but some people might suspect that his wife's Christian name had something to do with it. Emberzine married him on April 20, 1897, and nature gave them a little boy and girl to divert their minds, from the contemplation of Em.'s Christian moniker, but four years ago Alfred George (who made the horrible bloomer of describing himself as "Butts", instead of Butt in the marriage certificate) , gave way to Isitt's personal devil and wasted, his substance in riotous living. Several witnesses were called to prove that the unhappy Butt of fortune possessed all the characteristics of an animated distillery, and although he gave the kids 8s a week on an average, Emberzine had to graft for her own crust. The much-employed Wilford represented these facts with due deference to an appreciative Court, and a decree nisi was granted on the grounds of drunkenness and failure to maintain. Sarah Barnes's .experiment =. with, marriage wasn't a particularly lengthy one: Harry of that ilk took her for worse at Dunedin on February ,7, 1900, and they lived jiffee t.ionately together and Cohabited St., Qamaru and Dunedin, when ..a rift appeared m the marital lute. Sarah then obtained a separation order and. »,n undertaking from Harry to pay sixteen bob a week towards her sup-. Dort. ; He contributed £2 Bs, and get* ting tired of this arrangement, set out for .parts unknown. Wherefor .; the ever-present Wilford demanded and obtained a decree nisi for desertion. A girl with a name like Amy Celonia Jane, Coleman Parkinson might be expected to do something unusual, but when .a linotype operator named Charles Houhslow married her m Brisbane, m 1893, he had no idea what sort of a contract he had undertaken. The failure of youngsters to materialise may have been responsible, but A.CJ.C.P. severed the connection m 1899, and shortly after married -an other man. Apparently she WASN'T PT?OS^r!TTTED FOR BIGAMY, ' ' otherwise the fact would have been mentioned by Solicit.oi\. Dunn, who appeared; m the Wellington, Divorce Court. The disgusted punctuater of reporters' bad copy came over to Godsownkuntry to forget his , late missus's appalling Christian, names and to qualify for a divorce. Decree nisi. - What's m a name ? It is true John Eaton Deadmtin won, the love; of hw Eliza Jane m 1891, and subsequently fathered eight children, who are all youthful Deadmen, but the coupJe 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 flitrhty disposition, wearied of -the extreme deadness of Deadman and the surroundings, and sought the pleasures and dissipations of the city on her very lonesome.- The scenery around Maurioeville is principnlr ly comprised of dead tree stumps, nnd Itricks and lime and cow, and when the soul-starverl woman visited .the Exhibition she stopped m the i city of the big fire 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 mime of Deadiman any more. She didn't oppose the dissolution, although she instructed Lawyer Herdman to prevfent her being saddled with costs. The lady has means of her own, and after being the wile of a deceased person m name for a con- j siderable period-, can afford TO BE A LIVE WOMAN m her middle age. The married life of Harriet Eliza Adsett and Thomas A'dsett is dimly seen down the years through a haze of English and colonial beef. They 1 married m King Ned's country" la 1892, arid the first exciting incident of the 'honeymoon "ftfas a black 'eye sustained by Harriet a week after lihe 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 ca-' blegrams about the success, of prohibition m Clu'tha 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 he came after me," sbi remarked to a sympathetic Divorce Court on Thursday . on' the instigation of Solicitor Moran. "As he couldn't kick me, he used to take oft his belt and thrash me with it. He. promised if we came to, New Zealand he would give up his bad' companions and turn , over a hew leaf . " On the way out Harriet came uf i 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 vidlence. He was m the habit of putting his knee m the missus's back and of reducing "-'her to su'tomission m that way. It was extremely painful. They went to live at Peilding, and Adsett practised being a beer barrel during working /hours. When the woman retired tjp bed he would grip her by' the ,thrOat and make remarks a/bout what He would do to her if the law would pnly let him. He chewed beastly tobacco, and squirted the juice m her face mo.re than .once. Later they used to xun the Excelsior. Laiihdry m Wellington, but his brutality obliged the missiis (to/.Jeaye him, and 1 she had obtained no fewer than four separation prders, but he prevailed upon her to. return to h-wri. "I hope the Almighty will strike ihe dead ./. if I ever ;do it again," he would' remark to .her, wish fervor, One df Thomas's,. favprit'e amaisements when .m beer "was" to", sjeize the kettle .and threaten to throw the boiling water over his : unhappy" spouse. He used to., liiirl brjeks, : . knives '. aml_ household utensils, at , her, 'and the , missus ber came an expert m dodging object's as they were propelled 1 through space. Pour kids were born, but one only, Ernii" Amelia, survived, the father's brutal itv. "They died young BECAUSE OP HIS ILL-USAGE," she said. Adsett conducted his., own case, and had a fool for a! client, for his crossexamination^ degenerated into an un- : dignified wrangle, iwbich. bis helpless Honor .Button- permitted; to the indignationof. the spectators. The husband did get from the wife that her motherrbad 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 Adsettfs acuelly 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 lid. . ' "Job took the potsherd and scraped himself withal," remarl ed Judge Button, with reliable BiMi al recollection, but. His. Honor failed to rind an application for the fact that Job sat 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 the, horse to .bed, oir^himself. Emorilda" Hay ,Bowden cor rob orated t-he beer arid the s+oush; Adsett : I would like to ask a question about ; . her, * character two years L^o. '„. . „ , , Emei;ilda fhastilv) : That" has got. nothing to do with it. , . Adsett : I had to sack her on account of her character. The Bench held that ibis, was not relevant, and relieved the voune "er- % son at a very awkward, moment. , Frnnk -Shorter, brass hoy on the Arahura, used to live with the Adsetts, .and he. testified to Ihe xawfulness of Adsett (Hiring , that timei . In cross-examination the youth denied that Adsett 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 Too*/ woomba, 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, Finnigan, L. Carpenter, and Ernest Hafstron to prove that he was a person of temperate habits, and often refused invitations to beer 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 (ret anybody to fill my place I'll walk out. 1 ' And the missus retorted, with fervor,* "I wish you would." He denied being an habitual drunkard, md remarked that when he first went into the washerv business he used to push a hand-cart, and hud 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 I took whisky or shandy, but liked his beer straight, said the wife had collared his lucrative business arid .then kicked him out. Moreover, she made

him an offer of £60 to clear? out of the country to enable hct to take up with another male person. He accused the woman of going to. th» Opera House ■ : " /■ WITH A MAN. MI wasn't long out of the place before I hearxl she was with other men. She hasn't got one— she's ty>t two of them," remarked the chagrined husband, with bitterness. The wretched woman was m the hdib.it of going to the hospital to' see the boy of a widower on whom she was shook,' and she had been seen "at Borhanipore Island Bay, and Pullers' with men -, she had even had a late supper at George Goodall'g with a person m trousers. He characterised -the home 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 1 out of the house for beerdng,. andlater the abandoned creature brought his own wife home m a cab suffering from an indisposition which induced him to send for a doctor, hut 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-treating 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 believe*! the wife- anil her friends, and granted, a 'decree nisi, to be made absolute m three months, but would allow no costs. ' .Calling the girl, who has nice. d*rk 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 girlpen.