HIGH EXPLOSIVES ON MARRIAGE FRONT

NZ Truth, Issue 1173, 24 May 1928, Page 9

HIGH EXPLOSIVES ON MARRIAGE FRONT

Unlucky Thirteen

Perfectly Sober?

But Ada Sought Shelter In Magisterial Trenches

HUSBAND ATTACKS BEHIND LEGAL SMOKE-SCREEN (frrom "N.Z. Truth's" Special Wellington Representative.) Here we have a barrage of mutual recrimination, with Ada Millen hurling projectiles imputing throttlings, razor attacks, inebriacy and other frightfulness, against her husband; whilst Charles Millen, crouching behind the earthworks of legal defence, replies with a cross-fire of immorality, verbal tirade and hot-tempered explosiveness attributed to his wife. The zero hour, with a vengeance, my hearties !

IT was a hot time m the Wellington Maintenance Court last week, when the two Millens got busy with their trigger fingers. Everyone breathed deeply when Magistrate Page appended his signature to the armistice, declaring Ada separated from her husband, given, charge of their child, but refused maintenance m the meantime. Ada snorted deeply while Charles was giving his testimony, punctuating the rigid calm of the court with sundry sounds like: "Tscch, tscch." When it came to the husband's turn, he blinked savagely through his spectacles, fldgetted m his seat, and made clucking noises with his tongue when his wife tendered some information with which he did not agree. Counsel McGrath dug the trenches for Ada; Lawyer Sydney Joll supplied the cooling waterjackets for Charles' legal -gun, and a very acrimonious time of the- day they had, to be sure.

Mrs. Millen. a tall, grey-haired woman with taut- strung nerves, narrated the incidents of her unhappy marriage m a bewildering stream of staccato sounds akin to the popping of a thousand corks. She waa very explosive.

Millen, a middle-aged, bent figure of a man who leaned on a walking-stick to alleviate, his lameness, looked with hard glinting eyes upon the woman m the box.

It was fairly evident that they would experience some difficulty m passing the compliments of the season.

Mrs. Millen told the court that she brought the present application on the grounds of her husband's cruelty and refusal to provide her with the means of subsistence. This, of course, was denied.

She had been married for 13 years — thirteen years of veritable misery— and during that period he had ignored his responsibility m respect of their son's education, had subjected her to ignominy and harshness m an extreme degree. It was impossible for her to live with him again, for although she had given him at least two other opportunities, their home conditions had come to an impossibe pass and she could never, never go back to him.

Millen's counsel suggested that the picture of their marital existence had not been . so smeary as she indicated, but she gave it a further deft touch of color by saying that not only had he threatened to take her life, but he swore he would cut the child's throat and blow his brains out.

"Rubbish," she tartly declared, when it was inferred that her husband had not touched a drain of spirituous or fermented liquors for at least ten months.

"Why, only four weeks ago he waa filled with liquor and came to where I worked, demanding money. Right through Christmas time he was drunk, too."

"Do you know a man named Ted Dench?" came the sibilant query from Lawyer Joll.

"Yes, a gentleman vrlio boarded with us at Wanganui," she whipped back.

"Is that your handwriting?" (hand ing her a letter) — Yes.

"It says: 'Dearest Ted, whose boots do I wear out going to the post lookIng for a letter? I think you are about the limit.

"'I suppose you are forgetting all about me, or trying to, or have you; which is it? I would like to know.

"'lf you only knew how I look for

a few lines from you, my love

. . . Why, my boy at Greytown writes oftener than you . . .

and you supposed to be a lover,

"'Or only a passing one, I wonder?

I wonder what you would say if I sent you a wire saying I was coming right out to Wellington . . .

" 'I am always thinking of you, perhaps too much, for all I get m return . . . but never mind, dear, perhaps some day you will have a soft spot m your heart for me . . '."

Mrs. Millen bit her lip when opposing counsel concluded his reading of the loving epistle to "Ted," and said briskly: "Oh, a lot of rubbish," accompanying her description with a .toss of her head.

"Now, when you went out to Petone. were you living there under the name of Dench?"

Mrs. Millen, tartly: "I wasn't." Who was boarding with you at the same house? — Mr. Dench.

Yes, the man to whom you had written that letter? — Yes.

When your husband came to that house m Petone, did you run out from a room where you were sitting with Dench and hurriedly take your husband away down the road? — Yes, he had a razor m his hand and was going to cut everybody's throat m the yard. "I took him down the street and talked with him for a while, making an arrangement to meet him m Willis Street," she added.

Counsel: Pretty game, aren't you? — Yes, I have been game all my life.

How many times have you been married?— Twice (crying quietly).

"Who was the first ■"

Counsel McGrath objected to this question. He declared that Millen had married her, a widow with two children, during the war, so that he should not be called upon for military service.

Lawyer Joll continued his crossexamination by asking the woman whether she drank.

Yes, she admitted, she did, but only according to the prescription of Dr.

Herbert, a Wellington specialist, who had ordered her a certain beverage for some internal complaint. Do you remember coming home drunk with a man, one Sunday morning m Wanganui? — Never (sniff), never have I been the worse for liquor. "You say that long ago he kicked you " "Yes, we had a boarding-house m Wanganui. One night he came home dreadfully the worse for drink . . . and kicked and nearly throttled me to death. "Then he abused the boarders and kicked every one of them out of the house at ten o'clock that night." "Where is Mr. Dench?" inquired counsel. Like the detonation which foTIOWB the applipation of a match to a powder magazine came the answer: "I know nothing about him now!" "Given you up, eh?" Came a rumbling echo of the first explosion: "I know nothing about him now." How long ago is it since your husband was refused a license to train horses? — Four years. For a considerable period he wasn't allowed on a racecourse? — Yes (crisply). Any relationship between you and Dench? — No! No! (m accents of passionate crescendo). Magistrate Page: You kept the home going after he lost his license? — I did. Has he sent you any money since you left him? — No, sir (more calmly). William Wood Millen, not related to the manufacturer of rubber heels, but a son of the parties, said he lived with his uncle m Greytown. On many a night, he said, his father would come home the worse for liquor.

and so definite were his threats to end their lives that they had often to escape through the bedroom windows, whilst his father rushed about the house, brandishing a razor.

Whilst Millen senior was working he would come home perfectly sober, but the strange part of his make-up was that during his periods of comparative idleness he would get drunk every night.

The mother had at length to take m boarders, go out and wash other people's clothes or do any work which would bring m a few shillings each week.

Listen, though, to what Charles Mlllen had to say.

"Mrs. Millen left me just before Christmas and I received a letter from her saying she was going to Auckland.

"Before that I had not been drinkIng for at least 10 months."

As he made this very unctuous statement, Magistrate Page intently studied the defendant, taking m the pale face, watery eyes and thin lips, with a long, searching scrutiny.

"I went to collect some of my things from the place at which my wife had been staying, and underneath the bed I found the letter addressed to Dench," added Millen.

Counsel Joll: Do you know this man Dench ?-*-Yes. He boarded at my place just before Christmas and stayad a few weeks. I got a bit suspicious of them, and when I saw 'her m the bedroom with him I told him to pack up and 'get.'"

Sotto voce protests of "Oh, oh!" from Mrs. Mlllen, who, scarlet of face, rose from her seat, but was quietly admonished by Lawyer McGrath.

"He left next morning," continued Mlllen. "Some time after my wife left that house I went down to a house In Petbne.

"I knocked at the door and when a lady came , -in answer to my knock I asked her whether a Mrs. Mlllen lived with her. r

"She saldt: 'Oh, no,* and whan I showed her a photograph of my wife she said: 'Oh, that's Mrs. Dench.'

."In the meantime, my wife, who had heard the conversation, came hurriedly out of the house and asked me to walk down the road a little way with her.

"We made arrangements to have a meal In town and then have a long chat, but she didn't keep the appointment.'*

Did he over give his wife money? Of. course, he did. Why, he would come home, put whatever he had en the>,table, and say: "Here you are, mother."

Magistrate Page did not appear to pin very much faith to the smooth utterances of husband Mlllen.

He awarded the wife the separation ,she sought, as well as the guardian - ship of the child; but as the husband was not at present m employment the bench Intimated that the question of monetary contribution to the upkeep of Mrs. Millen would have to remain m abeyance.

When the smoke of high explosives and marital trench-mortars had cleared away, the magistrate collected his papers, the Mlllens rumbled out of their - entrenchments and everyone heaved a collective sigh of relief.