MARRIED PIPER'S TANGLED TUNES

NZ Truth, Issue 1190, 20 September 1928, Page 8

MARRIED PIPER'S TANGLED TUNES

They, Too, Crossed the Tasman, but Oh ! What A Bump When They Landed At Sydney!

WIRELESS MUSICIAN'S LOVE ON THE HIGH SEAS

■|«m .Him , ..~— . .-..— * " .', I iiimrimriMniiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiTiniTimmritiiriMini»nnwinii«n«iii«in«i«Miii«Wiwiiiiiwiiiiiiii— ill uiiiniiiimiiiiiiiii I iniiiiiiiiuniTitmiiiirniiMmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinniiiiiiNiiiii wiinniimmiwin ■«iiiwiiiiwi««wiiniinin»iniiii>miimi 1 1 (From "NJZ. Truth's" Special Wellington Representative.) (j IT 1$ NOT EVERY MUSICIAN who can twiddle two tunes simultaneously upon a single shivering If instrument — nor is it the less difficult to discover a benighted benedict who knows how to continue successfully h his frailties with other ladies without the knowledge of Mrs. Benedict. ' I) From what has taken place within the last fourteen days, it would appear that a musical tootler named |j James Harold ("Harry") Berry found the prescription for juggling with twin love melodics — and as promptly \i lost it, making a shocking mess of two happy families, his own included.

•THIS story arises (as a good many 1 life revelations do arise) m the ad- . vent of a guilty love compact between a foolish wife and another woman's "husband. If the segments of narrative which piece together do not amaze one on the score of originality, at least they depict the blind clumsiness of people, who, seeking escape from trite existence, blunder through the shadow of make-believe, impotently beating their hands upon the emerging wall of worldly commandments. Some people might persuade themselves into thinking that Berry's musical "temperament" was accountable for his aberration, but what have they to say concerning his lack of compunotion m leaving a wife and five children penniless, whilst he and another woman took ship to Australia? It seems strange that a man who for forty years had wheeled hia "temperamental" frame about the earth, should have hypnotised himself into the delusion that Australia was the handiest and most secure love retreat from New Zealand; that he should have omitted from his calculations the very medium through which he had earned many bright pence as a cornet player. Full many a time had his limpid notes surged along the broadcasting aerial of 2YA, Wellington, but by some quaint reasoning he skirted the possi-

Familiar Figure

billty that the very agent which had proved so profitable to him as a player m the Btudio orchestra, should be his undoing". It must have been m yery surprised Berry who was accosted by Sydney detectives, charged with the desertion of his wife and children. Some years ago, Berry achieved a certain amount of distinction as a cornet player m Australia. When he came over to New Zealand m 1926, his ability as an executant, combined with a marked flair for showmanship, enabled him to secure not a few engagements, one of which was the cohductorship of the Wellington tramways band. He subsequently left the band, later drawing the muslcianly marble as an elect of the elect at 2YA, which is understood to be a broadcasting station somewhere or other m Wellington. As a bandsman and as a salesman m Turner's music store, he was known to many musicians, throughout New Zealand and his penchant for little twists of conjuring upon the keys of his cornet earned for him a certain degree of notoriety, or, shall we say, prominence, among concert-goers and habitues of band rotundas, to whoih the well-built figure of "Harry" Berry was very familiar. As a musician he may have been successful, but he fell woefully short of the requirements which one usually associates with married men of Berry's

years and complement of children. Both he and Mrs. Leonora Luff, the lady with whom he ieloped, must have been fairly adept m ,the practice of deceit, as neither Mrs. Ber r y nor George Luff, the deserted ones, periceived the faintest suspicion m the outward bearing of the runaways when they lived with their respective families. It was not until the "Ulimaroa" was steaming along her track to Sydney that their departure was even suspected

About two months ago, Mrs. Luff complained of feeling unwell; aH her face became white and drawn, her husband persuaded her to undergo an examination and general overhaul by the family doctor. The medico advised complete rest for the internal disorder from which she suffered and told her that failure to live quietly would mean performance of an operation, so she wrote her sister m Ormondville, Hawkes Bay, and acquainted her with the circumstances, resulting m her departure, some days later, at the sister's invitation.

She wrote to her husband quite frequently, penning her letters m most affectionate terms — terms ■which completely shielded the mind of her husband from the veriest thread of doubt

Still cnensmng the hope that circumstance was not so dark as it seemed, he immediately wired his sister-in-law at OrmondvUle, only to receive the bewildering reply that Mrs. Luff had left Hawkes Bay for Wellington the day before. They denied having seen anything of Berry, however. Luff was astounded at this piece of information, but his intentions were immediately crystallized when he remembered that Berry had brought Mrs. Luff down from Hawkes Bay, and, likely enough, was the one man who could supply the answer to this very disquieting question.

Hurrying out of the house, he grot on the bus and m a comparatively short time arrived at the Berry's house. When Mrs. Berry came to the door, Luff asked her if she knew where he could find her husband and received the reply that Berry had left home at three o'clock that afternoon, stating that he was going to do some business for his firm m the Wairarapa and then going shooting with a man named Walters, at a place called Gladstone. Luff urged her to send a wire to Gladstone and ask Walters whether he had either heard or seen anything of Berry.

An hour or so later the worst

!!!!!!!!!!!m!!!m!!!!!!!.m!!!m!i!!T" llll "" lllllin "" niHmil ™ m|immmm|iiTO ™"i««'™"'i i 'il iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiipiiiiimiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiimimiiiiiimmimiiiimHiiiiiiittriiiiimiiiiiiMfi. demeanor was so extraordinary m one who .was travelling overseas with his wife, that Marris made the observations to a fellow clerk that somethingwas wrong — that "Woods'" attitude was very peculiar. Mrs. Berry then produced a photograph of her husband and. when Marris saw it he immediately recognized it as a good likeness of "Woods." When the full effect of her "husband's defection had been brought home to Mrs. Berry, she was m a terrible dilemma, for she has five ohildren, all under the age of sixteen years, In her care, with little money to aid her m her duty. She aouffht the «ld <rf Lawyer "AM." Mazengarb and it wa» through his concentration on the situation that Mrs. Berry was able to colleot sufficient information to plaoe before Magistrate Salmon m the Wellington Magistrate's Court, as the basis of her application for a warrant to be issued. The full circumstances were placed before the benoh, who immediately signed a warrant for the arrest of Berry as soon as the "Ulimaroa" touched Australian shores. Within a few hours a stream of Morse signs across the Tasman had reached the ears of the Sydney police. When confirmation of Berry's arrest had been transmitted to Luff, he im-

Claims His Child

mediately cabled to the Salvation Army authorities, urging them to plead with his wife to return, saying he -would cable over her passage-money. Although the Salvation Army did its best, Mrs. Luff! was adamant and eaid that she never would return to New Zealand. . However, Luff was determined that at all costs he would recover the baby who had come to mean so much to him. When he had asked the Sydney detective office to keep his wife under observation, he made up his mind to sail by the next .boat for Sydney, so that he could bring, back the baby," and, if she desired it, his wife. He was able to make arrangements with his firm to leave by the "Maheno" from Wellington last Friday. Within the last fourteen days, life for Luff has been a veritable maelstrom of hope and disbelief, of broken faiths intermingled with anticipation of the joy which re-union with his little daughter will bring; of conjecture whether his wife would realize the wreckage she had left behind her; of knowledge that even if she did return, their domestic career could never be the same. But still, he sailed, clasping to him the hope that his short term of married happiness, so cruelly fracture^, would some day be carried forward intact, the bitter Bpan of an experience bridged by the knowledge that, at least, his small daughter had been saved for him.' niitiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniininiiniliiiliiiiiininiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiitiiniiinininniiiniiiinihiiiinmuinmHini iiiiHiilinillllinnllllilliiiHiilitiniiiiiinmiiltHiiiinullliiiliililimtiHnimiiitiiHiHiiiiiliiiHttiinllllllliiii