AN AMERICAN DIVORCE CASE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1104, 12 May 1883, Page 3

AN AMERICAN DIVORCE CASE.

The New York Times St, Louis corves pomlent writes, February 16 The developments in a suit for divorce are causing a sensation here just now'. The plaintiff is Win. Waddingham, and the defendant, his wife Pauline. Mr Waddingham has been a resident of St, Louis all his life, and is the possessor of great weelth, bein« reputed to be worth from 330,000 dols.” to 400,000d01s He met his wife for the first time in St. Louis about thirty years ago. Siie wasthenknown asPauline Huliet Tiny wc”e married on August 30th, 1854. A short lime ago ho accidentally discovered that at the time he married her she had another husband one Charles U. Gavin—still living, and it was upon Unit ground that he brought a suit for divorce. In 1843, Gavin, who was then a young man of 20, and Pauline Huliet, aged then about 16, lived together as mm and wife. Shortly after this period Gavin wandered eastward, and, being caught io the act of grand larceny, was sen* to the Guburn Penetentiary for three years. While he was in prison his wife went to the’bad, and he beaame a sort of a wanderer, serving shortly thereafter a term in the Columbus (Ohio) Penitentiary fer counterfeiting. For the past few years his family and aquainfances have entirely lost sight of him, and his mother, who had not seen him for thirty years, supposed him to be dead. In response to these damaging charges, Mrs Waddingham enters a general denial. She alleges in her answer that she was never married to Charles R. Gavin, but that a cousin of hers, who greatly resembled her, named Maria Jane Haskins, was the one who married Gavin. Monday w is the day set for the hearing of further dispositions in behalf of the plaintiff, and the defendant had been duly notified to be on hand at the office of Waddingham’# attorneys. The purpose of Mr Waddinghi.m was to surprise the defence by the production of Gavin. The plaintiff and his attorneys, with Gavin, were on hand before ten o’clack. At that hour the defendant entered with her attorney, and here a scene intensely dramatic it its details ensued. Mrs Waddingham who is a well preserved woman, seemingly about forty-five years of age though older, and of a small and shapely figure, came into the room with a smile on her face, and entirely unconscious of the trap that had ken laid for her. Gavin w»a standing against the wall, and facing the door. When the woman, who is said to have been his wife thirty years ago, but whom he had not seen for over a quarter of a century, entered the doorway, ho looked her directly in the face, but gave no sign of recognition. She gazed at him for a few moments as if she had been confronted bv an apparition, throwing her hands into the air, and staggering towards a corner of the room, calling out in frantic tones, “C arles ! Charles ! Charles !” and then fell on the carpet in a hysterical fit. Water was dashed in her face, and after being revived, she looked wildly around and said, in scarcely audible tones, “I thought he was dead.” Gavin stood there all the time with his hands behind his back staring at his wife, but not saying a word. His stolid face betraye no emotion whatever, and be looked onwith the indifferent air of a spectator who had no concern in what was transpiring. When the lady was led away he coolly remarked, “ That’s her ” was then put on the stand, and his depositions proceeded. The most sensational as well as melancholy episode of that extraordinary domestic drama is yet to be told. It was the intention of plaintiff’s attorney’s to place the defendant on the stand and try to obtain her admission, under oath, that she was law fully wedded to Charles R. Gavin, and had never been divorced from him ; but it was discovered that she had left the city on Monday night, and there was left no further doubt on the question of previous marriage. Mr Nichols left for Detroit on Tuesday to procure additional testimony, if not actual record. He took Gavin with him, and it is part of their trip there to have him identified as the Charles R. Gavin who lived there in 1845. Gavin’s mother, Mrs Mary Marsh nhe having been married a second time -an old lady of 84, had been living in Detroit for 50 years, her recent horns being at 101 Catherine street. When the two callers tapped at the door it was opened by a girl, who conducted them to a room where the old lady was seated. She rose to receive them, but the same moment recognised her lost son, and screaming out his name fell dead.