MRS ASTOR'S QUICK DIVORCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9677, 29 December 1909, Page 7

MRS ASTOR'S QUICK DIVORCE.

AMERICAN MULTI-MILLION-AIRE'S SETTLEMENT ON HIS WIFE. AFFAIR OF A MINUTE. Mrs John Jacob Astor obtained an interlocutory decree of divorce at New York on the statutory grounds. The court proceedings laated one minute. No name waa mentioned, and the evidence and decision were officially sealed. In six months the decree may be made absolute. As soon as Mr Justice Mills took his seat two lawyers, Mr Henry W. Taft (brother of the Presidnet of the United States), and Mr Lewis Cass Ledyard, stepped to the front. Mr Tat't represented Mrs Astor and Mr Ledyard, Colonel Astor. They hrd travelled from New York together, chatting in the friendliest way. "Any motions?" asked the judge. "May it please the court," answer-, ed Mr Taft, in a low voice, "I deshe 1 to offer a motion of which you have already been informed and upon which you have already taken action. I move that the report of the i referee be affirmed and that an interlocutory decree of divorce An interlocutory decree corresponds to the English decree nisi. The Judge: I presume you want to catch an early train back, so I will dispose of this matter at once. I have examined the report of the referee very catefully, and finds that the evidence us set forth fully justifies the finding of the referee I therefore sign the judgment if there is no objection. Mr Ledyard- There is no objection. Mr Taft.: I now move that the papers be ordered to be sealed in due form. The Judge: The motion ia granted. NO NAME MENTIONED. That was all. The name of the Actors was not onca mentioned in court. | Colonel Astor is new cruising in the West Indies in his yachr im>> rmahal. Mrs Astor only arrived in New York ftom Euv pe a few days before the action, and went to stay a" ihe french >jck i-prm* , Inuiana, under the name of Mrs Austin.

it is generally un erstood by the papers that the colonel has settled two millions sterling upon his wife an'.J seven-year-old daughter Muriel, his son Vincent, who is seventeen, remaining with his father. Since her mother-in-law's death Mrs Astor has been one of the recognised leaders of American society, but London has been almost as much her home as New York or Newport. Prior to her marriage on February 17th, 1891, shb was Miss Alva Lcle Willing, of Philadelphia, a family famous in American history. She is a woman of rare beauty and charm. Colonel John Jacob Astor is the third of the Astors to bear the name of the distinguished founder of the family in America. For the past ten years ha has devoted himself to the management of the Astor estate, the whole welfare of which is intimately connected with the business prosperity of the city. At the outbreak of the Spanish war he organiser] and sent to the Philippines at his own expense, the Astor Battery, equipped with mountain artillery. He himself subsequently served in Cuba under General Shafter. It is declared that as the result of the divorce Mrs A*tor resigns all interest in har American homes, and will reside with J\gr-.daughter abroad.