A DEVOTED HUSBAND.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 311, 22 September 1908, Page 7

A DEVOTED HUSBAND.

New York, July 31. General D. K. Wardwell, a prominent retired officer of tlie American army, has stolen his wife from the leper hospital at Los Angeles, California, and escaped to Mexico in order to be .able to live with her until she dies from the disease. General Ward well was promoted for conspicuous gallantry during the Civil war, and afterwards accepted a commission from the Mexican Government to fight against the Emperor Maximilian. >• his retirement he met Miss Isabel Cole, who was formerly noted as the most beautiful woman in Mexico. She had contracted leprosy through devoting herself to the care of a brother who suffered from the disease. Despite this fact, General Wardwell married her in 1890 and took her to Los Angeles, where they resided. Z "Mrs Ward well’s ailment was ' kept secret until recently, when the municipal authorities discovered it, and forced her to enter the isolation hospital for lepers. Her husband begged the privilege of taking her to Mexico, where lepers are not isolated, but inasmuch as the authorities qad taken action in the case, they refused to accede to his request, although both husband and wife threatened to commit suicide. General Ward well then surrendered himself to the medical officer of health, alleging that he was suffering from leprosy, in the hope that he would be committed to the same hospital, and would therefore be able to rejoin his wife. Medical examination showed that he was free from the disease. At stated intervals he was allowed to interview his wife as she stood at a barred window in the hospital, twelve feet above the lawn. Last night General Ward well broke into the hospital,abducted his wife, and proceeded to the Mexican frontier by train, The authorities made a perfunctory pursuit, but as the “ offence ” was unextraditable, General Wardwell and his wife will not be molested.