Wed 42 Years; Quits Mate

1920

Wife Bases Her Suit on Man's Love Affair of 1898.

MANCHESTER, N. H. — Mrs. Ida Pingree has brought suit for divorce against her husband, John D. Pingree, after nearly forty-two years of married life. She bases her claim for a separation on an alleged love affair of her husband twenty-two years ago. Mrs. Pingree has attached her husband's property here and in the neighboring town of Derry, where he is a prosperous farmer. The wife is living with a married daughter.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 3.

Man Gets Hour Off From His Work and Slays Rival for Love of Wife

1920

A growing coldness on the part of his wife roused the detective instinct in Achie C. Vance, watchman at a factory in a Chicago suburb. He decided another man was the explanation. Watching the back porch of his home thru a knothole in his barn of evenings when he was supposed to be at work, he found that Mrs. Vance regularly costumed herself in her best and went strolling. He shadowed her and saw that she generally met O. L. Vannier.

A few nights ago Vance laid off work for an hour and killed Vannier.

Tells of Shadowing.

He told the story in a cell at the Harvey jail. His wife occupies a cell close by.

"Saturday night I followed her as usual. As usual, I saw her meet Vannier. He is 30; I am 48.

"I had arranged with another watchman at the plant, Warren Dopkins, to sub more me until I had attended to my personal affairs.

"That night I hid behind trees and heard every word they said. I heard her say to him: 'Gee, I sure do love you.' And he told her the same. Then I went up and asked them what they meant.

Other Man Runs.

"Vannier started to run. You see, I had warned him to keep away from my wife. I drew my revolver and shot once in the air. I only intended to arrest him. I shot two more times. He dropped. I thought I was shooting in the air. But he had a bullet thru his body.

"Of course, I helped him all I could. I put him and my wife in a taxicab and took them to Dr. T. A. Noble. Then I reported back to my job and telephoned the police chief, James E. Tomlinson, he could get me when he wished."

Vannier died without regaining consciousness.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 2.

Note: The article as printed has Vance's name as "Achie," and we might hazard a guess that it could be Archie instead. I only saw one other article on this incident and that article used initials, "A. C. Vance." That other article says, "The shooting took place on the prairies near One Hundred and Fifty-fifth boulevard and Vine street at 12:20 in the morning." — Van Wert Daily Bulletin, Van Wert, Ohio, Aug. 2, 1920, p. 1, for that detail.

Wife Throws Acid on Mate's Face to Scar Him and Hold His Love

1920

NEW YORK, N. Y. — A frail little woman in her twenties sat in police headquarters and sobbed out a confession, say the police, that she had poured carbolic acid over her husband's face as he slept. She did this, she said, to disfigure him for life so she would not lose him to a "prettier woman."

When she learned that she had killed the man she would have saved for herself she fled, leaving her 8-year-old girl in a room adjoining the father's bedchamber. For weeks the woman was a fugitive from justice.

Mrs. Alexandra Sokolowsky, widow of Frank Sokolowsky, widely known organizer in the American Federation of Labor, who was murdered in New Haven on the morning of June 26, related this remarkable story.

Tries to Disguise Self.

She was arrested, wearing large tortoise shell rim spectacles to disguise herself and clad in a waist of flaming scarlet and a dark serge walking skirt.

Included in her alleged confession was a list of many dates on which the husband deserted her to seek the company of other women. It was the constant fear that she was losing her grip on the labor leader's love that led her to brood over her troubles and decide on a way to keep him to herself.

The woman's story follows:

"My husband was a big, handsome man. I killed him on June 26. He had been away since June 24 and I knew that he had been with another woman. He was so good-looking and such a great lover of women that I thought surely he would leave me.

Found Love Letter.

"He had come home a little after midnight and when I accused him of being out with another woman and told him that I had found a love letter in his pocket, he told me that I must leave him alone and that he was going out again.

"I often had been thinking of disfiguring him so that I could keep him. But I never had thought of killing him, for I could not have lived without him. When I got that last love letter that was addressed to him I was determined to do what I had planned.

"He fell into a doze and I took a pint bottle of carbolic acid and flung it on his face. I swear I didn't mean to kill him."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 2.

Sears Wife's Tempter With a Red-hot Iron

1920

Angry Husband Then Plies Whip to Victim's Wounds.

SEATTLE, Washington. — Branding with a red-hot iron, administering a horse whipping and driving him from the State, was chosen by Alvin Steigerwald, widely known Washougal dairyman, as punishment for Walter Groth, an employe, whom he accused of attempting to violate the sanctity of his home, according to a statement made by the former to county officials.

Steigerwald is said to have returned to his home and found his wife in tears, sobbing out Groth's name. Steigerwald claims to have taken his shotgun and hunted Groth. He changed his mind, he said, about killing Groth and determined to brand and horsewhip him and send him out of the State.

Attorney Yates, investigating the affair, stated Steigerwald told him he paid Groth's fare out of the State and that realizing that Groth's wife and 14-day-old baby would be entirely destitute, took them under his protection and provided for them until he found their relatives in Portland, Ore.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 1.

Wife Finds Right Key to Hubby's Love Code

1916

His Clandestine Missives Then Read Like Open Book to Indignant Spouse.

SAN FRANCISCO, California — A code used by Chester J. Capps of this city in writing affectionate letters to other women fell into the hands of Mrs. Eunice Capps, his wife, and thereafter the little love missives became to his wife an open book. The letters written in the code language were introduced in evidence before Superior Judge Deasy when Mrs. Capps was granted a divorce on the ground of cruelty.

Capps, an employe of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, invented his code to carry on a correspondence with Grace Durbrow of Fresno. The directions for its use are as follows:

"Write each word backward and add a letter both before and after, so when you read it, all you have to do is leave off the first and last letters of each word and read it backward, as follows:

"A-d-n-a-t spells and, with the first and last letters stricken out. "A-l-l-i-w-y, d-e-e-s-o, s-u-o-y-a, s-n-o-o-s-a."

The code fell into the hands of Mrs. Capps when the young woman to whom it was addressed found that Capps was a married man. Accompanying the letter addressed to Mrs. Capps and containing the code was a copy of a letter addressed to Capps which read:

"I have just heard that you have a wife with whom you are living in San Francisco. You are a liar and a scoundrel and tarring and feathering is too good for you."

Investigation started by Mrs. Capps brought to light letters which her husband had received and written to several other women and these were introduced in evidence. There was introduced in evidence also a lock of chestnut hair which Mrs. Capps found in a locket her husband wore as a watch charm, and a dainty handkerchief used by another woman.

Capps explained that the handkerchief was his sister's but had no explanation for the hair. The letters also, he told his wife, were merely such as might be written from a brother to a sister.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 4.

Dreyfus at Rennes

1899

Justice may be done at Rennes, but Dreyfus will never be a national hero. The world will probably pity him, and Frenchmen may reluctantly admit that he has been treacherously dealt with and cruelly used; but he lacks the qualities which his own nation admires in a public man.

He has a strong but not a handsome face. His figure is bent. He has quiet dignity but lacks a commanding presence. His manner is cold and reserved. His emotions are generally under the control of a strong will. His face and bearing repel rather than excite sympathy.

The French are an excitable people who like melodrama in their public life. Dreyfus is not a man capable of striking an attitude and posing before them as the victim of conspiracy and oppression who has baffled and triumphed gloriously over his enemies. He neither appeals to their imaginations nor excites their emotions. The pathos of his lot does not touch their hearts and induce hero-worship. Even when convinced of his innocence they will look upon him as an unfortunate Jew, who has been baited and nearly hounded to death.

Americans may judge of him differently, but Frenchmen are strangely and perversely indifferent to either English or American opinion. They can never make a popular idol of a scapegoat for the crimes of military intriguers. Their heroes must be men of action, with a vainglorious faith in their own destiny, with a theatrical air and with fascinations of personality. Dreyfus as he is seen at. Rennes is merely, in their eyes, a poor dupe who has suffered until the iron has entered into his soul.

At the time of writing this article Dreyfus's trial is not completed. Should he be acquitted his resignation from the army will probably follow, and years of exile in England. Evil passions have been excited by the prolonged excitement of the Dreyfus affair. The Jews in France will not benefit by his acquittal. They will be more vehemently disliked because he has been misjudged and cruelly wronged.

In any event Dreyfus will not have suffered in vain. Militarism will never again be the blind, unreasoning force which it has been in France. Justice and mercy, those grand Hebraic virtues of the ancient Scriptures, will have a deeper meaning throughout the world in consequence of the wrongs suffered by this patient, unhappy Alsatian Jew.