DECEMBER DESERTS MAY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 145, 13 March 1908, Page 2

DECEMBER DESERTS MAY.

The following account' of acase in an American' court is reprinted from a reccnt issuo of tho'."New Vork-World." - It is' a good example of; tho ■ picturesque style jof ' American reporting 1 ; ' ■, • When Captain : David Clarli,. tho eighty-vear-old geadog' whose sixteen-year-old wite, Ella, charged him'with desertion, was towtd! - before Judfje Howell'in-the'First Criminal ' '■Court, Newark, .recently, ho declared- to . Jiidgo Howell that,'it'.was ;th& ;first ',tinie' in his life . he'had' struck- such a' , port.' Ciark.' 1 insist^'that he; ought to'b'e thocomplaiiiarit arid not- : his .'youthful spouse.. >V.; v' "". ,' ' "This lais am't as mild as shelcol;s, Judge," declared tho Captain. "Why, beforo I, married her she'was a-turtle-dove,|but,;' afterward she.becamo an iceberg.. ; ■'•££ll:,.} "Say, Judge," continued tho'old .'tarj : "l've sailed many . seas m my umo; I've faced tidal' waves, typhoons, 'and hurricanes; -but ' •• this .woman is tho ■ toughest proposition I ever struck.' 1 She has robbed mo: right and left." "A woman cannot steal from her hus. band under New Jersey law," remonstrated tlio Court. . • : . . . ~ "Judge, , you don't , know this person j ;sho'd' steal the eye out of. a needle'' •. Mrs! Clark, a frail bit of a girli tolrl a different, story., She said that slio was deserted by Clark at.Freehold, but tracud.him--to New \ork," where,- she declared, sho found him invtho-conipany of an "aflinity " ' Ho disappeared •again,-but she found hira again ,ni Noivar.kv> ; •.• • .. . . 1 .... Clark . said ho had • been a sailor An tho old frigate (Constitution, and admitted receiving .v pension of. £8 a month,,bcsi-W having several , conduct IKd'il-, .Ho also; adniittod ownership of a home in • Keyport. whero .ho..agreed to take his wife as soon as ho. can clear it of its wesenfc' tenants. Tho Court ordered hub to uay ber £1 a week meantime. -