A SENSATIONAL DIVORCE CASE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3701, 26 May 1883, Page 4

A SENSATIONAL DIVORCE CASE.

Tho developments in a, suit for divorce are causing a sensation at St. Louis (U.S.) just now. Tho plaintiff is William Waddingham, and the defendant his wife Pauline. Mr Waddingham lias been a resident of St. Louis all his life, and is tho possessor of great wealth, being reputed to be worth from £.:500,000 to §100,000. lie met his wife for the first time iv St. Louis about thirty years ago. She was then known as Pauline llulett. They were married on August _0, 1S.">:). A short time ago lie accidentally discovered that at the time he married her she had another husband—one Charles R. Gavin--still living, and it was upon this ground that he brought the suit for divorce. Iv ISio Gavin, who ■was then a young man of twenty, and Pauline Hulett, aged then about sixteen, Jived together as limit and. wife. Shortly after this period Gavin wandered eastward, and, being caught iv au act of grand larceny, was soul; to the Auburn Penitentiary for three years. While he was in prison his wife went to tho bad, and he became a sort of wanderer, serving shortly thereafter a term in the Colonibus _ (Ohio) Penitentiary for counterfeiting. For the past few years his family and acquaintances have entirely lost sight of him, and his mother, who had not seen him for tho past thirty years, supposed him dead. In response to these damaging charges Mrs Waddingham enters a general denial. She alleges in her answer that she was never married to Charlesß. Gavin, but thatacousin of hers, who greatly resembled ber, named Martha Jane" Ilaskins, was the ono who married Gavin. Mr Waddingham was kept busy for several months endeavourin "• to discover the whereabouts of Charles R°Gavhi. Monday was the day set down for tho hearing of further depositions on behalf of the plaintiff, and tho defendant had been duly notified to bo on hand at the oilice of Mr Waddingham to surprise the defence by the production of Gavin. The plaintiff and bis attorneys, with Gavin, were on hand before ten o'clock. At that hour the defendant entered with her attorney, and here a scene intensely dramatic in its'details ensued. Mrs Waddingham, who is it well-preserved woman, seemingly about forty-five years of age, though older, and of small and'shapely figure, came into the room with a smile on her face, and entirely unconscious of the trap that had been laid for her. Gavin was standing against tho wall, aud facing the door. Wlicu the woman, who is said to have been his wife thirty years ago, but whom ho had not seen for over a quarter of a century, entered the doorway, he looked her directly in the face, but gave no sign of recognition. She gazed at him for a moment as if she had suddenly been confronted by an a}>paritiou, throwing her hands into the air, and staggering towards a corner of the room, calling out iv frantic tones "Charles! Charles! Charles!" and then fell, on tho carpet in a hysterical fit. Water was dashed in her face, and after belli"- revived she looked wildly round and "said, in scarcely audible tones, "I thought ho was dead." Gavin stood thero all the time with his hands behind his back, staring at his wife, but not saying a word. His stolid face betrayed no emotion whatever, and ho looked on with the indifferent air of a spectator who had no concern in what was transpiring. When tho lady was led away he coolly remarked "That's her." He was thon put on tho Htand, and his deposition proceeded. The most sensational as Avell as melancholy episode of that domestic drama is yet to bo told. It was tho intention of plaintiff's attorney to place tho defendant on the stand and try to obtain her admission, under oath, that she was lawfully wedded to Chai'le'i K. Gtviii, ami hud never been divorced from him ; but it wa.i discovered that (,he hud left the city on Mouda-v- night, and there van left no i'titUicr doubt on Lite question of tho previous marriage. MiNichols left for Detroit on Tuesday to procure additional testimony, if not the actual record. He took Gavin with him,

and it was a part of their trip there to have him identified as the Charles R. GaA-iu avlio lived there in 1845. Gavin's mother, Mrs Mary Marsh—she haA-ing been married a second time—an old lady of eighty-four, has been liA'ing in Detroit for fifty years, her recent homo being at 101 Catherinestreet. AVhen the two callers tapped at the door it was opercd by a girl, avlio 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.—N.Y. Herald.