WIFE NOT A TWIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 154, 28 December 1936, Page 5

WIFE NOT A TWIN

ENDING A MARRIAGE

UNIQUE GROUNDS

Experts who have studied—and collectors who, so to speak, have "coir lected" —the wealth of reasons advanced by husbands or wives seeking to end their unsuccessful marriages were inclined to agree that the record in unique and amazing reasons for breaking "the tie that binds" was reached,' recently, in a Los Angeles Court, says the "San Francisco Chronicle." Ealph Snidow asked that his marriage to Bernice Parker be annulled because he had thought his wife was "twins," and then discovered she was not. ' And the Court backed him up in his complaint. He claimed that he had married Bernice with the belief that she* had a twin sister named Virginia, with' whom he had been somewhat in love some time before. He recited various circumstances in the three-month period during which the marriage lasted, which had kept the twenty-six-year-old husband firm in the belief that his wife was Virginia's twin. The two, he said, looked marvellously alike. But then an astounding thing had happened—Ralph declared he reached the conclusion that his wife, Bernice, and her "twin sister Virginia" were one and the same person! And because of his trouble in trying to tell which was which, or whether "they" were one and the same person, Snidow, through his attorney, Paul Angelino, filed! a complaint in the. Superior Court asking that'his marriage contract be ended. A LOVERS' QUARREL. When Snidow's strange case was heard, he related how he had met a girl named "Virginia Parker" many months before and had fallen deeply in leva with her. For a brief time, he stated, everything ran along with tha smoothness of a well-oiled engine. But then a lovers' quarrel threw the proverbial monkey-wrench into tha works, and each went their separate ways, vowing they would never meet again. ■ After the passage of a few months, continued the husband, he met a lovely looking, vivacious girl, whom he thought at first blush to be his .former sweetheart; but he was told she was Bernice Parker, the twin sister of tha girl he had loved and lost. According to his attorney, Bernice and Snidow now began to see a lot of each other. Apparently" the love flame that had sunk to embers with Virginia began to burn brightly again with Bernice. Bernice reciprocated, and "love's old sweet story" reached the usual happy ending. Bernice and Ralph sped off to Yuma, Arizona, last February, and were married. It appears that he never told Bernice that he had ever met Virginia; and Virginia, it seems, was not anywhere around and did not appear. # The newly-weds returned to Cali« fornia, fixed up a little love nest, and settled down to domesticity. Then,' stated Ralph in his. testimony, hi 3 lovely wife gave him two snapshotsone "of herself and one of her sister Virginia. VIRGINIA RETURNS. They looked exactly alike to Snidow, he claimed, except for a slight difference in the arrangement of the coif-, fures worn by the sisters when thephotographs were snapped. , Shortly after, declared Snidow, along one ,day came while" sister Bernice was absent. It was the first time he had seen Virginia in months— and now Virginia' said she would tell Bernice that Ralph had once had a love affair with her! And she added, according to the complaint, that of course Bernice might not like the news, especially. • Ralph very evidently felt he was not "on the spot." Calculating that a little present might help matters, he said he dug down to the tune of a twenty-dollar bill (£5). But, declared the husband, before he left himself open for further monetary demands, he asked Virginia to sign an agreement, promising not to ask for more money.' This request, he said, was o.k.'d by his old sweetheart. The' purported document was incorporated in Snidow's complaint. It read: "I hereby consent not to molest Ralph Snidow as long as he is married to my sister, Bernice. Should he be single at any time, I will then act within the law. I also agree that the above sum is settlement infull for any and all claims for money which I may have against him.' It was signed "Virginia." HIS WIFE'S ACCUSATION. / ■ A little while after this incident; charged Snidow, his wife Bernice gave: him a shock. She accused him of having had a romance with "my sister Virginia" and having kept it from heir! Again, says Ralph, he..reached into his pocket and handed over a twentydollar bill. x . j But it was all very confusing to tne young husband. He began to feel like a character in Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors." It seemed to ,lnm that everywhere he turned twins were popping out at him. Gone was the peace of mind-and forty dollars— Ralph had; once possessed. His' romance an* nerves were shattered. And, finally, three months after he had joyfully taken Bernice as his bride, Snidow at long last made an astonishing discovery. There was no twin sister, he learned. Bernice and Virginia were really one person! He said he felt he had been duped. He did not know what was what—or which—and bringing the case to court seemed to be the only way he could straighten out his dilemma. So he filed his unique annulment complaint —still, apparently, half anticipating that in answer, Virginia and Bernice would laughingly appear together sideby side and hand in hand! But they did not—so now he is single again.