REMARKABLE DIVORCE SUIT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15551, 7 March 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

REMARKABLE DIVORCE SUIT.

SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD HUSBAND. A schoolboy, 17 years of age, Charles Bates, has filed suit, through his mother, in an American Court, for the annulment of his marriage to Mrs. Maude Patrick, 40 years old, and mother of four children by a former marriage, two of whom are older than her present husband. j Bates succumbed to the charms of Mrs.' Patrick while a caller at her home, where he went to pay his respects to her 17-year-old daughter, Ada. Bates's age made it impossible for him to biing the annulment action in his own name, and his widowed mother is suing for him. She declares that her son was induced to marry through the " wiles, artifices and protestations of love" of Mrs. Patrick.

Bates became acquainted with his wife during 1912, while still a schoolboy. Almost immediately, according to his story, she proposed marriage. At each cubsequent meeting, he declares. she laid siege to his heart, • and her courting continued until the summer of 1913.

Early in July Bates left his home for Chicago. Mrs. Patrick followed him. Alone in the big city, Bates was unusually susceptible to Mrs. Patrick's allurement, and consented to a marriage. He adopted (he name of Charles Buford. and gave his age as 23. The marriage was performed on July 14. The next day the two returned home on the same train, accompanied by Ada Patrick, a daughter of the bride, who was ,i witness to the marriage. Mrs. Patrick immediately resumed her duties as a keeper of a lodginghouse. Bates returned to live with his mother, and the marriage remained a secret until Mrs. Patrick spoiled things by complaining because her husband did not cease bis attention to young women of his acquaintance. Bates made a clean breast of the whole affair to his mother, and then made the re quest that the marriaire be set aside. In the few months that Have intervened since the marriage Mrs. Patrick's attitude ! toward her schoolboy lover has changed. The mad infatuation is gone, and in its place has come hate. " As far as loving Charles Bates is concerned, I don't love him at all," Mrs. Patrick declared. " I hafe the sight of him. I hate the very mention of his name."