HYPNOTISED WIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17459, 1 May 1920, Page 2 (Supplement)

HYPNOTISED WIFE.

A SUBTLE CRUELTY.

WHAT A DOCTOR SAW.

The question what ie legal cruelty has been brought to the fronfc by several recent cases in the English courts. A remarkable case of cruulty by hypnotism is related by Mrs. M. L. Sealon Tiedeman, of tho Divorce 'Law Reform Union. " The following case of submission and terror in the wife brought about by the hypnotic influence of the husband related to me by a doctor is by no means uncommon, and emphasises all too clearly the need for reform in our Divorce and Marriage Laws. " Some years ago an eminently sane and normal woman was slowly but surely losing her reason. She gradually wilted in the most inexplicable manner until one day, when attending her, the doctor discovered the cause. " He was asking in the presence of her husband whether she had a secret worry, because he could not otherwise explain her condition. " By chance he was seated opposite a mirror which reflected the husband standing behind his chair, and saw him making the most horrible grimaces, with a fiendish look ; the eyes were fixed on the wife, who was gradually being hypnotised. " Suddenly she fainted, and it was some time before the doctor could bring her round. } "It was only on his threatening to throw up tho case that he got the truth from his pat ent, and she related how, for more than three years, her husband had terrified her in this way whenever she failed to please him, and how she had been too afraid to tell anyone because she felt that no one would believe her Btory. " We have innumerable cafes in which the cruelty is so subtle that only the declining health of the wife, and medical evidence, could establish it. [ '• Notwithstanding facts like these, opponents of divorce law reform still contend that such marriages are sanctified and must not be dissolved."

to be in the possession of Scnora Borneque dc la Barra, a resident of Paris and efforts are being .iiado to obtain it. The key came, to Senora Bomcque as a herit age. WINDFALL FOR. NURSES. To mark his sonue of gratitude for kindness shown to him by hospital nurses while he was a patient in Derby Infirmary and Wirkswortn u.uspital, the late Mr. Samuel J. Sheldon, of Derbyshire, remembered several nurses in his will. Be left £25 each to Derby Infirmary and Wirksworth Hospital, £5 each to the matrons of each institution, and £5 each to the nurses who attended to him while he was a patient. TOPSY-TURVY AUSTRIA. Salaries and wages present extraordinary anomalies in Vienna. A Secretary of State draws nominally £1600 per annum while a carpenter earns nominally £2000, and the tailors' assistants are striking for £1500 a year. Other anomalies are that a bricklayer earns more than a university professor, a cooper five times as much as a first division clerk in the Foreign Office, and a charwoman five times as much as an assistant surgeon. "JOY RIDES" TO CHURCH. Free motor rides to church have been decided upon as a means of ensuring a larger attendance at the parish church at Claverton village, near Bath. The main portion oT the parish is on Combe Down, so far from the church that elderly parishioners were not seen at divine worship. A motor waegonette will, therefore, leave Combe Down on Sunday mornings in time for service, wait for the travellers, and then take them home, free of charge. SCHOOL CHILDREN DEMAND " JUSTICE." School children of Conna, in Glamorgan, have caught the spirit of indignation aroused in the village by the action of the county education authorities, who have appointed an outsider as headmaster of the local council school. The stranger has been chosen to succeed Mr. F. Lloyd, who has been in the village fourteen years— an assistant master for ten years, and temporary headmaster for four years. Hundreds of school children paraded the streets, carrying banners, one of which was inscribed : " We, tho children of Conna, demand justice for our old headmaster." At a public meeting of protest which followed it was stated that the children had all declared their intention of refraining from attending school Unless Mr. Lloyd's services were retained. Mr. John, the chairman, said the parents admired the children for their loyalty to their old friend/ ill'. Lloyd.

am going to put an end to my life." He thought this was a joke; tho girl was laughing at the moment. By way of teasing her he produced his revolver and 'handed it to her. Before the young man had time to realise what was about to 'en, the girl put the weapon to her head and pulled the trigger. AN AGITATOR'S PREDICAMENT. The newly formed Japanese Labour Party held its first public meeting in Tokyo to advocate universal suffrage. Several of the speeches were cut short by the police, not on grounds of humanity but because of dangerous thoughts. One of the orators ascended the platform with his baby strapped on his back, and explained that his wife had left him because of his enthusiasm over labour problems. FATAL SEIZURE AT ALTAR. During a marriage in a Swiss church recently, when the euro asked the bride, named Hubor. the usual question whether she would accept the man for her husband, the young woman fell senseless, and was transported to the Ideal hospital. She never recovered consc ousness, and died a few hours later in her wedding robes from a kind of sleeping sickness, the after effects of an attack of the influenza which is now much prevalent in Switzerland. GRAVES IN PARLIAMENT. Four graves with real grass growing upon them, are surely an unusual exhibit even in the tearoom of the British House of Commons, where many strange objects lrora time to time have been on show. At one end of this apartment there have been displayed models of the War Graves which have been designed for the War Graves Commission, which is arranging for the battlefield cemeteries in France. Members of the House of Commons are thus enabled to see exactly upon what model the graves and the simple memorials are to be carried out. "CHILDREN OF BADAJOZ." A public; holiday was declared recently in the town of Badajoz to celebrate a remarkable increasa in tho population. Antonia Lobato, the wife of an electrician residing in the Cailu de la r'eria, gave birth to triplets, two boys and one girl. The day following Isabel Montera, whose husband is the manager of a flour mill, gave birth to four children, three girls and one boy. The woman Lobato has already on previous occasions given birth twice to twins and once to a single child, making a total of eight children in six years. On tin proposal of the alcalde, the town council of Badajoz deride! with the permission of the respective parents, to adopt tho seven infanta as "children of Badajoz." and a fund was immediately opened for their education and maintenance,

" Thomas," he called to the surgery boy, " go upstairs and bring me down that phial on the table." With indignation in his face, the blacksmith started to his feet. • " File !" he yelled. " No, you don't! If this hand's to come off, you'll use a knife or an axe!" A DIFFERENT MEANING. A hotel keeper up the line had just engaged a new barman. Having occasion to suspect that the chap was fond of a drink himself he decided to set a watch on him. < Late one night, long after the bar was closed, he came upon the new bartender fiddling among the bottles. "What on earth are you up to!" he shouted. " S'alright," was the calm reply. " I assure you on my word of honour that Ive only been taking stock." In that case I apologise," said the appeased landlord. CO-OPERATING. A naughty little boy with a pea-shoiter was sitting in the front gallery pew if a village chapel in Yorkshire. The sermon was dull, the morning was sultry, and one by one the congregation in the body of the chapel drowsed off, only, however, to be smartly aroused by a stinging pea* 01. the ear or the neck from the uruegenerate young marksman in the gallery. For a little while the minister was puzzled by the phenomena of slumberous worshippers starting up here and there, suddenly and angrily, but, by-and by, he detected the cause of the disturbances. Stopping in Ins sermon, he severely reprimanded the boy for his conduct, whereupon the unabashed urchin retorted encouragingly ; " Nah, it's all rcight, mister. Ye no %£,*" Preychin ' an " rU keep ' era PATIENT AND DOCTORS. Some time ago an eminent London physician requested an equally eminent surgeon to accompany him to see a distinguished but slippery patient, which he readily acceded to. The patient was exceedingly polite to both the medical gentleman, shaking hands with them and bowing them out of the room in the most affable manner. Soon after _ this professional visit the same physician called again on the surgeon, requesting him to accompany him to Bee another patient. On their way thither the surgeon observed, " I ] 10 this patient will behave more liberally than the last did." "Why?" said the M.D. "Did "he not give you a fee'" " Not a shilling," was the reply. " Indeed '" said the eminent pltysician, with a toss of the head. "Why he' borrowed two guineas from me to give to you I"