GOSSIP FROM LONDON STAGELAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2413, 19 January 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

GOSSIP FROM LONDON STAGELAND.

THE STAGE MANAGER AND HIS WIFE. From Our Own Correspondent. •London, December 1. Mr Henry Montague, or Winter, who was condemned last Thursday to a long term of penal servitude for corrupt perjury, bore an excellent reputation amongst his men friends, and was a popular member of more than one theatrical club. He recently filled the post of stage manager at the Garrick Theatre, and when Mrs Harrison Davis produced her play “ A Life Policy," at Terry’s Theatre, it was he who (as you know) licked it into shape and generally superintended the production of the piece. Curiously enough this mramatio version of “ For So Little," deals with an Australian scamp, who, like Mr Montague himself, tried to get rid of his wife in order to procure money. Mrs Davis’ hero, however, bad recourse to poison, whereas Winter (to give him his

proper name}* draw the line at "perjury. : But to both men their evil deedslike i chickens came home to rooat." Winter’s fraud was committed as long ago as 1881, and he fondly hoped it had been forgotten by the English police. But ■ detectives have good memories for fades, and one day going to the Garrick Theatre for some tickets,. Inspector Erost recognised in the courteous smiling manager an individual he had wanted " for sevqn years. The situation at Winter’s London) home in 1881 was a familiar one, on and; off the stage. Still young, ..handsome,; persuasive and a favourite with the, sex,■' SVinter found: himself burdened by a; passes, sickly and silly wife, who was im his way at every turn. ; Xf ho could get: rid of her even temporarily, he could: marry a rich woman at. once. But he blenched from the idea of bigamy, arid no thought of injuring the poor lady ever entered bis mind/ ' Well, the fellow thought and reflected and pondered and ! at last was delivered of an original idea. Mr Winter;decided to divorce Mrs Winter: 1 without i her knowing anything about it., ‘ And strange, as it may ;souud he did so. The imaginary co-respondent was his own brother, whom,he represented as having recently died,' though he had really retired to higher .spheres ten years before. : The’- evidence consisted of a confession signed by the peccant wife and of letters from the erring brother. - The pair had bolted fo America, so of course the respondent could not be called.' Mr Winter himself, however, went into the box and drew tears from the, ladies in Court by his;, forlorn aspect and his sad story told in broken tones. Decree nisi duly, pronounced. Will it be believed that Mrs Winter was at this time living quietly in London, and actually received the notification of the decree nisi,. but having promised Winter to forward unopened any documents which arrived in blue envelopes she never received it; The fraud (almost matchless in its audacity) proved entirely successful, and not till five years later (1886) did Mrs Winter accidentally discover that she had been divorced. Meanwhile Winter married a lady possessed of L 12.000, and till she died lived on the fat of the land in Paris. Shortly, after the. police , arrested him there, but failed to secure his extradition and had the man remained abroad he might have been at large now. In 1893, believing the lapse of years bad made him safe, Winter re-visited London and drifted into the position where fate overtook him., • Judge Collins gave him six years’ penal servitude.