A SENSUAL SEXAGENARIAN.

NZ Truth, Issue 105, 22 June 1907, Page 5

A SENSUAL SEXAGENARIAN.

DISCARDS A MISTRESS OF FORTY YEAR

And. Takes Unto Himself a Young Wife. . j

An Old Man's Disgrac

A recent marriage at Marlborougli, a land of December and May affair, a nd the breaking up of what to all appearances was a. peaceful,. . Jiappy home at 'Feilding, has been the subject of scandal m the latter town of late. An indication of the complicated state of affairs was supplied by a paragraph m a recent .issue of "Truth" wherein it was meni/ioned that a well-known Feilding identity had cruelly discarded his mistress of 40 years standing, by whom he had reared a large and now grown-up family, had given her £300 as a sort of compassionate allowance and had taken unto himself a young , and blooming wife .to cheer and 1 ' rekindle tiro light of his declining' years. It is a remarkable thing, though, that the gay Lothario, who, by the way, is a grandfather, should at this, the evening of his life, commit matrimony, *im't the explanation is alleged to be forthcoming m the fact that the. old rascal has married more to spite the woman 'tt*r# has -been his faithful help-mate for .-.' nearly 40 years, or more, and a desire to . wrong his children, who ■; have stood by their mother of late years, and whom he icfuses to legitimatise

BY MARRYING THEIR MOTHERiudeed, if report' states traly, tw. hoary-headed; bridegroom is -a lecSieroi;.; old lout, and there are soi>.& interesting love-letters extant, m which it would seam /that he has been carrying •oa his rorty games wita several flighty and fickle females, and the old fellow did not even, draw the line where the females w»re reputed to be respectable, mar^ ried women. Cjiay old dog that he is, one letter of his, ad-dressed <fco one of his fancy women, starts off, "Dea* Honeysuckle,'' and to complete the. sweetness things he subscribes-him-self as- her" "Bee." When the story; bf the old reprobate's life is taken into consideration, it will be discovered that, though he is a B, and though he 'describes himself as a "Bee,'( he 'is one of the drooe variety, ana a lazy, loafing drone at that.! Naturally enough, when the old man's* marriage to a woman young enough" to be his daughter, became publicproperty at Feilding! there was a lot of sympathy felt for tihe woman,,; now advanced m years, and wivo, , m; the sight of heaven, if not m the eyes of the Daw, was his wife. Not being legally hitched up,> the Law< can't take cog i niza i nce of whatever Heaven thinks of the matter, and tb& oonsequepoe is that ,the unfbrtuna'te' woman has to grin and bear it, and! what is still worse, is foroed to ad-, mat that' her children are bastards,.

that nortwith'standinig that it is due; ib her pluck and perseveranoe m; the jiisti, <tihat the old scoundrel can thank' for his present position of

plenty. She has no' legal claim .on Wm, not even for her maintenance. Indeed , -i^spaoe^ pertoittad 4t . fine^ etory could be told "of how this individual "wiho possesses a- Genman name, PRACTICAT -t.v SZmUCED THE I" - WOMAN ■: - ; ■

When sbe Was a mere girl, bow, nearly 40- years ago, on the West .Coast, , bjy a specious promise of mandagei he. efiticed her to lijce with him, how, children first saw toe light, and- how,; after he got the helpless woman into his lazy and' treacherous dutches, he, refused to marry her. It is a sad,; miserable and sordid story. With this old and depraved wretcH things, were v : nat always too. bright- He .wasnot always willing to work?- some- • times it was hard to obtain, nevertheless he was a respectable kind of bludger. He lorded it m a shanty;, while his mistress was not too proudi to go out -earning, her daily bread,, and his too, by toiling at the wash-? • tub and caring for and tending to miners' wants, and nursing women on their confinement beds. In those days this respectable kind of bludger loafed and lived' on the woman ,• who is now 'too Old for him and has ao fascination for 'ham. Yes, too old,: the leoherous old Lothario wants something younger and sweeter. He wan€s honeysuckle, and he will be the "bee. For years they- battled m various parts of the West Coast, and Sitting all those years he forgot his promise to marry the woman who bad staick to him through .thick- and thin. That promise was a pie-crust onie. He did not intend to redeem it, and he told her she was his wife m tfoe sight of God and man.. Nearly--32 years ago the pair, with tlwfcr j young family,, went to Feilding,.! whera, for the iirst couple of years he showed an inclination to become a man and to do some honest toil. He -worked pretty consistently, on the railway lipje, .'earning as much as 17s J ami 18s per day. Then h-e bought a ; section of land, wMoh he was obliged to mortgage to pay off some debts ,he had contract- j cd. That section stood m imminent peril' Of going had it not, been for the , woman who, rather ihan see her home go, went out washing and scrubbing, and eked enough to pay the portgage off. On the Main Trunk Line the old buffer was next employed, and we next find him taking up a. section of 102 acres, which, too, was nearly lost through his reckless mismanagement and

LOVE OP WOMEN AND GAMBLING, ■ .- ■ •. "out it was due once again to the mother of his children, "his wife m the si£ht of God," that that section was saved. Thanks to her strenuous efforts she laid the foundation of the ingrate's fortune; now he owns considerable property. He is now a man of independent means, with & strong penchant for anything m petticoats but the helpless woman who is good enough to fee mother of his children, but not quite good enough to be his wife. Of late years their relations have bee-n somewhat strained. He wanted for nothing, nor did Ms fancy women, and his letters m his own hand-writing thoroughly prove that ; but the woman who was Jie architectress of his fortune could go to the wall or to the devil ere he dipped his hand into his pocket to help her. His dalliances with Weliah m the sfcape at utter. ,

ful and Shocking Conduct*

fvomen, whom he even brought into his house, properly belonging to Khe woman he had wronged m girlhood and continued to wrong- through life, became so scandalous and notorious that it was utterly impossI ible for peace to reign m the home. The children's hands were turned against him. They warned the mother agaiilSt him, lDut she was too blind to see and too deaf to their pleadings that she offered but a weak resistance to the old devil's monstrous doings. The children were, of course, barred the house, but <as they were grown up and mostly married, they could afford to treat their unnatural father with the contempt he deserved. Soon, though, it became too apparent that things could not reach a higher stage. The old minotaur Was running several women, and made no bones of the fact that he intende/1 marrying Then he was brought to his hearings. The woman who had lived with him as his wife for forty years

GOT HER BACK UP. She wanted a share of the worldly soods which were his m abundance, and she threatened legal proceedings. This scared the Old reprobate into a blue funk. He dared not face the inevitable exposure that such legal proceedings would . be responsible for, and he sought to compromise matters by making an offer of £300. This offer, rightly or wrongly, was accepted, and m March last at Marlborougih the wedding; bells tolled merrily for a happy marriage that was celebrated there. Now, the old woman is cast aside, and lives m Wellington, having set up m a small business. For 32 years she lived m what she very properly considered her home m Feilding. ' Now a younger, and, it is to be hoped, far happier mistress reigns supreme. Of her "Truth" cannot say anything; perhaps now ( it is too late for her to learn the' character of the sensual sexagenarian she has vowed to love, honor, and obey. She' may be an old man's darling, - but she can never forget ' that she Has usurped the nosit.ion of a woman .whose lons ■and ~ arduous labor of years have helped to place her m a comfortable home.

or at close quarters. This unexpected rebuff made George wild, and he hammered at the door with alarming violence.

The missus held him off until she got her clothes on, when she passed out of her room a«d into .where the .

:, . OBFUSCATED MARINER attempted to strike her- This uiiseem'ly act was . frustrated ',by one of the boarders, who rushed m and wrestled with George. George, however, was not to •feibaulked of his prey and rushing her somewhere m the vicinity of the kitchen, he bit her hand hard. The marks of the bite were still visible when the case came before the Wellington Court on Tuesday. George asked the landlady, who hath an aristocratic bearing, if she did not collar his ship's papers, and: sbe replied that she clutched at them When tire incapable seaman flourished them dn her face. She didn't want them, and placed them on the mantelpiece to enable her unpleasant visitor to get them when he had time. George also said there was. money of his m the house, .and he invaded the premises to demand it. He acknowledged that his* recollection of the faces were hazy, but it seemed to occur to the Magistrate that this was ho justification for Mting a woman. At anyrate, Hds Worship Riddeli tools a prosaic view of the circumstances and fined Hodk'inson 10/ or 48 hours' on the charge of drunkenness and £5 or 21 days' on th'e charge of assault.