NOT MUCH HAM IN HAM'S MATRIMONIAL SANDWICH

NZ Truth, Issue 1079, 29 July 1926, Page 7

NOT MUCH HAM IN HAM'S MATRIMONIAL SANDWICH

Bride of a Day 1^ SaUor-HMy Has a Wife arid Three (Midrm Port

//.- ''■^'■'' ', ■. . (From "Truth's" Special Wellington Representative;) TEWIS JOSEPH HAM, native of LiverpQol, England, and ship's carpenter, was presented to a plump spring chicken m the person of Ena Lilla Teresa Parsons at the Grand Cafe, WUlis Street Wellington, and subsequently he made her the other half of the Ham and chicken sandwich.

UNFORTUNATELY for both Ena and himself he omitted to men-< U tion that he already had a wife, May, m far-off Liverpool. After one brief day of wed<le<a bliss, Ena found herself alone once more, and her. Ham was floating away o cr the briny.

IT rather looked as though Ham hadC Handed her the bone when he wrote from England: "I should have told you the truth at first, and that I Was a married man separated from my wife for three years." : jmmmmmmm^ .HE inf ormation was ' A«k jQi passed on by, Ena /4K| to the police, with A ;-'•', the result that the p=jBHL '- — ■=■«' cold and unemo-MP-V tional process of the ffSfcl law commenced imKMM mediately t b ex■milp tract, the. chicken /vfsl from Hani's sand- / ff*J» , Dressed in a ?■ ' M& )f. iJ^ brown cos turn e, with hat to 'match, arid wearing white stockings and brown shoes, Ena is just an average girl in appearance. - ' In the witness-box she stood - with bowed head after bestowing one long, tremulous glance upon the somewhat, (diminutive Lew Hani in the dock. ' In a voice that carried barely three feet from the box, she stated that she was a waitress' by occupation, and lived at Harbor \View, Wellington. When the usual formal question was put tb'her as to whether she knew the man in the dock, Ena Teresa proceeded to weep bitterly and copiously. Her shoulders shook convulsively, and with each passing moment she began to wilt more and . more noticeably, under the blighting memories of "those, dear dead, days beyond recall" which the question had apparently conjured up. Magistrate Riddell shifted, uneasily in his seat on the bench; Lawyer. Jack Scott, for Ham, scratched his head; and ..Chief Detective Ward moved 'fr.om one foot to the other ;ari!\h'elpless perplexity. .. ';'.•'. . ' :' '/-* ■ : ; .' Ena continued to sob -bitterly, 'while Lcav was demonstrating ' that' the human mind can at. -tithes' become a vacuum. / Ena was finally prevailed, upon ' to side-track a sob or two arid, give her voice a clear arid" unobstructed passage.

5— — : ■■ ; r Yes, she knew Ham. She had first met him in August of last year. Having imparted this -.informa-tion,--Ena- .wilted again?— this- time to such ah extent that a chair was obtained and placed in the witnessbox for her. ; Thereafter she crouched, in an attitude of deep dejection, endeavoring without success to stem the torrent of tc3.rs ■-■■-'. Her answers were given in a very thin, and grief-stricken voice. ' It appeared that - the romance of her first meeting with Ham was flavored by the atmosphere of the Grand Cafe, Willis Street. '"-._• ■'...,.''. They agreed to make it a Hani and chicken '•■ affair in October, when Lew .proposed. The -ceremony took place at the Registrar's office on November ,10,. 1925. Ham was at that time ship's carpenter on the s.s. Leitrim. In a very tearful voice Ena stated that Lewis Joseph had told her he was a single man. She had believed him, of course. Ena's grlel had somewhat .subsided under • the tactful questioning of the chief .detective, but a further query had the effect Of opening the floodgates once more, and her pent-up sornow,reached its climax in inuffled sobbing. . ' ._ . How long, asked the detective/ had she lived with Ham as his wife after the marriage? After some seconds Ena answered in a feeble voice: "One day.". SHOOK: FOR ENA His brief honeymoon having ended, Hani rejoined his ship arid- sailed away to England. '■■■-. : During the months that followed his conscierice apparently began to bother him, and on April 6, 1926, he penned the following epistle to Ena, making a clean breast of the whole' business: '.'To My Dearest Wife,— l should have told you the truth at first and that I •was.; a. married man separated from my. wife for- three, years. '.-.■■: "I : thought that after three years I could get a dissolution of . •marriage, but on making enquiries I cannot get clear, although t am entirely in the righjt with regards to the separation, and have only to maintain the two girls. ' "Anyhow, to; cro\vn all, this fagot— for I Can't call her my wife— is taking fresh "proceedings -to claim -more, so you see I .am in a queer fix. . .}. Jove! It is just about enough to serid anyone crazy. , •■ ( "Look here/ Ena, put yourself in my. place. After having seven year6 of. purgatory, then thro«

5— : — — years of misery, when you had a chance of someone who thinks a lot of you, what else would anyone do? . . . I think the law is unfair! "Dearest, would you. mind waiting to give me a chance? I know you will think me a queer one, but I can't help it; I never dreamt it would take a turn like this." Ena immediately paid a visit to the police, and did everything m her power to keep matters "strictly confidential" —until after Ham's arrival m the Do^ minion, at any rate. The s.s. Kent reached Napier an June, and Ham despatched a lettercard to Ena from the Hawkes Bay port, m which he wrote: "My dear wife Ena,— Each letter you write is different to the last. You are very hard to understand. Here am I, thinking all the time What to do for the best, yet when I look ahead there seems to be a blank wall. "Ah, well, I am afraid I will have to wait and see. 'Perhaps when we have met it will make things different. — Your' loving husband, Lew. 0.X.0." Ena was apparently keeping the information Ham had conveyed to her m his first, letter so confidential that she even refrained from mentioning the subject m her reply to him. Ham, however, still signed the . mystic symbols "0.X.0." after his .' name, and "strung a long line of , kisses across the bottom of His letter. Two days later Lew. got busy again, apparently after receiving further correspondence from Ena. His letter was written while the ship was m port at Auckland. HIS LOVE FIRST "Ena, you need not make any ex. cuse, because everything is entirely up to you, for as far as I am con?cerned I intend to carry everything out and live man and wife with you. Of course, . that is if you want me and. still love me. "You know, dear, it is only a matter of waiting a short while and you can tell anybody that asks you that I am carrying my job on for a while, which will be the truth. ... "Now, Ena dear, I want you to remember that if you love me the same as. l do. you that you have no need -to worry any more. '.'I am absolutely certain that all will be all right shortly, and that neariy all happenings, whatever they are, affection should always come first, and it does on my part, for if you look back I- don't think you could do anything but agree with me. . . . > "Jove, darling!. Nothing would make me more happier than to be able to keep you warm. Why, I would not change places with the King! I sincerely hope that it . won't be long befor* I am with . you for- keeps.

O : ' "Now, vyou know, dear, when all is said and done, we had no courtship, aiid the time we are waiting is practically the same. . . . ' "I hope that when you next see Madge you will .tell her that Daddy -won't be long now. . . ;. — Remaining your ever loving husband, v Lew 0.X.0.". In a voice that could just be heard, Ena admitted that on receipt of the 'first letter she had placed the matter m the handa of the police. At this stage Lawyer Jack Scott butted into Ena's vale . of tears. "Who is Madge?" he asked. Ena shrank further "into her chair and dabbed her face with her handkerchief. She remained silent. Lawyer Scott: Was Madge an illegitimate child? s Witness (m a very feeble voice): Yes.. ■'■.■• ■ Ham is not the father of that child?-^-No. In a voice growing considerabVy stronger under cross-examination, Ena admitted that she had written letters to Ham when he was m England. In some of them she had accused him, while m others she had forgiven him for what he had done. Later Ena said that she may havt told Ham that she suspected she was m" a certain condition, but not at the time of the marriage. THE OTHER WIFE Most emphatically it was not'correct that she had asked him to marry her. Ena for the time being had no need to dab her eyes; the tears had ceased. This concluded the girl's ordeal, and still dabbing her eyes, she retreated from the witness-box. . The marriage certificate produced m Court showed that Ham had stated he was a bachelor, 30 years of age, and the girl 24. Ena was shown as being the daughter of Alfred John Parsons, farmer, , of Holmwood. She was born at Motueka. In his statement to the police, Ham 'said he married his English bride, May Brown, at a registry office m Liverpool on September 20, 1916. There were three chil.dren of the marriage. The couple' separated m November, 1923, Ham paying for the maintenance of the children. His statement concludes: "I did not intend to desert the woman I had married m New Zealand, as. l intended to make my home m New Zealand." Ham had nothing to add, and entered a pl<ja of guilty. He was committed for sentence, bail being refused.