MRS ASTOR’S QUICK DIVORCE

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9651, 3 January 1910, Page 7

MRS ASTOR’S QUICK DIVORCE

Mrs John Jacob Astor obtained an interlocutory decree of divorce at New York on the statutory grounds. The Oonrt proceedings lasted one minute. No [name was mentioned, and the evidence and decision were officially sealed. In six months the decree may be made absolute As soon as Mr Justice Mills took his seat two lawyers, Mr Henry W. Taft (brother of the President of the United States) Mr Lewis Oass Ledyard stepped to the front. Mr Taft represented Mrs Astor and Mr Ledyard Colonel Astor. They had travelled from New York together, chatting in the friendliest Wfty. “Any motions?” asked the Judge. “May it please the Court, answered Mr Taft, in a low voice, “I desire to offer a motion of which you have already taken action. I move that the report to the [[referee he affirmed and j}that an interlocutory decree of divorce be issued.” An interlocutory decree corresponds to the English decree nisi. The Judge: I presume yon want to catch an early train back, so 1 will dispose cf this matter at once. I have examined the report of the referee very carefully, and find that the evidence as set forth fully justifies the finding of the referee. 1 therefore sign the judgment If there is no objection, [i Mr Ledyard : There is no objection. Mr Taft: I now move that the papers be ordered to be sealed in due form. . . , The Judge : The motion is granted. NO NAME MENTIONED. That was all. The name of the Asters was not once mentioned in Court. , , Colonel Astor is now cruising in the West Indies in his yacht ; Noormshal. Mr a Aetor only arrived m New York from Europe a few days before the action and went to stay at the French Lick Springs, Indiana, under the name of Mrs Austin. It is generally understood by the papers that the colonel has settled two millions sterling npon hia wife and seven-year-old daughter Muriel, hia son Yincent, who is seventeen, remaining with his father. Since her mother-in-law’s death Mrs Astor has been one of the recognised leaders of American society, bat London has been almost as much her home as New York, or Newport. Prior to her marriage on February 17th 1891, she was Miss Alva Lowla Willing, of Philudeplha, a family famous in American history. She is a woman of rare beauty and charm. Colonel John Jacob Astor is the third of the Astors to bear the name of the distinguished’founder of the family in America. For the past ten years he has devoted himself to the management of the Astor estate, the whole welfare of which is intimately connected with the;: business prosperity of the city. At the, outbreak cf toe ;_Spamsh war ho organised and seat to the Philippines at hia own expanse, the Astor Battery, equipped mountain artillery. Ha himself subsequently served in Cuba under Gens-, ra! Shafter. It is declared that as the resale of the divorce Mm Astor resigns all interest in her American homes, and will reside with her daughter abroad. ■