EXPERIMENTING IN WIVES.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3114, 27 March 1883, Page 3

EXPERIMENTING IN WIVES.

Most men consider one wife at a time enough, and if they take to themselves more it :is generally done successively, not simultaneously. The excase pleaded by a wealthy Greek merchant who died 'recently at New York, the husband of four living wives, is that be was of an “enquiring turn of mind, and fond of experiments.” He wished to test the respective merits of an English, French, German, and Spanish spouse, but as the law hindered him from satisfying bis whim openly be devised a plan for doing so secretly. To the very day of his death his friends and acquaintances believed him to be a bachelor, consequently their amazement was extreme when on opening the will they found that he was not only married, but very much married indeed. He explained in this document how he had been married four times on Nov. 16, 1876, to a daughter of England, Prance, Germany, and Spain. Each of the ladies believed herself to be the only wife, ’.the bridegroom having told them all the same story previous to the ceremony—to the effect that urgent business would call him away for a period immediately after it was conconcluded. The four partners lived under different names in four quarters of the city, and he spent his time among them impartially,treating them, he says, all alike, and unable to award the palm of excellence to any, for they were all equally good, estimable creatures. At his death each widow reckoned on enjoying in its entirety the fortune be left behind him, amounting to $1,200,000. But to their collective dismay it had to be divided into equal parts, according to the terms of the testator’s will, which set forth that, as he shared bis heart between them daring his lifetime, so he would divide his money among them after death, in. order to prevent any jealousy or heart burning. It was lucky for this polygamic old gentleman that the police did not manage to hear of his pranks.