Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

A Silent Husband.

HIS WIFE OBTAINS DIVORCE. In the opinion of tho Official Referee of New Park, New Jersey, silence on the part of a husband, when prolonged over a period of - years, or when occurring in unduly large slabs over comparatively small periods, is just as much legal cruekty to a v. lie as to neglect to . provide hj; r with clothes and food. lie therefore granted .Mrs Blickensdorf s petition tor divorce.

Hit husband, .silent to tin- hitter end (s:iys the Daily Telegraph's -V-»v York correspondent), merely sent a friend to court to say thai he had nothing to add to what In* had .said to his wife hefore their marriage, and. further, that .Mrs Blickcnsdoil had more than enough to say lor any two •X'ople, and, tinally. that Mrs Bhckcnsilort's persistent loquacity v. as just, as galling as prolongeU silence.

A stream of witnesses snore before the referee that Mr Bliekensdorf maintained a sphinx-like, wooden, impenetrable .silence ever since lour years ago, when he mumbled responses at his wedding. For lour \ears Mrs Bliekensdorf tried by every artifice known to woman to make her husband talk, but in her testimony before the referee .she admitted thai .-he tailed. At first she squeezed his hand and chucked him under the chin, but the only re.s|Mjnse she gut was a stony stare. Then she burnt tin- soup, put salt in hi.s coffee, and finally she tried putting tin Tacks on his chair. All in vain ; still he was speechless. Several neighbours testified that they had not heard him say a word in six or seven' years. "We < ven took him to fireworks on-- night to see it" he would say 'Ah!'"' said one witness. " but we couldn't get him to open up. He is the most careful man in the world with Lis talk. !t is worse for a man to he able t-o talk and to he always silent than to be dumb. •• Yes, indeed," ejaculated Mrs Bliekensdorf, weeping before the jury. ■■ In summer," she continued, " lasat in the vard all day, and long into the night, silent as a wooden man. And in winter he kept clf;:-e to the stove, and burned the wood and coal she carried in, but said never a word. Previous to marriage inv husband talked fluently, but was never what you would call a born talker." . . The Blickensdorfs were married m 1905. At the wedding hreakfa;t Air Bliekensdorf, after murmuring «l;a. was taken for an apology, bur.' m ofr t«i work. When he came L;:'c in the evening his wife met him at the door with an affectionate smb. Bliekensdorf returned the smiK ml hurried into the house, where he pt down. Mrs Bliekensdorf started cone, nation with a remark about the wen tin i From this she led to the question ol what he would like for dinner, but got no answer to any of her observations. At last she wept, but _-v •••> fears failed to melt her husband s silence or abate his stony stare. Hecoming desperate at the .silence vhi-n pervaded her home, Mrs Bhckens .i admitted to the referee that she h i I not cared verv much of late what her husband would say when he fini'lv J-.l consent to open his mouth. When important matters came up for consideration he would sometimes condescend to shake his head, and indicate his opinion in that way. Once. and it was a red-letter day for Mrs Bliekensdorf, ho moved his lip*, as t aliont to say something, hut, evidently changing his mind, closed his li;.s again. . And so an end came to Mrs B!icken<--dorf's endurance, and the referee has now given her a chance of finding a more loquacious helpmate.

This article text was automatically generated and may include errors. View the full page to see article in its original form.
Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19090925.2.77

Bibliographic details

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14015, 25 September 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

Word Count
621

A Silent Husband. Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14015, 25 September 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

A Silent Husband. Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14015, 25 September 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)