Box and Cox

Thames Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 8607, 11 March 1897, Page 3

Box and Cox

A WOM AN'SEXTRAORDINARY STORY ABOUT TWO HUSBANDS.

A respeitably-dressed, intelligentlooking woman, who came to the S.W. Police Court with three children in a perambulator and a packet of documents in her hand, made the most extraordinary application to Mr Denman that it has probably ever been that or any other metropolitan magistrate's bt to hear jfrom the bench (says a recent London paper). L'er immediate application was for a warrant against her hnsband for bigamy, but the details that she furnished in clear, almost convincing, tones, were startling. She manned her husband, she said, on December 6, 1890, his name being George William Musk, an engineer. He had constant^' ill-treated her. He went away two years ago to Marlborougb, and on his return she noticed that he seemed fatter. About the same time his brother, of whose existence she had not previously been aware came to live at the same house, bringing with him as his wife her aunt Fcr the past two years they had lived in the house, and she suspected nothing. The brothers

WERE EXACTLY ALIKE, and it was only quite lately that she saw them together on the stairs and noticed the difference between them, one being fatter than the other. She then discovered to her honor that the man who was supposed to be married to her aunt was in fact her own husband, and that the man with whom she (applicant) had been living for two years was the brother. At once it flashed through her recollection that on more than one occasion during her married life her supposed husband used to get

FAT AND THIN ALTERNATELY, and she knew now that, a 6 a matter o fact, her real hnsband would often go away for days, and his place would be taken unknown to her by his brother. She only found out the truth when she saw them together.—Mr Denman : It was a sort ot Box and Cox arrangement. (Laughter. But I can't understand a woman being deceived in her husband like that. —Applicant : The brother ill-treated me just as my husband did. Here are two likenesses of them. Each has a scar down the face, and each has last half a finger. You will see by the photographs that one is thinner than the other.—Mr Denman : There is an extraordinary likeness between the two, but you may be mistaken. They may be the likenesses of one and the same mail.— Applicant: Oh, no I could tell the difference the moment.l saw them together on the stairs. I noticed that when he came back from Marlborough that he was fatter, but he explained it by saying it was the result of

LIVING IN THE COUNTRY, As <i matter of fact I believe he got a divorce from ire unknown to me and then married my aunt, who has got all ray money. Applicant produced some papers and some letters, after perusing which the magistrate remarked that it was clear there were no divorce proceedings. Applicant then went into some rambling statement about the Bratt divorce case, which she somehow connected with her own trouble.—Mr Denman : As far as I can understand the case it is this : George William Musk married jou iv 1890 and What is the name of the brother ? Applicant: I don't know— I never heard of him before.—Mr Denman : Well, we'll call him Musk the Second. (Laughter.) Musk the Second comes and slips himself into the place of Musk the First, and represents himself to be your husband. Then Musk the First MARRIES ANOTHER WOMAN, and returns to the house as her hus-pajid-—Applicant; And lives up-stairs. (Laughter;- They have got all my furniture. —Mr Denman : Does his wife call herself Mrs Musk ?—Applicant (excitedly): Yes, and forges my name. Mr Benman : What! You don't mean to, say that she —your aunt—actually passes herself off as you ?—A,pplica,nt ; (Laughter). It seems very curious, but it is true. —Mr Denman : It is the most extraordinary case I ever heard. —After hearing som.e further details of the case, Mr Denman that it was clear she was mistaken about the divorce proceedings, and therefore she was probably wrong about »ther things. He thought she might, have sustained some trouble which had uyset her and induced her to exaggerate things. He was incliued to think it was a mare's nest, but he would send an officer to inquire into the matter.— In answer to further questions, the woman said she lived at Stormont road, Battersea, and that her husband, who was formerly an engineer, now owned several public houses, which he had bought with her aunt's money. TOO FUNNY TO BE TRUE. The above story did not bear nvestigation. It turned out to be, as the Magistrate had suggested, nothing wore sensational than a mare's nest It is pretty plain that MpCMu.sk has keen suffering from a delusion, and that the 2 likenesses which she handed up to the magistrate are really 2 portraits qf the same man. Her Box and Cox \\ fact, are one individual, and that individual her husband. Mr Musk, who is naturally anxious that [a veil should be drawn oyer the distressing incident, has informed a reporter that the only brother he possesses is a boy ofU. So there ends the mystery.