EXPLORER WHIPPED

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19597, 8 June 1935, Page 14 (Supplement)

EXPLORER WHIPPED

“Grant Carveth Wells —British explorer, author, and lecturer —not only knew his way about the lonely mountain peaks, but also did considerable exploring in the feminine boudoirs of New Pork’s luxurious sky-scraper apartment houses.”

This charge was made by the first Mrs Wells on the witness-stand In the Supreme Court at Bridgeport, Connecticut where, she Is suing the second Mrs Wells for £IO,OOO, alleging alienation of affections. The first Mrs Wells—formerly Louard Theodora Stirling, of Toronto, Canada—charges the second Mrs Wells—formerly Mrs Zetta Robart, wife of a lawyer in Virginia—as a “love thief” who practised blandishments and wiles on Mr Wells, thus breaking up his and the first Mrs Wells’s happy home. The first Mrs Wells testified that she married 'the explorer in 1911, and that 10 years later they married again “to reaffirm our marriage vows.” Thrashed With Whip. She then said this was followed by a separation, during which Wells visited her bedside one night. She thereupon picked up a dogwhip and thrashed him, she declared. She testified Hint Carveth knew dozens of women in many cities of the United States, but, she added, “the majority of them ho just visited when he was stopping overnight In 'the cities where they lived." She alleged she chased the second Mrs Wells down Madison Avenue—a fashionable Manhattan thoroughfare—dressed in Carveth's clothes, which were nearly lost during the chase. Shortly after this, the second Mrs Wells divorced her first husband Robart, and a year later the first Mrs Wells divorced Carveth. Then Carveth and Mrs 'Robart formed a new marital partnership in 1932.

Husband’s Charges. The court-room was crowded when

A LONG STRETCH. Bella (impatiently): I’m sick and tired of trying to reduce. I’ve been bending and twisting for two hours. Stella: That’s nothing, my dear. I know someone who has just finished a tht'ce months’ stretch. A STONE’S THROW. Prospective Tenant: Yes, it’s a very nice house, but why are all Hie windows smashed? Landlord: Thai's nolliing serious. Just been convincing a lew inquirers that it's only u stone’s throw from the statiou.

Thrashed by His First Wife. Story in £IO,OOO Suit Against “Other Woman.”

Carveth Wells went to the witnessstand as a witness for the second wife. He denounced his first wife’s charges, and stated that she once hired two thugs to ‘beat me up and put an Incriminating letter in my pocket;” and that she once broke up a leoture he was giving at the American Museum of Natural History in New York by running up to the platform and shouting that some Malayan costumes he was exhibiting belonged to her.

Counsel for the second Mrs Wells told the Court the first Mrs Wells threatened to sue the other women In •Carveth’s life, but she replied, “I was fighting for his love." The explorer told the judge that the tender passages in his book “Six Years in the Malay Jungle” depicted him dancing with joy over the arrival from the U.S. of his first wife. ‘They were written for revenue purposes only,” he continued. “If I had written my real feelings nobody would have bought my book." Counsel for the first Mrs Wells asked: “Did your first wife nurse you through an attack of cholera, as you have written here?" ‘‘Absolutely not,” answered Wells. “Didn’t she have ice brought to you miles of dense jungle?"— "No,” laughed Wells. “It would have cost 100 much." “Didn’t she get cholera herself and have lo be carried back to civilisation on a stretcher?” “No. She was carried back all right, but it was In a sedan chair—? and she was perfectly well.” Counsel produced the handwritten dedication by Wells to his first wife, dated 1925 in the flyleaf of a book:— ‘‘No matter what the future may hold, our love will live.” “Was this dedication the act of a man unhappily married?" demanded the lawyer. “It was the act of a man being black-mailed," Wells replied. The case was adjourned.

REAL FOOD. The young man who had written a book was boasting of ids literary skill. “Yes," he said, to a woman friend, "my manuscript was read over and the publisher said it would be real food for the public!” “Er —I see. Tripe, I suppose. THE CHEF FO'RGOT. (Diner (in hotel) : Hi, waiter, I have been a regular customer for twenty years, and 1 have always had two pieces of meat, hut to-day I’ve only got one piece. What, is the reason Waiter: Well, sir, we’ve got a new chef, and perhaps he’s forgotten to cut your meat in two,