| Show rr ri I 1 i SOUNDS MORE LIKE FICTION THIS REAL LIFE TORY PLOT MARRED BY CUPID how highly placed business man was caught in a marriage trap horace field parshall the shrewdest american m london was victimized and unwittingly wed another mans wife A romance inspired on one side the comans womans wo mans by a LONDON trickster a criminal cunning la which sentimental mockery at the start takes the place of love and by degrees becomes a worthy emotion in which an unlawful marriage planned with calculating once entered into becomes a real affairs of the heart in which a wife acting the leading role in bus band s dastardly plot becomes a big aalst and then the true woman with in her asserting itself becomes crushed by the irreconcilable falsity of her position and confesses A real sit nations yes in this strange way are the incidents worked out la the trapping at the altar of horace field parshall chairman of the central london railway and known as the shrewdest american in london relates the new york world sent forth under threats of death to do the criminal bidding of a man to whom she had linked herself in girlhood ahe impulse of love tor him who becomes her victim at the end makes the comans womans part in the plot little short of a soul tragedy As for the man tor parshall it Is the story of an honorable dupe who when the truth Is made known to him la compassionate instead of relentless and pleads for mercy while others call for punishment parshall high in business world with an income cf considerably more than a hundred thousand dollars a year and dukes and lords and oth er british money men as his business associates horace field parshall Is well known in london he Is forty six years old and a widower with two children a boy and a girl his wife wag a miss rutty he came from mil ford N Y and entered railroading in london during the days of charles T yerkes being an engineer who commands money by his genius the woman the real victim it one measures consequences Is mrs deborah jeffreys wife of one herbert harrington jeffreys whose name sug bests respectability but whose record does not she Is thirty three years old comely of gentle manners and her life well ordered except in so far as it has been warped by her husband the first setting of this strange story Is at an english summer resort the last with final curtain la a lon don police court in january a year ago mr parshall was introduced to a young woman known then by the name of miss bertha johnson she seemed a person of refinement she was well gowned and of charming manner mr parshall met aci not infrequently thereafter and one day asked her to marry him it was not until along in abo sum mer that she accepted him the young woman had gone down to sunny folke stone which vies with brighton as a fashionable resort and was guest at the pier hotel thither at weekends week ends went parshall seeking relaxation from the exacting duties of chief executive of the tube or london sub way the shrewd business han h an and the young woman the latter eves then her part in the design to en trap him motored about among the quaintly picturesque kentish towns which still stand a monument to caesara caesars Cae sars invasion visited the ancient roman ruins md enjoyed moonlight walks along the leas which follow the crest of the ocean side chalk cliffs back of folkestone Folk estone to parshall it was a romance without a shadow to the woman it was a shadow without the romance it soon became to each a romance with shadow seemingly happy marriage on august 5 they were married parshall unsuspecting and happy formed a little party at the piers and with his bride at his side motor ed to the sleepy hamlet of n ham lying midway between folke stone and the famous cathedral town of canterbury where at the registry office the ceremony was performed mrs martha judd of folkestone Folk estone was one of those present at the marriage many a plan of the mind has before now been upset by the heart of a woman it was so in this case the false wife found herself the center 0 con dieling dieting emotions at the instigation of a man who would willingly flee her for his own financial benefit she had married a roan choso whoso tender ness and kindness bad made her truly happy but the relation was elble at the parshall country place in the suburbs of london she iet the call dren they too became fond of her ads horace parshall loved her abid BO with each passing day the struggle went on within her until unable longer to bear the strain her own duplicity she planned to escape it by the oie means which women who halt at suicide adopt she confessed mr Par business had taken him away from home conscience stricken she wrote to him telling of the wrong she had done him and while admitting his own weakness and the part she had played placed the larger blame on the maa aho vho had forced her into it blight on Par shalla ake one may not here tell the meeting of parshall and his false wife following this confession what happens un der such trying conditions is seldom for outside eyes to see the only course open to Farsha II having an honorable position to main tain was to seek a prompt annulment of tha marriage this the high court granted on the statement of the facts it left parshall tree but with a cynical view of life it left the woman a heart torn wreck dy her own admission she could not sleep and was so convinced of the necessity of ac punishment for her wrong doing that she made her way to bow street police station and tod her story in detail knowing full well what it meant to her first she told of her marriage to herbert harrington jeffreys a cos ter type ranging always on the fringe of the underworld with a constitutional objection to work and a fixed desire for tawdry finery then she etolil of her meeting with parshall the great railroad man the amerl can in all london in matters of busl ness but otherwise like mankind in general the calculating jeffreys knowing well the position occupied by parshall in the london transit world and of his very considerable income thereupon according to the alfes frankly told confession urged her at first and afterward by threat made her pose aa a widow in the hope and belief that by this means she might secure money from parshall husband threatens to kill dut parshall with honorable intent fell in love with her thus making the situation complicated this unlocked for turn in affairs did not make jeffreys halt As the story was told to divisional detective inspector gough tha husband reaching out for a fixed and permanent income aa a result of his alfes debauchery sent her forth to lure parshall into mar arlage holding over her a throat that it she tailed in the undertaking he would kill her all that was necessary was the deception on her par tonly ams and moved by fear none the less than by the awakening of a real affection tor the man who was to be her victim she did als she had near ly 3 in the bank this ale gave of jeffreys she had some rings and pins baubles of no great value and these she aavo to jeffreys he want ed them ordinarily women do not part with their money and jewelry but in this strange case it would beom that she had thrown aside he trinkets to be forever frea of tha claim that one man had on her parshall had proposed she accept ed him the marriage followed venerable sir albert de rutzen chief magistrate of the metropolitan police court for more than ten years heard the case when it ayed tor I 1 court jurisdiction sir albert la keen and kindle but not an it la fifty odd years since he was graduated from cambridge he the world ho knows its people he heard as much of the story here told as falls within the questioning and an of a self accused woman he stroked his wig now and then and more than once peered over his spec tables at the woman in the dock no plea for mercy and what have you to say tor your self ho asked with kindness la his tone with no tearful byplay att looking the dignified chief magistrate straight in the eye in all seriousness she an I 1 am deeply deeply sorry for what I 1 have done and I 1 would not have done it if my husband had not made me london magistrates do not overlook wrongdoing but now and then a man like sir albert de rutzen interprets the law with the end in view of real justice he permitted the woman to depart upon payment of 25 to appear for trial before the central criminal court at a later date the concluding scene in this case was in historic old bailey where sits the london court of sessions A bond of 25 is not hold a person desiring to avoid trial here any more than it would in the united states still mrs jeffreys appeared the confession which she had voluntarily unta rily made to the police authora ties was read to her and she said it was correct adding only one thing that jeffreys had at his direction been introduced by her to parshall as her brother in law jeffreys plan was to get parshall s moey mo ey only that still loving mrs jeffreys perhaps certainly pitying her mr parshall through his counsel that she be treated with mercy even as th record of her duplicity was being writ into a court document her punishment nominal the recorder expressed the courts admiration of mr parshall 3 dagnan imley and accepted the spirit as well as the letter of the woman s frank con that she bad been forced by her real husband from whom she was separated to marry tae rich american but punishment was necessary to complete the record this was am posed one day a imprisonment a sen tence which was purely nominal the effect was that she walked forth free hand clapping and other manifestations of approval arff rigidly forbidden ithan the walls of a london court room but once outside athla woman who had been made to suffer through the of another who had borne the brunt of th wrongdoing and moved by an impulse which wom en alone know had confessed there being no other way by which she could baro her heart was followed by glances as with boned head she was lost in the throng |
