The Bride of Sixteen and Her Husband of Fifty-Eight

Barte’s in a complaint filed yesterday in the superior court says that she was persuaded into marrying on October 17, 1891, a man nearly four times her age, she being but 16 and Peter Barte’s over 58. She says that prior to her marriage she had no experience of the world, possessed only a limited knowledge of the affairs of life and was ignorant of all things concerning the relations. She says that her marriage was brought about by the entreaties of Peter, by threats of her father and of some of her neighbors. Her mother was extremely ill at the time, and opposed to the marriage, yet she was not able to successfully oppose the influence exerted on Peter’s behalf. After such diplomatic success in capturing the hand, if not the heart, of such an innocent young child, she says that he has frequently been guilty of cruel treatment toward her. She says that she has at all times since her marriage been in poor health and physically unable to perform hard work, but that Peter insisted upon her doing the household work, although he was well able to keep a hired girl. She says that before she recovered from the illness resulting from giving birth to a son last July, her husband insisted upon her getting up and doing the household work again, and that as the result she suffered a relapse, and has not yet recovered from the effects of the illness, and believes that she will never fully recover. In addition to all this she says that Peter deserted her. Now, by reason of the great difference in their ages, the incompatibility of their tempers and the difference in their tastes and desires, she finds it impossible for them to live happily together, and therefore she wants to be freed from the bondage of matrimony.