A Marriage Built on Lies and Swindling
A husband files for divorce claiming his wife wasn't the 'virtuous girl' he was promised, leading his wife to reveal he was actually a confidence man trying to recruit her into his schemes.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Nathan Freedman filed an answer yesterday to the divorce suit of his wife, whose maiden name was Rose Cohen, denying her allegations of cruelty and filing a cross-complaint claiming he was 'badly fooled' into marrying her. He claims that two weeks after meeting her on April 14, they were married, but he soon ascertained she was not a virtuous woman and had fraudulently induced him to marry her. He alleges she showed unmistakable evidence of a prior engagement.
In her reply, Mrs. Freedman denied all allegations. She further testified that shortly after the marriage, he confessed to her that he had been associated with a gang of confidence men in Spokane and other places, and that he had married her for the specific purpose of using her in swindling schemes. She claims he told her that unless she joined his gang of confidence men, he could not support or live with her. She stated that the reason he refused to support her was because she refused to engage in these swindling games, and that he continued to importune her to join his schemes even after their separation.
“He told her that unless she would engage with him and his gang of confidence men in his swindling games he could not support or live with her.”
This domestic drama highlights the precariousness of marriage and reputation in the 1890s, where 'virtue' was a legal currency. Today, the story reads less like a traditional scandal and more like a cautionary tale about economic coercion and the performative nature of historical social standing.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.