The Oregon daily journal., May 21, 1922, Page 66, Image 66

THE OREGON
SUNDAY JOimNAi;, PORTLAND, ! SUNDAY , MOKNIN&, MAY 21, 1922,
?k -Xi .ws
N
H f
No Wonder
Back
and
the Fashionable
Bay Colonists Gapped
d When Wealthy Young
MA Mbrrill
Began to Mention
cesi
Dates mulEven
Lietit.-Col. Seth K. Chase, Identic
lied as "the Man with the Hot
Water Bottle," After a Detective
Had Smashed His Way Into Mrs
Morrill's Boudoir.
I
HOMES In Boston's aristocrats Back
Bay section were suddenly closed
for the Summer. Residents of the
fashionable Brookllne colony booked Eu
ropean reservations on the earliest steam
ers. Telephones buzzed madly along blue
blooded Beacon street. Husbands were
wrathy. ("Wives were trembly. Several
daughters wept salty tears. All Because
Leon Gilbert Morrill, millionaire ink
manufacturer, told "tales out of, school"
In his divorce suit against his beautiful
young, wife, Mrs. Florence R. Morrill.
Chaste and cultured Boston gasped when
Mr. Morrill first took the stand and casn
y ally testified, "Why, kissing is just as
common as golf or bridge in our set!"
"When he followed this with, detail after-
detail of the kissing bees he had attended
with other rich men and their wives, Bos
ton wavered between shock and curiosity.
It sounded incredible petting parties,
cocktail celebrations and Joy rides! They
were the follies of flapperdom, not of
' Brookline, oldest and most conservative
social capital in the United States. Yet
there was the evidence, confessed by ons
jcf the leaders of the Back Bay's upper
ftendom. He gave names and places;
names which apperred in big type In the
social register; places always associated
with the elite. Moreover, he was going
o tell morel .
Boston thought tt was exciting enough
s when Mr. Morrill named as co-respondents
an his suit Lieutenant Colonel Seth K.
Chase and Douglas S. Carter, both prom
inent members of the haut monde. It
was more exciting when Mr. Carter in
turn sued Mrs. Carter. The public was
getting a delicious peek behind the social
' scenery. But, when the Morrill trial be
gan, excitement reached fever pitch.
A detective employed by lir. Morrill
told his story. He crashed In the door
of. Mrs.' Morrill's mother's apartment he
swore, and discovered Mrs. Morrill' in bed.
while Colonel Chase trotted into the room
iwith a hot water bottle. The defense
countered this charge with the plea that
.J Mrs. Morrill had been taken 111 at a func
tion, that Colonel Chase had driven her.
iome, and that he was merely, doing wast
he could to assist her, . . ;
md When Wealthy Young ! tmt'' A '
" y?-y ,:.''.) ''.. --f:(-OA!-';..,
- JS antes r. v - i -- . ,-;-..' -'-rv-. -
J - I. V , fr. T ' , ,J M if
I i X A-.- , T,
Ar1 , '7THVf V" '!' 'L'TZ ';A Mrs. Florence G. Morrill, of, Boston's y-L ' ''' ' y
f -"' V -:':Vr"-rTv I Jnin forwarf attentively. Some oMhem ''"
I - - - St--- , ; 1 blushed. Others paled, i la the rear of T ' -" S- -
: X'-.x y . the room a handsome brunette slid tig f. 7,s? . '
- ' v ' ' :1 1 'V j TsL 1 trasirely irom her seat and made for the ' A '
A ' - "1 'f ) "Hard to remember?- jogged the at- 5 t I ' 'K ? "
i '' fif X "Tes." ssreed Mr. Morrin. hn th .n. l00 JT-
V - - . , Was Away Playing Golf, i j 1
MHwaasiis'i f . . . ! . iv i. .--: .
Miss Margaret; Dickson, the Morrill Family
Governess, j Who Was Called to Testify Con
cerning What. Happened When Mr. Morrill
Was Away Playing Golf.
Douglas S. Carter, Who Was First Named 'as
One of the Co-respdndents in Leon Morrill's'
Divorce Suit, and Who Now Has I Brought "
Suit Against His Own Wife. J
Charges InTolvInK the Other cd-resoon-' Were alwars
dent, Mr. Carter, were made by Mrs. Anna ! Itennjis, teas, bridge. He protested to Car
Olynn Connally, a'maid employed ty the Iter. 'He warned him to stay away from
Colonel Chase. He was
there When the door was
"crashed." Questioned con
cerning Mr. Carter, he said
he i told Mrs. Morrill she
was . seeing- too much of
"this ma n." They
i on x.or i son.
across
Worrills. She Bald she hai seen Mrs. Mors .
rill. In negligee, and Mr. Carter with, hei; ;
In the Morrill home, and they were kissing, i
This was Sunday morning while Mr. Mor-5 1
rill .was golfing at the country club. The ";
governess, Margaret Dickson, was called to
confirm this testimony.
Mr. Morrill took the stand. . He re
peated the detective's charses against
tfc tMorrlll home.
Rifcht there was wnere Mrs. Momlrs
lattotney took nrp the cross-examination
alone a line of inquiry that startled the
jspectators. j t 1 11- i, . j
I "Did your attorney warn you to be
icsrefol of your own. conduct during; this
timer he began.
xes," repuea xne
.witness.
"Did you tell him that kissing was more
or less common In your sett"
"No. -sir." 1
"But yon admit that this was :S com
mott practice T-
"Tea. ft '.I 1 1
A aultrerl of excitement thrilled
the crowded . court room. Fashionably
gowned women made up nine-tenths; of the
audience. Every eye was on the witness
as the attorney for' Mrs. Morrill cleared
his throat. ' H ! j
"Mr. Morrill, tt Is a fact that yon hare
kissed Mrs. Carter, Is It notr ii
"Yes." answered Mr. Morrill, squirming
Slightly.?! ni i 1 ! '((-'
"How many other women in your set
have you kissed T" 1 j
Mr. Morrill hesitated. Women,; tsrerg
leaning forward attentively. Some of them
. blushed. Others paled, i la the rear of
the room a handsome brunette slid nnob
trusively from her seat and made for the
. door. , 1 t i , i , , i1
"Hard to remember ?" jogged ths at
torney.
Tes,, agreed Mr. Morrm, while the au
dience snickered. i
"Was Mrs. Stanley one of ths many
women yon kissed on these parties r :
In the tense silence Mr. Morrill's "yes"
was hardly audible. , ;
"Ton kissed mdlscrlmlnately?'
He sodded.
"Were yon drunk or sober when yon
kissed In this manner?"
"I -was sober."
But yon felt happy?
"Yes." '
Mr. Morrill was asked ! about parties at
which he was host at his suite In the smart
Hotel Coolldge. Many of the guests, ha
admitted, were Boston society girls. They
belonged to a bridge club. The bridge club
met at his rooms. When one ligt of girls
couldnt attend. Sir. Morrill and his
cronies had a substitute list, No, Mrs.
Morrlll didn't belong to the club. She
didn't attend the parties. " -i 1
For every man there was 'a girl, con
tinned Mr. MorrCL .Sometimes they did'
not play cards! fi&metlmes, admitted ths
witness, they just kissed. Once they
motored to the 6ontbbridge Arms Inn, a,
fashionable road house, where a dinner
party was preceded by. cocktails and fol
lowed by kisses. ' ,
"Didn't yon escort Mrs. Frothingham to
ithat party?" demanded the attorney for
Mrs. Morrill j
CoprrtcfcX 1SS2, by Znierutlttul IWk fiarflos, lacu fin Britain BUhts
Leon G. Morrill, Who Testified
That In His Set "Kissing is just
: as common as golf or bridge."
t 1 1, ii i i ' I1 (
'r" 'I ' t I H T V '
v He named, at the lawyer's 1 insistence,
other young ladles, who, he said, attended
the bridge-kiss parties Miss Sutton; Mrs.
Stanley,-Mrs. Maude Hanley, a Miss Mor
rill, who was no relation to "him.
As each name fell from Mr. Morrill's
lips, an electric current seemed to gal
vanise the listeners, for it sounded as
though the witness were going over the
social Index. ; ,
"Come down, Mr. MorrilV stated the
attorney. - ,
That night, as the rumor sifted through
the Back Bay that Mrs. Morrill's attorney
planned to get! the names and addresses
of every woman Mr. Morrill s&id he kissed
that In all likelihood they would be called
as witnesses, the express companies did
-a rushing business carting hastily packed
trunks -to the railroad station.
And when the Morrill trial resumed
again about a week later, not a few
familiar faces were missing among the
spectators.. Not jone of the ladles named
br Mr. Morrill had staved to . hth;
' "Mrs. Frothingham rode In the front those subpoena-servers rsnr th front-dorm
east er m fay" aAmfttajf 1LTt fvr4n m I -
A
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