The Hazel Green Herald

An episode which has just come to light concerning the Sisters' Club, of Chicago, through the suit for separation brought against Mrs. Brown, one of the Governors of the organization, by her husband, affords a solemn warning to the members of the Ladies' Club of this city. In his complaint Mr. Brown sets forth a series of indignities and vexations to which he has been subjected that will call forth the instant sympathy of every husband in the land. The complaint alleges a long list of petty wrongs on the part of Mrs. Brown, such as refusals to sew on the plaintiff's buttons, a habit of putting her feet in chairs and neglect of her offspring, and relates several specific offenses.

On the night of July 30 last the complainant alleges that after bathing the baby and putting the children to bed he sat up until one o'clock waiting for his wife to come home, several times falling asleep in his chair. Finally he heard excited voices at the front door, and upon opening it he found Mrs. Brown, accompanied by Mrs. Tompkins and Mrs. Robinson, who were also members of the club, and the three came into his smoking room and talked until four o'clock in the morning. Upon his questioning his wife when she finally came to bed, she only informed him abruptly that they had been discussing a matter of club management of grave importance, and he afterward learned from Mr. Tompkins that the topic under consideration was whether Mrs. Smith should be allowed to flaunt two new dresses each week in the Crochet Room of the club.

Upon another occasion, as set forth in the complaint, Mr. Brown was roused from his bed at two o'clock in the morning to admit his wife to the house. She had been brought home in a cab, and was laboring under great excitement. So soon as she was able to speak she peremptorily ordered her husband to go at once to the residence of her intimate friend, Mrs. Robinson, and cane that lady's husband. Upon Mr. Brown's refusal Mrs. Brown went into hysterics, and he found it necessary to call in a physician. It was not until morning that she was able to relate the cause of her perturbation. She told her husband that upon visiting the club the day before she found that the sole topic of conversation was a report that had been circulated to the effect that the basque of the new dress she had worn to church on the previous Sunday did not fit across the shoulders, and had evidently been made by a cheap modiste.

Mrs. Brown, as the complaint goes on to state, hunted this rumor down and found that it emanated from Mrs. Robinson. Mrs. Robinson was confronted with this fact while engaged at checkers with Mrs. Smith, and promptly denied the allegation. Mrs. Brown told Mrs. Robinson that she had not believed she had ventured such an assertion since it was a notorious fact that she (Mrs. Robinson) had worn an imitation sealskin sacque only two winters before. At this Mrs. Robinson screamed and declared that Mrs. Brown always dressed like a fright, and that the skirt she had on at that identical moment had been turned twice. Mrs. Brown furiously retaliated that Mrs. Robinson was a spiteful minx; that she wore gloves that had been cleaned with alcohol, and had once come down to the breakfast-room of a Newport hotel in a Mother Hubbard wrapper. Mrs. Robinson frenziedly retorted that Mrs. Brown's complexion was purchased; that her friends had always believed privately that her front waves were false, and that she was known to have attended a ball with imitation lace in her sleeves.

This was too much even for Mrs. Brown's angelic temper, as she herself stated, and she flew at Mrs. Robinson with a shriek, but was prevented from doing any great amount of damage by the other ladies of the club, who held her while Mrs. Robinson fled from the room and hid in the coal cellar. Upon concluding her story, her husband alleges, Mrs. Brown stated that she would never go near the horrid club again, and for a week she kept her word. Since then, however, her attendance had been as constant as before, and Mr. Brown was left alone at home every night and was subjected to numerous annoyances. One of the allegations in the complaint is that upon one Saturday night he parboiled the baby by leaving it in water that was too hot, and he complains that he is invariably obliged to get the children ready for church every Sunday, since their mother is too weary to rise before noon.

The club has employed counsel to defend Mrs. Brown, and the members have ordered their husbands never to speak to Mr. Brown again as long as he lives.-N. Y. Times.