WED, HE SAID, WHILE
IN HYPNOTIC TRANCE.
FOR THAT REASON CATTLEMAN
SUED FOR DIVORCE.
Charles E. Brooks Says Woman
Rubbed His Head Until He Was
Unconscious and Then
Got a License.
Hypnotism was responsible for his marriage, declared Charles E. Brooks, a cattleman, who yesterday secured a divorce from Estella Brooks by default in the circuit court. Judge Porterfield heard the case.
Brooks, who is about 55, while his former wife is 30, said in his testimony:
"I met Mrs. Estelle Neville February 6, 1908. She answered my advertisement for a housekeeper. She called me up and asked me to take her to lunch down town. During lunch she borrowed $30 from me. She said she could buy a $60 coat for $30 at a sale that day. The same evening she paid me back the money.
"At that time she was running a millinery store on Twelfth street. I went there on Saturday night, two days after I had met her. I was suffering from the effects of a street car accident. She asked me if I did not want her to rub peroxide on my forehead. I said no, but she got on her knees and began to rub my forehead. She continued to rub my head and asked me to marry her. She kept on rubbing my head until I did not know what was going on.
GOT LICENSE AT MIDNIGHT.
"Then she called up the recorder -- it was midnight -- and had a license issued. We went to a minister's and were married. On Sunday -- the next day -- I awoke in a hotel on West Twelfth street. I was in bed and she was sitting beside the bed. We went to her millinery store and stayed about an hour. After that I went to my daughter's home. I have never been back to Mrs. Brooks's home since.
In answer to questions by Judge Porterfield, Brooks said:
"She told me she was a hypnotist. She had several books on the subject."
This was Brooks's second attempt to get a divorce. Earlier in the year he brought proceedings to annul the marriage. He was brought into the court of Judge Goodrich, February 1, on a stretcher and taken to a hospital immediately afterwards. Judge Goodrich refused to hear the case, telling Brooks that he should sue for a divorce, as the things complained of had happened before the marriage. Mrs. Brooks filed an answer denying the charges.
The records of the recorder show that the Rev. Frank S. Arnold of 5143 Olive street performed the ceremony.
