Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1909 — MRS. GOULD ON WITNESS STAND [ARTICLE]

MRS. GOULD ON WITNESS STAND

Expenditures at “Castle” Included Sums For Liquor. MRS. RUIZ KILLS HERSELF Woman Mentioned In Divorce Action 3 Against Alfred G. Vanderbilt Ended Her Life With a Bullet In Londes Last Month and the Suppression of Reports of the Tragedy Now Are Being Inveetigated—She Was the Wife of Cuban Diplomat New York, June 11.—It was a smaller and slighter Katherine Clemmons Gould who took the stand in her suit for separation from Howard Gould than the public remembered; and her loss in weight was becoming. Mrs. Gould wore mourning for her father and the sober black of her gown and her long gloves was relieved only by the double string of pearls at her neck and the flash of the diamonds in her long hand purse of black leather. So far as the presence of her husband was concerned she seemed not to know he was In the same room, although he sat but a few feet from her.

Mrs. Gould alleges that her husband deserted her without just cause on July 16, 1906. Howard Gould answers that his justification was the habits of the plaintiff; that since he left her he has made her an allowance of $25,000 a year, but that she is extravagant, intemperate and has been guilty of misconduct. The wife denies the charges and asks, for an allowance of $120,000 a year. ' In answer to questions, Mrs. Gould rattled off the amounts her husband had allowed her month by month. They averaged about SIO,OOO. When asked if her expenditures at Castle Gould included money for liquors, she said: “Yes, everything. I bought the apples, onions, potatoes, vinegar, sugar, salt, flour, horse feed and chicken feed.” She told with evident relish of the magnificent yacht Niagara, with its crew of eighty men, its saloon with seats for sixty guests, and decorations that’ in one room alone cost $52,000. She could not recall seeing Dustin Farnum, the actor, whose name figures in an affidavit introduced as evidence, in 1908 or 1909, but she was positive she had not seen him within a month.