Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1909 — Greaser Case Decided. [ARTICLE]

Greaser Case Decided.

--- . „ i The Greaser case which was of an j odious nature was decided Wednesday afternoon in the juvenile court by Judge Hanley. The court took the children from parents and, holding them as his wards, consigned them to the care of Mr. and Mrs. Geo. F. Schlenk, Mrs. .Greaser’s parents, of El Paso, 111., until it was shown that the children were not being properly cared for by them. Judge Hanley held that the domestic life of Mr. and Mrs. Pete Greaser had been so bad that probably neither of the parents was fit or competent to take care of the children. Neither parent was able to show that they were able to raise the childrerf and provide for them properly. Each side claimed that their parents were better able than the parents of the opposite side to raise the children as they should be. Judge Hanley heltf that the mother’s parents were .better able to provide for the children and the raising thsy should be given, and placed them in'their care until further orders from him. The testimony of the two sides did not vary greatly. Mr. and Mrs. .Greaser had moved about considerably in their seven years’ of married life and had lived near or with the parents of each at different times. Mrs. 'Greaser said she was pursuaded against her wishes to take Witham. and two other men as hoarders so she could earn that much more money. Greaser and Witham were very intimate and he and. the Greasers lived in a kind of one family style and moved to different places together, until Greater claimed Witham was alienating his wife’s affections. Mrs. Greaser said that when they moved to Hammond had rented such a cold house they could not live in it, and that Witham went out and rented a better one and they all moved into it. They were un- • able to make a living there so they returned to Rensselaer. Greaser wanted his wife to go to the home of his parents and she refused. As Greaser declined to secure a place elsewhere for her to stay, Witham secured a place for Mrs. Witham and one child to stay, the other child being taken by the father. Later the mother was given the other child. Last fall she went to Illinois to visit her parents and took both children as well as Witham’s seventeenyear old daughter. She said that eh* wanted to return, but Greaser wrote her not to return before spring as he did not want her. She returned, however, in about three weeka When she arrived in Rensselaer she was informed that Graser was out'of town playing at a dance. She therefore did not bother to look him up and as she would not go to the home of Greaser’s parents, she was taken In by E. Mab, where, with Witham, his daughter, and her children, in all to the number of six, lived In two small roms under a moral atmosphere that did not appear to Greaser to be fit for children to be brought up In. As a result he sued for the possession of his children, and the judge rendered the decision above.