Confessions Gain Divorce

A woman's letter, breathing pathos, anguish and the grim resignation of a wife and loving mother finding herself caught in the toils of an infatuation which she could not shake off, won a divorce Monday for Merritt B. Austin, president of M. B. Austin & Co., manufacturers of electrical supplies. Mr. Austin and his wife, until the 1st of May, were residents of Evanston, living in a beautiful home at 1216 Forest avenue. During the number of years they made their home here they were prominent in social circle and no inkling of their marital troubles ever reached the ears of their friends.
The 1st of May they gave up their home, Mr. Austin going to the Moraine hotel at Highland Park, while his wife took the children and rented a house at 819 Oakwood avenue, Wilmette, which was provided for them by the husband.
Monday the husband appeared before Judge Richard E. Burke in the Superior court in answer to the suit he had brought against his wife for divorce on the charge of desertion. The divorce was granted.

Letters Important Feature
An important part of the evidence in the suit was three letters of Mrs. Austin, written after their separation, in which she admitted her love for another man and told of her loss of affection for her husband.
In the decree Monday, finding Mrs. Austin guilty of desertion, the disposition of the custody of the two children, Merritt Bartlett Austin, Jr. and Virginia May Austin, 10 and 14 years old respectively, is reserved for the future by the court.
The first letter received by Mr. Austin was in reply to an appeal he made to Mrs. Austin to come back to him and "be a wife and treat him as a wife should." A portion of the ltter which was written from Waupaca, Wis., reads:

The Letter "I hardly know just what to say in regard to the way you say I have been acting. It has seemed to me the least said about it the better, for what can't be cured must be endured, but since you have written me about it perhaps it is just as well to be frank, and while it may not better the matter any, you may understand more clearly and appreciate my unenviable position.
"You have asked me if I care for anywone else, and I may as well tell you that I do. 'Tis no infatuation, but of months' standing, and God only knows how I have suffered in the past year; the sleepless nights I have spent and the innumerable hours during the day when I have lain face downward in my bed trying to fight out my battle. If you have suffered through my actions, I am sorry, but you cannot have known my agony of spirit trying to do the best I could with an aching, breaking heart."

Love Beyond Her Control
In another leltter Mrs. Austin says: "I do not care for you in the way you wish and it is useless to entertain any idea of the sort. I shall always respect and esteem you highly as a good man and the father of my children, and shall at all times do what I can for you; but as for loving you, that is something entirely beyond my control. It is true that I thought I caared a whole lot once, but then I did not know--the woman of those years and the man of the last five years are as entirely different as though born apart. I have struggled and fought against it but what God has put into my heart I cannot change.
Knows No Other Reason
"Have you ever done anything that would give your wife reason for her alienation from you?" Mr. Austin was asked by his counsel, B. P. Shope.
"No, Sir," was the reply
"Do you know of any reason at all other than stated in that letter why she absented herself from you and refused to live with you?"
"No other reason. She does not love me, and she admits in the letter that she did love another."
Mrs. Austin did not defend the case, but was represented by her counsel, D. Wilson More. Later, at the request of Judge Burke, Mrs. Austin appeared and admitted she had no defense to make to the suit of her husband.