Family: William James Kirkpatrick / Bertha Mitchell Lambotte (Lambert) Kirkpatrick Poyner

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Marriage- Lambert, Bertha-Kirkpatrick, William 3

From The Topeka Daily State Journal
Thursday, May 19, 1910

No Balm For Her
Mrs. Belle Quinlan Loses Suit Against Kirkpatrick.
Jury Refuses Poultice of Coin for Her Broken Heart.
Wanted Only $10,000.
Those Love Letters to Latshaw Injured Case of Woman.
Inconstant Widower Is Now Happy With Another.

The jury in the Quinlan-Kirkpatrick breach of promise suit came in at noon today with a verdict for the defendant. Followers of the recent jury cases in the district court in which women plaintiffs have gotten anything they wanted are expressing their surprise and Attorneys Schenck and Atchison are preparing a motion for new trial.

Mrs. Belle Quinlan sought to recover $10,000 from W.J. Kirkpatrick, a wealthy widower of Rossville, because he had jilted her to marry another widow, Mrs. Bertha Lambert. She told on the stand of their love affair and their betrothal. Kirkpatrick in his inning denied everything but that he had been to call on her several times.

Mrs. Quinlan’s story of his thrice a week calls in the evening was verified by the testimony of her 15-year-old son, James, and the defendant admitted on cross examination that he spent many long evenings with her in the parlor.

Dual Love Match.
Kirkpatrick’s admissions on the witness chair established the fact that he spent his days with Mrs. Bertha Lambert and his evenings with Mrs. Belle Quinlan. Mrs. Lambert, during the nine weeks of the thickest of the fray, was staying with a Mrs. Nellie French near Silver Lake. She stayed there to take care of the house for Mrs. French, who was ill, and remained when the children were ill. Mrs. French testified that Kirkpatrick came three or more times a week to spend the afternoon with Mrs. Lambert, but always left in the evening because of the sickness in the house.

It would seem then that leaving the French home Kirkpatrick would drive back into his own neighborhood and call on Mrs. Quinlan. The widow Quinlan seems not to have known anything of the dual love affair. On the other hand, Mrs. Lambert said, on the stand, that she knew of Kirkpatrick going to see the other widow before he married her.

But the great weakness in the plea of Mrs. Quinlan for a heart poultice lay in the fact that she had been induced by A.C. Latshaw to write him endearing, mushy, gushy letters after she had started her suit, and which he turned over to the defense. The jury could not help but feel that the woman was too susceptible and was not deeply and permanently injured by the jilt from Kirkpatrick.

Letters Hurt Case.
The letters of Latshaw to the woman, and hers to him, were exhibited and read during the trial, along with letters between Mrs. Quinlan and Kirkpatrick until the whole suit reverted to the thrashing out of the letters and what they stood for. The verdict might easily be made to read, “Too much love in black and white” and include the moral, “She who learns love by mail should not preserve the letters.”

The jurors in the case were: L.H. Neiswender, foreman; E.H. Hewins, Peter Davis, William Cline, Henry Reisner, Henry Schuler, Mrs. Weisser, John McKimmeny, R.D. James, R.C. Hatfield, P.C. Goforth, J.E. James.

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