Society > Family Life > Going Down Pyrmont
Going Down Pyrmont
Evening News, 4 December 1902
Edward Ernest Harigold, a greengrocer, petitioned the court for a dissolution of his marriage with Edith Ella Harigold, on the ground of her adultery with Tobias O’Toole.
Early in their marriage he had complained of his wife going out, sometimes all night. Edith not only declined to obey: “some crockery began to fly about”. When he tried to evict his sister-in-law, Edith announced “I’m going, too”, and she and her sister started “shotting stones” at him. Later she came back and they lived in Paternoster-road, but the pattern was repeated and she again left him.
Later still, he saw her in Ultimo with the co-respondent, “going down Pyrmont to a dance together”. (Edward knew O’Toole as the driver of a sawdust cart, who sometimes fought in Elder’s Hall.)
He saw them again, dancing at Elder’s Hall, and they made several visits to a hotel nearby. When Edward saw her again with O’Toole “she began to use language again” and threatened to hit him with a bottle.
On another occasion while she and O’Toole were in the hall, she had her boots off, and was showing her leg to two or three others. She said, “How’s that for a leg.”
The judge pointed out that he could not grant a divorce because a woman showed her leg to a man. If they chose to allege adultery, they would have to prove it.
