SIDNEY AYRES IS ACCUSED OF BljSAMY eormer wire makes chargepublic - I V'L4-w $A fef 1 I N -? ig SYDNEY AYKF.S, WHO IS CHARGED WITH BIGAMY FOItMKR WIFE, IN LETTER TO PUBLICATION. Actor Declares First Spouse Deserted tlim and He Secured Divorce BeforieTOakfand v Marriage A charge of bifjramy has been brought against Sidney Ayres, former matinee idol of Oakland, by his forrr er wife who, In a letter to the Dramatic Mirror, a New York . publication, writes that there has never been a legal separation . between herself and the vaudeville actor and that the news of nis.-reeerit marriage to Miss Anne Franck, an Oakland girl, "must be an error." i The statement of the former Mrs. Ayres, "published in the Dramatic Mirror, reads: "Editor Dramatic Mirror Sir: In last week's Issue of the dramatic Mirror there Is a notice of . the :marriage of Sidney Ayres In Oakland, Col., to a Mies Anne Franck. This must be am error. I am Mrs. Sidney Ayres, and Mr. Ayres and I have never been legally separated. There Is a suit pending In the New York courts against Mr. Ayres for desertlon;-nonsup-port and alimony. As there is no divorce, a marriage on his part would be bigamy. ' ' "Very sincerely, "MRS. SIDNEY AYRES. "Blngham7N. Y., Oct. 17, 1812. Concerning this charge, Ayres, wlio is playing In Seattle at the Orpheum In a play of his own writing, "A Call for the Wild," authorized the following statement last night: "I am not a blgamlstnot a fool, as BY 4 I would have been in marrying again without a legal right to do so. The fact that I was divorced became generally known through newspaper publicity at the time 1 securpd the decree. received my decree of divorce In Portland through John Logan, my attorney, the decree of divorce having been granted at Oregon City, Ore., some time last August. It is all 'of record In the courts of Oregon. "The former wife deserted' me five years ago. When at last I sued for divorce proper notice was mailed to her at her last known address, Paul's Hotel, Woodbury, N. J., and again In .New- York. And If she did not reserve -these, notices it Is no fault of mine. Legal service was made. . , k "Having received my divorce I was at liberty to marry again, not of course so soonlri the Stata of Oregon, but our marriage was recently celebrated,, In Oakland. It was legal and lawful In every way. "As for the charge of the former Mrs. Ayres which I heard of for the first time this afternoon when a friend called mj attention to the article In the "Dramatlo Mtrror," I shall pay. no attention to' it. The newspaper publicity is distasteful, of course, but I suppose there is no way of avoiding it. "I have nothing to say against the woman making this charge. She cannot harm me any more,, for I have done no wrong."
