Extracted from The Morning Olympian (Olympia, WA)
Friday, February 7, 1913

Suit Is Brought Because Man Prefers Stage to Home

Through a woman attorney, Mrs. Julia Waldrip, on the grounds that her husband is a circus and vaudeville performer and refuses to stay in one place and support her and their two children both boys, aged nine and four years, Eldora [sic Elodia] Burns has started suit for a divorce and $20 a month alimony from Wilfred J. Burns. The plaintiff alleges that when the pair were married at Myrtle Point, Ore., in 1900, he promised to give up the roving life and settle down. This promise, she alleges, was oft repeated and affirmed, and solemnly pledged again after the birth of the first child. But she insists the call of the nomadic life was stronger than the desire for a home and quiet family life, so she asks that she be granted a divorce. The wife complains that she tried following him on his ramblings but that the life was too distressing. She lives now with her grandparents and says she is in a position to bring up the children in a proper manner. She says her husband is strong and able bodied but refuses to settle down and work.