Old Problem At New City

Many a young man and young woman of New York was surprised to learn last month that the State had a law making "seduction under promise of marriage" a crime. Last week at New City, N. Y. concluded a sorry trial which had brought the statute to attention.

Sidney Herbert Homewood, 24, ran a modest riding academy. To it five years ago came a plain, tall girl named Charlotte Ariel Gibson, one year Homewood's junior, daughter of a local lawyer. Sidney Homewood taught Charlotte Gibson to ride, on the rolling bridle paths of Rockland County. She bought a horse. They exhibited at horse shows, always well chaperoned. Last winter, he broke his engagement to a girl in the neighborhood. On the night of March 1 (while somebody was stealing Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. from his crib) they went out alone together. They parked their car near the Sparkill Cemetery. . . .

In June, Robert Gibson, Charlotte's tight-faced father, was mortally shocked to learn that his daughter was pregnant. She told him Sidney Homewood was responsible. He summoned Homewood, demanded that he marry the girl at once. Homewood first agreed, then vacillated as to the date. His mother and two sisters, who looked to him for support, were against the marriage. In July the distressed parent went to the county attorney, filed a complaint against Homewood. Rockland County's best people were mortified for quiet Miss Gibson, pitied the plight of Sidney Homewood, were somewhat less sympathetic toward relentless Father Gibson when, last week and the week before, the details of the Gibson-Homewood case were told in open court. The trial flurried the tabloids. The New York Mirror sent a titled Englishwoman. Lady Terrington, to New City as a newshawk.

Nub of the prosecution testimony: Charlotte had been strictly reared, had only been kissed twice on the forehead by her music teacher and facetiously by some ushers at a wedding before she succumbed to the blandishments of the defendant. Gravely she told of her initial resistance near the cemetery. "He said: Is this all because we are not married?' I said: 'Yes.' He said: 'I won't marry you if you are such an iceberg.' And trusting to his promise I--"

It was Sidney Homewood's contention that he had never spoken of marriage until Miss Gibson told him she was with child, that he would have gone through with the arrangement had Father Gibson not stipulated that the couple separate after the child came. He had never, he swore, offered her the slightest endearment. "We parked," he said bluntly. "I kissed her--I asked: 'Shall we?'--and she said she didn't see why not." As agents of Society, the task of the jury (eleven husbands and a widower) was a grave one. The problem they faced was the oldest. Society, through its policeman Convention, jealously guards the chastity of its women, thrusts obstacles in the path of sex promiscuity, tries to take care of the woman even after the mischief is done. Will Shakespeare married the girl.

Every State prohibits abortion, many tackle the problem at the other end by enacting laws to discourage extra-legal mating. Penalties are exacted for committing a public nuisance, violating a woman not of the age of consent, infibulation, rape. The Law, a referee for warring Society and Nature, is practical. So were the New City jurors. After 45 min. they returned a verdict of guilty. Having weighed the testimony of both sides, the married men explained: "When Homewood said that no words of love passed between them we couldn't believe it." Maximum penalty: five years in prison, $1,000 fine. Sheriff Thomas Farley, brother to the Democratic National Chairman, led the prisoner away to jail to await sentence. Father Gibson cheerfully told reporters over the telephone: "I am satisfied. . . . We had just started to read a Scott novel."

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