The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-07-07
A CRUEL PARENT.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT-MARRlED IN HASTE
AND REPENTING AT LEISURE-A BRIDE
SITES FOR POSSESSION OF HER HUSBAND.
The Brooklyn Eagle gives an account of
novel case of matrimonial infelicity: The
most novel case in Brooklyn is that of
woman suing her father-in-law for her hus-
band. The latter resists the suit on the
ground that the wife previous to her mar
rage was, he alleges, degraded woman.
This the wife denies in a narrative of her
marriage, adding, very properly, that II her
husband does not want her she wants a di-
vOrce and, alimOnY., 1t seems the parties met
on Fulton ferry boat: A case OF love at
first sight ensued; and the young man was
in haste to marry. The lady consented in
a few DAYS, and the pair were married at the
Methodist Episcopal church on Claremont
avenue the officiating clergyman being the
Rev. Mr.. Davis They then went on we'd
ding tour to Washington. On their return
from that tour the bridegroom went to see
bis father to win him over to consent to the
marriage already made. The father in lieu
of this keeps the young man at home, and,
in explanation of this, states he was not
sober, and that the whole transaction.
GREW OUT OF A SPREE.
Spree or no spree, the pair are married, and
the young man, it appears, is of age. The
marriage itself condones all offenses against
morality, of which the bride may have been
guilty in single life. supposing her to have
been guilty, as her father-in-law alleges.
1t is a clear case of marry in haste to repent
at leisure. 1t is but another consequence
of the hghtness of consideration now at
tacned to marriage. on which such fire.
auent stress has been laid in these columns.
The mere fact that the young husband
could be kept by anybody from the wife
he had so hastily married shows how little
of true affection he must have felt for
her, and what imperfect notions he
entertained of the duties he was assuming.
There is, however, one aspect of this case
which is not suggestive of purely theoretic
speculatiOns about the decadence of respect
for the marriage tie. 1t is based upon the
fathers assertion that this whole affair was
the mere result of spree. Admit this, SIM
ply as a hypothesis, and where stands the
minister who performed the ceremony ?zIt
is very evident that a careful clergyman
would not, himself being sober, marry,,a
drunken pair. 1t does seem, too, as if, he
fore marrying any pair, clergyman might,
with no superfluity of care, demand to know
who thew were, and would try to ascertain
whether the applicants for his hymeneaI
services were both possessed Of per-
feet understanding of the responsibilities
they were assuming, and whether they were
acting with the knowledge of those con-
nected with them in blood or legal relaIion'
=
that the very respectable CLERGY man VINO
married this particular couple neglected
his dutv in anv way, but TO point out
that MARRIAGE sasroie easy is not at all
Sii-aIv 70 lead to marriage made happy.
No 4 tb1s hssty way OF coupling a man
I'D a woman for life any the less repre-
hensible in the marriages made by
niayoral or magisterial act. People get
married as fiippantly as they sign a mort
gage or a deed of transfer, seeming &c
attach to the one act no greater sense Of
sanctity than they would to the other. The
couple whose error in this matter has occa-
stoned these remarks are undoubtedly mar
ried. And with the prevailing view of the
Iightness of the marriage tie now enter
tanned, the question arises naturally, should
not contract so easily made be prevented
by easier cancellation, from running the
risk of keeping uncoDgenial people together
for life at the expense of the happiness o
both? In the
DAYS OF OUR FATHERS,
when the marriage of a son or daughter wa
matter of solemn family counsel, wher
the settlement of the pair in their future
life entered into the calculations OF their re
apective families for years. when the weigh