Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-05-29
H DIVORCE MANIA.
A Social Revelation Progressing on
h Matrimonial QuessiOn.

a SOelai revelation Progressing on
the Matrimonial Question.
The number Of divorce petitions now
being filed in our Chancery and Circuit
Courts does not speak well for society or
its advancement. Edmund Burke in his
celebrated essay on the French Rsvolu-
ton alluded to the divorces granted by
the courts Of Paris as one Of the strong
est symptoms of the utter rottenness of
society. In a very brief period Of the
revolution more divorces had been
granted than in England from the earliest
days down to that period. In this city
We are making wonderful strides toward
social Observation-Disclosures destr ~
ing the family relationship and the foun-
dalton Of society. 1t is SO also through
out the United States. whether you take
Puritan Massachusetts or Mormon Utah
as an example. The marriage tie which
is regarded in a semi sacred manner, at
least, does not bind long or closely at
present, aud the bonds of matrimony
are becoming weaker dsy by day. The
facilities offered by u legislatures to
the people for procuring divorces are not
well calculated to add to social order, to
sentiment, love or affection. Matrimo.
NAL bonds are now lightly donned and as
lightly do6ed. The outline Of a union
may be given as follows: A marriage
between a man and a woman who have
had but slight acquaintance with each
other, a few weeks of so.calleo happi-
ness, several months of unhappiuess and
misery, a separation, a divorce. The
divorce machinery Of our courts goes on
grinding out separations week By week
as regularly as clock work. l. is no
trouble to procure a divorce, because the
defendant makes no defense, and is only
too glad to escape from the bonds of
wedlock. Many divorces are procured
by collision between the parties-by an
agreement that one shall make the ap.
plication and the other will make no de.
Tense.
Throughout the entire country the
regular divorce business indicates a
steady increase, while in this city it is
advancing at a rapid pace heretofore IN.
known. A clever writer on this subject
says:
1t is true that we are a wonderfully
conservative and law-abiding people, with
a remarkable attachment for the forms OF
law. We do not appear to stand in
much danger Of political revolution; but
how about social revolution2 When we
are menaced by q danger threatening
the social order, as one this year threat
ened the political order, how shall we
escape, if we 90 on loosening the social
bonds and destroying the foundations of
society," No doubt side by eide with
this evil is growing up III COZ r%cction-a
solid conservative class the more deeply
welded 10 the natural order that thew
see It violated. We will be happy if i
shall have grown TO proportions where it
can neutralize the full grown evil just
when society is about 10 be ergulfed.
But we need not count on this. The
social opinion is fatally wrong where
this evil can exist-not the laws. The
spirit Of all law is social sentiment and
opinion. A better sentiment weuld have
aud enforce better laws. The truth ia
we are a migratory sort Of people. We
began making real property mere chat.
tells which we would have made movable
/ we could have done it. A farm and a
home circulate almost as readily as a
dollar bill. The family seat is almost an
impossibility, Orr people have no at.
tachment to the soil, either upper or
lower classes, ricG or poor.
A recent article in the Boston Herald
gave in a cold, statistical, general-news
way, the number Of divorces aud some
points in the business. 1t was not an
extraordinary weeks work for the Su.
preme Court when in session, but there
were $50 cases dismissed and seventy.
five divorces granted. The divorce bus
mess has grown to extraordinary proper.
tons in this country, and the divorces
are a Difference to the idea of legal bond.
age and social constraint Of matrimony
Divorce ie a step toward the sexual dis
solution OF society, but it is a step where
the hand Of the law ID still recognized.
The worst feature is hat with all these
divorces are perhaps ten desertions to
one diyorce-ten cases where the parties
or one OF them dissolve the bonds of mat.
rimony az lightly as they were assumed
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