Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-05-18
THE DIVORCE MANIA.
How People Get Into the Matri-
mOnial Net, and How They
Get Out Again.
Something For Manageable People
to Read.

1t was Sidney Smith, we believe, who
uttered the following piece of wisdom:
Advice to people about to marry
don't" Not many years ago Indiana
vas the Mecca sought for by people in
search of divorce. The unfortunate
husbands and wives aocked to that State
from all the other States Of the Union,
and from Canada, in order to have the
nuptial knot united ia a legal manner,
so that they could either resume single
%blessedness or seek their affinity else
where. But Indiana is not what il was.
It has lost prestige in the divorce.giving
Lac, many other States being her rivals
now in that branch of home industry.
Tennessee holds her own in the business
at present, and theresult is a land teem-
ing With biushihg grass-widows, with
here and there an old bald headed repro
bate. sheepishly casting glances OF a
forgotten love at the coy maideus who
had been induced to believe that be had
several loose fortunes lying around at
their disposal.
1t would astonish many people to look
over the records of our Circuit and
Chancery Courts aud see there the large
number Of divorce petitions that have
been filed within the past few months
and the number Of divorces granted
The substance OF the petitions would
form a melancholy, yet not uninstruc.
tive, history of social life. When the
man files the petition be charges his
wife with all the crimes known to the
law. She is everything that she should
not be; life becomes unbearable of
course, and nothing will do except a
divorce. When the woman files the pc
tition the picture is reversed. Her hus.
band is painted up as a monster; be did
everything that was bad and wicked, aud
is not fit to live with any decent woman
Our legal reporter was astonisbed to dis
cover that the petitioners, whether man
or woman, were models of purity aud
virtue. They we're patient and loving
until patience aud love wore out, and
until nothing else vas left them except
to seek to break the chains which bound
them to another.
What is the cause of all this2 1t wasnit
so in the days Of Adam, bat they were
not troubled with tight times, creditors
and street tax men, and Mother Ewes
fig leaf did not cost q months salary.
1t has been stated truly by a cotempo.
rary that now the man goes struggling
along through hfi, putting himself out
side Of all the bad whisky he can find,
without an income other than very low
wages; a blank dark before him; the
heavy responsibility Of q wife and sew.
eral children hanging over him, and
times growing tighter and tighter every
day. The once loving wife becomes dis
gusted with talk of hard times and the
fumes Of whisky, and has forgotten all
about the eff~ulgences of the honeymoon
that was once so joyous. 1t is but a
faded vision of the years that are gone
The sea-shell tint has left her cheeks,
and the dreamy, graceful belle Of ten
years ago has been transformed into a
modern vinegar factory. To sum it all
up, she concludes that she has driven her
ducks to a bad market, and worse than
ell there is 70 annual increase Of the
ducks.
The times are too hard for a poor devil
to double his load Of sorrow and add
weight to his bundle of grief. He should
know something Of the temper Of tie
woman be marries, and breakers can
then be avoided. Many a couple have
mated and found, long before the honey
loon should have waned, that they were
badly assorted. In such cases, the hus.
band should leave home at once.
Divorces should only be granted in
extreme cases, with a careful search into
the why's and wherefores. It should be
arranged that whenever a couple had
sailed upon the sea of matrimony, aud
found that there was nothing but ship
wreck in store for them, they should be
bound together with something stronger
than silken cords, and thrown into the
sea again without a life-preserver. In
this situation, they would either drown
or return again to their senses. The
only sale plan is, don't marry, unless
you know exactly what you are doing
AT A SACRIFICE.