The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1877-04-11
DIVORCES.

Is unqueStlOned. The statistics demonstrate
the correctness of the declaration, and place
it beyond cavil. The subject is very properly
attracting attention, and remedies are pro-
posed, criticisms are caustic and deplorable
consequences predicted. So far as our read
ing familiarizes us with the subject no ade-
quate remedy is proposed. We do not re-
member to have seen the suggestion that
with more than Herodian cruelty, all mo-
thers-in-law are to be quietly put
out of the way as means
of promoting married felicity and
domestic tranquility. Admitting that the
proposition is open to grave objections, it
should be remembered that desperate cases
require desperate remedies. Occasionally
the remark is made that love has something
TO do with matchmaking and welded life
but the idea is somewhat Anticipated and
does not to any very great extent enter now
a-days into hymenial affairs. We are quite
willing to admit that there are exceptions
but writing from a divorce standpoint it is
safe to say, like angel visits they are few
and too far between by half. There are
those who have come down to the present
time with whitened locks aud falter-
ing steps whose hearts have been
kept tender and lives pure by
by the remembrance and realization of the
fruition of ''love's young dream" who said
in the bright dawn of their manhood and
womanhood-
"Go where we will, this hand in thine,
Those eyes before me smiling thus,
Through good and III, through storm and
shine,
This worlds a world of love TO u.s."
and launching their banks upon life's troub-
more abundant harvests Of bliss to their
homes. But as the years advance, the world
is getting away from the poetical idea of
marriage. True, there is no objection to a
small amount of love; counting is not en-
tirely abandoned; moonlight walks and
whispered vows are still INDUCED in, but
the business department, it is under
stood, must not be overlooked; if it is
the mistake is likely to prove fatal.
That is to say, great deal of love will not
atone for very little money, but princely
income will make up for any deficiency of
love. In fact, it does not matter particularly
whether there be any love at all in the
bargain. provided the shekels are secure. 1t
must not be forgotten that whatever else
marriage is, it is a GIRL contract by which two
persons agree to live together as man and
wife, or husband and wife-a matter over
which the church and religion have no
control whatever. The law. which imposes
all the conditions and obligations of the
contract, does not provide that it
shall be everlastingly binding, for
since marriage is civil contract
in the eye of the law, the law makers very
wisely provide remedy for mistakes-and
for their adjustment. Manifestly the law
regulating marriage is imperfect, like other
laws, and men and women take advantage
of their defects, Just as they do in all other
la " matters. If divorces are more numer-
Gus than formerly it would indicate that the
civil contract has been made more hurriedly
and injudiciously than in the olden time,
when love, instead of lucre, dictated the
terms. The New York Graphic relates a case
of divorce where "a man, who had lived
comfortably with his wife for ten years, left
her and their two boys few months ago to
seek more remunerative business in Chica-
go. He did not return, and she did not
hear from him, but at last she did hear from
Judge Cox of Utah, from whom she received
a decree of divorce. No notice of the APP
'plication had been served on her, and she
knew nothing whatever of her husbands
intentions till the decree of the court was
received" This case the Graphic declares
is only one of hundreds presenting similar
hardships, and expresses the opinion
that mo wife is safe. no husband
secure while the Utah law remains in
FORCE and adds that anybody can get d.
'vorced in thirty days without cause and at
little expense, and without letting the other
party know anything about the matter till
the decree is obtained We hold that d.
it matters precious little what the cause
may be if the parties to the marriage con-
tract regard it of sufficient magnitude to
separate rather than live lives of eternal
turmoil We have no desire to catalogue
the causes recognized by the law as sufficient
to warrant divorce. They may be too
numerous and too frequently frivolous,
but if they are of character
TO make domestic happiness impossible then
mercy and justice, as well as religion and the
best interests of society, demand that the
contract should be annulled.
II marriage contracts be inconsiderately
entered into, as is the fashion in these latter
days; If youth in its bloom and beauty is
sacrificed upon the altar of ambition, pride
or mammon, why demand that the letters
shall never be broken or the victim set free
from an imprisonment worse than death2
II Il unite possible that the divorce laws of