Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-12-27
Sales Of Wives.

Carolina, sold Mrs. Alfred Jenkins to
MIR. Noah Glidewell fer $500 IN hard
cash. This sliding tariff OF prices
would seem to indicate that as you
90 towards the equator the value of
woman enhances. It is not probable
that the market price is effected by
the climate, for in reality, a woman
ought to bring more in cold than in
warm climates; nor can it be due to
any superiority in the article for sale,
for it is very well known that the
article az the North is in every way
more desirable than at the South. It
is possible that the laws of supply
and demand regulate the wife market
as they do every other market, and
that this peculiar feature of social
economy is ruled exclusively by po-
htical economy. Certain it is that
women are less plentiful in the South
than in the North, and by all rules
of buying and selling, they ought to
bring more where not only they are
not exported, but where the supply
is not sufficient for home consump-
ton.
Leaving to the social philosophers,
Fortnightly Clubs, Dante Circles,
and other gatherings of this kind
the unraveling of this problem in
mercantile finance, there are other
features of these transactions that
deserve consideration. In no one of
these sales which we. have quoted was
there any objection offered BY the
wife to the bill of sale which trans
ferred her from one owner to anoth>
er. In the North Carolina case MIR.
jenkins, when pressed by his neigh
bors for an explanation of his reasons
for selling, simply said that he was
about to go away and could not af-
ford to take his wife with him, and
that the money received for her
would enable MIN to get off in
good style. When Mr.. Glide
well was asked why he bought
Mrs. jenkins, he answered that he
was very tired of living alone, and
wanted a companion, and had no
objection to pay ing the price, though
1t is good deal OF money in North
Carolina. When Mrs. Jenkins was
asked to state how she felt about it,
that excellent woman replied that
she had cheerfully agreed to the
sale, and that she was perfectly
happy and contented in her new
home" which shows that her new
husband did not begrudge the
money he had invested, and that he
is likely to draw very handsome
dividends, while the other man may
fool his money away, and when it is
too late wish he hadn't sold, or go to
Maine and buy very inferior article
for SIS, and regret it all his life long
when he finds that he cannot find a
buyer for his new purchase, nor get
his old one back, except at a figure
which he cannot afford to give.
The ease with which these trans
actions are made, and the absence of
any opposition to it In society or by
the courts, are menace of danger
III these days of mutual dissatisfac-
ton, for, if we can believe Mr..
james, and Mr.. Howells, and Mrs.
Burnett, this dissatisfaction is very
prevalent, and great many persons
are seeking to dissolve partnership
because they are not congenial and
endeavoring to make new partner
ships with fresh affinities. The or
binary methods for comprising this
interchange are very cumbersome,
and involve an amount of neighbor,
hood gossip and Newspaper inter-
viewing which are appalling, and the
old conventional plan of divorce,
involves too much publicity to be
agreeable, but if it is once
understood that where both
parties are agreed the man can
sell his wife or swap wives with
third party, and that the transac>
ton is perfectly legitimate, and does
not involve any violation of the social
regulations, is there not danger that
a time may be fixed for the sale of
wives, not at public auction as serv,
ants were sold at Richmond Fair, but
by general sort of clearinghouse
operation on a fixed day of the year,
say the LIST of May, which would be
convenient time, as nearly every
one ayails himself of the opportunity
at that time to get another house, and
what more convenient than to go into
new house with new wifei The
New York Evening Post in discuss
ing this identical North Carolina
sale says: ''Collusive divorces for the
purpose of facilitating a second
marriage are not uncommon in many
parts of the country, and when they
are accompanied, as is sometimes the
case, by pecuniary compensation,
the transaction does not essen
TALLY differ from a simple pur-
chase in the open market,
like that of Mrs. Jenkins by Mr..
Glidewell." If the new method be
adopted, it will be seen that collusive
divorces will no longer be necessary,
or divorces of any sort. The trans
fer will be greatly simplifed, but at
the same time it involves a great in
justice. The purchase money should
go to the woman, and she should
have the right to fix her own value.
1t is not fair that she should be ex>
posed to the whims, caprices, or re-
venges of her original husband and
be thrown away for mere song. We
question whether it is fair that the
husband should have the power of
sale at all. The equities demand
that she herself control the transac-
ton and fix the price; still better,
that the article for sale in such cases
he the husband himca1f on6 that tho