Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-07-17
MEsr NIRGINIA JUSTICE.

4 Inc tcduClN VI INC
call the account published a few days
ago, of the trial Of mock marriage
case in Richie county, in which two
scoundrels were sentenced to fine and
impris onment for the ruin of young
girl.
The facts in the case are, briefly, thai
two brothers entered into an arrange
meut by which the younger one per-
suaded a girl TO marry him, and the
elder disg used himselfas a clergyman,
and performed a mock ceremony. The
girl went with her supposed husband to
live in a wild and isolated part Of the
county where she had no friends, and
as soOn as the brute became tired of her
b returned her off with the explanation
that she was not legally married to
him.
Her father secured the arrest, indict-
I ment, trial and conviction of the vii
lains, and the mock minister was fined
| $500, while the nsier one was sent to
peuitentiay- for three years.
This is a novel case, but not a novel
occurrence. 1t is an almost every day
happening that by some informal and
illegal method an unsuspecting girl is
entrapped into a supposed marriage to
a villain, with the deliberate purpose on
his part of repudiating the marriage
oTHo. bo hoe oanp,Dlicba biS purnnsa
r~;r,uo. hut a 5er Of her money or her
is the first case hat probably any one
will recall where the deceiver has been
visited with the penalty of the law.
And it is a credit to our West Virginia
courts that such a precedent has been
made, which may prove a salutary
warming to offenders OF this character
within the State, and Il precedent that
might we'll be followed in other States.
The solemn ceremony OF the mar
rage covenant has been made as SIM
pie as the law could make it in order
that there might be no unnecessary OBJ
stacle in the way Of those who, in good
faith, seek to enter such a relationship.
The law contemplates simply that the
parties shall voluntarily and knowingly
consent to become man and wife.
When such consent is formally given
they are so recognized by the law, al
though the prescribed forms mayssnot
have been strictly complied with. TIE
certificate Of On officer authorized to
solemnize q marriage is really not es-
Sential il the man and woman have so
far "a they knew, complied with the
law and declared their willingness to
become husband and wife. The intent
of the parties is the gist of the matter
and corrects any irregularities on the
part of the official. A man and woman
who have cohabited together as hus-
band and wife in good faith will be rec
ognized as such by the courts although
there may be no conclusive proof of the
act of their marriage.
The very simplicity of the require
ments of the law opens the way to the
designing scoundrel who seeks to take
advantage Of a c%Onfiding girl. 1t is
done every day, but when the brute de-
Serts his victim it is seldom he is pur-
sued by the law, or that any penalty Is
imposed when he is in reach. Yet the
disgrace and injury to the woman are
unreasonable and irreparable. 1t is
the meanest form of seduction. 1t is
deserving o: the most severe penalty Of
the law. The victim is deluded into
cOnsenting to her ruin by prostituting
the most sole mn of all human Obligs.
tons. She may be, and in most cases
is, perfectly virtuous. She has violated
no law of God or man on her own part.
! She intends and does become, so far as
her own purposes and conscience is con-
cerned, the confiding wife of a trusted
husband, and the law would recognize
her as such if she continued 10 live with
the man who has e%ntrapped her. But
the man who thus deceives her has not
| only blasted her life but accomplished
it through the deliberate violation Of
one Of the most sacred laws Of society.
| He ought to be hung. We are glad that
West Virginia justice is not blind to the
enormity of such a case. Three years
in the penitentiary is better than moth
ing, but it stops Gar short of an adequate
penalty.