Morning journal and courier., 1884-04-17
SINGLE COPIES TWO CENTS.
Thursday, April Il, 1884.
our DIVORCE ..sYsTERl-.,

/
The condition of the divorce laws of this
country has lately received good deal OF
attention and ought to receive good deal
more. A worse hodge-podge is hardly inn
RginabIe. Under these laws the relations OF
| men and women can be SO mixed up that
even Philadelphia lawyer could not
straighten them ont And they open the
door to a great deal of indecency and fraud.
Judge Noah Davis has just delivered an
address upon the subject of Marriage and
Divorce" in the course of which he declared
that it would be better if there was no pos
sibility of divorce than to continue the pres
ent system. He illustrated the shocking
features of the present system, or lack of
system, as follows: A man is married in
New York, where he has resided for years
and has family and is the owner of real
and other estate. He desires a divorce and
goes to Indiana, where that thing is cheap
and easy. Upon complying with soma
LEGAL rule and with no actual notice
to his wife, he gets a decree 3
divorce and presently is married in
that State to another wife, who brings him
other children. He again acquires new es-
tates, but firing of his second wife hs deserts
her and goes to California, where in a brief
space he is again divorced and then marries
again, starting new family and acquiring
new real and personal estates. In few years
his tickle tastes change again and he returns
to New York, where he finds that his first
wife has obtained valid divorce for his
adulterous marriage in Indiana, which sets
her free and forbids his marrying again
during her lifetime; he then slips
into Connecticut, takes residence
and acquires real property there and
gets judicially freed from his California
bonds. He returns hither, takes some new
affinity, crosses the New Jersey line, and in
an hour is back in New York, enjoying SO
much of his estate as the courts have not
adjudged to his first wife, and gives new
children to the world. At length his Master
takes him; he dies intestate. Now what is
the legal status and condition of the various
citizens he has given TO our common coun.
try? The first wife's children are legiti~
mate, and heirs to his estate The Indiana
wife's children are legitimate there and in
New York, that marriage having taken place
but illegitimate in Indiana and elsewhere,
while the second crop of New Yorkers are
legitimate in Connecticut and New York, iIle-
gitimate in Indiana and California. There is
real and personal property in each CT these
States, there are four widows, each entitled
to dover somewhere and to some extent, and
large number of innocent children whose
legitimacy and property are in question.
AS remedy for this condition of things
Judge Davis urged that national divorce
law be made. He would have the law of
procedure in actions for divorce changed SO
that no judgment ceuld be entered until it
appeared clearly that the suit had been ao-
tnalIy pending at least six months after ser
vice of the process; this not only to prevent
fraud. but to give the parties breathing
spell for possible reconciliation and to- pre-
vent immediate remarriage; second, in all
cases the defendant should have the
right to insist that the alleged para
mour be brought in and made
party to the action, so that an unjust ac-
cusation could be met and confuted by both
of the accused, who are interested in main
tanning innocence, and third, and above all,
inasmuch as society is deeply interested
in all such actions, the State should be made
a party, SO that it might be able to prevent
the wrongs inflicted on the public and upon
innocent persons and no judgment should be
allowed, until it should appear that some
lawful representative had been served with
process and had opportunity to appear and
resist the divorce.
Judge Davis presentation of the matter is
able and forcible. Our divorce laws. make it
possible for even the Mormons to reproach
rs. There is, we are glad to be able to say,
some evidence that good people are waking
up to the real condition of affairs in this re-
spect. Il is high time for reform.