The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-05-26
BROKEN BONDS.
The Great Divorce Market for
Dissatisfied People.
THEIR RUSH TO CHICAGO TOWN.

Let Them Hurry Up, for the Illinois
Judges Are Getting Tired OF Strangers
Caud Propose to Confne DEGREES to Citi-
gems OF Misunderstanding Divorces.
Especial Correspondence
CHICAGO, May s.-Envious onlookers may
deny Chicagos right to be considered an art
center or a seat Of culture and learning, but
they cannot gainsay her pre-eminence in the
matter of divorces This bustling and pro.
gressive city has gained almost as much repu-
tation by her divorces as by her conhagra-
tions and pork. Jokes and gibes concerning
Chicago divorces pass current everywhere.
"Chicago Ten minutes for divorced" shouts
the brakeman on the minstrel stage, and
thousands laugh. Why they should laugh I
cannot imagine, for there is no more serious
business than this one Of getting a divorce.
If you do not believe it, try it. But do not,
for your own sake, fall into the error, more
or less common throughout the country, of
believing that in Chicago divorces are given
for the asking, or sold as glasses Of beer or
boxes of bonbons and other delicacies and
necessities are sold in the shops. Divorce
hunting mortals have come here believing
they could procure divorce the day after
their arrival and in time to catch the evening
train for home 1t is not necessary to picture
their disappointment. While it is true that
Chicago, facile and foremost in all things,
does carry on the divorce business with some
thing like neatness and dispatch, it is also
true that there are certain forms to be OBJ
served here as elsewhere, certain convention
alities and amenities which must be respected
Chicago is not as bad as she is painted in
the divorce line, nor in any other for that
matter and just now our courts are making
an effort to exercise little more dignity and
circumspection in their divorce proceedings,
such as closing their doors against the Satur-
day crowds, which have long made divorce
day" a carnival, or, as we say in the wild
west, picnic of sin, sorrow and scandal
People who do not live in Chicago, but who
have been making ready to come here for a
season for certain purpose, will be inter-
ested in knowing that the courts are also
making an effort to discriminate against and
entirely circumvent the numerous matri-
monial squatters who pre-empt brief and
feeting Chicago residence with the sole idea
Of taking advantage of the lax divorce laws
of Illinois
Still, even including the imported cases,
Chicago's divorce record compares favorably
with that of Puritan New England Here
one divorce is granted to sixteen marriages.
This is bad enough, heaven knows. But even
this proportion Is not so great as that in Con-
necticut, where one marriage out of eight
ends in divorce, nor SO discouraging as that
in Rhode Island where two weddings out of
seventeen have divorce sequel, nor yet so
agreeable to the lawyers as the showing
made by the farmers of Vermont, among
whom there is divorce in every dozen mar
riages. Even Massachusetts is more fond of
divorce than Illinois, the average there be-
ing one dissolution for every fifteen con-
tracts.
As in every state of the Union, as we'll O.
in every civilized country where divorce is
recognized at ALL disobedience of the Sew
enth commandment is in Illinois sufficient
cause for divorce absolute. Other causes in
this state are desertion for q period exceed
ing two years, extreme and repeated cruelty,
habitual drunkenness, bigamy and felony.
But these are not the most lax laws to be
found in this country. In Indiana, Connec-
ticut and some other states non-support is a
good ground, while in some Others so slight
and common misfortune as incompatibilty
of temper will suffice. In New York and one
or two of the New England states adultery is
the sole cause for which absolute divorce is
granted and in those states DEGREES are ex-
ceedingly rare.
A great source of trouble in Illinois is that
while the law requires complainant to have
been for at least one year an actual resident
of the state, it does not compel the Offering
of proof of such residence. And when, as is
generally the case with these imported suits,
no defendant appears in court, and conse-
quently there is no one to dispute the claim
Of legal residence, the applicant stands very
good chance. True, the judge sometimes
has his suspicious aroused, and is inclined to
ask pertinent questions for his own satisfac-
ton, but if the eager seeker for relief from
matrimonial woe is willing to commit per-
jury-and he generally is-the court is COM
PEELED to believe the story and hear the evil
dence.
The weakest point in the Illinois law is
that it does not require personal service
of any process upon the defendant.
Suppose New Yorker, or Califor-
MAN, or a resident Of any other state,
wants to get rid of his wife. He sends her to
her relatives on visit and himself takes
the train to Chicago Going into court there,
he makes affidavit that he has been resident
of the state for one year; that his wife is
nonresident, and that her whereabouts is to
him unknown. The court grants him per-
mission to give notice to the defendant that
suit for divorce has been commenced
against her "by publication in any news
paper of general circulation" once a week
for four weeks. This advertisement is Of
course printed in the most obscure newspaper
that can be found, where the chances are ten
to one against the wife ever seeing or hear
ing of it. Then the husband comes into
court with his affidavit OF publication, no
defendant appears, the cooked up and per-
haps largely false evidence is presented, and
decree quickly follows. Scores of divorces
have been put through these courts in this
shameless manner, and though the judges
are now more suspicious and e1acting, fraud
ulent cases are still occasionally rushed
through. But few weeks ago woman
came here from New York on hearing that
her husband had secured divorce while she
was visiting her mother. She was dunn
founded, for her husband had always ap-
peared to be satisfied with her, and their
relations had been so far as she knew, most