Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-12-14

scciate openly and at all times with i'm
nroper characters. II he does not beat
or kick his wife he is practically secure
as her husband with husbands CON-
prehensive claim to her property. In
one prominent instance the daughter Of
n wealthy resident of New York who
married a cheap scion of Anglo-Irish no
bilitv had the very furniture of her house
seized in London for her husbands
debts. and she and her babes turned ont
on the streets through his most reckless
dissipation and extravaganza. Yet
British courts would have given her no
relief and she had to seek in her native
land tie divorce 10 which she was more
than entitled.
RANK SOCIAL LIFE.
Much Of the laxity in upper English
society is probably due to the existing
law Of divorce, and especially the re-
dGirament that the wife must prove the
husband to be an ulmanly villain before
she can receive her freedom. The aver
age Englishman of decent training OBJ
lects as much as the American to being
Otlil DD btlOlt VIC hOIlh 10 n DlOIlHifI WHO
mauls women, and many a couple are kept
in reluctant bonds because the husband
will not do his wife the favor Of being
cruel, although in other respects he
may richly merit the penalty of divorce.
Ii is yell known in London society that
n leading Duke has not spoken to his
wife, Of no less gittering lineage, in fif-
-. Ia pfntatna ol1,nh-
ment at the West End, with a house
keeper, who in grace and manners does
credit to his household, but who, for OBJ
vious reasons. never goes into the Dukes
social set. She has twice accompanied
him on yachting tour to the West In
dies, and once they visited New York, but
in very quiet way. The Duke would pro-
badly marry her If he could. Butin man
SION about five squares away resides his
lawful wife. The Duchess is not averse
to obtaining the divorce provided she
herself is not to be besmirched in the pro-
cess. But divorce they cannot get. for
the Duke has not been cruel to his wife
in the legal sense, and a separation they
already have by mutual understanding.
If the Duchess could get divorce she
would probably become the wife OF q
Marquis well known in politics, who is
frequent visitor at her home. Such is
the situation, not alone in this family,
but doubtless in many others less DIS
tinguished, and such connections can
not be wholesome IN their influence upon
society.
WILKINS AND DINAH.
The lower orders of English very sell
dom resort to the divorce court. Con-
trary to the rule among the aristocracy,
infdelity is much less frequent than
cruelty in the homes OF the English
poor. Brutality, az the police records
show, is very common, and the spectacle
of battered and bruised wives is rs IA
miliar as it is saddening in certain dis
tricts of London. But the English law
affords no relief in such cases except to
consign the husband, when complaint is
made, to the treadmill. Divorce in
is the luxury of the up
per orders, and not dealt out |
lavshly to them. There has been /
one amusing exception to this rule that |
at the time excited a good deal of fun. |
Ii was the case of Walter Stort, the hus- |
band of a stalwart fishwife at Billings |
gate market. Mrs Stort, who is as |
broad and strong az her husband is a |
was in the habit of admins
tering physical chastisement to him on |
the slightest proyocation. She assisted |
him, or rather he assisted her, at their |
stall in Billingsgate, and many a
time, above the din of that fragrant |
centre OF London smells, rose the
shrill cries of poor Walter as he trem-
bled like q rabbit in the strong grasp OF
his wife. Things eliminated when one
lay Mrs. Stort nearly shook the life out
Of her better half and tossed him, limp |
and gaspinR, into big basket of found
9rs. When Walter recovered he found |
MS way home. His wife, who had
streak of goodness somewhere in her
nursed him back TO health.
But he made up his mind to separate.
10 prosecute her criminally would hurt
he fish business, in which she was an
expert. Stort sued for sepa-
.ation on the ground OF cruelty.
When his wife received the notice
The was in towering rage. She pro-
,eeded to look for her husband, and
Meeting him on the street near the mar
let, she compelled him TO begin eating
he notice. He had actually consumed
bout half the paper when police con-
table, attracted by the crowd, inter
cred. Stort got desperation and Mrs.
Stort continues the fish business, share
If the proceeds going to her husbands
1t was altogether one of the
most amusing cases ever heard in an
English court.