Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-30

tween the hours Of eight in the forenoon
/ and three in the afternoon. With such
laws as these there is almost no chance
! indeed there is none for a claudestine
marriage. How is it here2 In most of the
! United States there is no authority of mar
rage by the publication of banns Thai
passed away with the colonial system.
Marriage in nearly all of the states Il De-
lieve in all, save South CarOlina) is by Ii
cense. This is well enough if care were
taken to insure its. publicity. Nothing of
the sort is done, however. Speaking r
The state of Texas chiefly now: Nothing
enters into the license as descriptive of the
parties except their names: 10 place OF res
idence, no age, 40 names of parents, or any
thing of the kind. Nor uoeS the license
specify, as in some of the European cOun-
tries, that the marriage must occur in day
light, between ain hours in the fore
noon and afternoon. But on the contrary
the parties are allowed TO unite at what
ever time that suits their own sweet Will,
even if that be in the dead hours of the
night and in the deepest darkness. The
law does not require any delay before mar
riage. Armed with the license, the parties
may marry in one minute after it is issued,
even though they may not have known each
other for an hour, and the
agent of the state may never
have heard of them before, and Knows not
where they came from Or intend going.
Worse still, in many instances, the clerk,
instead of posting the license in a book
open to the inspection of The public at all
reasonable times,'' as they do in England,
consents to withhold it from record Tor
awhile, that no knowledge of The marriage,
may leak out to the public. Thus ii app5sr5
that if our law makers had sought 10 have
clan iestine and uncartaln marriages, they
could scarcely have devised better scheme
u
required between the issuing oEthe license.
and the marriage, no publication of tbe
fact, that objections If any may be brought
forward, no witnesses required dxceptE tlre
officiating clergyman or magistrateSe aasade,e
scription of the parties save their names,
no hour prescribed in which the marriage
must occur, nor place where it shall occur
designated, its legality not being affected if
it takes place at midnight, in the darA, on
the highway, or on the prairie.
One of the benefits which publicity in
marital matters secures Is the protection
thus offered to the parents or guardians Of
the parties. Parental consent TO marriage
as long as the persons marrying are undeE
age, ought to be an indispensable prereIui-
site. As is well known, there are many
marriages in this country without the con-
sent of the parents, and that, too, in spite
OF the fact that the law prohibits the clerk
from issuing license to parties under age
where there is objection on the part of the
Parents. But such law amounts TO but
little when it does not have the aid of Just
penalty for false swearing in these matters.
The result is that in NEST instances the
marriage has occurred before the parents
have any idea of the application forlicense.
Now. if the law would require delay Of a
few days or weeks between the issuing of
the license and the celebration Of the may
rlage, and should require that the issue of
the license be made public in some way,
with the additional statement that parental
objection any time before the celebration of
marriage would render the license uuga-
tory, there would be very few marriages in
this country against the will of the parents
4 grave defect in the statutes of Texas
(and 1t exists in nearly all of the sta,eS), is
that they do not prescribe more carefully to
whom license to marry shall be issued. Fer
example, parties seeking marriage license
are not required to be citizens of the county
where it is issued, nor even of the state ofs
Texas. A man may live in one portion CT
the state, the woman of his choice in an
other portion, hundreds of miles away, and
they may meet by stealth and eiope to still
another part of this great commonwealth,
where they We're never heard of before
and there procure license and be married
More than that, they may come from an
other state into this, or go from this into
h--ObAiOA' duu plOluLc dui IldTIl III
state where the husband would not be al
lowed to vote for lack of citizenship. A case
IN point was reported in the papers few
days ago.
Parties living in Southern Alabama ran
away and went to Montgomery and applied
for license to marry They could not make
satisfactory showing to the Officer and the
license was refused. Nothing daunted,
they boarded the train and went 100 miles
further, to the nearest Georgia city, and in
less than enc hour after landing on the soil
OF that state they had procured license and
were husband and wife. The same thing
can occur here any day in the year. This
Is fagrant evil that demands immediate
correction. Il is so manifest violation of
every legitimate right of citizenship, and
the Just rights of the state, that we can only
wonder at its being allowed TO continue so
long. The issuing of the license ought to
be confined to the county in which the
woman lives, and If the man resides in an
other county there snould be public notice
III that county also.
Another matter that needs the attention
OF our legislators is the prescribing of a
special penalty for forgery of parental con-
sent, or for perjury or false swearing upon
the part OF those applying for license. Ii
VIII not Go to say that the general law1i
against perjury and forgery is sufficient.
\ OF so, for marriage being both civil CON
Tract and divine institution, should be
taken out of the category of ordinary mat
ters, and special penalties prescribed for
fraud in its consummation. Everything
about marriage law should be definite ane
simple, so that those who would practice
fraud may be deferred therefrom. !
Another matter that should be looked
into and remedied is this: All ''regular.y
ordaiaed" clereymen are allowed to ceIe-
brate marriage. That is, they arc declared
10 be authorized agents of the state for that