St. Paul daily globe., 1891-09-07
SAINT PAUL.
THE VEIL CAST ASIDE,
And Divorce Cases VIII Be AS
Public as Other Actions.


Among the rules adopted by the district
Judges at a meeting held by them during the
past week was one which has evoked the
pointed, varied and profuse discussion of the
snembers of the local bar. The rule which
Is alike interesting to the laity, is one which
declares that divorce suits will not hereafter
he heard or determined at the special term.
The special term being a weekly session nt
which divorce cases have heretofore been
tried. it was term OF the court
which was avaiied for the purposes of jul
Glcial breakRways which, the GLOBE has al
ways thought would sooner or later CRATE
upon the discretion Of the district bench.
The terms from which divorce cases are now
excluded are held each Saturday throughout
The nine calendar months of the courts sit
Nng. The business before it on these days
being OF purely technical and legal nature.
The court room held no attraction for the
public which usually infested It's aisles and
galleries during the proceedings at general
term. Divorce suits were virtually tried IN
court rooms and chambers, wherein, on such
occasions, the public rarely entered its gaze.
II was quite an attractive affair to the princi-
pals III divorce suit of greater or lesser SEN
Sational features 10 have the domestic
hiatus adjudlcated under the pail of this Sat
uTday afternoon seclusion. The judges
old not favor the practice which was
apparently encouraging the interdomestic
Allegation. Each Saturdays calendar was en-
numbered with from six TO ten divorce cases.
were brought into court TO an extent alto
gether startling 10 the mind of jurist ana
lawyer alike. Under the state law the aban-
uoned wife of all abscOndlng husband could
begin her suit OH the first day OF september
and by default on the part of defendant upon
whom service was had by Il siXweeks pub
lication in a county newspaper. the plaintiff
could have her case heard, determined, and
decree entered in seven weeks from the day
of the first publication of her summons.
" hile the defendant may have never heard
of the case until long after he had been
legally ousted from the conjugal realm, the
proceedings under the old practice were so
regular, so serene and so easily suppressed or
moderated in their humiliating features,
that the public, as well as defendant,
was seldom apprlsed of the. full account
OF divorce proceeding. The possibility OF
ripping apart the misfit marriage so easily.
so abruptly and so peaeeably, was certainly
not deterrent in its influence or very whole
some to a fair sense of either mora, state or
domestic law. The new rule is imperative.
and buttTessed by the unanimous spirit and
concurrence of the entire bench. The bar.
however. is disconnected in its opinion of
the practicabilty of the new rule. Some of
its members fear that divorce suits in Ram
sey county will be no less in number or no
cleaner in detail or no more miugated in
their causes than before, and that the edict
which places them on the general term cal
endar will only aggravate the tedium of other
civil trials. The concensus of opinion, how
ever. approves the new rule as q wise dis
cretion on the part of the bench, and IL is
hoped that its value may be measured by
fewer domestic contentious ana less court
room shaking of polluted family pillows.
Hereafter there will be the most open trial
of divorce cases in Ramsey county, and the
fairest possible publicity will attend the bat
tie scenes of belligerant husband and wife.
A good rule, progressive in its conception
and enforcement and in the interest of pub
lie and private policy.