The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-12-31
NOVEL CAUSES FOR DIVORCE.
From the PhiladelD6ia Record.

From the Philadelphia Record.
The causes upon which divorce is
sought nowadays are sometimes of a
very trivial yet humorous character. OF
course, out in Chicago-that is, unless
that city has been grossly libelled-there
Is no need to draw on a lawyers III
genuIty In order that pretext may be
devised on which the matrimonial bonds
may be severed. To use a slang phrase,
everything goes" there; and it is only
IN the benighted districts outside of Cook
county that divorce petitions must set
forth list of strong facts and argu-
ments before they can expect TO meet
with judicial favor.
a petition for divorce filed recently by
husband in court in the new state of
Washington has some features about it
so original, and involves such delicate
and unsettled points as to the scope and
character of wifelv duties, that its dis
position by the bench or the jury is
likely to form a favorite prece.
dent. In his petition the COM
pialnant makes the charge that
his wife had refused to poul-
tlce a carbuncle which had attached it
self to his back at a point which he him
ward on downward movement. The
malice which could inspire a woman to
sit calmly IN rocking chair and read
the dry goods advertisements in the
morning paper while a tortured man
was twisting himself into positions never
attempted even by a professional con-
tortlonlst must certainly appeal strongly
to the Judicial mind in an action for d.
vorce.
Yet it may be claimed that with more
liberal ideas as to the true social position
OF women there has come for her an
emancipation from many mental offices
which she was once compelled to fill,
ond that even if she has promised to be
help-meet to her husband, this does not
imply that she must be his doctor and
trained nurse. Besides this, in all mat
rlmonial transactions the principle of
reciprocity should never be lost sight of /;
and no person will ever venture to say
that the best of husbands would take
kindly to the suggestion that he should
mix and apply poultIce to his wife's
carbuncle.
But, above and beyond all this, the
element of danger in the task which the
wowan IN question refused to perform is
likely to make up her chief ground Of
defense in the suit brought against her.
The wife who may be compelled to asso-
ciate for even one day with a husband
who possesses a boil will be apt to think
that the fact that Jobs wife survived her
troubles was one of the greatest miracles
recorded in Scripture. 1t may be true
that ''the bravest are the tenderest, the
loving are the daring" but even the
most loving and devoted wife would in
stinctively shrink from the performance
of an act the execution of which would
be certain to lead to stormy scene to
which the uproar that attends the loss of
a collar button would have been as is
zephyr to cyclone. There is one way,
however, in which this Washington
woman could retaliate. When her hus-
band shall have lost his suit, as he I'M
1oubtedly will, let her quietly go on
saving wood" Then, whenever ne
may wish to have porous plaster taken
from his back, let her make amends for
her former cruelty by removing it. Yer
ly, she will have her revenge.