St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-11-01
Newspaper Sensationalism
Anent the Dakota Divorce
Mill Denounced.
Eva Lyneh-Blosse, the Girl
Wife Of g Brutal Irish
Lieutenant.
Pitiful Story Of the Marital
Life of a Brave Young
English Woman.
Mrs. James G. Blaine JP. and
Other Prominent Appli-
cants for Divorce.

Some Noted COlOnistS" IS the title of an
interesting article by James Realf Jr.,
in the November issue of the Arena.
Mr.. Realf writes: 1.-The thriving city
of Sioux Falls, s. d., has recently been
pitchforked into unjust notoriety by
certain irresponsible correspondents Of
certain sensational and habitually in
veraciouS newspapers that infest
New York and Chicago. 1t has been
represented as having an easy divorce
mill that constantly grindS out divorces
of more or less bogus nature. This is
fundamentally false. The laws of South
Dakota are liberal, but they are strictly
interpreted. These INSCRIPTIONS news
papers. whom it is unnecessary to name,
have gone still further in their dIstor-
ton of the truth, dissemination of error,
and attempted degradation of the high
and noble calling of Journalism. They
have made
False and GnVyarFanted Statements
about the laws Of the DakOtas and of
the United States generally on the sub
ject of divorce. NCriS this all in their
race for temporary and unsubstantial
circulatiOn-they lave maligned GER
tain unfortunate aid meritorioUS WOm-
en- and men. and added insult to iniu-
ry by publishing bogus portraits
OF beautiful ladies whose miSfort-
uncS should have provoked re-
spectful sympathy rather than
coarse insinuatiOn and vulgar ridicule
Because these women were prominent
in what has been termed the divorce
colony of Sioux Falls, either from social
rank in their former spheres, or 10y
reason of the legal peculiarities enmesh-
ing their cases, they are legitimate sub
Jects for honest journalistic treatment,
and some of them, triumphing over the
naturaI Shrinkingness of their sex, for
the sake Of truth and for the sake OF
other women who may need examples
and indictments 20 achieve freedom
from dishonorlng marriages, are per-
fectly willing to sacrifice their own
personal desires for Obscurity and have
their lives and their cases properly pre-
sented The case of greatest interest.
perhaps. because it has
Transatlantic NotOriety,
is that of Eva Lylyan Lynch Blcsse. an
English lady, who came to Sioux Falls
early last winter, and attracted almost
instantly the respectful attention Of the
citizens. Not because she was strik-
lngly beautiful woman, for student of
statues might find some faults III
her features, but because out of
the shy. violet eyes high. indOmi-
table spirit occasionally cleaned. and a
stray flash from them, combined with
her Radiant freshness Of complexion
and perfect grace of figure and OF car
riagc, would light up the common. sOr-
did streets of the common masculine
mind and turn them, for the nonce, into
ViStaS Of Imagination.
Some persons. passing US, inspire the
thought: There goes a being with Il
strange life-hStory, or full Of great ca
pacities, moral or mental. Such was,
undoubtedly. the chief component
of her charm, felt equally by the
grave and learned lawyer, eX-
case, and by the street-loungeIs
who respectfully fastened to make
way for her passage. 1t was the high
character that radiated from her, ScOrn-
ing the cOnventiOnalities that conspire
TO belittle her sex, determined to be
free and nOtafraid of being pioneer in
BATTLING the Barbarian
of her native laws. A singular story
hers, that demands to be told in full.
since it is full of inspiration to oppressed
womanhood everywhere. The daughter
of all English clergyman. she married
at seventeen Lieut.. Edward Falconer
Lynch-BlOsse, an Irishman of good
family, but bad habits. In a few months
this girl-Wife discovered not only that
she had mistaken for affection what was
merely the gratfied vanity of board
ing-schOol miss when wOOed by a good
looking uniform, but that there was all
SOlutely nothing in the nature of the
q II m Io1,
spect could be built. Active bru-
tally was soon begun by the lieuten-
ant. Simple adultery not being a suf-
ficient amusement for his hours of ease,
he tried to compel his refined and deli
cate wife to receive his paid paramours
as her associates; and on her demur-
ring, he became mad with Indignation,
and proceeded to discipline her, accord
ing 10 the EnglishmaD's tme-honored
right of violence. AS a minor but very
embarrassing matter to a sensitive
woman, he plunged into debt, and
forced her to contend with and pacify
his duns out of her private fortune,
and even worried her into an attempt to
raise money for him by pledgng her
annuity, though. luckily,
No Jew in London
was pluckv enough to take long risk
on the life of the wife of so brutal
husband. This daily inferno of disgust
and terror the woman endured for three
years, for the barbarous English law re-
QuireS the woman. not the man, to
prove extreme cruelty besides adultery:
and cruelty is often not so easy to prove,
for EngliShmen, as a rnle, do not beat
their wives on the hOusetops. 1t
is generally strictly boudoir
performance, with locked doors
and the rabble excluded. as
BELTS the solemnity of such a marital
right. AT last, owing to the lieutenant
culpable carelessness in castigatlon, she
was able to go to court with plenty
of prOvable cruelty. But here again the
barbarous English law stepped in and
Said: This Is all very true, but wait
bit. You shall have a decree nisI."
which meant that she must wait six
months and then certain musty, over
paid. and underworked humbug, styled
the queens proctor. after hobnob6ing
with an attorney general, would, if his
dinner agreed with him, confirm the de-
cree and make 1t final. During this sus-
penSe the lnetfably mean uniform that
had been maSQuerading as man was Wis
tied by an idea and wrote letter to Mrs.
Lynch-Blosse depicting himself as on
the brink of starvation and consump-
ton, and begging for some money. The
woman'S pity was aroused. She had
once fancied for brief while, with the
undevelOped heart of girlhood, that she
liked this empty,
'Cinkling Symbol of IL Man.
She wrote him kind letter Enclosing
the money. 1t takes but little magma
ton to understand what such a creature
would do with the cash; that he would
hasten to celebrate the success of his
cunning by revel at which he could
brag TO some loose companion
how neatly he had cheated
a generous and noble woman
But he did something more, almost in
conceivable in its baseness: he took
that letter to the queens proctor, and
showed it to that archive of centuried
insapience as proof that there had
been collision in the case, that his wife
and he we're really on good terms, and
that he was anxious to regain her. The
" liz