The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1893-03-09
Necessity for Revision and Uniformity of
the Divorce Laws.

the Divorce Laws.
In this world of imperfection and
error of which we form part, there eX
list certain necessary and Indispensable
evils-that is, certain institutions or
organized agencies for the dlminutiOn,
mitigation or eradication of such ele-
ments in human nature or character
which bring suffering, disease or death
on the community at large. Where
such evils exist, and there is but one al
tentative offered us which is alsoto GER
tain extent defective, and productive of
suffering to innocent parties, common
sense demands that we choose the least
injurious of the two-or that which is
the most capable of improvement or
development in the right direction.
Chief among the necessary evils existing
in the present age we find poor farms,
prisons, insane asylums and divorce
laws. Some persons may object to this
enumeration as irrelevant and inapprO-
priate,~but experience teaches us that,
so far as cause and effect is concerned,
they are more or less correlated and con-
tingent the one upon the other, and that
they are the natural and inevitable prod
uct of our daily modern life, as portray
ed in all large cities and towns in civil
lied communities.
Before we take up the question refer
red to IN the caption above, the writer
would remark that in putting forth his
view on Marriage and Divorce, he is by
no means referring to his own personal
experience, as the basis of his argument,
but simply recording his observations
and Investigations during half century
of public life. Having himself partici-
pated, for more than forty years, in the
responsibilities and viciSSitudeS. the
joys and sorrows of married life, he may
be presumed to have somewhat of a
practical experience of the matter OF
which he speaks. So far as his own eX-
perience is concerned, they were the
happiest and most prosperous years OF
his life, and his most ardent wish for his
Benedict readers is that they might
have been equally fortunate in the
choice of their life partners.
The present anomalous and chaotic
condition of the laws regulating mar
riage and divorce in the American Re-
public are especially calamitOus in their
results and demOralizing in their intlu-
ence as regards the domestic happiness,
social purity, moral status and intellect
ual and general advancement of the
community at large. There are no two
out of the fourty four States in which
the marriage and divorce laws are ex-
actly alike. Each State makes it's own
regulations. and they differ so widely in
scope and Interpretation, that what is
considered equivalent to marriage in
one State is simply cOncubinage or un-
licensed cohabitation in another; and,
while the seeker after divorce is, in one
State, limited to adultery as the only ef-
fective plea-in other States, he may have
the choice of some twelve or fourteen
causes Oh which to plead for divorce
and, in some few States, he need not as
sign any cause whatever, the decree be-
ing granted and the case adjudged by
prOIy, and the presence or evidence OF
the parties to the suit not being cOnsid-
cred an absolute necessity. Thus, vir-
tually, the marriage-tie is made mis-
cradle farce, and the divorce court a
means for legalized prostitution. The
! Y,oOct iponorofivo mood of tho 9ua there