The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-09-04

book, which containes some curiou:
and novel facts relating to the subject
One OF the questions especially asked
was as to the age at which marriage
can be contracted. 1t seems that in
Austria the ability to marry commences
with the fourteenth year, but up to the
age of twenty-four the consent o.
father or guardian has 10 be obtained
In Russia the bridegroom may not be
younger than eighteen, nor the bride
younger than sixteen. Persons over
eighty are prohibited from marrying
az all, while no person is permitted &c
contract fourth marriage. The
farther north we go the later becomes
the manageable age, TIL in Sweden
and Norway the law is that man can
not wed until he is twenty-one, nor q
woman till she is eighteen. In America
very curious differences exist in differ
emit states. 1T is extremely difficult tC
give even an outline of the marriage
laws prevailing in this country" re-
marks our representative, as there are
forty-seven sovereign states, each
claiming exclusive control over the
matter Of the marriage of its citizens
Hence it comes that in Montana and
Washington twenty-one is the earliest
marrying age for man and eighteen
for a woman, while in New Jersey OF
Connecticut the ages are respectively
fourteen and twelve. All that school
boy in Washington, therefore, has 70
do in order to wed a schoolgirl friend
is to induce her TO lay her skipping
rope aside for time and fly with him
over the border into more complai-
SAINT state.
In the matter of charges and fees
there is delightful lack of unanimity
among civilized nations. In Sweden
and Norway, for example, time and
place are quite optional. weddings in
churches being acceptable, and you
are not bound to give the officiating
clergyman any fee whatever. In
Switzerland the only fee is one to cover
expense OF publication of notice of
marriage in a local newspaper and
registration, and you can be married
at any hour you please. In Greece a
bishops license costs three drachmas.
or half crown, and the registration
five drachmas. In Belgium they make
a little charge for marriage pam
phlet" presented to the parties, and for
stamps, but even these are dispensed
with if the parties make declaration
of poverty.
On the subject Of the grounds of di-
vorce very great divergences occur be-
tween the laws of different nations.
In France, 10 call wife "canaille" be-
fore her children justiies decree of
divorce, as also does wife's refusal
to obey her husband when it is a ques-
ton of a theatrical engagement" A
husband can also be divorced for i'll
treating his mother-in-law or his step
children. In spite of the proverb about
the advantages of commencing matri-
mony with a little aversion, it is the
law in Germany that ''insupera BILE
aversion" may become a ground of di-
vorce if both parties consent and there
are no children. Roumania distin-
guishes itself by an enactment that a
divorce can be Or onounced If the trfbu-
nails are salts fed that existence in
common is impossible" In Massa-
chusetts and Mississippi ''the habitual
use of opium or+1ike drug" is held a
sufficient excuse for untying the mar
ria,ge knot; and in some states. as We st
Virginia, marriage will be annulled If
one OF the parties is a negro and the
other white person. AS TO the cost Of
divorce, the cheapest and simplest
kind in the states costs about one hun
bred dollars; in Germany it varies from
seven pounds and ten shillings up to
forty-five pounds. In Russia, consisto-
rial courts pronounce in divorce cases,
and the expense is great. SaXony's
modest figure is from two pounds and
ten shillings up to five pounds
There are other remarkable regula-
tions disclosed in the reports furnished
to our government. Thus, in Portugal,
lit is The duty of a married woman 10
accompany her husband everywhere,
except to a foreign country" and in
France the civil code has the same law
without the exception. A Portuguese
married woman also may not publish
her literary works without her hus-
bands consent" Parties divorced may
not remarry in Roumania. In Italy
there is no divorce at all, marriage be-
ing annulled only by the death of one
of the parties; while in America the
only state that has similar law is
South Carolina.