The morning times., 1895-07-15
MiSmated People Have an Easy
Way Out of Trouble.
FREEDOM IN FOUR MONTHS
Bureau Started in This City for Ship
ping DISCONTINUED and Unhappy,
Better or Worse Halves to the
West, Where the Knot Is Expedi-
tiously United.


a lawyers office on G street late on Sat
urday afternoon. She was a woman with
a history and a skye terrier. She had Just
been one Of an interested and interesting
party in a conference with an attorney,
the object of which was to divide her and
husband Of only two years trialand tribu-
lation.
While this lady is not one Of the stars Of
the first magnitude in swelldom. yet peo-
pie who live in that circle envy her the dog
and diamonds. Are the diamonds the gift
of her husband? No, and thereby hangs a
tale. The male party in the case is justuow
taking his meals at a club and sleeps in
private apartments in the suburbs. The
lady and the tiger terrier live ip the old
family house in the suburbs.
A Times reporter made bold, with pre-
vious knowledge of the case, TO address
her.
~'You are Mrs CO"
"I am; but l beg pardon, how are you
interested in the fact?''
Because you have just come out of the
Oklahoma Divorce Bureau"
SHE CONFESSED AT LAST.
THAT is not true sir.
"Well, you and your pretty Swiss maid.
who speaks admirable English, differ on
that point She said you were coming
here, and your presence here shows that the
maid at least had nothing to evade
Madam did not do a thing but go TO con-
fession. She was an applicant for divorce
on the Oklahoma chain lightning plan,
and succeeded in eXtOrting concession
from The Times esthather name should be
published until the case came OUT in
court. 1t is, by the way, a case which
Will result in favor of the LADY. Thehusbaud
lives in "a cottage" in the suburbs; and has
been dominated there for three months.
Following the French police adage, where
there Is anything wrong, Ito look for the
woman," the fair applicant did so and
found her. 1t exasperated her all the more
to discover, which was notyery hard TO do,
pretty. al frail fair, and has golden haIr,
not hanging down her back, while the
bonafide Mrs. Tanqueray is brunette
and has dark hair.
She was on the grounds at the last tilt
between the Fort Meyer Cossacks and the
Chevy Chase Club in the polo game, and
was alone in her fly.
BALM FOR THE MISMATED.
The people OF Washington generally do
not know that there is a divorce balm IN
the city for bleeding hearts, and that be-
tween forty and fifty bleeding hearts
have already applied for the balm at the
divorce bureau.
a few days ago The Times called there.
On the door OF the office is the legend,
Private" The office is not one of the
front rooms, but ii is as handsome II its
appointments as if Cupid Were in the
dally habit of NEE ting the distressed
Psyche there. There are law library,
some elegant furniture, pile OF blanks
on the table, for the petitions, a cosy seat for
the applicant, and the Laws of Okla
homa.'
There are several lawyers connected
with this interesting business, one of whom
is a Well-known Washingtonian, and au-
other an expert in divorces from the pro-
greSsiye Territory of Oklahoma.
The Washington office is only q branch
Of an immense enterprise, intended 10 aid
the Eastern powers of the tidal wave
of divorce from the West. The scheme
which is the very latest to relieve the ter
rbie congestion OF mistit marriages is under
the control of a syndicate.
LAWYERS STARTED IT.
The idea originated With a combination
of lawyers in Oklahoma, where divorce is
as easy as the glide of a terrapin into
the water off the traditional log.
Ii is quite a recent innovation here.
The combination includes an attorney
from Oklahoma City, one from Guthrie,
another at Guthrie, another at Ell Reno,
and another at Perry, all in Oklahoma
Territory
The "plant" for his great enterprise
consists of the statute laws of Oklahoma,
the lawyers, the hotel OF accommodation in
Oklahoma, and the people whose hearts
used to beat as one and whose object now
is to beat each other. While Washington
is to be the central office for this part or
the country. there are branch offices in
Pittsburg, Philadelphia and Baltimore, the
move gradu ally making its way TO New 1ork
and even Boston.
A local attorney, Mr James II. Hunter, is
connected with the central office here.
A talk with one OF the attorneys by The
Times proved TO be very interesting. He
said the object of the syndicate was TO
provide divorces in the least possible time
and that the Oklahoma law was the best
and only basis for such design.
CHAIN LIGHTNING DIVORCE.
The law of the Territory provides that
citizenship may be acquired there in
three months. At the expiration of that
time divorce may be applied for, and in
case there is no defence or the defendant
does not appear, the divorce may be
granted in less than four months from the
time the applicant leaves washington.
The chances are that the defendant may
not even be apprised of what is going on.
A wife disappears. The husband does
not know, and perhaps does not care to
know. She has simply gone to Oklahoma.
If she is well off she stays at one OF the
hotels If she is not well off, the fellow
who wants to marry her if divorced, foots
the bills. II she is poor, she can be
accommodated at place OF less ex-
pense.
When they file their petitions for divorce,
the only notice to the defendant necessary
Is a publication in his or her home paper.
II he or she seesit, the Y may GO to Oklahoma
| and defend the suit, if they do not see 1t the
| divorce proceedings go on just the same;
| the lady IS declared free and she returns to
Washington, no longer bondwoman, and
a mere side issue TO the pretty girl in the
suburban cottage II the suit is defended,
the proceedingsmay occupy more than three
months aud few days.
PLENTY OF CLIENTS.
The attorney in charge here said that
there were about forty or fifty clients who
had applied for advice and that the advice
| in many cases was to be followed. He
mentioned among these cases of two society
| people but declined, on their account, to
| give their names at this stage Of the pro-
| ceedings-
1t is said that reduced railroad rates
| for these emigrating divorce applicants
| could be had, but this statement could not
| be verified
Compared with the la WIS delay in ordi-
nary divorce suits this Oklahoma plan is
| like the fast mail to the pony express.
Gentlemen who haven't seen their wives
| for some time had better scan the papers
| for the petitions of their absent wives; ano
| fond ladies, whose husbands have gone to
recuperate in the great West and espe
cially to the Yosemite Valley, may also
| read the legal notes occasionally, fol
knots are united as easily in Oklahoma as
by Alexander the Greats sovereign spe