Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-10-10
STATISTICS ABOUT DIVORCE.
Shown to Have Periodic Variations Like Tides and Weather.
Fourth Year Highest Mark = Queer Causes for Which Divorces Have Been Grantcd-What
 Constitutes .Cruelty."
Copyright. 1Ss7.l

next day after the marriage. On the other hand, couples may live together happily for 21 years and more, and yet that does not preclude the final ad- vent of the demon of divorce It is a matter of record that there are as many divorces granted to those who have lived together for a score of years. as to those who have been married only five years.
 The United States government has collected statistics showing the dura- tion of marriage before divorce, these figures covering a period of 20 years. In the last 30 years 50o,0o0 diYorces have been granted in the United States. The figures for the last ten years have not yet been published, but for the 19 years from 1867 to 1886 statistics show that the divorce high-water mark belongs to those who have been married four years.
 Beginning with the one-year married people, the total is, roundIy, 15 ,000. For the four-year married the total mounts up nearly double-27 ,000. Then it slides off; but until the figures for those who have been married nine years are reached, the one-year figure is not touched. It decreases steadily until the 20-year married number 4, 4,oo0. Thoseswho have been married 21 years are Jumped with those who have been married a longer time, and still find it necessary to dissolve the bonds that unite. and the enormous total of 25,- 900 is reached. Evidently compatibility need not increase as the years fly by. In this class, however, a reversal of 'sendurance' figures is shown, for the average duration of married life for the husbands is 474f, while for the wives it is only 26.70.
 While. divorce aside the average du- ration of married life is from 22 to 26 years, the average duration of mar ried life to the divorced is only e.17 years. being 927 for the wife and s.97 for the husband. This difference be- tween husband and wife suggests that the weaker sex really is the stronger in bearing the woes of the married. These figures are for the country at large.
 New York state. owing probably to its rigid law. shows up little better, men holding out 9.52 years and the women f0.62 years. But, though the wives do endure longer, nearly twice as many women as men get diyorces. This proportion is preserved pretty evenly all through the table. whether the no.144lac ha17. faa,, n, :. ,,; od 4v,,(, , ,.e o twenty. Upward of 25, ,ooo divorces have been granted in New York state in 30 years, a third of them coming from the New York city courts.
 The general charge of cruelty gives the widest scope for the play of humor, as well as some other things, in as signing causes for divorce. When the charges are brought by the husband the case is apt to be particularly pa thetic. One man got divorce because his wife kept insisting that he was nc man at all A brow-beaten farmer sowed his grassin August, which dis pleased his wife. so much that she threw all the table dishes out of the window.
 One mans wife was a member of the Brotherhood of the New Life. The chiei of the sect wouldn't give the husband permit to live with his wife. and sci a time three years distant when they might meet. Another mans wife re- fused to cook for him or sew on his buttons. His neighbors testified at the trial that they had often seen him with only one button on his waisteoat. This wife wouldn't let her husband go tC fires at night, and when he did sneak away she kept him awake till three o'clock in the morning scolding him.
 After being married g years wife embraced the spirit-rapping doctrine which so hurt the feelings of her spouse that he got his decree of divorce. An other pair were legally separated be cause the wife regularly threw scald ing tea at the husband.
 On the first morning after certain marriage the bride beat her husband with her shoe heel. He began suit as soon as he got on his feet and won 1t
 In one case husband cut off his wife'' bangs. Another woman's husbant wouldn't work at all during the week but every Sunday he put on his olt clothes and worked like a nigger.' Still another husband threw boot his wife. It didn't hit her, but 1t dlC hit some one else, and this the judge thought was sufficiently aggrayatlng One husband tried to starve his wife To be enabled to prove by the gTocer1 bills that he had bought food he ear ried it in by the front door, but he tool it out of the back door and threw IL II the sewer.
 If husbands want day off, the, should choose some other day than tn one following the wedding. One wh' hadn't learned this lesson got drunl the day after, which so disgusted tn bride that she lost not an hour Ill De ginning suit, papers being fled tha very day
 One husband complained, not De cause his wife made his shirts, but pc
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