The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-06-10
c%uRIosITIEs OF DIVORCE.
some Of the Strange Pleas Made to
AnnuI Marriage.

some Oh IA6 9kE8M89 ElG09 MINUS ~
Annul Marriage.
There is only one state Ia the Union,
South Carolina, where 1t Is impossible to.
fshARs or the matrimonial chain thfoighI
process OF law. i1nl some stafessit Is re-
~markably easy, where ineompatibility of
temper and similar broad gauge roads
lead smoothly into the land of freedom.
Some novel and ludicrous pleas, says
the New York Press, have been set up in
various states by both men and women
seeking divorce.
A man recently sued for a divorce
from his wife because he discovered aft
er marriage that she had a glass eye. The
judge in denying the petition said: 1T
is not necessary for a woreen during
courtship to inform her intended hus-
band Of any device or attachment used
to improve the work of nature in the
construction of her face, form or figure.
If a glass eye, concealed before marriage,
be fraud, why are not false teeth, false
hair or any other false art peculiar to
the fair sex good grounds for divorce?"
This recalls an act passed by parlia-
ment in the reign of Charles l, providing
that "all women of whatever age or
rank, profession or degree, whether
maids or widows, who shall impose upon
and betray into matrimony any of his
majesty's male subjects by scents, paints,
cosmetics, washes, artificial false hair,
Spanish wool, iron stays, hoops, high heel
ed shoes or bolstered hips, shall incur
the penalty of laws now in force against
witchcraft, sorcery and such like INSIDE
meanors, and the marriage, upon convic-
ton, shall stand null and void"
AfrS TS1ocal1 laf S,nrxr C.+- r, H.
for a divorce, the custody of her children
and $4,000 alimony from her husband
on the ground that, in anticipation of a
spring trip to Alaska, he began training
in the early winter, refusing to have any
fires in the house, keeping the windows
open and keeping the family on a choice
diet of salt horse" lime juice and other
dainties popular in the Klondike regions.
She got her divorce.
A mar tried for some time in vain to
induce a 16-year-old girl to consent to
marry him. Finally he brought into play
the time worn expedient of threatening
to take his own life if she continued OBJ
durate. Being young and inexperienced,
the maiden believed him and was horri-
fed at the prospect of becoming xespon-
sible for the death of a human being. To
prevent his self destruction she married
him, but having gone with him to the al
tar she considered that she had made
sufficient sacrifice, and she positively re-
fused to live with him. Later she
brought suit for divorce, which was
granted on the ground that her consent
to the marriage had been obtained by
force and Misrepresentation.
In West Virginia a woman wanted a
legal separation from her husband be-
cause he was an infdel. She asserted
In her petition that he did not believe in
God, and that this caused her great grief
and suffering, so much so that she could
not get along with him. The court de-
cided this to be adequate grounds for di-
vorce.
Desertion is in many states sufficient
reason for granting a divorce, but it must
be proved that a man voluntarily deserts
his wife. A Pennsylvania woman ac-
cused her husband of a criminal offense
which caused him to be lodged in Jail.
He broke Jail and left the country, and
some time later his wife sued for divorce,
alleging desertion. 1t was refused. how
ever, the judge declaring that she had
caused the separation in the first place
by putting MIN in Jail, and that he had
fed from the country, not to desert his
wife, but to escape the consequences of
his crime.