Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1900-02-13
NOW IT CAME ABOUT.
Enx1kah Prohibition Of Marriage
with n Deceased Wife'~ Sister

. OSCCAoNo
This prohibition. which has caused so
much discussion In England. grew out Of
the ancient tribal law rOrbidding father
to sell mare than one daughter to the
same man when the Bliton was eulerg-
ing from po!yGamy and when for II
shillings Of the present money man
might dismiss his wife or kill her II she
wou.t i..t 70. AS civil law it was to pro-
t.ct the living wife and knit tribes closer
together by intrrmarriage.
When ecclesiastical law became su
preme, misreadiny Of some Scripture
tex, was used to put the sister Of a man s
wife among the prohibited degrees of re
htionship This was the act of l54l To-.
Henry Wild: "A man may not marry his
deceased wife's sister nor hei daughter.
but he may marry his first cousin"
While the marriage laws of ler4l have
been altered and amended and rewritten
until they no more resemble now the laws
Of that day than a modern locomotive
resembles chariot OF Alexander this one
section has been preserved intact and
reads today word for word as II did then.
The prohibition is not known today in
any other country. 1t does not apply in
Scotland or lrelund-only in England. II
Is avoided by any persons wishing to
marry going to Scotland or Ireland or
France or the United States, and the
English civil law is that a marriage valid
where contracted Is valid everywhere.
The lex loci governs except in polyGa
dead letter in England. except for the re-
igious who will not dis"bey their bish
ops. and it gives rise to no small amount
80 nj at al
ligious rancor when Smith inarries his
wife's sister in Edinburgh and brings her
back to New York to live AZ his legal
tract depends upon the law Of Scotland
and must be decided by t.-Ncw York
World.
Book Publishing and BooksellinH.
The old comfortable idea about 81 80
book was that it was made for about 10
,cnts. sold to jobbcr for about 81. pass
ed Oh by him to q retailer for about 81 II
and then. neatly wrapped 10y itself. with
| 4 pleasant remark about the weather
thrown In. sold to a waiting customer for
$3.50. and he took it home under his arm.
Today the same book is made Tor about
10 cents, but it Is sold to the customer
for 80 cents or 81. and it IL handled by
the thousand. delivered to the purchaser,
aud its sale is only an incident Of q vast
trnf1ic More hooks are sold. Where
5000 copies were q giddy success no one
begins to talk sales now much under
100000. but the percentage Of success is
no bigger. and the original risk on the
new book Is equally big for success or
failure.
The tactical result Is that more books
have to be- sold for the old profit, and the
chance Of publisher getting good book
Is no better. The ''standard classics"
have to be sold by the carload to make a
profit. There are no stocks which sell
year after year. No one can afford to
carry them. The fag ends Of editions are
cleared out as "remainders." The $3.50
book that makes a failure, which was
once decorously. allo .sed to die out
through the slow sale Of 1000 copies
over decade, is cleared out in Is or 20
months. and the able book which the re-
viewer assured you was worth buying
and reading at $3.50 starcs you in the
face after year or SO in a pile labeled
"25 cents. "-Philudclphia Press.