Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-02-28

says the Baltimore Sun, there is OBJ
lection 10 the passage of this bill upon
moral grounds. 1t passed the lower
house at the last meeting Of the legis-
| lature, but was lost in the senate.
, The law OF New York recognizes what
are called "cOmmon-law marriages,
in which there need be no ceremony,
no contract in writing, no witnesses,
and Of which there is no record. Only
! the consent of the parties is necessary
to make a valid marriage. The trans
| fer of a square yard OF ground must
be made in writing, properly executed.
witnessed and recorded, share o.
stock worth no more than dollar
must be transferred in writing, and
here is the most important contract a
man or woman can enter into attend
ed with no formality and in many
| cases only to be proved by evidence
which is the merest hearsay or gossip.
| In Eighty-eighth New York Reports
! there is a case decided relating to a
woman who had for thirty-tiye years
supposed herself to- be a wife and
| in fact unmarried. 1t was stated in
an argument on the pending bill IN
| New York that a wealthy bachelor
cannot die in that state that some
woman in black does not attend the
| funeral claiming to be the widow. In
one notable case in recent years there
were three such widows at the flu
of
and women in the state of New York
today, it IS said. who cannot tell GER
tainly whether they are married or
not. That a contract which involves
not only the honor and happiness of
the man and woman, but the descent
of property to their children and their
right of inheritance, should have 10
safeguards around it is almost past
belief The only objection urged 10
the proposed reform. so far as wehave
observed, is that to require a formal
contract in writing would place an
obstacle IN the way of marriages,
which should be perfectly free and
untrammeled.
Perhaps the Maryland law of mar
riages is one of the best. A license
is required, which only costs dollar,
and the marriage ceremony must be
performed by an authorized minister,
according to the rites of some church
or according to the usage OF the So
ciety of Friends. The minister who
performs the ceremony is required,
under a penalty, to return the license
to the clerks Office of the court from
which it was issued. with a certificate
that the wedding has taken place, and,
in addition, he may give a certificate
to the parties. 1t is presumed that
the minister also keeps minute of
the ceremony in the records Of his
church. Thus a marriage is easily
proved by abundant documentary evil
dence.
Common-law marriages have been
RECOGNIZED as valid in New York since
1909, when Chief Justice Kent decided
that no form of solemnizatiOn Of mar
riage was necessary, and that the con-
sent of the parties, without any form,
was all that was required to consti-
tute a valid marriage. Previously to
that time license and an official
ceremony had been deemed essential.
The present law is apparently even
more loose and Objectionable than the
conditions relating to marriage which
prevailed in Scotland when Wilkie
Collins wrote his celebrated novel,
Miss or Mrs, by which he undertook
the work of reform. New York, is
not the only state in which marriage
legislation is being considered.