The age-herald., 1901-03-17
NeWDivOrce Codes
BY KATE THYsoN MARR.


 4 bfn now penoing before the Legisla- ture of the State of New York proposes new code of divorce laws throughout that State.
 The subject matter of the main bill has been so revised, amended and reconstruct ed that it would be difficult to disinte grate the salient points; but the logic is self-evident
 Not only the State of New York, but the whole country. needs national code regulating the dissolution of the marriage tie-and sn that the term implies.
 The facility with which divorce is ob- tained in many localities has robbed the marriage state of it's sacredness, and is nothing more than a stereotyped collu sion of the parties involved.
 Men and women lacking sufficient stam- ina to realize the gravity of the mar riage bond assume It's obligations during the frenzied period of new infatuation. to find, when too late. that an awful mis- take has been made
 Girls accustomed to every luxury of life, in exuberance of mandlin sym pathy marry man without sou, under the delusion that love alone will be the almoner disbursing the wherewith for household and incidental expenses.
 A national code should regulate mar riage laws. covering the whole range from the license to the divorce, should the latter become a necessity.
 A license for marriage should not be given until 1t were shown that the man soliciting it was able to support a wife, and thus avoid bringing children into the world with only heritage of starvation and crime
 Even a laborer of good habits could give a woman of his own sphere such home as she would likely enjoy.
 Those suffering from an hereditary or incurable disease should be debarred from entering the married state.
 The statistics of the last census dis closed some of the most revoting condi- tions in out of the way settlements. One small colony in the rural districts of one of the Southern States was composed en- tirely of imbeciles. wherein the most hideouS physical malformatfons and hu- man monstrosties resulted from the mar riage and inter- marriage of members of the clan. It was shown that the man, presumably the head, had married his own daughters and granddaughters, and the census enumerator's report was sick ening in it's details. An isolated ward fn an insane asylum is the proper place for such unfortunates.
 An habitual drunkard should be fused a license to marry. The record of murdered wives by intoxicated husbands proves the wisdom of such provision.
 The issuing of licenses to boys under age should be made a misdemeanor on the part of the minister, who, for small fee, marries a young boy still in college to an adyenturess twice his age.
 In the application for license the par ties should be required to state upon oath if the legal age is attained. The mar rta If nf xVp position to women with a legion of pasts has wrought shame and sorrow mto many households .@
 With laws regulating the marriage Ii cense amended, the coda regulating di- vo.oe laws wou sturally follow.
 Notwithstanding ,he evils of divorce, it cannot be denied that it often brings it's blessings There Is nothing so irritating as the constant contact with one for whom love has chaged to hate, or worse, to contempt; and yet, for this change there should be some valid reason other than a question of whim caprice.
 In New York State there is but one ground for divorce which Is known as statutory grounds and yet in the city of New York divorce fourishes uncheck- ed, and men and women seem to have lost all sense of shame in the matter.
 There are many men who, finding the wife unfaithful refuse to smirch them selves by conniving at the wife'S suit for divorce; that is, by furnishing evidence discriminating himself. have no patience with man who steps down and out and allows the woman who has borne his name to wed her paramour. Divorce laws through mans connivance should de- bar man from allowing a guilty wife to obtain a decree
 Were I the arbiter of social conditions. would strike deeply at this abuse.
 It is well-known fact that a divorced man rarely marries again.
 A mistaken code of honor governing the men of New York City provides that if wife is found unfaithful. and the hus- band wishes to divorce her. he seeks his legal adviser, whom he instructs to visit the wife and force her to institute pro- ceedings; and provided that no question of alimony arises, the husband agrees to furnish evidence. against himself and put in no defense. No greater injustice to good women forced to protect themselves through the divorce courts can be con- ceived than this arrangement: but man is not seeking the general good-he reck- ons only on his individual case and his desire to be freed from woman whom he no longer respects.
 In divorce case both parties should be bound by steel plate oaths, and no de- cree allowed by default The conse- quences of perjury should be kept well in the foreground, and a rigid examina- tion and ferreting out of the truth until this abuse was uprooted.
 By the same mistaken code of honor man in New York City, who divorces his wife on statutory grounds, Is condemned by his confreres and treated somewhat in the manner of a cad. AS a consequence, every divorced woman is under the ban of suspicion The first radical change in the status of divorce laws should be made here. No marriage contracted by wo- man who had been found unfaithful should be recognized in any State, and 1t should be States prison offense for both parties entering knowingly into such A marriage.
 When a divorce was granted it should be final, with no irritating conditions em-