The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-11-22

| the percentage of the divorced to. the
married was 0.5. In 1900 it was O.I.
| According to the census Of 1900 there
weru ll57 divorced women in tile
United States under the age of twenty,
| and 1915 divorced women between
| twenty and twenty-five years Of age.
South Carolina is the only State in
| the Union which grants no divorce.
| New York is the only State in the
Union which proposes to grant divorces
| only on Scriptural grounds; yet New
York grants, annually, more than a
| thousand divorces.
Illinois gives a fair illustration "e
| the laws of almost all the Statez. Af-
ter reciting q long list Of 2saundo upon
| which q divorce rnaJ DC granted, the
law concludes ~ empowering the court
to grant q divorce upon any plea which
! it thinks justifahle.
The Western States, in order to in
| crease their populatiolEH are making
| open and shameless.bidSfo for: those dis
satfsGed.with the married state to come
to them and have il dissolved.
Statistics given by the Chicago Daily
| News Almanac, 1903, show the bio
! ing number of divorces granted in lead
| ing cities of our country in 1901:
Providence, 327; Cincinnati, 405; Bos-
ton. 4O6; Cleveland, 454; Philadelphia,
492; ST. Louis, 5T3; New York, SIT; San
Francisco, SAG; Chicago. 1903.
The statistics of Ca.Toll D. Wright,
Commissioner OF Labor, for twenty
years, from 1867 to 1856, show 32S,712
divorces granted in the United States
in those years. In 1867, 9937 divorces
were granted, while in 1856 25,53o dl-
vorces were granted, making an In
crease Of 157 per cent. The Increase OF
population was sixty per cent. during
the same period.
In 1867 Ohio granted 901 divorces.
and in 1900 the State granted 32l7
I divorces-one to every eleven marriages
solemnized in the State. Indiana
granted, in 1867, 1896 divorces, and in
| 1900, %4599-one, divorce to every six
! marriages :, solemnizede intthe State.
IOnIy a snort time ago the papers were
| telling of a woman i'm Indiana who
had eight living husbands, from whom
she had been divorced, and this same
woman was then preparing to be mar
ried to the ninth victim. Michigan in
1867 granted 40 divorces, and in l90O
granted 241S divorces-one divorce to
every eleven marriages solemnized in
the State.
A table Of divorces in the Christian
world in 1885, as given in Studies in
History, Economics and Public Law"
issued by Columbia University, gives
the following interesting fact: Canada,
Great Britain and Ireland, France,
Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland,
Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Austria,
Roumania, Russia and, Australia grant
ed a total of 20,111 divorces, while IN
the same year the United States grant.
Led 23,472 diyerces-an excess oVer all
other countries in the Christian Worio
Of 1861.
Forty-ive States and several Terri,
tories have various and conflicting
laws, and more than 5000 courts hFe
jurisdiction of divorce cases. A
learned cssayist says OF u legislation
that it "presents the largest and straDg'
est,and perhaps the saddest experiment
in the sphere of family laws which
free, self-governing countries have ever
tried" It was published in q recent
journal that divorces were granted III
Chicago for the following causes Snor'
ing, cold feet, eating with a knife, N
sisting upon going to bed In Ills over
coat and boots, smoking cigarettes
failure as q cook.
During recent years divorce has de:
yeloped into an industry in the United
States, the legal profession and the
bench have, done much to encourage
this terrible traffic. =:
For GIL divorces in France in
given period, the United States. ohers
the United Kingdom showing
AIS and the German Empire 6o7S tol
the same time. For a period Of twenty
years III Maryland the rate OF marriage
20 divorce was G1.94. MASSACHUSETTS
averaged 31.2S to every divorce.
Some Of the popular theories are tina
.SIvcrce IS due to the conflicting and in
harmonious statutes OF various States
Yhus as Colonel Wright, in his report
informs US, it is The belief that persons
residing in the State Of New York
where the law is strict, are in the labl,
of seeking divorces in Rhode Island
But the statistics snow that OF 446z
divorces granted i'll Rhode Island only
ninety-Seven were to parties married
IN New York, and Of Go20 granted in
PENNSYLVANIA, only TG5 were to parties
married in New York, while OF the
cSeo,JAG couples whose place of mar
rage We ascertained, 231,S67 were Oil
voreed in the same State in which they
had been married.
Third-A fatal danger. The attack
upon the integrity Of the family IS nj!
unmitigated evil and q crime against
social order, which can only result i'll
the destruction Of all that is purest,
noblest and best in TIE world. Here
we find the secret cause OF the decline
and fall of the Roman Empire. The
laws as to family life were loose; dl-
porce became epidemic, and the empire
went down in ruin and disgrace. The
Reign of Terror in France followed the
establishment of a law that marriage
could be dissolved merely by applica-
cation; 10000 divorces we're granted In
Paris in one year, end during the same
period $4,000 outcast children were car
ried into founding hospitals and near
Nv 10000 newborn babies were taken
out OF the sewers Of tile city and from
the secret places by the police. The
indescribable horrors Of these times it
Is impossible to picture. and who will
say that directly or indirectly the vio-
laticn Of the sanctity OF the marriage
state and the purity Of the family life
tdid not contribute largely toward those
days of terror? The rejection Of the
Bible, the denial OF. God ard the desc