The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-02-13
COMMON LAW MARRIAGES
PROVE BAD FOR SOMEBODY

| o<o%o<o%o%o%O%
NEW YORK, Feb. 13.-There are 200
persons in New York who may, and ir
many cases certainly do, think they car
divorce themselves. Let them try it
The courts will be after them in q
jiffy.
You can marry by contract now
without the slightest danger, but you
can't unmarry in quite the same easy
style.
| why. isn't this fine?" thought a lot
of people when they read the contract
marriage law passed in 1902. 1--WE car
divorce ourselves if we get tired of the
thing"
| Let them try it at their peril!
Should either marry again it will be
| bigamy. Certain conviction in the
criminal courts will surely be the re-
ward for the folly.
New York is SO big that just such a
marriage contract law had to be put
on the statute books. All kinds of peo-
pie want to get married here. They
may have religious c6mpunctions; they
may be of foreign birth, where such
a marriage by contract is required by
law; they might be atheists and de-
mand a civil ceremony.
| But the great state of New York de-
cided that the old subterfuge of com
mon-law marriage must end 1t had
been used by too many designing per-
sons for Interior purposes. AS a sub
stitute the contract marriage law was
passed.
1t was made legal that two parties
might enter into contract of marriage
to be witnessed by any justice of the
peace or notary public. The law also
required that the contract be filed with
| in six months.
| There is the African in the woodpile!
| A lot of rather broadminded people
have assumed that if they didn't file
their contract within the six months
| then they weren't married at all. More
too they We're even free to wed again
| In fact, it has become almost a settled
assertion that if you don't file your con-
tract under the law you are not married
at all. And in New York there are 10(
unified contracts.
And what tragedies-or comedies
may lie in these unified contracts!
With some of the 200 it is bound to be
a sad awakening. New York state
doesn't stand for the trial marriage OIL
the part time marriage just yet. The
authority for this is William Morton
keeper of the contract marriage file:
in the city hall.
! Il can't see" he said, chow this con
tract marriage has made people thinl
| there is also the mutual contract oil
yorce. But it is so. Serious cOmpli
cations that will fill many life will
bitterness just the same. OF course W.
would, but this discovery is rea
disappointment, and it is rather embar
RAISING.
5000 Contracts Filed.
"Since the making of the law ther'
have been 5000 contracts filed. Iher'
are 1,5OO of these made by persons wh'
nave Gdti1eT DIoiu AAic''N ''-N0 ~
not file their contracts within the 81!
months may still be living happily to-
gether, but it has been instllled IN incl
minds that six months time given OF
trial marriage Let me say right herr
that those who destroy their contract:
are Just as much married as ever
Should either marry again it would b'
bigamy.
mot long ago a case came to m!
notice in which the contracts had no
been filed. The woman trusted then
TO the man. He married three othe
women by contract. Each or tnos'
thought him single. and in turn ne oil
vorced each by mutual consent and
destruction of the contracts.
1.-THE last woman could not see thlhs
in this light. He deserted her. destroy
ed the contracts, the witnesses cahilo
be found, and the notary is dead Ihi'
is a pretty mix up-three women oil
vorced. but not divorced, and one de-
serted
The notaries of New York and BROOK
Ivn have looked the matter over. IneA
have found 100 unified contracts-2o'
persons who believe that they are mar
r;ed 70 suit their own ideas of the wed
ded state; 200 persons who think ina
bv tearing up their contracts they are
at once unmarried.
And there are some who are perfectly
wiling to say so.
Mr.. and Mrs Edward Drake, OF Bay
Ridge, have been dlsllluslonlzeo' 'oo
Their little air castle if independence
has been rudely shattered
DO you mean to tell me that liii'
contract is just as binding II not hieo