Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1907-07-06
PRACTICAL VIEW OF DIVORCE
EVILS

One of the most sensible articles
on the divorce problem that has ap-
reared in print was recently pub
lished by Judge e. Ray Stevens in
the Outlook magazine.
The gist of Judge Stevens conclu-
sions, based on many years of obser-
walton of family troubles as brought
out in his court, is that it is unfair
TO be so particular about breaking the
marriage tie when the laws of the
country make it so easy for men and
women to blindly enter the married
state.
He believes that reformation should
begin with more stringent marriage
laws rather than attempting to force
men and women to live together
when they discover, all too late, that
they are by no means fitted for any
thing better than to create little
hell on earth for themselves and
those about them.
Judge Stevens quotes some divorce
statistics that are surprising to one
who has never stopped to dwell upon
the facts.
One marriage in ten results in di-
Norce. In the twenty years following
the Civil War there were 32S,716 di-
yorces granted-an average of about
forty-five for every day of every week.
During that time the divorces in
creased two and one-half times as
rapidly as the population. In dozen
States that have collected divorce sta
tistics since the Civil War, Connecti-
cut is the only one in which divorces
have not shown an increase. No civ
ilized nation on EARTH except Japan,
has so large a percentage of divorces
as the United States.
Judge Stevens incidentally notes
that the lower order of humanity does
not hold first place in matters of I'M
pleasant family relations that end in
separation. Among the noted per-
sons whose home-life was not happy
he cites Sumner, Dickens, Nelson,
Patti, Lord Hetherley, and so forth.
"Back of the divorce problem are
fundamental instincts which may be
regulated, but not destroyed nor COM
pletely changed" says the Judge.
"Cicero by his oratory ruled men, but
at the age of sixty could not resist
the charms of young heiress, rich
In physical beauty and worldly goods,
20 he put aside the wife of his early
manhood, who was old, faded, and
POOR like himself. Henry VIII was
destined for the priesthood and life
of celibacy, until the accident of the
death of his elder brother left him
heir apparent to the throne. Patti
moved an audience as if each obeyed
her command, yet fell into such rela-
tions with her tenor that even her
spendthrift husband was forced to di-
Vorce her, and thereby lose his gold
mine" as he called her Warren Has
tings preserved the British Empire in
India, yet lost himself to one who
was then the wife of another, with
whom he lived an ideal married life
for nearly fifty years after she had
obtained a divorce from her husband
that she might marry Hastings.
These instincts have prompted
the marriage and separation of men
and women throughout the ages.
Primitive people separated with lit
tie formality; the husbands clothing
was thrown from the house, or the
purchase price paid for the wife re-
turned to the husband
whatever the formalities requir-
ed to bring about a separation, ways
have always been found to release the
unhappy spouse. Where the person
seeking separation had sufficient
means, the old ecclesiastical courts
usually found some impeachment to the
original marriage which rendered it
null and void and thus left the par