The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1908-05-28
OPPORTUNITY
FOR TREATMENT Of
CUPID'S CRIPPLES
Divorce Entries Made After
June 3 Are Subject to a Six
Months Handicap.

Sioux Falls, S. D., May 26.-Last call
for hurry-up South Dakota divorces!
Only a few days remain IN which the
matrimonially unhappy may have as
surance of relief after six months Of
residence in South Dakota.
Any abused wife or neglected hus-
band who arrives in South Dakota on
June 3 will be barely able to bring a
suit for divorce after a wait of six
months. Any arriving on June 4 may
be required to do pennance for one
year, for On November 8 the voters OF
South Dakota will pass upon a law
submitted to them under the initiative
n referendum, providing that d.
vorces shall not be granted to any per-
son married outside the state who has
not resided in South Dakota for one
year. The initiative and referendum
provides that bills submitted to the
people for a vote shall become laws, if
approved, after the result of the cleo
ton is officially announced by the state
~canvassing board. This board meets
December 3, so that, If the law is APP
proved-as in all likelihood it will be
1t will take effect on that day.
Divorces arriving now are expecting
to get their suits started between day
light and breakfast. as it were. 1t will
require fast work by their attorneys to
bring their cases under the present law.
Perjury Committed Daily.
OF the $50 divorces granted in South
Dakota last year, 1854 were to non-resi-
dents, every one of whom came here
for the purpose Of a divorce and com
mitted perjury by taking the required
oath that their residence was estab-
lished in good faith. OF the total num-
Der, 1874 were Issued in Sioux Falls, the
chief divorce center. Without doubt
the enactment of the proposed law will
reduce the number of divorces in South
Dakota to less than 200 a year
Another change that will be made by
the new measure, If approved, is to re-
quire hearings of divorce cases at reg
ular terms of court Heretofore the
judges have been very accommodating,
listening in chambers almost any time
to the complaints Of those chatting
under marriage ties.
Otherwise it will be no more difficult
to dissolve marriage bonds in South
Dakota under the new system than at
present, providing the disconnected are
willing to wait a yea before beginning
their actions.
The courts in all probability will con-
tfnue to be as complacent with di-
vorcees as heretofore. and the divorce
lawyers will lose hone of their cunning
in shielding their clients from publicity.
Without a doubt, the approval of
South Dakota's new law would have
the effect of giving the Nebraska di-
vorce business a big impetus. A resi-
dence of six months before beginning
action Is all that is required there, but
there is the handicap of a prohibition
of remarriage within six months. How
ever. this would require those wanting
to be rid of their mates to live away
from home only six months. as COM
pared with a year in South Dakota.
But, on the other hand. the grounds
for divorce in Nebraska are not so con-
venient as those in South Dakota. They
are, in Nebraska, abandonment two
years, habitual drunkenness, physical
ineapacity, adultery, felony, failure to
support w years, cruelty. In South
Dakota they are cruelty, adultery, de-
sertion one year, physical incapacity.
neglect m year, drunkenness one year,
felony. The ease of these grounds for
action In South Dakota is shown by the
fact that in 1907, of the 552 divorces in
the state, 255 were for desertion, 1853 for
cruelty, so for non-support and "a for
wilful neglect. all general charges,
which in the cases of non-residents, are
often not much more than nominal.