Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-12-13
Drunkenness and the
Money Craze Cause of
Much Domestic TrOu-
ble---DivOrCes Too
Easy to Procure.
Written for The Atlanta Georgian
By Judge VIM. D. Ellis
OF the Allan ia Circuit.

in the so called lottery Of marriage
Instead of bringing his earnings
or his salary home, the husband
alas, too often spends it for drink
or at the gaming table, and this
does authorize a protest from the
wife. But she should not turn from
persuasion and further effort to the
divorce lawyer and the courts.
Another frequent cause is that.
in this day and generation, our PEG
pie are constantly on the move. The
love Of home-the family nest-the
place where children are born and
ought to be taught to revere. is all
affected injuriously by change. The
husband goes, he works in other Oh.
many places, he gets weaned from
home. and l have seen many cases
where husbands have sued their
wives for desertion, served the suit
by publication and obtained YER
diets, where, in all probability, the
wife never heard of the suit anG
probably was anxiously awaiting
his return to her and his children.
Undefended Divorce Gases.
About 80 per cent of divorce suits
are not defended In many case
they are collusive and il this coul1
be made to appear, no divorce coulU
or would De granted. But, undo
the statutes of most if not all. the
states, such cases proceed ex parte.
and in this state, for example, eX-
cept in case Of adultery a total d.
vorce may be obtained on the III
corroborated evidence of the COM
planning party.
Cruel treatment, so far as my OBJ
servation goes, is by far the great
est ground for divorce. That is D.
broad and comprehensive term. Our
supreme court has defined crue
treatment to be the willful in1ic-
ton Of pain, either bodily or men
tai, upon the complaining party, to
the extent of causing a reasonable
apprehension of injury to the life,
limb or health of such complain
ant. This broad charge, and the
discretion left to the jury or to the
court, backed up by the absence OF
any defense, leaves the question
too much open to sympathy
aroused by the narrowing details
Of domestic infelicity, as presented
by the apparently distressed wife Or
the apparently afflicted husband
Husband Appears Later.
In Georgia it is left to the dis
cretion of the jury to say whether
or not the disabilities OF the de
PENDANT shall be removed, and gen
orally, in undefended cases, the
plaintiff makes out such q case as
causes the jury to refuse to re-
move the disability and allow the
defendant to remarry. For instance,
the wife gets on the witness stand
and testifies that the husband ts
brute or a drunkard or a desert9r,
the verdict fails 10 allow him the
right to marry again, and at the
next term Of the court he comes in
with a petition for the removal Of
his disabilities, and tells his side
of the case, and demonstrates that
his wife was a ternagant, and ne
himself so inoffensive, so childllke
and bland that no divorce ought
ever to have been granted to her
and that he ought to be allowed TO
take another chance and get wife
worthy of his affectionate care and
devotion.
And so with the husband seeking
q divorce. When she asks for re
moval of her disabilities, she ghowr
that instead Of deserving him she
was the victim of abandonment b.
/. him.