The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-08-03
More Than Twenty Divorce
Suits Filed in 10 Days.
Unhappy Shawnee Couples
Seek Relief From Courts.
SOME CASES ARE PATHETIC
All Recite a Burden of Wrong
and Cruelty.
In Every Case but One Women
Brought the Suit.

Perhaps there is certain amount
of virtue in bearing, as patiently as
NAV be- the cruelty of a brutal nus
band but finally, to a good many wo-
men at least, the limit is reacheu'
And so in the last u working days,
more than a score of Topeka women
have filed suits in the district court
asking that the unbearanle YOKE, e eIl,''
from one to 80 years before was 1mag'n-
ed would be the sweetest thing IN the
world. be removed.
The figures. ascertained from the rec
ords in the office of Clerk Charles W.
Bower of the district court, show that
"a women and one man have asked 1tr
divorce DEGREES since July D. The show
ing breaks all former records in tie
county.
1t Is Pathetic.
Many of the petitions are pitiful IN
the extreme. A sickly, weak little Wo-
man who weighs scarcely a hundred
pounds, and who has been more or
less an invalid for years, says her
husband throws glasses, rocking chairs
anything he happens to get his hands
on-at her on the least proVocatiCn.
Another, but this time viVacious Wo-
man who likes to dress well. says her
husband has paid for five cents worth
of ice cream for her in 10 months of
her married life, and never has bought
so much a ribbon for her. Not only
that but he hasn't furnished her a bite
of anything else to eat in that time.
No. she hasn't starved. But she h IS
had to earn her own living.
Says Her Husband Is a Crouch.
A woman who took Hymen yoke
on her neck more than thirty years
ago says her husband is perennial
crouch. She says he hasn't spoken a
pleasant word to her in years and
years, and that he finds fault with ev-
erything she does. Another woman, a
sad aged little woman who has lost
heart, and hope, and nearly every
thing else that makes life worth while,
says her husband brought his mother
into their home several years ago, and
the mother just simply took charge.
The wife didn't amount to anything
in the mothers eyes, and the husband
got to feeling pretty much the same
way about her. Not only that but the
husband got to spending all his time
with his mother, leaving his wife TO
shift for herself. And when she mild
" complained he told her if she did
not like the way he was treating her,
to get out, that she wasn't wanted
very much anyway.
Only One Side of Story.
These are samples. Many of them
are similar. These brutes of husbands
who beat and abuse their wives are
pretty much alike in a general away
But of course one hears but one side
of the story in a divorce case, for the
chances are more than nine to one
that the husbands side never is men
toned, and as he doesn't contest the
case, his attitude it never known NO |
BODY ever says that the wife nagged
him. or made him eat cold suppers. or
insisted upon going to the cluo When
he wanted company. But perhaps Il
Back of all the tales told in court
are tears heartacheS, and ideals that
long ago have died. When John VAS
counting and Mary was light nearted |
I, F,T liz
have scoffed the idea that they ever
would quarrel seriously, much less tire
of one another. They just couldn L |
for didn't they think the world OF eacn
Whatever began the difficulty, no
matter how small or how big it was, or |
how important to either, the facts are
that they drifted apart, these two and |
scores like them, and the divorce courts /
are called upon to sever the tie which, |
when it was made, both promised /
solemnly should last through sickness |
and health. for better or for worse I'M |
til death did them part. Death still IS |
a long way away, but the haunting, |
gnawing trouble, the everlasting, never |
erding. clash, grows more and more |
urbearable until it ends with the multi |
tude. and the young wife goes out of |
court free, but disallusioned.
Children Kepp Down Number of Suits |
These only are the cases in which |
suits are brought for freedom. Of the |
scores of others where the trouble lies |
just the same, but where on Lccount of |
children, or pride, or something neither !
party is willing to go through the nee
eSsary publicity to secure freedom |
what of them? Nobody ever hears of |
their troubles, but they exist just the |
same, and may have blighted both |
lives.
After all the person who said mar
rage was a lottery knew what he was |
talking about, and the woman who said |
she never felt she knew a man until |
she had eaten barrel of flour with him |
wasn't far from being right. of course |
there are happy marriages, but there /
are others-there are others.