Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-04-09
DENOUNCES
RUSH F Or
DEGREES
Would Make Both Parties to
Suits Give Their Side of
Case in Court.

Having heard for four days the
woes Of the unhappily mated. Judge
w. D. Ellis squared off and took a
vigorous rap at Georgia's divorce
laws in a short talk he made to the
jury Thursday. at the close OF the
divorce docket for the present term
OF court
Judge Ellis declared that II it lay
in his power he would not do away
with divorce entirely-"because a
gentleman should not be linked for
life with a shrew and virtuous
woman should not be tied to brute"
but he would make divorces harder
to obtain.
THE easier It Is to obtain a d.
/ vorce," he said. the more divorces
there will be. The spectacle we have
/ Just witnessed, of more than hum
dred persons securing their release
from the matrimonial halter by the
law is fair sample or what goes
on in this court six times a year At
every term Of court | am Inundated
that such condition of affairs can
exist, and do not believe there has
ever been a divorce court Jury that
didn't go away disguised.
Would Make Both Testify.
MY idea, which l incorporated in
bill that ] tried to get before the
Legislature but which was Killed by
some divorce lawyers. is that there
should be no total divorces granted
on the uncorroborated testimony Of
swear that their husbands are brutes,
and a year later their husbands come
here and prove by their own testi-
mony, that they are refined gentle
ment.
There should be no marriages
whiting six months or year after
a divorce has been granted. That
would end a great many of this di-
vorce-ln-th morning and marriage
n-the-afternoon business
Somebody should be appointed by
the State to conduct one side Of these
divorce cases Ninety per cent Of
them are undefended, and men and
women who are called brutes and
worse do not seem to think 1t neces-
sary to deny the statements. | am
told in the country districts Of Geor-
gia 80 per cent Of the divorce cases
are among the negroes, but I sup
port you have noticed that in Atlanta
30 per cent Of them are whites.
Urges Punishment.
Twenty years ago divorce was
rare. and a divorced man or woman
was conspicuous woman on the
streets. The evil has grown so that
IT now pcrmoates all ranks of So
ciety. and a person who has not been
divorced Is more Of a rarity than
one who has. And during the trial
Of these seventy cases this week,
there has not been the wall Of an In
FAINT in the courtroom; no children
have been here"
Judge Ellis declared that the man
who marries a IS, 16 or II year old
girl and then mistreats or deserts
her. or causes her to become H.
should not merely be made the de-
PENDANT in a divorce action. but
should be tried for a more serious
crime
Eight cases were disposed OF in the
final session Of the divorce court
THURSDAY
Mrs. Margaret Tuggle was granted
q second divorce from y Pinckney
Tuggle. She married Tuggle in 1903,
when she was but 10 years old. be-
cause. she said, he threatened to
shoot her If she didn't Her parents
refused to let her live with him and
she got e. divorce. In 1911 she mar
ried Tuggle again She said her
maiden name was Margaret Bowlcs.
and asked that il be restored to her