Arizona republican., 1921-08-09
DIVORCE SUIT Is TAKEN1OSUPREME
 COURT ON APPEAL

It is not often that a divorce court is where Mayellen Kirby of Pima county lodged hers yesterday, or rather where she took that of her husband. who had been granted al decree by the superior court of Pima county.
 suit for divorce the present year after a marriage of seven years. He alleged he had discovered that his wife was a negress. a little detail he had overlooked during his courtship and which he had not observed dur ing the intervening years, so busily was he engaged in more important matters.
 No other cause for divorce was alleged in the complaint, the com- plainant resting upon the law pro- hibiting the marriage of Caucasians to negroes. Mongolians or Indians. It appears that the plaintiff merely sought to have the marriage de- clared invalid. Anyway, he was given a decree and an appeal was taken.
 The grounds of appeal do not ap- pear among the papers brought up. but, judging from the remarks of de- fendant's counsel in the lower court. it will be contended that the plaintiff 1 is not a Caucasian and that the de- | fendant is not a negress and that | the legislature of this state exceeded | it's powers when it prohibited the marriages of persons who are not | Caucasians.
 An effort was made in the lower l ~l, 1o ,Ias h self was not a full-blood. He was questioned on cross examination re- garding his pedigree. His father was an Irishman, or so his father said he Twas, but the plaintiff re- marked. "Of course. I know only what he said" His mother was a | Mexican. As to his grandfather on the mothers side. the plaintiff said he supposed he was a Mexican. but he added, "of course. you can't tell about these grandfathers."
 What was sought on cross-exam | ination was to show that somewhere | Indian blood entered into the family of the plaintiff, in which case he could not have been a Caucasian and he would have been free to marry g negro, a Mongolian or an Indian. The court was not in sympathy with the contention of the attorney for the defense. That intermarriage o Spaniards has been so common ir Mexico from the earliest time tha there is perhaps not an old famil, in which there is not Indian blood Former President Diaz was probabl, much more Indian than Spaniard-
 But that Is generally disregarde' and. as the court observed, ever. descendant of a .Spaniard in Mexic since the days of Cortez is to be con | Sidered A Catica sian
 Some years ago a citizen of Tue son whose father was an American and whose mother was Mexican de serted his family and entered int relation with a negress of consid erable wealth. Both were arreste under the Edmunds act and the ma
 went to trial first He offered
 peculiar defense. He sought to sho,
 that his marriage was invalid for tn reason that he was an Indian unde
 the Arizona law; that his mother wa in part a Maya Indian. If he coul
 have establishsi that he might hay
 married the negress and both o them could have emerged from thei
 troubles.
 It happened that the family t which his mother belonged was on of considerable prominence and sev , eral Americans of repute had mar : ried into it. One gentleman. one C the foremost citizens of Tucson, wa
 an uncle of the defendant and h had been summoned to testify in be
 half of his nephew. much to his em
 barrassment. But he was saved tn
 ordeal The young man was convict ed and sent to the penitentiary, wher he remained a couple of years. an on his release he and the negres
 went to Mexico, where they wer married.