The Washington times., 1922-05-16
FRENCH IN
DRIVE 7 D
HAL 7 EVIL
Gallo Statesmen Resent No.
toriety Achieved by Gay
City in DEGREES.

The fickleness of society's
fancy is nowhere better illus
trated, perhaps, than in its selec-
ton Of a Mecca for those of its
elect who, weary of their marital
ties, would have them shipped
asunder quickly, quietly, and with
as little Inconvenience as may be.
The twentieth century lacks
three years of attaining its first
quarter, yet in that brief period
less by five years than a gen
eration-the divorce Mecca of
American society has been To-
Gated in three different places.
The first two, Sioux Falls, S. D.,
and Reno, Neb., were Western cap
itals, but when the latest shift came,
within the last year or so, one would
almost have to use the fahled Seven
League Boots" to negotiate the gap
between the new divorce Mecca and
its immediate predecessor. For, be
1t known, 1t has for some months
now been the fashion for would-be
divorcons and divorces to sail to
Paris to obtain their surcease from
domestic woes.
Sioux Falls Leads.
Those who can recall the days
when wives journeyed to Sioux
Falls to divorce their life-partners
mo joke intended) will find their
heads plentifully strewn with Times
drifting snow If they look into their
mirrors for that gay period was in
the closing years Of the nineteenth
century.
Then news began 10 spread among
soCiety's deVotees by grapevine tel
egraph," for wireless had not come
into existence at that remote period
that the sparsely populated State of
Nevada possessed a code of laws
that seemed as II specially designed
for the comfort and happiness of the
maritally weary ones. The chief item
of it's elastic code was the require
ment that one seeking a divorce neeo
remain within the confines Of Nevada
only six months before he or she
might secure a decree.
A whole galaxy of society notables
date their emancipation from irk-
some marriage ties to a half-year
sojourn In Reno some time within
the past two decades.
Reno Had Day.
Among the beautiful women of
New York society who daZzled the
residents of the "sagebrush capi-
taP' was Mrs. Keith Donaldson,
known as the million dollar bride"
who obtained her decree from Keith
Donaldson, scion OF an old Phila-
delphia family Of wealth and social
eminence, in the late winter Of 1910.
She was a belle of Memphis CTenn)
society when married in st.
Thomas's Church four years before
the divorce.
1t was not until nearly a full
decade after the late Freddy Geb-
hard's beautiful eXwife, who had
become the first Mrs. Henry Clews,
Jr., wife OF the son of the noted
international banker, readily OBJ
tained a divorce from young Clews
that society discovered the marvel.
Gus ease and dispatch with which
marital ties may be severed in the
courts OF Frances gay capital.
Reno stubbornly held its posi-
ton as the divorce Mecca OF the
Western world until the divorce
evil' became so bad a curb was
put upon the traffic by extending
the period Of residence within the
State to one year. Society gasped
at the idea of living so long away
from its sunken baths and per-
fumed fountains and cast about for
q new Mecca. 1t was quickly dis
covered in Paris, most attractive OF
all continental capitals. There di-
Vorces could be procured quite as
neatly and swiftly as ever was
possible in Reno's palmiest days,
and, think of IT, with all the COM
forts of home" into the bargain.
Only last winter Mrs. Phil"
Bernhard, now Mrs. Louis Stuy-
vesant Chanler. won her marital
freedom between herself and her
swarthy husband.
About the same time the charm
ing Mrs. Cyril Hatch, she who be-
gan as Mrs. william K. Wander
bits daughter, the ci-devant Bar
bara Rutherfurd, was gladdened by
receiving from a Partisan Judge
the magic roll of parchment that
sundered the ties between herself
and one of Philadelphia former
Jeunesse dor.
Perhaps the most noteworthy in
stance of an American society
couple taking their marital Difficult.