Evening star., 1924-09-14
3O-DAY DIVORCES
EASY IN YUCkTAN
Mexican Province Sets Out
to Beat Reno and Paris
for u. S. "Trade."

NdbeldlS- poor olu uedE, "Oulu I'D e
chuckled over this story. But he |
wouldn't have chuckled half as hard |
as do the members of q slender pro-
cession winding its way from Green
wich Village to the docks of GER |
tain steamship line.
Are they going to the art centers of
Europe to improve their souls? Not
they. They are bound for Yucatan,
Mexico, to see the sights and get
divorced. An eightday trip-one of
the eight being spent in Havana,
thirty days among the Maya ruins or
the congenial spirits of Yucatan. and
eight days back. A divorce in a
month and a half all told. And
cheap. Even an improvised artist
can afford it.
Yucatan, as all may have heard, is
that extremely red province in the
south of Mexico which produces hemp
and jokes among the radicals. Yuca
tan. in it's quiet way, has put over
quite a few jokes on the rest of the
world 1t has bloomed redder than
an American Beauty without stirring
up all the adverse publicity Russia
has received. Another of the jokes
is its divorce law, which Mexicans
themselves characterize with the
epithet "Rabel la isian."
Frankly Tourist Bait.
Those thirty-day divorces are
frankly tourist bait something more
of an attraction than mere wet goods.
They are particularly attractive to
travellers from the States. And Mex
leans, in their quietly humorous fash
ion, want to offer the tourist their
best. Two other Mexican provinces
nearer the center of things than
Yucatan are going to pass similar
divorce laws this fall. according to
the underground wireless.
One of them is only six hours from
Mexico City, where there is some
thing to do while waiting for ones
divorce. Yucatan has nothing to
offer but prehistoric Maya ruins, and
thirty days of ruins are too much to
expect of the divorce king
traveller. agree the considerate Mex
leans.
The natives themselves rarely get
divorced, but they look with cynicism
and tolerance at the marital strug-
giles of their neighbors to the north
The spectacle of the Mexican eagle
cutting the gordian knot of matri-
mony amuSeS them and fills their
purses at the same time.
Promises Painless Severing.
And painless severing of the
marriage tie Yucatan has Reno,
Paris. the Balkans, and Soviet Russia
beaten by a mile. Divorces are dis
penSed while you wait, like rubber
heels or dog licenses. They are sold
over the same counter as marriage
licenses. except that they are less
difficult to obtain. Thirty days resi-
dence and d fee varying from $3.50
20 SIS are the only requirements.
Courts, judges, lawyers are delight
fully absent. Legal cause need not
Worry any one. since it is cause
enough that one wants d divorce
fnr he art, of he art
he or she does not even need to do
thirty days among the ruins. The
other partner does not have to be pro-
duced even notified. Yucatan
counts the divorced one to attend
to the last.
Neither are there any rules gainst
repeaters. one Greenwich Village
artist has had five Yucatan divorces
and is going soon for his sixth. 1t
is, as every one admits delightful
boat trip to Yucatan. and what could
be d more appropriate climax than 81
divorce?
Press Agent Is Busy.
The press agent of Yucatan's di-
vorce mecca and the man who takes
credit for framing the law left New
York just few days ago. He is
Roberto Habermann, and he an
nounces himself, among other things,
as SHOck dDSOIbtE bSlNteH tHe NhtA-
lean labor movement and the Amer
lean Federation of Labor" Incl
dentally, he was the mouthpiece for
Gen. Plutarco Elias Gales, incoming
President of Mexico, on the latters
recent visit here.
Habermann bewailed the fact that
the procession of divorce seekers to
Yucatan is still SO slender 1t was,
he said, good thing going to waste.
Here this thing has been going on
for two years, and some of my
friends are married yet" he said.
But all this will be remedied soon.
Yucatan is going after publicity. Mr..
Habermann writes, talks and popu
Iarizes the thirty-day divorce. He
may soon open a bureau in New York
to expedite travel to Yucatan, he
says. Cards extolling the Yucatan
divorce mecca as IAN opportunity to
visit the prehistoric Maya ruins. the
most famous in the world" and get
divorced at the same time are filter
ing through the village.
Made Law to Aid Friends.
Mr.. Habermann wrote the Yucatan
divorce law partly to help his friends
and partly to help travel to Mexico.
But there is note of sobriety in all
this-just enough to give RabelaiS,
who had convictions of his own, an
added chuckle.
II did it to prove A point" he said,
which is that laws don't make much
difference. You cant force people to
get divorced by making divorce easy.
In fact, the easier it is the less they
want it. The natives of Yucatan
never get divorced; the only ones who
do are people from the States.
I'VE have some of the most ex-
treme labor laws in the world-even
more extreme than in Russia. You
can't make people do things by law.
You might just as well pass a law
that everybody must be happy.
However" Mr.. Habermann went
on, Il like to help my friends. In
Yucatan you can get married in the
morning and divorced at noon. And
it is easier to get divorced than to
. get married. for you have to publish
the banns and everything, and by the
time it's over you will be grand
father and your eldest daughter will
be eloping with someone.
Its my ambition some day to have
them sell divorces in the five and ten
cent stores, just as they do the
classics now"