Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1925-05-14
USES AUTO CURE
FOR THE DIVORCE EVIL
Written for the Watauga Democrat
By DIRK De YOUNG
Through Autocaster Service

Gears and kiddies," says Judge
Martin C. Ashley of Woodbridge N.
j., lis the remedy for divorce. The
auto is for airing and the children
for common interest.
"Pile the family in an automobile
and hike them over the country and
where they can get whiff of nature
and the cause of martial wrangling
is removed" this elderly Judge as
serts.
1.-The stuffy ar of apartment hou-
ses, the uneventfulness of being pen
ned in the home with nothing but the
four walls of house to look at, make
people irritable and quarrelsome. Ma
ture never meant that man should
live in that way. Get the family back
to nature and family troubles will
disappear"
That is what Judge Ashley preach
es in his 57th year, practicing what he
breaches as nearly as he can.
In the fifteen years he has held
down the job as judge at Woodbridge
he has handed down more than 49,
600 Judicial decisions, many of them
regarding martial difficulties and in
all that time not one if his dictums
has ever been reversed by a higher
court
The Judge is bachelor Yet he
has the difficult role of settling hun
dreds of disputes between husband
and wives and between parents and
children. Wayward boys, who simply
go wrong because of their pentup
lives in circumscribed home surround
ings, out for more of lark than for
intentional wrong doings. come be-
fore him daily. He always says they
could be corrected better by climb
ing into the automobile with their
parents and getting adventure in the
country than by stern rebukes from
a judge.
A large number of people go be-
fore Judge Ashley every year, ex-
pecting him to start the ball roll
ing for divorce, but, with the wis
dom Of Solomon, he generally patches
up these misunderstanding and ad-
vises the quarreling pair to get an
automobile and seek happiness to-
gether in the haunts of nature.
Judge Ashley has old fashioned j.
deas about marriage. He thinks that
when the matrimonial wires of hus-
band and wife become tangled, they
should be Strengthened out, not cut.
He does not believe in divorce, ex-
cept as last resort. Patching up
tEese little differences between mis-
understanding couples therefore has
been quite speciality with him.
AS result divorce is rare phe-
nomenon in his jurisdiction. His
automobile philosophy has undoubted
ly been worked we'll.
This judge is also authorized to
marry people. Although he does not
have a rush of business with Cupid's
victims, de does some splicing up oc-
casionally. He is very particular a.
bout the job Of making one out of
two people, also. In other words those
who come before him to be hooked up
are obliged to show clean bill Of
health first in the way of previous
marriage alliances. He adhefes to the
principle that marriage is very SOL
emn thing, and that two people so
joined together should not be lightly
rent asunder.
When the marriage yoke begins to
rub the fur the wrong way, it is fre-
quently caused by bad air and the
monotony of the four walls in the
average home, says the Judge and
that is when he prescribes the auto
mobile cure.