Year: 1871

"A righteous JuuSihehI h"S o'ei
the advocates of easy divorce. For a
long time they have been clamor'ng
for an immediate loosening of the
marriage tie, The masculine oppono'
nents of marriage, as it is now, have
contented themselves with insisting
upon revision Of our divorce laws,
SO that ill-mated couples could sep
arate when their union proved too
burdensomc to he borne. The wo-
men have gone further, and asserted
that they would be contented with
nothing but a change in the present
constitution Of the marriage relation,
so that it should be, not n life part
nership, but mere temporary union,
serarable at the pleasure Of either par
ty. Conservative people were begin
ming to fear that the radical rcformers
would carry out their purposes, and
that the ancient marriage institution
would be practically abolished. The
facilities for divorce have steadily in
creased until it has become posi-
bility for any wife or husband to put
away his or her partner either legally
or by misuse Of the forms of law,
And now comes Judge Barnard and
attacks the free lovers where they
least looked for an assault. He does
not combat their predictions for di.
vorce, but he increases the facilities
for marriage. His recent decision in
the Brinckley case will, if followed,
marry people faster than all the courts
in Indiana can divorce them.


The case is briefly as follows: A
man by the name of Brinckley had
lived with a woman for years, sus
tanning to her the relation of husband
and introducing her to his friends
and chance acquaintances as his wife
In point of fact, no marriage ceremony
whatever bound them together, and
the astute Brinckley fa9cied that he
could easily discard her whenever he
should grow tired of her. The latter
event finally happened, and Brinckley
quietly deserted her. leaving her tc
shift for herself She thereupor
brought an action to compel him te
support her on the ground that she wss
his vile. Judge Barnard decided tha
the fact of the woman having beer
represented by Brinckley to be hi'
wife, made him legally her HUSBAND
and that he could not plead the alb
sence of marriage ceremony as proc
that she was merely his mistress.


The consequences of this decision
will be ta Immediately increase the
number of married men and women,
especially in this city. Every man
whs has at some time loosely intro
duced a woman as his wife, will find
himself married to her. Every wo
man who has lived in intimate rela
tious with man will claim him as her
husband. The mistress Of every un.
married man will suddenly become
his wife, and every married woman
who has lover will find that she is
unconsciously blgamist. The fact
of cohabtation is thus made to super
sede the necessity of q marriage cere,
mony. The man who treats d wo-
man as his wife becomes husband in
spite ofhimself.


This will be extremely dishearten-
ing to the advocates of easy divorce.
While they have been endeavoring to
make the dissolution of marriage so
easy as to practically abolish the in
stitution, Judge Barnard suddenly
counteracts their efforts by making
marriage still easier. AS the law now
stands, people can be married more
easily than they can be divorced. In
diana may divorce, but New York can
marry. Which will win in tue strug-
gle2 ........