Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1869 — A Divorce Abomination. [ARTICLE]

A Divorce Abomination.

Prom tto Indianapolis Journal. | We reproduce helotvi a clipping from tho Lagrange Standard, published in LaGrange county, reciting the facts of a most shameful outrage upon civilized society, perpetrated ■ under the shadow of that crying abomination known as our Divorce j Law, and w-e trust that another case 'of a like revolting character will I not be needed by our Legislators to induce them to move in the work of reform on this subject; that we may no longer be a hissing and a byword among the civilized States that surround us. The best interests of our people, and the onlightenment of the age demand this reform. If tho sacred obligations of the marital tie are to bo observed in accordance with the practice of civilized communities, let our statute books bo no longer cursed with enactments that st em no better than to invito such shameless disregard of common decency: “We would gladly withhold the following facts from publicity, would our duties to the public ami their interests permit. Not only because the parties implicated have hereto- j fore been held in good reputation by j the community, and esteemed us ■ friends, but rather because it develops an abuse of law, and moral degradation of the most shameful char* ae ter.

“Wo have been at some pains to obtain tlio facts of the case, and give them as we understand them to be, ami in tho order of their devel- j opment. “On Tuesday of last week, about 10 o’clock a. M., the wife of Albert j French stepped into the house ofj one of her neighbors, across the street, on an errand, and seeming in i a mood indicating no unusual feeling i she was i)*ked whether or not she ! had heard of a report that had just 1 reached town, to the effect that she was a divorced woman. She replied no, and went on to make some play-; ful remarks akimt the absurd stories j often set afloat, when another per- j son came in aud handed her a uote •* j from an attorney, informing her that; the rumor waa really true. Tliu i poor woman was amazed, tears coursed down her checks, and her j heart seemed ready to break. She had bean living with her husband twenty-one years, with him raised a family, had just the moment before left hi# sick room, and that of thOir daughter,a young woman, and now without a single intimation ox warning, ®ud» hl*rßelf ighbihlniously oait ofl! The anguish ol a woman's heart under such circumstances is beyond all description by our pen. Recovering after awhile from the shock, she returned home, where the husband confirmed the sad intelligence. —" “The application for the divorce was made by French in the Circuit Court in Elkhart county, but at what date we have not learned. The form of the law requiring the defendant, if a resident ot the State, to be notified by a personal service “either by reading or leaving a copy of the summons at his or her usual place of residence,” was complied with.— The Sheriff of this county though, did not receive the notice until the last day of service, in the afternoon, lie called that evening at her residence, but finding no one in, left a copy on the kitchen tabic. The paper never reached her hands. This the Sheriff thinks was on the sth of March. On Saturday, the 13th, her husband furnished-her a team and conveyance to visit her father.diving in the vicinity of Sturgis, also to bring homo her daughter,' On a visit there* Their son, the other only child, a youth of twenty, accompanied her. The mother and children returned the next day, Sunday, ! found the house warmed and every- ! thing in order, but no ono about.— The husband not returning that night 'she became uneasy, and the next morning made anxious inquiries of her neighbors about him, but no one knew his whereabouts. Tips whole week passed, and she couhl get no chio as‘to where he was, except that he was seen on Sunday start off west in a buggy with J. B. Wade, Esq. Tie returned on Saturday, the 10th, with a divorce in his pockety made somo explanation of his absence, just what we,know not, bat made no revelation of tho divoroe, but spent the week up to the 25th as though nothing bad occurred. •• . > .'" ■ * - »• **i to

“Mr. French is worth probably 15,000, but not one cent of alimony was granted his wife, though a por.lion of their properly wfts inherited by her, and nearly nil the balance the result of their mutual labor. So far as known outside of the family, they had been living in peace nnd unity. Some two weeks since, in company with some of iheir neighbors they participated in a social gathering in tho vicinity, and were among the gayest- and apparently happiest of the circle. She, nor no one present, dreamed that such a disgraceful social disaster was possible.”

Tho editor proceeds to ask: “How has this outrage on an innocent woman, on the sanctity of the marriage relation, on a family of dutiful and beloved children, on the morals of sopiety, been committed? The divorce law in its letter is odiously and shamefully loose—a hissing and a by-word in civilized society —but loose aud abominable as it is, it is not loose enough for aueh a transaction a* this, without fraud or perjury somewhere.” . Ho then proceeds to quote the Cth scction'of the Divorce Act, requiring a residence in the county, and asks how Mr. French could (ilea petition in Elkhart county being a resident of LaGrauge,

This adaptability of this infamous divorce act to evasive constructions, and its utter worthlessness for scrv- | ing the ends of justice, is too patent not to claim the attention of the Legislature at the approaching extra | session. The editor of the Standard ! very appropriately comments furi thyr: “The hopes of all that is dear to ' man, in his social and national rela- | tions, cluster around the family altar—around die sanctity of tho mar- | riage vow. The law, or its construo- | tion and enforcement, that ruthlessly invades the family, destroying the relations of husband and- w+fe, of parent and child, mutt be condemned and unhesitatingly rejected by every well wisher of society, or demoralisation that would disgrace heathendom itself will ensue. The man or 1 the. woman that will approve or wink at such a transaction as above related, has not the moral sensibility for safe citizenship.”