Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1905 — IN THE SWEAT BOX. [ARTICLE]

IN THE SWEAT BOX.

Will Candidates For Marriage License Be Placed Hereafter. The state board of health has made public the form that will be employed in an application for a marriage license under the law passed by the last legislature and wbioh will beoome operative with the proclamation of the laws of the general assembly to be made within a few days. And the list of questions the applicants will have to answer will be well nigh equivalent to being put through a "sweat box” by a police detective. In applying to the county olerk fora license the applioant must, among other things, make oatn that he is able to support a wife and family, is not afflicted with consumption or other transmissable disease, is of marriageable age under the law Bnd the prospective bride is a resident of the county in which the application is made. He must also tell whether be has ever been divoroed, and if so when and why. Having done thiß he must show that he has never been an inmate of any asylum for the poor or other charitable institution, and if he has been must show that his condition in life has so changed that he [is at the time of the application oapable of OBrmg for a wife and family. He must also give his occupation* If the answer to any of the questions set oat is not the proper one under the law, the clerk must refuse the lioense or beoome liable to a heavy fine. Thirty questions in all must be answered, and it will require full fifteen minutes to fill out the blank form before the license is granted, or longer than the marriage ceremony usually is. It will be the purpose of the board of health to [get a copy of the fcrm to the several county clerks o! the state in order that they may have the printed blanks ready and be able to issue license under the law as soon as it becomes operative. But even with this precaution, it is quite possible that a day or two may elapse in many oounties in which the olerk will not be able to issue a license.