Newspaper Page Text
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Things That Are Happening
Netos Gleanings and Thoughts They Thing
The Diborce Lalvs of Georgia.
Judge W. D. Ellis is quoted by the Georgian as
saying from the bench of the Superior Court the
other day:
“The divorce laws of Georgia ought to be changed
so that no divorce can be granted on an ex parte
hearing where the complainant is the sole witness.
“We do not make the law, gentlemen of the jury,”
continued Judge Ellis. “We are here to administer
it as it has been made for us, but something ought
to be done. One marriage out of every twelve in
the United States ends in a divorce.
“A complainant will come into this court and on
ex parte hearings, such as are usual in undefended
divorce cases, will make the defendant out to be a
vagrant and deserving generally to be in the peni
tentiary, and afterwards when the defendant comes
into court asking permission to remarry the whole
aspect of the case has changed and the complainant
is the one who ought to be in the penitentiary.
The two cases are as different as the before and after
pictures of a patent medicine concern.”
This remark of Judge Ellis’ is just and true,
but it does not, after all, touch the real point of
weakness in our law. The divorce trials in Georgia
permit a wrong in well nigh every case, that violates
one of the fundamental principles of common law,
namely: “Allowing a wrong doer to take advantage
of his own wrong.” A man mistreats his wife
because he wants to marry another woman. Then
he goes off, and leaves her to get a divorce. There
is no defence, of course, he wants her to get it, and
he does not care a button what she proves on him,
provided she will get her paper, and leave the court
house to him. He comes and proves all that he
wants to, and gets his discharge, and goes straight
way and marries the other one (I will not call it
“a woman”). I am sure that the law is abused
in that practice. It could never have been the inten
tion of the legislature to provide for so glaring a
violation of a basal principle of good morals. When
a defendant in a divorce case refuses to defend, and
a judgment is taken against him by default a record
is made that shows that he was guilty of wrongs
that the law says were sufficient to justify the
granting of a divorce to his wife. When therefore
he comes in, and sets up the wrongs that he has
suffered, he ought to be told, that it does not make
one particle of difference how bad she was, the
record shows that he was too bad for her to live
with and that he was therefore not fit to live with
any other woman, and that it would be allowing
him to take advantage of his own wrong, to remove
his disabilities. If the legislature did intend the
law to work that way, it is still wrong. And if a case
were properly presented, I have no question in my
mind, but that the Supreme Court would apply the
principle that I have pointed out. It will be noticed
that as our law is administered, there is no one
to raise the question. The plaintiff, of course, does
not make the point, because she has got her dis
charge and gone. She has no further interest in it.
The defendant of course does not want to invoke
that rule, because it would prevent the very thing
that 'he is asking for. That monstrosity of juris
prudence would at once disappear, if defendants
understood that an adverse verdict in a divorce
•suit, brought by the other party, would be a per
petual bar to any subsequent marriage. In that event
the divorce eases would all be defended, and the
number of them would rapidly decrease.
The increasing frequency of divorces is largely
attributable to the practice in this respect. The
law as administered puts a premium on not defend
ing divorce suits. J. L. D. H.
ft ft
The wife of a missionary in Mexico wrote home
the other day that the only kind of tainted money
to which she objected was that kind to which, as she
contemplated the great needs of that region, she was
obliged to apply t'he sad words, “ Tain’t ours.” —
Congregationalist.
ft ft
THE MISSION GIRL, THAT THRILLING NEW
STORY—SEND FOR IT, SI.OO,
The Golden Age for April 1, 1909.
The Non-Tnforcement.
The daily papers report that the judge of the
criminal division of the city court excuses the
failure to convict anybody of violating the prohibi
tion law, by saying that the evidence furnished by
the detectives is so incompetent that it is not pos
sible to convict anybody under it. This is pitiable,
but is it not a trifle strange that convictions come
up from all the other cities. Even Savannah, with
its avowed purpose to disregard the law, is convict
ing the offenders, while Atlanta seems to be helpless.
The atmosphere of the city criminal court seems
to be entirely disposed to allow the blind tiger
men to do as they please. It is indeed a lamentable
condition of things. J. L. D. H.
ft ft
"Harmony of Some Revelations.
By Rev. J. J. Lanier, with an Introduction by the
Rt. Rev. C. K. Nelson, D. D., Bishop of Atlanta.
The modern philosopher has an immeasurable ad
vantage over those of ancient times. Socrates and
Plato, with all their wonderful insight into the mean
ings of things, were mere tyros, yet they have left
their labors to enrich the modern disciple of re
search. But the great source of true wisdom is the
divine revelation. The modern philosopher who ig
nores the Bible, is almost as helpless as Socrates
when he was blindly groping in the dark as he
sought to learn something about himself as a man,
and just as blind was Darwin, as he, with his eyes
closed against the Bible, searched all the records of
history and the rocks to find the “origin and the
KINGSTREE, S. 0., MAR 17, 1909.
DEAR BRO. EDITOR:
I ENCLOSE $2.00 FOR RENEWAL TO
THE GOLDEN AGE. I AM TAKING
EIGHTEEN PAPERS, AND OF THEM ALL
I FIND MORE TO INTEREST ME IN THE
GOLDEN AGE THAN ALL THE OTHERS
COMBINED. I DON’T SAY THIS TO
FLATTER YOU BY ANY MEANS, BUT
THERE ARE MORE GOLDEN THOUGHTS
IN YOUR PAPER THAN IN ALL THE
REST TOGETHER.
A. M. SNIDER.
differentiation of the species,” when the first twenty
six verses of Genesis gives it all, so plainly that a
child can understand. After sixty years of fruitless
search, he admitted that his labor had been in vain,
and then died, leaving his life’s work to be relegated
to the top shelves and forgotten.
The author of the little volume before us, is im
measurably more wealthy in his resources. He comes
to the revealed Word and takes it up 2 as facts
that will serve his purpose in the search after those
truths that must be found out by the labor of inter
pretation. He shows that instead of the idea of a
Triune God being a mystery that is unthinkable it
is in fact, in accord with the most familiar observa
tions of life. He shows, with enticing ingenuity,
that all the analogies of creation sustain the “facts
of the record” about “The Virgin Birth,” and thus
he goes on showing things. In a small volume of
150 pages, because he has been brave enough to
think for himself, and fear God alone, he has given
answers to a number of the pet puzzles of the
learned, that are in complete accord with all the
doctrines of Grace and Salvation.
So far, I have seen only one thing that 1 do not
think is quite as good as it might have been, that is:
The use of the word “immanent.” To my mind that
word has an odor to it like the dead fly in the oint
ment. The “imminency of God,” as it is discussed,
is so flippant and so tending to make common the
great God, that my feelings revolt from its use, and
in one very distinguished quarter it has exhibited a
suggestion toward pantheism that makes me wish
that Mr. Lanier had found a safer word. As he de
fines and uses it, there is no harm in it I hop?.
J. L, D. H.
SELECTED SMILES
TO MAMMA’S BOY.
I’ve hazel eyes, a smile of joy,
Pink cheeks and tresses curly.
If mamma’s boy would be my boy
I’d be a; happy girlie.
—Buttercup.
ft
1 ‘ My dear, ’ ’ said the wife of the eminent profess
or, “the hens have scratched up all that eggplant
you sowed. ” “ Ah, jealousy! ’ ’ mused the professor.
And lhe sat down and wrote a twenty-page article
on the “Development of Envy in the Minds of the
Dower Grade of Bipeds.”—Baltimore American.
ft
Cobwigger: “Does it require much ability to run
an auto?”
Merritt: “That depends. When it breaks down
it takes a fellow with plenty of push to get it home.”
—Smart Set.
ft
Ohollie: “Youah daughter has consented to marry
me, na—er —I ’d like to know if there is any insanity
in youah family.”
Old Gentleman (emphatically): “There must be!”
ft
Miss Millyun: “One can be very happy in this
world with health and money.”
Deadbroke: ‘ ‘ Then let’s be made one. I have the
health and you have the money.” —Exchange.
ft
“Well, well!” exclaimed Farmer Hayrick, read
ing the weekly paper, “it says here: ‘Jason Strong
of Pikeville, who has been barely alive for weeks,
was buried last Wednesday.’ ” “The idea,” cried
his wife. “That’s terrible! They couldn’t wait
till he was dead, eh?”
ft
“Let me kiss those tears away?” he begged, ten
derly. She fell for it, and he was busy for the next
fifteen minutes. And yet the tears flowed on. ‘ ‘ Can
nothing stop them?” he asked, breathlessly sad.
“Nope,” she murmured. “It’s hay fever, you know.
Bud go od with the treatment.”
ft
“Dear me!” said Mrs. A., who was in the moun
tains on vacation. “What :a» nice letter file you
have!” “Yes, it is rather unique,” replied Mrs. B.
“But whalt do you put in that department labeled
‘Fiction?’ ” “Oh, the letters I receive from my
dear husband telling me what he is doing in town
while I am far away.”
ft
“Close up, boys, close up!” said a colonel to his
regiment. “If the enemy were to fire on you when
you were straggling along like that they wouldn’t
kill a single man of you. Close up!”
ft
Fair Visitor (at seaside, to mariner): “Why are
vessels spoken of as ‘she’? It’s because they glide
so gracefully, now, isn’t it?”
Mariner: “No, miss, it ain’t. It’s because of
their riggin ’ costing so much ! ’ ’ —Exchange.
ft
Mrs. Gadabout : “ My husband is so slipshod.
His buttons are forvere coming off.”
Mrs. Grim in: “Perhaps they are not sewn on
properly. ’ ’
Mrs. Gadabout: “That’s just it. He is so care
less with his sewing.”—London Tattler.
ft
First Super: “ Ow are you a-gettin on in your
profession, William?”
Second Super: “Fine! I’ve come to the front, I
can tell you. In last year’s pantomime I played
the hind legs of the elephant. This year I am the
fore legs.”
ft
In the Near Future—Old Friend: “And so both of
your children are studying professions?”
Hostess: “Yes, my daughter is in a polytechnic
college, studying mechanical engineering, and my
son is in Paris, learning dressmaking.”—New York
Weekly.
*
“'So,” said Mr. Donegan, “they’s been printing
the funeral notices av a man that wasn’t dead yit.
It’s a nice fix he’d be in if he had been wan o’ these
people that believe iverythin’ in the newspapers!”
