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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 1902)
THE COUKIE W)eopk . . . u who 6et Bi&OKGS The granting of a dozen or more di vorces and the filing of as many more during the past week serve to call at tention to the popularity of Lincoln as a divorce center, although as a matter of cold statistical fact no more are be ing filed than in former years. The people who get divorces are an Interesting study. As a general rule they come from the lower classes of society. As American society Is now constituted we have the aristocratic class, the higher middle class of pro fessional and business men, the lower middle class of skilled workmen whose labor Is of the rougher sort and the lower classes of day laborers and the uneducated. Education, outside of tho aristocratic class, rather than occupa tion, is more of a determining factor. It is from these two lower castes that nine-tenths of the applicants for divorce come. The other tenth are all the more prominent because of their standing. Most of the applicante are women. This is because men, when they are dissatisfied with their con nubial alliances, pick up their belong ings and go elsewhere. One experi ence sickens them for the time being of matrimony, while women, being by nature dependent upon man and being more prone to throw up the struggle of self-support, heart-breaking as . It is usually, are likely to accept the next chance that offers Itself. Second marriages are not always happy ones, despite the assertions of some sociologists to the contrary. The number of divorce applicants who con fess to Council Bluffs marriages and second trials are numerous enough to prove at least that it Is a rule with many exceptions. Desertion, cruelty and non-support are the usual allegations. If there are other grounds they are kept from the court. The wife never knows why her husband left her. The husband can't for the life of him recall ' any reason for his wife's packing up and leaving. All of the persuasiveness of the court cannot get the truth. It is evident in most cases that they are either lying or else they were encased in a garment of self appreciation during their married life that convinced them they could do no wrong, that all they did they should have done. Old men and young men, old women and young women, all pass In review before the courts. A girl of nineteen the other day got a divorce an hour af ter a woman sixty-two had left the stand. A young man of twenty-four was divorced the same day as a pro fessional man of sixty-eight. White haired old people with but a brief span of life left; young people with the bit ter memory of a few miserable years still with them; men and women with faces heavy with sorrow, or blithe and gay; dulL sodden countenances or bright, inspiring faces they are all seen there. I X f W. F. Ackerman, the newly appilnted master mechanic of the Bur lington company's locomotive shops at Havelock. Lincoln's most thriving suburb, was born in ML Pleasant, Iowa, July 6, 1870. He en tered the service of the Burlington as a machinist's apprentice on March 19th, 1888, at the Plattsmouth rhops. After serving four years as an apprentice he was promoted to the position of machinist and worked in that capacity at different points on the Burlington until February, 1895. when he was transferred to the engine service on the Wyoming di vision, serving as a fireman until the first of October of the same year. He was transferred to Havelosk as a machinist, where he worked until January, 1897, when he was promoted to-the position of pit foreman. This place he held until February, 1501, when he was made machine shop foreman at Alliance. He was next advanced to the position of general piece work Inspector of the system west of the Missouri. On September 1st of this year he was placed in charge at Havelock. The Havelock shops are the largest on the Burlington's trans-Missouri lines and rank In importance with any on the entire system of the rail road company. The working force numbers about 500 men and the monthly pay roll approximates 130,000. Mr;Ackerman's advancement has been unusually rapid and today he is one of the youngest men In the railroad world to occupy so responsible a place. Some give their testimony freely and frankly; others compel it to be dragged out of them. Most approach the wit ness stand with apparent trepidation, that soon wears away either in the stress of their emotions, the mirrored mental reflections of happy, bygone days that start many women and some men to weeping; or else the recollec tion of insult or contumely that fire the eye and make hard the voice. Fome give their testimony in a matter of fact way, as though it was but the repetition of an oft-told tale; others are debonair and unimpressed. The latter are few In number. Most of the divorces are heard eith er at the beginning of the morning ses sion or Just before that of the after noon. The attorneys have the cases set down a few days in advance, and GREEN GABLES. -.?- --,'--. met sr The Dr. Benj. P. Bailey Sanatorium Is not a hospital, not a hotel, bit a home. The building is situated on a sightly hill at Normal, and Is reached by the cars of tte Lincoln street railway, being only 23 minutes' ride from the business center of the city. It is thoroughly equipped and beautifully furnished. ETery electric current useful in the treatment of the sick is used, and ideal Turkish. Russian, and Medicated Baths are given. In conditions where the kidneys and llrer are affected, and in cases of rheumatism, our Hot Air treatment has been remarkably successful. For full In formation address Th0 m. r. MmUmy 9mmmtmrtum, Unamlm, JV. notify their clients to be there. The testimony of the applicant alone will not secure a decree: there must be cor roborative testimony. Usually one oth er is sufficient. The latter is usually a relative cognizant in a general or possibly specific way with the trouble between the pair. The couple slip into seats outside the space reserved for attorneys and sit there silent but interested In all that goes on. Very few of the cases are contested. Where there Is a quarrel In court It is over the amount of alimony or the custody of children. Only now and then does one party to the marriage seek to prevent the other from getting free. The judges do what they can In these contested cases to get an agreement to try it again, but the fires of hate have been kindled above the ashes of love, and seldom are they affected Poverty Is perhaps the moving cause in most of the divorce cases. A young man with a slender wage marries a girl of no particular stamina or stur diness of character. She develops shrewish tendencies, thinly veiled for a time by loving tenderness, a method in vogue to get what one wants with out having a fight for it. She insists upon her own pleasures first, his de sires last. When the glamor of first love wears off selfishness appears un derneath. The insistence of the wife up on her own way jars soon upon the sens:; of fairness of the man. He begins to compare what he has now with what he possessed before his marriage, his freedom replaced by thralldom, tne money he had to spend on himself that now scarcely suffices for two. Quarrels, little breaks, come and some day he picks up his belongings and departs. He cares no longer. Or perhaps he is the selfish one. He keeps a tight hold upon the family pocketbook. spends what he pleases for his pleasure or the titlllation of his ap petite, grudgingly doles out to her what she can shame him Into giving. He Is convivial and the usual fate of the good fellow awaits him. His wife may cling to him despite his conduct or his blows, or she may leave him. If she clings too long he takes the initia tive. In both cases the lack of money" or of the wisdom of wise expenditure Is the wedge that splits the conjugal log. and makes two of one. Jealousy, hate, fickleness, cruelty, drink, lus.t, one or the other of the vicious tendencies of men und women, are present, of course. In many cases. Women who shrink from all the responsibilities of marriage, cold, passionless women who cannot or will not understand the na ture of man. play their part, too, in this great drama of wrecked lives. This crops out now and then with sometimes startling directness. Not long ago when the plaintiff's name was called In a divorce suit a dashing, well-dressed young woman stepped forward. She was the wife of a skilled mechanic who had deserted her side for another woman. Her de meanor and the flash of her dark eya were the recreant husband's Justifica tion. They burned with the fire of Jeal ousy, there was in the voice the ring of the termagant, in her gestures the impulsiveness of the domestic tyrant. She got her divorce, the law Justified its giving, but It was not necessarily a Judgment against the man. Another distinctive character was an old man who had married a young wo man, been properly bled for Jewelry and presents of money and then flung aside. There could have been no other outcome. No woman with nerves and who hasn't them could have stood his fusslness or his general oppressiveness. Men with cold, fishy eyes, denoting the temperament of the miser and the dis position of the prying overseer, women betraying In their looks, tones and ges tures the shrewishness of their dispo sition and the nagging character of their intercourse, come und tell their tales, one-sided ones at that, and go away with their decrees. For what can the Judges do? The law says that a divorce may be grant ed for certain causes. These are prov en, there Is no one to fully enlighten the court, he finds It hopelf-s to either induce or compel a reconciliation and a re-uniting. And so the decree is granted, but with a reluctance and an inward disgust. The divorce court Is not an elevating or very often an entertaining place. The stories are much the same. Illumined now and then by some lit tle bizarre tendency or trend. The peo ple who seek Its favors are not as a rule cheerful visitors nor does their ap pearance lend brightness to the scene-. "Here's a German theologian who de nies the divinity of Christ." "Well! well! The next thing some body will deny the divinity of the kal ser." Town Topics. A VANDERBILT TO WED Reginald Vanderbilt, the latest photo grahph of whom appears above, will b the next Vanderbilt bridegroom. Th date of his wedding to Miss Kathleen Nellson will shortly be announced. Young Vanderbilt's possessions are es timated at twenty millions.
