"Th' Divoorce Congress, Hinnissy, that I'm tellin' ye about was
assembled to make th' divoorce laws iv all th' States th' same. It's a
tur-rble scandal as it is now. A man shakes his wife in wan State on'y
to be grabbed be her an' led home th' minyit he crosses th' border.
There's no safety f'r anny wan. In some places it's almost impossible
f'r a man to get rid iv his fam'ly onless he has a good raison. There's
no regularity at all about it. In Kentucky baldness is grounds f'r
divoorce; in Ohio th' inclemency iv th' weather. In Illinye a woman can
be freed fr'm th' gallin' bonds iv mathrimony because her husband wears
Congress gaiters; in Wisconsin th' old man can get his maiden name back
because his wife tells fortunes in th' taycup.
"In Nebrasky th' shackles ar-re busted because father forgot to wipe his
boots; in New York because mother knows a Judge in South Dakota. Ye can
be divoorced f'r annything if ye know where to lodge th' complaint.
Among th' grounds ar-re snorin', deefness, because wan iv th' parties
dhrinks an' th' other doesn't, because wan don't dhrink an' th' other
does, because they both dhrink, because th' wife is addicted to sick
headaches, because he asked her what she did with that last $10 he give
her, because he knows some wan else, because she injyes th' society iv
th' young, because he f'rgot to wind th' clock. A husband can get a
divoorce because he has more money thin he had; a wife because he has
less. Ye can always get a divoorce f'r what Hogan calls incompatibility
iv temper. That's whin husband an' wife ar-re both cross at th' same
time. Ye'd call it a tiff in ye'er fam'ly, Hinnissy.
"But, mind ye, none iv these raisons go in anny two States. A man that
wants to be properly divoorced will have to start out an' do a tour iv
our gr-reat Republic, an' be th' time he's thurly released he may want
to do it all over agin with th' second choice iv his wild, glad heart.
"It wud be a grand thing if it cud be straightened out. Th' laws ought
to be th' same ivrywhere. In anny part iv this fair land iv ours it shud
be th' right iv anny man to get a divoorce, with alimony, simply be
goin' befure a Justice iv th' Peace an' makin' an affydavit that th'
lady's face had grown too bleak f'r his taste. Be Hivens, I'd go
farther. Rather than have people endure this sarvichood I'd let anny
man escape be jumpin' th' conthract. All he'd have to do if I was
r-runnin' this Governmint wud be to put some clothes in th' grip, write
a note to his wife that afther thinkin' it over f'r forty years he had
made up his mind that his warm nature was not suited to marredge with
th' mother iv so manny iv his childher, an' go out to return no more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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