OCR Text |
Show A SCANDALOUS SITUATION. Some facts in a recently developed case-hero call for more thnn passing note. As given In the daily reports, they are brief, and substantially as follows: fol-lows: A young girl was made love to by a young man, they were married under un-der a bogus license, by a person who assumed to bo a justice of the peace; but It turns out that he was not, and further, that he bridegroom was a married mar-ried man. with a family in Iowa, The couple thus Illegally wedded here., lived togethor happily for a time,, but recently re-cently the "husband" heard of the serious se-rious Illness of hlo baby In Iowa, stole his trunk from the home where he was living here, and went back to his family fam-ily in the Hawkeye tate. On this state of facts, the deserted woman applied to the authorities for redress, with startling results. It Is found that the man who personated the Justice of the peace In the villainous affair, can be sent to the penitentiary for three years, and a fine of a thousand thou-sand dollars may be also Imposed upon him. But as to the chief rascal, there seems no way to reach him. He was not free to marry, of course, and' the ceremony was void for that reason, but he cannot bo prosecuted for bigamy, because be-cause the ceremony was performed by an unauthorized person. There is no penalty for procuring a bogus marriage license, or representing some other sort of a paper. as a marriage license. He cannot be convicted of adultery, because be-cause In the absence of proof of his Iowa marriage, the State could not show that his relations with his victim here were illicit or illegal, as the marriage mar-riage here would probably be held to be legal, In the absence of proof of the Iowa marriage. We submit that If this Is the proper statement of the legal situation, and it is given as siich by an officer of the law. then the Legislature of this State has a plain duty to Its citizens. It must protect Innocent glrla from this shameful shame-ful sort of Imposture. If it will not do so, then the scandalous situation will be another argument for the transference- by Constitutional amendment, to the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, Govern-ment, of the whole subject of marriage and divorce. Very many powerful reasons rea-sons exist (altogether aside from any local conditions of friction here as related re-lated to polygamy) for the change suggested, sug-gested, and the sentiment In tho East is rapidly tending in that direction, the idea being that a man who Is married, should be so In the eyes of the law. In every State In the Union, and the man who is not, should be free to marry anywhere. any-where. The divorce ruling, in the different differ-ent States have made these things doubtful In a number of cases. But they should never be In doubt, and lt seems that nothing but one law on the subject for tho whole country will correct the evils. And with Federal control, there would be something to appeal to In the case of matrimonial rights growing out of international marriages, whereas now there Is nothing. noth-ing. The case just exposed here Is clearly an Interstate affair, and by reason rea-son of the failure of legislation a blackhearted black-hearted scoundrel who deserves severe punishment goes free; but with the Federal Fed-eral Governmnt In control he would have short and sharp accounting. |