| Show DIVORCE IN JAPAN the most extraordinary tales related of the facility of obtaining decrees of divorce in indiana or chicago pale I 1 e fore stories that come from japan A native japanese paper mentions the case of a man aged forty this year living in the province of who has married and divorced thirty five div wives e 8 and is now married to the thirty sixth says the illustrated american he was first married dt at eighteen and the reason assigned for this extraordinary example of inconstancy is that he has a younger sister of extremely jealous and rancorous disposition who arm the moment that a bride enters the house institutes a system of persecution whick soon drives the unhappy woman to ask her husband for a divorce the husband is helpless to restrain the vagaries of his sister and cannot can not turn her out so the wretched business goes on year after year the native chronicler adds a circumstance which is improbable even in the east he says that in two oases cases the brides arriVi arriving Dg at the door of their future home changed color and declaring that they recognized the house as one where they had already passed some months of most miserable wedlock fled without further parley commenting upon this story the japan apan mail a says that whether accurate amr all res respects acts or not it illustrates the difference between japanese and english fashions i n respect of marriage among the lower orders in japan sentiment is seldom allowed to play any influential part in the arrange ments preliminary to matrimony in aln many CROW cases the man and woman have neverseen each other until they are formally brought together with the object of securing their consent to become husband and wife and it rarely happens that either is so impolite as to conceive or admit any disagreeable impression after this interview the higher the social scale the more attention is paid to the fancies of the man and of late those of women also are beginning to be regarded but the principle underlying the whole marital relation in japan seems to be that the affection which really survives the passage of years and makes married life happy is not the lover which precedes union but the respect esteem and sense of mutual helpfulness that grow up after it in short marriage in japan is a preliminary experiment whereas in the west it is a final contract at the some same time to be divorced by her husband is a disgrace to a chinese wife and aid to divorce his wife without reasonable excuse is a disgrace to a husband |
