MARRIAGE MACHINE IN REVERSE GEAR.

Shannon News, 18 December 1925, Page 2

MARRIAGE MACHINE IN REVERSE GEAR.

"I THOUGHT OF YQU, JACK!" The severing of the marriage tie has'nowadays become such-a simple and well regulated operation that divorce court ■proceedings,, having fqr : their object the parting of two people \» ."whom God hath joined," are, contrary to general belief, tedious and; uninteresting in. the extreme,The' marriage machine .'rains in reverse gear with well-oiled precision; judges, principals, and lawyers play their several parts without emotion, and the granting of a decree nisi in an' undefended actton, becomes, as matter of fact, as the purchase of a dog license. Familiarity breeds—if not oonempt, at least indifference, and) the Court which has listened day after day to domestic incompatibilities which, however tragic, and individual they may seem to the parties involved, 1 all bear a strong family likeness,- passes them by as a matter, of routine.

.'Occasionally only there is some ■word spoken, some' phrase in a letter which draws aside the cloak of the matter-of-fact and reveals the wreck age Of .a home, and the high hopes which,went' to its building. Sucli a case occurred only this week when a man sued for a divorce troni a wife who. had deserted', him four years previuxsjy. There was no suggestion of infidelity or any of the usual objectionable' ieatosres. of such cases. The wile' had found the country toolonely, and alter a few months itad Toll her "husiaud, whose wwk took him away from home a lot, and returned to town. A letter was produced as evidence of the wife's desertion, and handed to the presiding judge, Mr Justice MacGregor. "1 thought of you, Jack," read His Honour, yesterday, "on the anniversary of our wedding day. We little thought on that day four years ago that things would come to this!." Quite a simple little document, without .emotionalism or striving for effect, but s>ill a vitally human document, atbrob with the undefined pathos of the might-have-been 1 There was a small silence in the court when the letter was finished. It was broken by Has Honour. "H'm," lie said, and toyed with the letter for a moment. "H'm I Decree nisi," and the wheels of the machine turned another cog.—N.Z. Times.