A SECRET ANTI-MARRIAGE SOCIETY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1759, 5 July 1888, Page 4

A SECRET ANTI-MARRIAGE SOCIETY.

A curious marriage case has just come to light at Salford. A youth named Hall, who was married last year at the age of 20 to a girl aged 16, seems to have neglected his domestic responsibilities and he was summoned to ''show cause why he should not contribute to the maintenance of his wife." It was explained that the pair never lived together, and only saw one another occasionally for some time, when the young husband stopped his visits. It may be assumed that the boyish man had an inadequate conception, of the obligations of marratge, and possibly he thought himself justified in exercising his unexhausted capacity for courtiag the wrong girl. Hall did not thus explain his conduct when called upon by the Magistrate to do so. His explanation was somewhat extraordinary. He belonged, he said, to a secret society, by the rules of wnich, the members were prohibited from marrying. But love, that laughs at bolts and bars, can also defy written rules. It is not clear whether Hall informed his sweetheart of his position as a member of the society of compulsory celibacy. If he did thoroughly explain how he Btood, the lady must have possessed unusual courage, for it seems that the result of a breach of the society's rules was the penalty of death. Of this awful state of things he seems to have told his wife after the marriage. In marrying her he had, he said, forfeited his life, for if the society discovered his offence, he would be a dead man. In ordinary circumstances impending calamities only serve the more to endear newly-married hearts to each other. We should think also that in most cases like this, flight to some remote corner would readily suggest itself. The marvel if, that the young wife did not quietly betake herself to the nearest police office, and there and then reveal the deadly secret. Perhaps she was softened into silliness by love, as he was reduced to cowardice by fear. At all j events they acted like a couple of I

pulpy-headed fools. They ought to have known that while their marriage was legal, the rules of the jecret society were illegal, according to the laws of the land, and immoral, according to the law written on the human heart. Possibly, however the story of the secret society was a myth created by Hall ai a means of »Bcape from consequences of his raw haste. If so, the invention was a failure, for the Court quite took the romance out of the affair by ordering the offending husband to pay 8s a week for the support of his wife, who is still but 17, while he is 21. True or false, it is a pretty story. The notion of a secret society sworn to celibacy on pain of death is almost as entertaining as the story of the " Suicide Club," told by Mr Louis Stevenson, in the new Arabian Nights. We could suggest an idea for a nica quiet club which, if properly conducted, could do a great deal for the improvement of society. It would be called the " Anti-Wife Beating Club," the mam rule of which might be that the member who blackened his wife's eyes, or kicked her, should have a finger or a toe cut off th« offending hand or foot for each offence until he was or toeless. The club might extend its good offices to outsider j. By a few signal examples they might strike such terror into the brutes that blackened female eyes and bruised limbs would disappear from the community.