Tuesday, 7th April 1914: Courting Days Boasts That Fail Not Divorce Grounds, Rules Court, The Atlanta Georgian

Reading Time: 5 minutes [761 words]

The pathetic and the ludicrous marched side by side in Judge W. D. Ellis' divorce mill Tuesday. The courtroom crowd cried with the young bride whose husband had dragged her about the house and left her lying sick while he went out and played poker; and laughed at the woes of the man who won his wife through a matrimonial agency and was exceedingly anxious to rid himself of her. They sympathized in silence with the wife who told of her husband setting fire to her gown, and snickered at the misunderstood man whose sensitive soul was wounded to the quick by thrusts of sarcasm and sundry harsh words.

The day's session also was productive of a precedent in a way by Judge Ellis, who ruled that boasting before marriage, the common practice men have of representing themselves to their sweethearts as men of finer quality than they really are, does not constitute fraudulent representations.

His Boasts Didn't Pan Out.

It came during the case of Mrs. Mary Dial, a young mountain girl, who asked for a divorce from Alton Dial. She asserted, through interrogatories presented by her attorney, that Alton Dial had told her he was an ambitious man; that he was making lots of money and would soon be a rich man, and that he loved her. She further stated that he was not ambitious, that he couldn't even support himself and that he made her work and was a "wooden man" and didn't love anybody. She incorporated this into her petition as a ground for divorce, but Judge Ellis ruled it out.

"Because," said the judge, "if you set aside the marriages of all the men who tell their sweethearts that they are finer men than they are, you would have to set aside 90 per cent of all the marriages that are consummated."

V. I. Costa, a big, strapping man, asked for a divorce from Mrs. Maggie Costa. He said his wife had been cruel to him.

"She was very sarcastic," he asserted. "She laughed at me all the time, and when I'd come into the house she wouldn't acknowledge my presence, and wouldn't talk to me. She'd act like I wasn't around at all."

Spoke Harshly to Him.

"Did she use violence?" Judge Ellis asked.

"Yes, sir," answered Costa. "She used harsh words to me!"

Judge Ellis grinned. The jury grinned. The crowd grinned. Then the foreman asked in what form the verdict should be if the jury wished to find against the plaintiff, and Costa's attorney hurriedly withdrew the suit.

R. J. Allen testified that he won his wife, Mrs. Tennie Allen, through a matrimonial agency in 1906. In 1907, he said, she left him because he wouldn't buy her an automobile. He got a decree.

Mrs. Clara Johnson, a pretty young woman who was married to Roy S. Johnson when she was 17 years old, told a harrowing tale of cruelty. She said her husband began abusing her nine months after marriage; that he drank heavily and neglected her, and that on several occasions he came home drunk and dragged her about the house, and choked her, threatening to kill her.

Set Fire to Her Nightie.

In May of last year, she said, she left him when he tried to shoot her. On one occasion, she said, he came home drunk and set fire to her nightdress with a match, endangering her life. She was given a verdict.

Mrs. Mamie Henderson, a 16-year-old girl, asked for a divorce from Carl Henderson, to whom she was married two years ago. She said he beat her regularly, and wouldn't support her. On one occasion, she said, he left her alone when she was very ill, and went to the home of a friend to play cards. He lost, she said, and when he came back, he slapped her. She said he drank all the time and made her work in the cotton mills and helped support him.

Mrs. Annie Fisher, wife of Ira Fisher, who figured in the Frank case through his denunciation of a well-known merchant as the murderer of Mary Phagan, was awarded a divorce on the grounds of habitual drunkenness, desertion and cruel treatment. She testified that she was married to Fisher in 1899 and left him four years ago. She said he drank all the time and beat her and would not support her. Fisher is now in jail in Chattanooga, she said. She asked for the custody of their two children.