s of marriage, who, by the
mysterious chastising providence of outraged hearths and homes, are
compelled, in bitterest agony of soul, to invoke justice of the law for
the honor based upon right and religion.

"The manufacture of 'a case' by the contrabandists of divorce is often
such a marvel of unscrupulous audacity, that its very lawlessness
constitutes in itself a kind of legal security. So wholly does it ignore
all the conventionalities of mere legal evasion, as to virtually lapse
into a barbarism, knowing neither law nor civilization. A young woman in
flaunting jockey hat, extravagant 'chignon,' and gaudy dress, flirts into
the den, and turns a bold, half-defiant face upon the rakish masculine
figure at the principal desk. The figure looks up, a glance between the
two tells the story, and the woman is invited to step into the
consulting-room (if there be one), and give her husband's name and
offence. A divorce will cost her say twenty-five, or fifty, or
seventy-five dollars--in fact, whatever sum she can afford to pay for
such a trifle. She can have it obtained for her in New York, or at the
West, just as her husband's likelihood to pry into things, or her own
taste in the matter, may render advisable. Not a word of the case can
possibly get into the papers in either locality. She can charge
'intemperance,' or 'desertion,' or 'failure to support,' or whatever else
she chooses; but, perhaps, it would be better to make it adultery, as
that can be just as easily proved, and 'holds good in any State.' This
point being decided, the young woman can go home, and there keep her
luckless wretch of a husband properly in the dark until her 'decree' is
ready for her. If the applicant is a man, the work is all the easier;
for then even less art will be required to keep the unconscious 'party of
the second part' in ignorance of the proceedings. The case is now
quietly put on record in the proper court (if the 'suit' is to be 'tried'
in New York), and a 'summons' prepared for service upon the 'defendant.'
To serve this summons, any idle boy is called in from the street, and
directed to take the paper to defendant's residence or place of business,
and there serve it upon him. Away goes the boy, willing enough to earn
fifty cents by this easy task, and is met upon the stoop of the
residence, or before the door of the place of business, by a confederate
of the divorce-lawyer, who sharply asks what he wants. 'I want to see