Mr. ---,' says the boy. 'I am Mr. ---,' returns the confederate, who is
thereupon served with the summons. Back hurries the boy to the
law-office, signs an affidavit that he has served the paper upon
defendant in person, is paid for the job, and goes about his business.
The time selected for the manoeuvre is, of course, adapted to what the
'plaintiff' has revealed of her husband's hours for home or for business;
and, after the improvised server of the 'summons' has once sworn to his
affidavit and disappeared, there is no such thing as ever finding him
again! A 'copy of the complaint' is 'served' in the same way; or, the
'summons' is published once a week for a month in the smallest type of
the smallest obscure weekly paper to be found. This latter device,
however, is adopted only when the plaintiff (having some moral scruples
about too much perjury at once) charges 'desertion,' and desires to
appear quite ignorant of unnatural defendant's present place of abode.
If, for any particular reason, the party seeking a divorce prefers a
Western decree, the 'lawyer,' or a clerk of his, starts at once for
Indiana, or some quiet county of Illinois; and, after hiring a room in
some tavern or farm-house in the name of his client (to establish the
requisite fact of residence!), gives the case into the hands of a local
attorney with whom he has a business partnership. This Western branch of
the trade has reached such licence that, not long ago, a notorious
practitioner of the Ring actually issued an advertisement in a paper of
New York, to the effect that he had just returned to this city from the
West with a fresh stock of blank divorces! The wording was not literally
thus, but such was its obvious and only signification. Whether the
'trial' is to take place in New York or Indiana, however, there is but
one system commonly adopted in offering proof of the truth of the
complaint upon which a divorce is demanded. Plaintiff's villainous
attorney, after waiting a due length of time for some response from the
defendant in the case(!), asks of the Court, as privately as possible,
the appointment of a referee.

"His Honor the Court, upon learning that 'defendant' does not oppose (of
course not!), names a referee, who shall hear the testimony in the case,
and submit a copy thereof, together with his decision thereon, to the
Court for confirmation. Then, before the referee--who is to be properly
feed for his officiation--go the div