y grown. His
Italian family came to America through their own efforts a few years
later, and Orfeo found that he had underestimated the character of
his eldest son, who traced his father, had him arrested and taken to
the city where his original family was living. Orfeo, now forcibly
reunited to the wife of his bosom, walks softly under the threat of
bigamy proceedings, while the "American" wife refuses to take any
action on the ground that "he didn't go away from me of his own
wish, and why should I put him behind the bars?"

* * * * *

Of an altogether more simple mental make-up was the Slovak laborer
who brought his pregnant "American wife" and two children to the
district office of a charity organization society, saying that the
relatives in Europe of Anna, his first wife, had sent Anna to this
country, and she was on the point of arriving. He added that, as
manifestly it was not possible to support two families on his wages,
he would like to provide for his second wife through "the Charity."

A district secretary who has worked for many years with Italians is
authority for the statement that marriages in Italy are always
registered at the man's legal residence, no matter where the marriage
took place. "Careful Italian parents, if they cannot get reliable
information in other ways, write to the 'paese' of a suitor for
information in regard to his conjugal condition. A marriage which takes
place in America is customarily registered with the consul for
transmission to the home town in Italy."

In some countries of Latin America great confusion may be caused by the
fact that a marriage performed in church is not legal in the eyes of the
state unless a second ceremony is gone through before the civil
authorities. A Guatemalan woman, deserted in this country, had no
recourse in law because she had had only the church ceremony in her
country. Her claim to the status of common law wife was invalidated by
the man's producing proof that he was already married at the time the
religious ceremony was performed.

Having established the fact that a legal marriage has taken place, the
case worker must keep in mind the possibility that it may have been
later dissolved. It is not at all uncommon to find that a deserter who
has gone off with another woman has started proceedings to get a divorce
by "publication." This can happen when the t