taxes and bought by a friend with an understanding for later adjustment. But Benton died before the time had elapsed, which permits property sold at tax sale to be redeemed by persons in interest, by the payment of certain penalties. He made a will and left the estate to relatives and friends. He left acknowledgment of debts and obligations which the widow disputed and which, if allowed, would have consumed the estate. Back and forth from the Parish Court of St. Tammany to the Supreme Court of the State branch after branch of the case was fought over. Then one day attorneys for contestants produced a certified copy of a record from the County Court in Vincennes, Indiana, which showed that the divorce from a previous husband, obtained by Mrs. Benton, some thirty years before, had been made final three days after the record showed she had married Benton in Cairo, Illinois. If that record was correct then the estate would go to the collateral relatives of Benton for the marriage claimed by his alleged widow would have had no validity. With considerable difficulty the lawyers for the widow Benton secured an adjournment of the case for two weeks and they hurried to Vincennes to find how a divorce secured there bore date several days later than the date declared by the widow Benton to be correct. The books kept by the clerk of thirty years before were unearthed from the archives beneath the ancient courthouse and there it was found that all judgments rendered during the week were entered on Saturday. The original decree which the judge signed was then found and it was discovered that the judgment of divorce between Mrs. Benton and her former husband was rendered on Tuesday of a week, it was not entered in the books of the clerk until Sat

urday, and she had gone immediately after the decree to Cairo, Illinois, where she married Benton on Thursday of the same week. The copy which found its way to New Orleans, and which had been made from the records kept by the clerk in his once-a-week entries, was incorrect. But that careless entry very nearly diverted a large estate from a widow who would have been left destitute when she was more than seventy years old, and a daughter of the marriage, who had several children of her own, would have been shown to be illegitimate. Benton and his wife had quarreled seriously, and often, and he believed he could prevent her from enjoying his estate after his decease. He was not able to carry his relentless antagonism beyond the grave, but the carelessness of a clerk, with no animosity whatever in the matter, very nearly accomplished Benton's design.

That marriage should be viewed by the parties to it as a contract, that the duties and obligations of that contract should be conscientiously carried out, and, in the event of failure to carry out the duties and obligations there is created a right of action to dissolve the contract, there seems generally full agreement.

Even the Koran recognized the divorce requirement. Mohamet's regulation with respect to wives was:

"1. Never marry idolatrous women unless they will become believers. A mussulman servant is better than an idolatrous woman, though of highest rank.

2. They who having wives, wish to make a vow of chastity, shall wait four months before they decide. Wives shall conduct themselves toward their husbands as their husbands conduct themselves toward them.

3. You may separate yourself from your wife twice; but if you divorce her a third time it must be

forever. You must either keep her humanely or put her away kindly. You are not permitted to keep anything away from her you have given her.

4.-Good wives are obedient and attentive, even in the absence of their husbands. If your wife is prudent be careful not to have a quarrel with her; but if one should happen let an arbiter be chosen, one from your own family and one from hers.

never more.

5.-Take one wife, or two or three or four, but But if you doubt your ability to act equitably toward several take only one. Give them a suitable dowry, take care of them, and speak to them always like a friend.

6. You are not permitted to inherit from your wife against her will, nor to prevent her from marrying another after her divorce in order to possess yourself of her dower, unless she has been declared guilty of some crime. When you choose to separate yourself from your wife and take another, you must not, though you have given her a talent at your marriage, take anything from her.

7. You are permitted to marry a slave, but it is better that you do not do so."

Voltaire, speaking of the foregoing sections of the Koran, said: "Here is sufficient to reconcile the woman to Mohamet.”

There are many sides and many views of the contract of marriage, the responsibility of the contracting parties, the obligation arising to the society in which we live, property rights and the consequences to heirs. Courts can only apply the laws as they are written. The great need is of a general housecleaning of the statute books, and in some instances amendments to State con

stitutions, expugning of a great accumulation of useless and conflicting enactments, and uniform legislation along certain lines so that full faith and credence may be given by each State to the laws and judgments of the courts of other States, without injustice or confusion resulting.

Under existing conditions of our varied divorce and marriage laws it would seem we have no right to exclaim in horror at the record of certain Biblical characters who maintained wives by the hundred-notably Mr. Solomon. For there are States where it is so easy and inexpensive to have the bond of matrimony legally removed, a man bigamously inclined, or a woman with a hard taste to please in husbands, may take, and dispose of a variety of spouses, one at a time, quite legally.

IT has taken centuries of civilization to bring appreciation of the obligation of the Government to children. In the mad race for place, and power and position, creation has been too prone to overlook those who could be kicked out of the way and whose voices were too puny to reach the public. There was a time in England when children were not provided with free education in any form, and when the children of the very poor were sold into service by a form of apprenticeship, which spelled absolute bondage. Children of tender years, if convicted of stealing, were condemned to the extreme penalty, which was public execution by hanging. It is a matter of record that in this country, in 1829, there was an uprising of citizens in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, the city with which we connect our veneration for the Liberty Bell, because the establishment of free public schools was unpopular. There were public demonstrations and the people declared it unfair that one man should be taxed for the education of the children of his neighbor. It was even argued from public rostrums that schools run at public expense would demoralize the community. Men, they said, would grow lazy if not called on to work in order to pay for the education of their offspring. They thought the plan