Divorce

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 9, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 32.

Divorce.—Among the marked signs of the last days is that of looseness of the sex and marriage relation. Take, for instance, the evidence in this line of increasing divorce. The United States commissioner on statistics of marriage and divorce is Carroll D. Wright. He gives, in his report to Congress, February, 1889, the number of divorces granted in the Union from 1867 to 1886, inclusive, as follows:—

Year.	Divorces.	Year.	Divorces.
1867	9,937	1877	15,687
1868	10,150	1878	16,089
1869	10,939	1879	17,083
1870	10,962	1880	19,663
1871	11,586	1881	20,762
1872	12,390	1882	22,112
1873	13,156	1883	23,198
1874	13,989	1884	22,994
1875	14,212	1885	23,472
1876	14,800	1886	25,535
Total	122,121	Total	206,595

It will be seen that there has been constant increase during these twenty years, with but a single exception, 1884, when the number was 204 less than the year previous; but the next year the increase was 478; while during the first decade the increase was almost forty-nine per cent., in the last decade it was nearly sixty-three per cent. In social life there is probably nothing which is more demoralizing.