Divorced Women Expose Husbands' Cruelty and Gambling
A Seattle judge grants three separations after testimonies of physical abuse, betrayal, and abandonment.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The divorce mill was furnished plenty of grist yesterday when Judge Lichtenberg granted three separations and continued two cases. The first case was that of Lillian E. Fox against J.M. Fox. She charged her husband with gross indignities, stating he beat her and, on one occasion, forced her to strip while threatening her with a knotted rope. In a second sensational case, Jennie H. Marer was granted a divorce from Jacob Marer, a furrier and 'faro-bank fiend' who gambled away her earnings, choked her, and eventually absconded in 1890. A third woman, Mary E. Clifton, sought divorce from her husband, currently imprisoned at San Quentin for attempting to murder her and her relatives.
“Marer would rather spend $100 in gambling than $1 for bread for his wife and child.”
In 1891, divorce was a public spectacle in Seattle courts, with newspapers printing lurid details of 'the divorce mill.' Today, while the process is more private, the underlying issues—financial abuse, gambling, and domestic violence—remain persistent, systemic challenges in the region.
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