In case no one of the
allegations of adultery controverted by such co-respondent shall
be proved, such co-respondent shall be entitled to a bill of costs
against the person naming him as such co-respondent, which bill of
costs shall consist only of the sum now allowed by law as a trial
fee, and disbursements, and such co-respondent shall be entitled
to have an execution issue for the collection of the same.
The exact amount of money was set forth in another place, in Section
3251, where it is stated that the sums obtainable are "for trial of
an issue of fact, $30, and when the trial necessarily occupies more
than two days, $10 in addition thereto."
In other words, Mrs. Charity Coe Cheever, finding her life of good
works and pure deeds crowned with the infamy which Mrs. Kedzie
Dyckman in her anger and her haste pressed on her brow, had the
full permission of the law to come into the public court, face
a vitriolic lawyer, and deny her guilt.
If she survived the trip through hell she could collect from her
accuser forty dollars to pay her lawyer with. The priceless boon of
such a vindication she could keep for herself. And that ended her.
This is only one of the numberless vicious and filthy and merciless
consequences of the things done in the name of virtue by those who
believe divorce to be so great an evil that they will commit every
other evil in order to oppose it.
In no other realm of law and punishment has severity had more need
of hypocrisy to justify itself than in the realm of wedlock.
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