If you watch the daily papers you will frequently see advertisements reading similar to the following:

Divorces without publicity, in 30 days, all causes; every state; consultation free; experienced lawyers; success guaranteed. 86 —— street.

SMITH, JONES & CO.

Divorces cheaply, without publicity; desertion, incompatibility, non-support, intemperance, compulsory marriages; any state; explanatory blanks free, always successful; consultations free; confidential. 105 —— St.

LAWYER SMOOTH TONGUE.

The divorce lawyer is a prolific sort of a fellow, and somewhat of a nuisance. No self-respecting attorney cares for divorce court practice. It is considered by attorneys of established reputation to be degrading.

The divorce lawyers announce to the public that they have powerful influence with the judges and that it will be an easy matter for them to secure a divorce for the unlucky man or woman and that they can untie the marriage knot, and the guarantee to do it with the ease and celerity with which it is tied. This would seem strange in a state where the laws regulating divorce are so rigid; but the divorce lawyer knows how to set even these at defiance, and that his efforts are successful is shown by the handsome income he enjoys and the elegant style in which he lives. He does not rely upon Chicago alone for his field of operation; some states are more liberal in this matter, and if the separation of husband and wife cannot be procured in Chicago, he can easily accomplish it in some other part of the Union.

The divorce lawyer devotes himself to this branch of his profession almost exclusively. He is sometimes an ex-member of the Bar, who has been disbarred for dishonest practices, and cannot appear directly in the case himself. He hires some shyster lawyer to go through the formalities of the courts for him, and sometimes succeeds in inducing a lawyer of good standing to act for him. His office is usually in the quarter most frequented to by practitioners of standing, and is located in some large building, so that his clients may come and go without attracting special notice. The outer office is fitted up in regular legal style, with substantial desks and tables, and the walls are lined with cases of law books. The private consultation room is elegantly furnished, and is provided with the coziest arm-chairs, in which the clients can sit at their ease, and pour into the sympathizing ears of the “counsellor” their tales of woe.

Let us seat ourselves, unseen, in the private office of a leading divorce firm. They are located in a superb building on La Salle street and have elegantly fitted up apartments. Counsellor ——, the head of the firm, conducts the consultations. He is a portly, smooth-faced, oily-tongued man, possessing great powers of cheek and plausiveness, just the man to lead a hesitating client to take the decisive step. A clerk from the outer office announces a visitor. A richly dressed, closely veiled lady is shown in and the portly counsellor, rising courteously, places a chair for her. The seat is taken, the veil thrown back, and the counsellor finds himself face to face with a woman of beauty and refinement, and evidently of wealth—a most desirable client. In his blandest tones he invites her to state the nature of her business with him. Then follows a long tale of domestic unhappiness, the sum and substance of which is that she is tired of her husband and wants a divorce from him.

“Upon what grounds, Madam?” asks the counsellor, settling down to business.

“Grounds?” is the startled, hesitating reply. “Why—t—hat is—I am so unhappy with him.”

“Is he unfaithful to you?”

“I do not know. I hope he is—I am afraid not, however. I thought you would ascertain for me.” “Certainly, madam, certainly. Nothing easier in the world. We’ll find out all about him. We’ll learn the innermost secrets of his heart, and I’ve no doubts we shall find him grossly unfaithful. Most men are.”

“Oh, not at all, sir,” the lady cries, a little startled. “I’m sure that——”

Good sense comes to her aid, and she pauses. She must not tell all, even to her “legal adviser.” The counsellor smiles; he has seen such cases before. It is only an affair of exchanging an old love for a new one.

“Has he ever maltreated you—struck you?” he asks.

“Oh, no!”

“Never attempted any violence with you?”

“He once seized a paper weight on the library table, very much excited, while I was talking with him.”

“Indeed! he tried to dash your brains out with a paper weight, did he? That is very important evidence, madam, very important.”

“But, sir, I did not say that he——”

“Oh, never mind, madame. Wives are too ready to forgive their husband’s brutality. The fact remains the same, however. This infamous attempt upon your life will be sufficient evidence with the western judge before whom the case will be tried. I congratulate you, madame, upon the prospect of a speedy release from such a monster.”

The woman is delighted, pays the retainer, which is a handsome one, agrees upon the amount to be paid when the divorce is granted, and the parties separate, mutually pleased with each other.

The counsellor now goes to work in earnest. Operations are carried on in some western state. Witnesses are provided who will swear to anything they are paid for; the divorce is duly obtained; the fee is paid; and the madame coolly informs her husband that they are no longer husband and wife.

A year or two ago the Chicago paper contained an account of a man who had gotten one of these patent divorces from his wife. Not caring to part from her just then, but wishing to do so when he pleased, he locked the papers up in his desk, and said nothing to her about the matter, and for ten years she lived with him as his mistress, in total ignorance of her true relations to him. At last becoming tired of her, he produced the decree of divorce and left her.

All sorts of people seek the assistance of the divorce lawyers to free them from their matrimonial ties. Extravagant and reckless wives of men who are not able to meet their demands for money; dissolute actresses, who wish to break up an old alliance in order to form a new one; married women who have become infatuated with some scamp they have met at the theatre matinee, or through the medium of a personal; married men who are tired of their wives and desire to be united to a new partner; lovers of married women, who come to engage fabricated testimony and surreptitious divorce for the frail creatures whose virtue is still too cowardly to dare the more honest sin; all who, with or without protest, seek a release from the married bond. For each and all the divorce lawyer has a ready ear and an encouraging word. Nothing is easier than to obtain a divorce, he assures them. If the cause assigned by them is insufficient, it can be made strong enough; if evidence is lacking, it can be obtained—manufactured, if necessary. He receives a retainer from each, and all, and sends them away with the happy consciousness that their matrimonial troubles will soon be over.

A divorce costs anywhere from twenty-five dollars to whatever sum the applicant is willing to pay for it, and can be obtained in Chicago, or in any state, according to the wishes of the party and the desire to avoid publicity. Any cause may be assigned; the lawyer in a great many instances guarantees that the evidence to support it shall be forthcoming at the proper time. It is a little more troublesome to obtain a Chicago divorce, than in some states, but the machinery of the law is sufficiently loose even there to enable a well-managed case to be successful. The divorce lawyer has witnesses upon whom he can depend, some of them are regularly in his pay. They will swear as they are instructed. The proceedings are often private, the courts using their private chambers for the hearing, and are no doubt frequently in collusion with the lawyer conducting the case. Even the newspapers fail to record the occurrence. The defendant has been kept in ignorance of the proceedings, and naturally does not appear in court in person or by counsel to offer any opposition and the case goes by default. The judge hears the evidence, which has been carefully prepared, in the case; submits a decision in favor of the plaintiff; and the first thing the defendant knows is a dissolution of the marriage.

Adultery is a favorite ground with the divorce lawyer, and strange as it may appear, it is easy to fasten such a charge upon the defendant, if that person happens to be the husband. This is how it is done: One of the “agents” of the firm makes the acquaintance of the husband, who is in total ignorance of the plot against him, and after becoming somewhat familiar with him, invites him to a quiet little supper at some convenient restaurant. When the wine has done its work, a party of ladies drop in, quite by accident, of course, and are pressed by the agent to remain. The innocent victim joins in the request; he would be an ill-bred fellow if he did not. A dead set is made at the victim, whose wits are generally somewhat confused with the wine, and the natural consequences follow. The “agent” coolly looks on, and takes his notes, and the particular beauty who has won over the victim to her charms becomes an important witness in the case. There is no difficulty in proving the charge.

Where the husband is a jolly, good-natured man, and loves to take his pleasure, the “agent’s” business is greatly simplified. He has but to shadow his victim, note down his acts, even his words, for the most innocent deed can be distorted by a shrewd divorce lawyer into damaging evidence of guilt. The least imprudence is magnified into sin, and little by little all the needed evidence is obtained.

Sometimes all these arts fail. Then the lawyer has but one course, to employ paid witnesses to swear to the husband’s guilt, where no overt act has been committed. The divorce must be obtained at any cost; and the lawyer knows no such word as failure.

Sometimes business becomes dull. People appear to be satisfied with their partners, and applications for divorce fall off. The divorce lawyer is equal to the emergency, however, and sets his agents to work to drum up business. They proceed upon a regular system, and seek high game. They operate among persons able to pay large fees, and seek women as their victims in preference to men. A member of the Bar, conversing with a friend, not long since, thus explained the system pursued:

“You understand, of course, that society is not happy in all its honors. All the brownstone houses have to have closets put in every year in order to accommodate the skeletons. Still, many a woman and man, if let alone, would bear his or her connubial burdens meekly, rather than to face the scandal and publicity of a divorce trial. Our special divorce lawyers know this, and so they invade society. They transfer the base of operations to the drawing rooms. How? By using swell members of the fashionable world to first find out where there is a canker in the case, and then to deftly set forth, in a perfect way, how divorce is the only ”cure.“ Nine-tenths of this delicate business is employed in pursuing hesitating wives. Husbands could hardly be approached in their own homes with a proposition to break them up. Take an impressionable woman, already unhappy, who has once been thinking of divorce, and the case is different. She is clay for the moulder. The serpent whispers how nice it will be to bank her alimony, tells her lies about the old man, induces her to believe that the firm down-town will put in no bill if they don’t succeed, and so the affair is arranged.

For this despicable service the “agent” receives ten per cent of the fee paid the divorce lawyer by the wife, which fee, be it remembered, comes out of the husband’s pocket.

Oftentimes the “agent” is called upon to personate the husband, especially in serving the summons of the court upon him. The lawyer in charge has the case quietly put on record in the proper court, and has a summons prepared for service upon the defendant. A boy is called in from the street, anybody will answer, and is paid a trifle to take the summons to the defendant’s place of business or residence, and deliver it to him in person. Arriving at his destination, the boy is met by the “agent” of the divorce lawyer, at the door or on the steps. The agent sharply demands his business, and is answered by the boy that he wishes to deliver a paper to Mr. X—. “I am Mr. X—.” The boy in perfect good faith, for he has never seen Mr. X— in his life, delivers the summons upon the defendant in person. He is then dismissed, and plays no further part in the case. His affidavit is sufficient for this part of the proceedings, and the shameful mockery of justice proceeds to another stage.

This is no exaggerated description. The acts of these divorce lawyers are well know in Chicago, and members of the Bar are familiar with their mode of proceeding. Reputable barristers denounce them as a disgrace, not only to the profession, but also the judges on the bench know these men by their ways. Yet, neither the Bench nor the Bar Association make any effort to stop the evil or disbar the wretches, who thus prey upon the most sacred relations of life. Lawyers of standing are afraid to attempt to bring it to justice, lest they should draw upon themselves the vengeance of the courts and so injure their own professional prospects. So the evil will continue to grow. It will flourish as long as there are foolish people to take advantage of it.