Miscellaneous Department.                      375




                        Miscellaneous.



          There is a history in all men's lives
          Figuring the nature of the times deceased,
          The which observed a man may prophesy
          With a near aim of the main chance of things
          As vet not come to life, which in their seeds
          And weak beginnings lie entreasured.-Henry IV., iii, 1.


  Within twenty years. there have been 329,000 divorces granted in
this country, and 167,000 of these families had children. Sixty-six per
cent of these divorces were suits of wives against husbands, and
thirty-four of them suits of husbands against wives.
  Among the causes on record for these divorces are: defendant quoted
from the New Testament; never offered to take plaintiff out riding;
threatened to kill plaintiff if she bought him any more dollar shirts;
would not walk with plaintiff on Sunday; refused to sew on buttons.


  In old New York, a property qualification was a requirement for
voting. The Charter of Liberties, passed in 1691, provided that "every
freeholder and freeman in any corporation shall have a free vote in
the electing of the Representative," and by freeholder was understood
every one who had forty shillings per annum in freehold. The elec-
tions were held by the Sheriff and voting was viva voce. Male in-
habitants who had resided in one of the counties of the State for six
months preceding the election were entitled to vote, provided they
owned, within the county, a freehold of £20, or paid a yearly rent of
40 shillings.  No  discriminations were made  against colored men
except that they were made to produce authenticated certificates of
freemen.   The Constitution of 1821 extended the elective franchise 
to every male citizen of the age of 21 years.  The Constitution of 1846
further extended the suffrage by providing that every white male
citizen of 21 years of age, who had been a citizen for ten days, who




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 17, Num. 4

Miscellaneous Department

Volume:  17
Issue Number:  04
Page Number:  375
Date:  04/1901