to our happy-go-lucky methods for protection against a prosecution for
bigamy.

Such was the case of Orfeo Pelligrini, who came to this country and
took a new wife when his children in Italy were nearly grown. His
Italian family came to America through their own efforts a few years
later, and Orfeo found that he had underestimated the character of
his eldest son, who traced his father, had him arrested and taken to
the city where his original family was living. Orfeo, now forcibly
reunited to the wife of his bosom, walks softly under the threat of
bigamy proceedings, while the "American" wife refuses to take any
action on the ground that "he didn't go away from me of his own
wish, and why should I put him behind the bars?"

* * * * *

Of an altogether more simple mental make-up was the Slovak laborer
who brought his pregnant "American wife" and two children to the
district office of a charity organization society, saying that the
relatives in Europe of Anna, his first wife, had sent Anna to this
country, and she was on the point of arriving. He added that, as
manifestly it was not possible to support two families on his wages,
he would like to provide for his second wife through "the Charity."

A district secretary who has worked for many years with Italians is
authority for the statement that marriages in Italy are always
registered at the man's legal residence, no matter where the marriage
took place. "Careful Italian parents, if they cannot get reliable
information in other ways, write to the 'paese' of a suitor for
information in regard to his conjugal condition. A marriage which takes