The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1882-02-16
WORD OR TWO OF WARNING

"Whither among men are we drifting"
is an old but pertinent enquiry even now.
In one particular indeed the violations OF
human and divine law are becoming so fire.
quent and glazing and present in the prem
ises such an abandonment of the heart to
the darker passions that comment is ne
cessity. 1t is not often that a newspaper
purely. has to deal with social affairs or
more particularly the ties that go to make
up the family, but now and then in the in
terest of the community or country at large
it becomessa duty of the press to sound
note of warming. If our readers will notice
from day to day the column or so of
condensed kilograms which we pub
lish every morning, and which
indeed furnish glimpse of daily life
over a large scope Of this country they can
not but be impressed with one fact promi-
nently arising above all others. wider
reading will even give wider significance to
the fact. We refer to the rapidly accumu-
lating evidences of domestic infelicity and
mans and woman's perfidity over the whole
land, as seen in divorces, elopements, sepa-
rations and homicides, which occur by
scores daily. So widespread and fastly-
growing is the evil that it becomes the
duty of the good citizen to inaugurate some
steps to check it. The purity and tone
of society, the prosperity and growth
of the community and the inhu
ence and happiness of the family.
depend almost exclusively upon the sacred
ness with which marital obligations are
kept and the affection characterizing the
transactions of the home circle. But if the
marriage ceremony be performed in the
first place between those who hastily or
from any other than pure motives take
upon them its solemn VOWS, nothing else
can be expected by those who know the
human heart, than discomfort, which
rapidly ripens into divorce or crime.
Driven from a fireside where there is no
love. the man rushes into drink and then
into murder, brutal treatment or abandon
ment. while the woman in the recklessness
of loneliness or a hard life, is the willing
victim of those social beasts of prey
who always discover and hang upon the
outskirts of the home with skeleton in the
closet. The fact is, the American girl while
admittedly the sprightliest oithe world like
tie American boy thinks too much for her
self, and is turned too early into society,
and the same freedom which makes her
wise also renders her heartless to certain
extent. She becomes a coquette before
becoming a woman, and consequently bases
her marriage upon calculations rather than
the heart. 1t is not difficult to imagine the
result. The true remedy, it seems to US
is 10 get back TO first principles and
think more for the children at
home. They are left too exclusively
TO the tender mercies and examples,
the bad associations and influences Of school
and society. Before the boy has reached
manhood he has become a libertine OF a
rough. and before the gIri has reached
romanhood she has learned TO laugh at
love and jest over marriage. II is possible
TO improve these things at home and only
here. and the failure 10 do so is unques-
tionably the cause Of the growing evils re-
ferrsd to-ihe crimes and sorroW VS., the des-
titution and divorces, the heart-aches and
ruined lives, whose sad history fash nightly
over the wires Of this Christian land but
are read with Indifference at the breakfast
table the next morning. l. it not time Tor
reelection and warning? And is it not in
deed time that society we're arousing Itself
IN rciorm2