The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-05
MARRIAGE AS A CRIME.
Fearful Picture of New York Society
Known Impurity am Added Charm.

universal suffrage, even though piracy be be-
hind his gold. Similarly, when girl mar
ries man with damaged reputation and
mere competency we are unanimous in the
opinion that she is culpably reckless, and
has thrown herself away; but when she mar
ries a well-known debauchee whose income
is beyond computation, envy forgets the in
evitable future and glares at the pile of gilt
tering coin. A man with slender means
must needs remain a bachelor, because the
devotees of the golden calf have never even
deigned to look upon him; but money with
physical and moral corruption behind it in
the disguise of manhood is in such demand
that maneuvering mammas 60 wild in the
competitive chase for it, and ambitious
young ladies stimulate their destinations to
the utmost in the fond hope of possessing it.
Just here you cry HALT" and tell me that
do not keep step with the rest of the world.
Thank God do not, if the rest of the world
either admires or excuses this state of affairs.
MY language may be harsh, but it is not Gym
ical. / am not looking through a personal
disappointment, for the best thing my par
ents ever taught me was to be content with
my porridge, if 1 could get nothing better,
and to hate all shams and arti6cialisms.
There is no better time to speak than now.
There are seven facts in connection with
New York life which have served to sharpen
the point of my pen, and If l were to dip
that pen in vitriol and write with strokes
that should burn every one of them, into
the paper, could not with sufficient sarcasm
arragn the Stiffness and wickedness of peo-
pie who barter bodies and souls for gold.
These seven facts have CHASTITY family like
ness, for they look, as Portia says, like "a
death's-head with bone in his mouth"
In what is called good society in the city
of New York (heaven save the mark! What
is it good for, with seven such demons from
the pit shaking hands with it in the familiar
ity of mutual confdenceO there are at this
moment, seven divorce cases, in connection
with some of which are rumors so incredibly
vile that even men speak of them to each
other in whisper. If you had seen these
seven couples married, and had known even
the hearsay about them, you would have lost
your respect for yourself as prophet If you
had not declared that three years or five
years from that "dicer's oath" of loyalty,
they would separate in unspeakable disgust,
and that thus saith the Lord" Shall we
pirate of mysterious dispensation of Provi-
dence? If we are idiots, yes; but if we have
common sense, we shall recognize the vigil
liant and successful providence of Satan. The
laws of well-ordered society were tam
pered with in the very beginning, and the
result was at least one heart broken beyond
mendlng. say one broken heart because
in majority of these cases, the man has no
heart to break. His marriage was only the
freak of a spoiled child with lap full of ool-
lars, a within, something to do in life made
up of nothing to do. 1t was new excite
ment, the novelty of which lasted few
months, and then came neglects insults,
such as no pure woman had any right to en-
dure, and, in more than one instan CO. blows
cruel, wicked blows-froma brute who did
not have even beastly drunkenness for an ex-
cuse. This is not romance it is history.
There is more, and, if possible; worse yet. N
one case, year followed year, filled with pa
| tent, dumb endurance, and children were
born unto the world with unspeakable hor-
rors of nameless disease raging in their
systems, the mothers only hope
as she looked into their already wrinkIed
faces through her binding tears, that they
would not live. God was too good to leave
such souls in such bodies, and let them die.
You say am talking about Madagascar
or Central Africa or Russia-more corrupt
than Paris. You are, perhaps, simple
minded man, and have gone to and from
your home so quietly that you have not
heard the low I.utterings of this demon of
phailism. He has left Madagascar, where
decency is just beginning to find foothold
and is success ully engaged in founding a
petty dynasty within a stones throw of
your own house. He was driven from
Phrygia, Greece, Rome, and from the wig
vans of the American savages, notably the
Seminoles of Florida; but he is an honored
teacher in New York, and his mysterious
rites are numerously attended If we may
judge by the unutterable details of these
seven cases of divorce. His temple is not on
Chatham square, where the refuse of all ma
tionalities is gathered, nor yet in certain
parts of the Bowery, where crime hides itself
from the garish light of day, but on the
avenue, to have house fronting on which
is the last attainable end of the highest
earthly ambition of some of u.s.
Now the wonder Of this whole matter is
that pure young girls can be fascinated by a
mani use the misnomer in the way of po-
liteness-who ought never to throw his
shadow on their path. A manageable girl
who feels herself to be in the market is not
in the slightest degree shocked because her
lover dare not tell her where he goes when
he leaves her; on the other hand, his known
impurity seems to be an added charm in her
sight. She has not been taught to set any
high value on virtue, neither does she re-
gard it as indispensable in husband. She
excuses the inexcusable and ignores the
prime conditions of happiness. So she
have money she ceases to ask questions 1t
is better so, perhaps, because if she were at
all curious she would never marry. old
maidism is the purgatory of social life;
and so, rather than live in purgatory she
moves into palatial residence in the name
less region beyond. Who does not know
that in the set to which she belongs simple
honor and fidelity are regarded as SLOW"
and that the appetite for excitement is SO
quickened by the condiments of vice that ex-
element is tasteless and insipid unless it is
highly seasoned with immortality. Nay, the
whole community, for that matter, is wal
lowing in the pit. In dramatic representa-
tions, for example, Shakespeare is adored
with a sham alteration, but never listened to
with even tolerable patience In the rivalry
between Shakespeare and semi-lewd play
the bard of Avon is voted out of the house.
The sensational drama in which the heroine
totters in the first act on the dizzy edge of
vicious precipice, and in the last act falls
into the fathomless depths Of domestic inf