News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-05-15
TALMAGEON DIVORCE LAW
HE FAVORs AN AMENDMENT TO THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED
STATES.
There should be One Law for the Country
and stringent One Mt Thut-Free Love
and Polygamy Causing the Increase of
Family Troubles,

There should be One Law for the Country
and "A stringent One at That-Free Love
and POlygamy Causing the Increase of
Family Troubles.
"'Should Divorce be Made More
Easy ?" was the subject of Mr. TaImage's
discourse Sunday morning at the Brook
| Ign Tabernacle.
THAT there are thousands of intellect
tous homes In America" began Mr..
Talmage, "there can be no doubt. In
many house there is not only a skele-
ton In the closet, but one in every room.
'Unhappily married is descriptive of
many household. In some cases a
grand and gracious woman is allied to a
man who makes her life an incarceration
and sacrifice. In other cases the man
is paired to fury, as was John Wesley,
or to q vixen, as was John Milton.
Sometimes both are at fault, as in the
case of Carlyle and his wife. Many say
| that for all these ills divorce is good
| prescription. Now I have as much re-
gard for one lawfully divorced as for one
lawfully married. But wholesale divorce
is one of our national scourges.
"Among the causes of the increase in
| divorce and the foreign influences which
have been at work, not long ago the
free-love movement spread over the land
and meetings were held at the Academy
of Music, Brooklyn, the Cooper Insti-
tute, New York, and at fremont Hall,
| Boston. Many of the women engaged
| in that movement have since become
conspicuous for great promiscuosity sof
affection. The prominent speakers were
women with short curls, short dresses
and long tongues, at war with God and
man for makiag them women, while on
the platform Sat weak men with soft
voices and weak demeanOr, holding the
parasols and apologize for masculinity.
The people went home with a confused
idea as to whether they were married or
not. Many entered the divorce courts,
many began dissolrte life, while some
landed in the insane ASYLUM.
"Another influence which has been at
work is polygamy in Utah, which has
poisoned the whole land. As long ago
as 1862 Congress declared polygamy III
Utah unlawful, but not brick has as
yet been upset in that edifice of libertin-
ism. James Buchanan s did more than
any other Administration for the expur
cation of polygamy. He sent an army
which, though halted in their work, yet
did something. It is impossible to have
sucha sewersending its miasmatlc fumes,
waited by the winds north, south, east
and west, without the whole land being
affected by the poison. Another influ-
ence which has been at work is the
pustulous literature which fills the land.
wonder that any decency or common
sense is left on the subject of marriage.
ALI the news-stands of New York and
Brooklyn are reeking with the filth.
81 have been looking into the divorce
laws of the different States. Some are
more easy than others; all are easy.
lake Illinois, for example, whose statute
after detailing the. causes for which
divorces may be granted, concludes,
deem expedient. No wonder that in
granted in one year. In Massachusetts,
600 divorces were granted in one year;
in Maine, 480; i'll San Francisco, 1888; in
all New England, 2,113, in one year, and
fully 10000 during the past twenty
years Isn't that easy enough? If
divorces continue in the same ratio the
court will have to set apart special days
to hear these cases, and all that a man
will have to do to get a divorce will be
to charge his wife with leaving her slip
pers in the middle of the floor; and all
the wife will have to do will be to charge
that there are no buttons ON her hus-
bands coat. The causes for divorces
have doubled in France, England and
the United States during the past few
years. And remember that easy divorce
always goes along with dissoluteness of
society.
divorce ought to be made more diff
cult. Then we shall have no more
marrying for fun. No more marrying
on the idea of making trial trip and if
we don't like it we will get off at the first
station.=azAf NATIVE want is to have Con-
gress pass a constitutional amendment
providing for uniform divorce law over
all the land AS it is now there are
States that put premium on the disin-
tegration of the marriage relation, while
New York commits the supreme idiocy
in legaizing marriage at the ages of
fourteen and twelve. Such Congressional
action will put an end to brokerage in
marriage and send divorce lawyers into
decent business. It will put an
estoppel to marrying as a financial
speculation. Men enter that sacred re-
lation without princi pie or affection, and
the whole transaction does not differ
from what occurred recently on Wall
street in Union Pacific, Wabash and
Lackawana. Men marry women whom
they know to contain suppressed Vesu-
vius, but they have ascertained the ex-
tent of her fathers estate and calculated
the chance of their being abe to stand
her temper until the old man dies. It
will hinder women from marrying men
with the belief that they can reform
them. A man who has contracted
habit for strong drink at twentv-six is
as surely bound for drunkard's grave
as that the train which leaves the Grand
Central Depot in the morning will reach
Albany. The young woman knows he
drinks, though he tries to conceal it by
eating cloves, and if she knows that
there is no escape through the door of
divorce she will say to him, You are
already married to your club and to your
cups. You are then twice married and
therefore a bigamist. Go !! Many
marry because she thinks he has pretty
face and because he admired the grace
full way she passed around the ice-cream
at the picnic. That's all they know of
each other. A man not able to pay his
board bin will lead girl to the altar
and repeat the words, with all my
worldly goods 1 thee endow.' A woman
who don't know how to bake loaf of
bread will promise to cherish him.
"Let me advise the young people in
this congregation to approach the marital
relations with caution. Scrutinize the
details, explore the disposition. The
only sure foundation for happy marriage
is good character. And those who are
happily married, let me say beware of
the first quarrel. Do not save unex-
planned correspondence with former adj
mirers. Aud when the bad temper
breaks out don't run to your neighbors
to tell them all about it. Don't let
those who gossip empty in your house
their bad eggs of gable. The greatest
divorce cases were the result of little
quarrels which grew till the household
went down in crash.
Died in Harness.
The Milwaukee san thus speaks of
well-knOwn Western railroad man who