The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-07-09
ON THE RIGHT o

In n crisis like the present when
Tolstoi has reinforced the ranks of
those who hold that marriage is Il
failure, the Russian philosopher eve
going so far as to assert that matri-
mony is a sin expressly mentioned as
such by the Bible, and that celibacy is
necessarily the state i'm which all
right-thinking and right-living people
must remain IL they hope to rise to the
measure of their possibilities in this
period so critical to the oldest and
hitherto the most respected institution
of the human race, IL will perhaps be
gratifying to the old-school, orthodox
believers in marriage to find that the
Salvation Army has arrayed itself OF
their side and proposes to fight the
dangerous and bedeviled theories of
the opposition with energy and whoops.
The detachment at 1t. Paul very APP
propriately celebrated the Fourth of
July with a wedding, and preceding
the ceremony proper the officer of the
day called for expressions of opinion
OH the subject particularly from those
who had had some practical experience.
The first speaker was a male captain,
whose description of married life, il is
reported, was SO adorned with adjec-
tives in the superlative degree as to
lead 10 the belief that he was still In
the honeymoon and was content to stay
there forever. The next speaker was
a female captain. She said she too had
been there and knew all about IL, and il
was her conviction that marriage was
u good thing for those who thought IL
n good thing. Farther than this she
refused to go on record, a refusal which
gave rise to the suspicion that she vas
a thinker, or a philosopher, or a kicker,
or something of that sort, prima facie
evidence that she was still under the
influence of the devil and on the whole
i'm a very bad wav.
The next speaker was a man who.
remarking that he had been married
twenty years, proceeded TO encourage
the bride by declaring that for the first
fifteen years he was drunk all the
time. However, he succeeded i'm sober
ing up at last and had been able To re-
strain himself from choking. kicking
and pounding his wife TO a jelly for
going on nearly five years. lie be-
lieved marriage was n mighty good
thing IL taken clear. III taken with
beer, gin, whiskey or other stick, IL be-
came u nuisance which should be
abated. The next orator was a very
young lady, who SO far rs was known,
had never been Joined in the bonds of
wedlock. Her friends were somewhat
startled. therefore, when she made the
statement that she had been married
twice. The general surprise was in
tensilied when she solemnly declared
that she was married for the first time
when she was ten years old. Her
bridegroom on this occasion. she then
explained, was the devil. Their mar
ried life wa peculiarly unhappy and
unfortunate all the way through, and
after enduring il several years, she sue
ceeded In getting q divorce from the
devil, and promptly and enthusiast
cally married the church. She had
been SO happy eve since that she felt
like flying. Her first marriage. she
said, had been n failure. a rank failure;
but her second marriage was the stun.
Much additional testimony of an
equally interesting nature was taken,