Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-24
MANIA FOR DIVORCES.
There Are More Cases of Marital In
felicity Than Ever Before.
INSANITY ALSO ON THE INCREASE.
In Spite of All This, the Moral Tone Is Not
a Bit Lessened.
FIGURES FROM THE HEALTH REPORTS

A court official states that Judge Ken
nedy was partially paralyzed the other day
by the length of the list of divorce appllca-
tions presented him, although His Honor
in years gone by has assisted in the un-
haltering of considerable number OF
couples. There are others who view with
alarm the restlessness of some of those
whom God is popularly supposed to join to-
gether. Clerk Harry Armstrong; explain
alton that it is owing to the use of natural
gas, fails at present, as people are getting in
a measure away from its use, in fact rapidly.
His theory was that the use of this fuel
relieved women of so much of the drudgery
to which they had been accustomed that
their animal spirits led captive their reason
and sense of moral responsibility and they
became discontented with the humdrum of
matrimony. Now that drudgery is again be-
ing laid on them.
A STRANGE DESIRE TO GET DIVORCED.
Possibly it is their inability to accustom
themselves to the old order of things that is
the cause of the present rush to avoid hy-
meneal responsibilities. 1t may be also that
it is only a temporary epidimic that will
come to an end as soon as the dog-day
weather is over. Certain it is that no So
biologist encountered so far has any explain
alton on hand that fits the case.
Prothonotary Bradley has had his think
ing cap on for some time, trying to figure
out another problem that eludes his grasp
SO far. He is at a loss to explain why so
many people are becoming insane. He says
the malady is not confined to this country.
He has been keeping an eye on the statistics
OF considerable part of the country and
fVo
is probable that the increase of the mental
disease is caused by the high pressure
under which people are living. A modest
competence that would have satisfied most
families in the first half of the century will
not now support a single individual in the
manner in which his tastes dictate and many
minds are unbalanced in the attempt to
solve the problem of how to provide for
superfluities, not absolute comforts. Gray
heads on 30-year-old shoulders are more com
mon nowadays than they were on those of
so years, in the olden time. and the disease
often goes deeper than the head thatch.
VERY FEW FoUNDLINGs REPORTED.
But amid all this the Bureau of Health
comes to the front with the comforting as
surance that the number of foundIings Is
not increasing with the increase of popula-
tion- 1t is true the record is not altogether
satisfactory for reason that readily pre-
sents itself to all intelligent and thinking
people. The number of foundlings reported
W GhO Dul Ottu 10 Ohls uDOub IOO pei III
a population of over $50 OOO The record,
however, is not absolutely reliable, as it is
notorious that midwives do not always fill
out the records as completely as reg
ular physicians do and County Com
missioner Boyle states that there
are many births in poverty stricken
localities that are never reported at all to
tie Bureau, there being no physicians or
even midwives in attendance. Mr.. Boyle
states that they discover this in the under
taking business, and frequently have much
10 i'm al in
sequence.
Taken all in all, however, it would appear
that the city's standing relative TO the lat
ter case is quite good. The signs of moral
decay are observable, but not yet very pro-
nounced, not at least so much SO as to cause
alarm,