The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1893-11-30
MARRIAGE and DIVORCE
Increase Of Divorce Nearly Three Times
Larger Than That Of Population.
THE SHAMEFUL DIVORCE COURTS.
All Our Institutions Founded Upon
the Homc-Society,s Respoustbii.
isy-The viciousness OF the ART
and Literature OF To-day.

fuoitneu Dy request
That the evils Of divorce are not due TO
any merely local causes may be imme-
diately seen in the fact that the multiple
cation OF DEGREES that part the marriage
bond is common to the whole United
States, three states only excepted. Ac-
cording to the report OF the commissioner
in charge OF the work, il is found that the
aggregate OF divorces in the United
States ran up in twenty years from e,g37
a year TO 80. 537; and that while the pop
ulation has increased sixty, divorces have
multiplied l57 per cent.
And this, as We have said, helds true of
practically the whole country. The east
ern states are not 80 deeply affected as the
west and south. but New Hampshire
matched her increase OF per cent in
population in one decade by increase OF
lie per cent in her divorces in the same
time. In our forty.eight states we have
recognized by the various laws and courts
forty-two causes OF divorce, including
'any other" reason for granting the de-
cree which may be suggested to the judge
and by him deemed sufficient" A citi-
zen in one state having found an accomo-
dating judge who will serve his purpose
in another, separated from the first by an
invisible line, establishes nominal resi-
dence the other side Of that boundary and
| is soon the possessor OF the coveted de-
cree. At the most summer outing at q
hotel is sufficient in the eye OF Judge
easily blinded, to establish "domicile,"
and the bond is lightly tossed aside, and
the successful litigant goes home to con-
summate second marriage II there is
any act Of a mans life which ought to be
as solemn as the conservation OF E,s soul
to God it is the vow that binds him to one
woman as his wife, but il there be any
act which is today performed with the
easy nonchalance OF q jest in an opera
bouffe it is the sundering OF those bonds
upon which has been invoked the bene
diction of heaven and the favor of Di-
vine grace.
We do not care to dwell upon the
shameful details OF our divorce courts; the
facts pertaining to the same have been
widely disseminated by the special COM
missioner in government reports. The
evil OF a divorce to be had almost for the
asking is confessed; the danger which
threatens the church, society and state
therefrom cannot be exaggerated All
our institutions are founded upon the
home; all stand or fall with the home.
When within the lifetime OF a single gen.
GRAFTON the number Of homes broken up
by judicial decree has good deal more
than doubled in proportion to the popula.
ton, it is time not only for the Christian
to lament but the patriot to be alarmed.
Back of the sorrowful story lies the
scarcely hidden cause in profigacy of
art and literature, TO America new. We
have no hesitation in charging the in
crease of divorce to the lowered tone of
popular reading and to the shameless
parade everywhere OF the nude in art
Appetites and passions that need the
strong curb of conscience and the re-
straint OF pronounced public opinion,
are not repressed but excited by much On
the literature Of the day whose chief rec
ommend is its animalism. In prose and
verse lola and Whitman set the pace,
and are applauded despite Of or by reason
of their undisguised bestiality. Writers
scarcely less gross and not whit more
moral are found upon the tables OF pro-
iessedly Christian households. Delicate
phrases by which to thinly disguise
deadly sins, become familiar to the minds
of youth, and are accepted as sufficient
apology for the harboring OF foul imag-
nations. We expurgate Horace but bind
Swinburn in white and gold and translate
Beranger. Not for hundred years has
the literature in the hands and homes OF
English speaking people been 30 sensual
and degrading as it is today. Is 1t any
wonder that life becomes corrupt in deed
as well as in imagination, and on every
side we see homes broken more sorrow
fully than by death?
But what Of the art OF today? A walk
through The gallery of the exposition, and
the youth OF our whole country has taken
that walk this summer, will tell the story.
The brush does not care to repeat to men
today the story Of the Holy Family, but
OF life TO which all family ties are I'M
known. The model for the painters
most laborious work is not Madonna but
a grisette. The objects that stare Cut
upon us from the dead walls Of the city
are not pictures of virtue but suggestions
OF vicious indulgences. The opera is
bore until the curtain rises upon the bai-
let; and the thester has surrendered body
and soul t, the spectacular" drama with
its unspeakable indecencies.
One needs but to look upon these indis-
putable facts to know whence it comes
that the moral life OF the people as ex-
pressed in the divorce court, is sinking to
unknown dep lbs. The most appIauded
actors and actresses upon the stage are
those whose lives are known to be most
Infamous. Public men confessedly guilty
of the grossest offences are still welcomed
into polite society. The church deals too
leniently with its members Of doubtful
reputation. The pulpit should smite this
iniquity with heavy hand, and spare not.
Every reader may perhaps take home to1
himself or herself the words Of Victor
Hugo when contemplating the characters
in his greatest work "Who made these
people what we find them to be? Society,
NV friends. Who is society? You and
|, friends, we are society" In the evils
we deplore, God grant We be found not
guilty Of completely by encouragement OF
those habits and customs from which the