Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-01-19
FREELAND, PA, JANUARY 10, 1898


Marriage as an Option.
The divorce proceedings between the
artist, Mr.. Stetson, and his wife have
taken up some space in the papers re-
Gently. They have differed from other
like attempts to sever the marriage tie,
in Mr.. Stetson's profuse assertions that
he and his wife had no difference except
the slight but insuperable one that they
preferred living apart to living together.
For his late wife Mr.. Stetson expresses
high respect which she reciprocates.
They have no vulgar differences or
quarrels. Neither charged the other
with unfaithfulness After some years
of married life in Providence, r. l., and
Los Angeles, CAL, Mrs. Stetson discov-
cred that there was much in life she
preferred to keeping house for Mr.. Stet-
son and Mr.. Stetson reached the conclu-
sion that it was hardly worth while to
have wife, however gifted, who prefer
red living alone in California to making
him comfortable in Rhode Island.
mo ihutual dlolONCly lCd W q
application for divorce which in less
accommodating days the courts would
have rejected as collusive. 1t never
seem to have occurred to either that
marriage is not mere convenience and
that its VOWS cannot be discharged and
dissolved by common preference for
single life. The duty and obligation
which man and woman owe to society,
not less than to themselves, sat lightly
on both. Neither seems for an instant
to have realized that the marriage rela-
ton is in its nature and essence irrevo-
cable, however men and women may
agree to rid themselves of its outer and
apparent bonds. Although one or the
other may break from its bonds or de-
grade them by ignoble surrender tc
heshy passion, it still remains true that
the vows which unite man and woman
in marriage work a change in the life
and all the relations of each which
make separation frank confession of
dire failure in life's dearest desire.
Law, social practice and religious
sanction may modify the enduring char
acters of this lifelong contract in its
legal obligations and relations, but moth
ing alters or can alter the grim fact that
a man and woman who have once lived
together as man and wife can by no
possibility unlive what is past. Char
acter and all the relations of life are
altered, and, whatever compromise and
adjustment may be made, the irrevoca-
BILE fact remains that only death brings
freedom, and even this cannot change a
past which has altered the future.
The Roman Catholic Church has al
ways recognized this fact with results
both good and evil, often oppressive
and by no means deserving of unmixed
praise, Up to recent date ordinary
American society looked upon marriage
as so far irrevocable that it was impossi-
BILE for woman and difficult for a man
to dissolve this bond, even for the most
serious of causes, without distinct loss
of caste.
This has wholly ceased to be the case,
as instances like that of the Stetsons
abundantly prove. This artist and his
wife evidently looked on marriage as al
option, which could be called off at will
Their friends and kinsmen are evidently
ready to receive both without question
after the law has decently separated
them. The New York woman whose
mother gave great reception with hel
daughters restored maiden name on the
cards to notify all the world of her di-
vorce, or the Chicago woman who gave
dinner to past and present spouses,
may be in advance of general practice as
yet, but they are only in advance. Free
and frequent divorce will yet make
their example common.
Yet nothing can alter the fact that a
society which lightly receives in good
standing those who are divorced is GER
tainly in no long time to find many
ready to treat marriage as mere option
--PhiJt. Press