Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1894-07-15
LEGAL DESERTIONS.
Temporary Summer Divorces and What
Becomes Of Them.
THE PRICE A WOMAN PAYS
For Forsxking Home In Hot Weather
Her Course Is to Taho Her Husband
Along or Stay at Home.
Correspondence Of the Dispatch

women.
For alasl II is only occasionally that
the house IA really closed. Looking at
tentiveiy one gees tidy maid moving
about the basement. there Is n hinged
opening in the forbidding planked en-
trance. and butchers cart stands before
the area-way. The passer-by interprets
these signs to mean that bachelor house.
keeping is going on inside Notwithstand.
ing the dreary air OF the place one or
more men are rubbing along as best they
may, and II is plain that case Of legi-
timatized and conventional desertion has
occurred.
This may be putting the facts rather
strongly, but | myself wonder just how
women have courage to face these for
saken homes with their atmosphere OF
reproachful loneliness.
or course, the country IL having its
innings. as is proper enough. / also
realize shat in nearly every family there
is an invalid. baby. or old person. whose
life depends upon an early and complete
escape from the sweltering city heat.
Shutting up the town house, therefore.
involves enough of duty 10 salve the ten
derest conscience OF women who feel
qualms about leaving their men behind
Which only shows what custom can do
in justifying an act that is unquestion-
ably wrong in Itself Surely no one can
pretend TO defend the course wives and
mothers pursue every spring In making
things as comfortable as possible for the
boys, and then calmly betaking them
selves Il hundred miles away by sea or
mountain. Women. and good women
at that. deliberately jeOpardze their
homes and happiness year after year.
They actually hang the latchstrng out
side, tempting misery 10 enter. Yet when
she accepts the invitation they are filed
with rage and astonishment. and in all
their subsequent wretchedness never once
place the blame where it rightfully
belongs.
Where there's a will. there's way, and
at any sacrafce n wife should refuse to
leave her husband. a mother her son.
to the gloom and risk of an empty city
house. If it is impossible to summer
where the men can run in 10 business
daily, then let the women stay I'm town,
or the men leave 1t. Never, never com
promise with what must always be u dan
gerous injustice.
1T Is RESPONSIBLE FOR MUCH EVIL.
l affirm. therefore, that at least one hair
Of the marital distrust and deception.
Jealousy, and Indifference which wrecks
welded love. is attributable to these tenn
pOrary summer divorces.
Let any reading wife reflect for an in
stant upon the WOeful change which takes
place in mans life when his family
leaves town. The more domestic and de-
voted a husband he Is, the sharper the
pang and contrast. Working who
themselves toll through long trying days
In stuhy Offices are the only ones fully
able to appreciate what the evening home
coming means. The cheerful lazy gossip
| and small domestic hustle is actually
| soothing to brains which all day long
have been on a page Of facts and figures.
The reward Of ones financial struggle
| down town is turning the latch-key, which
shuts out the careless world Of strangers
and opens a paradise OF sympathetic in
terest all ones own. 1t is to possess just
such walled-in garden Of love that men
marry and accept the heavy responsible
ties family life involves. Every good citi-
zen recognizes his home as his anchor OF
virtue, courage. and happiness. 50 that
no matter what temptations may assail
him outside. he is panoplied for the fight
by wife and children.
These, however. are only the spiritual
helps a home gives. and We all know that
hearty, healthy man has a material side
OF his nature which plays a prominent
part in the game Of existence. The tenn
pered light in wide, cool rooms, flowers
recently scattered about, an artistic Ordl-
no rt aqbiaNa a
of the details which make the city house
bearable for summer habitation. Even
the cleyerest maid fOrgets to draw the
bath deep enough, scatter a dash Of toile,
vinegar IN the water, see that fresh
| linen is laid on, jingling jug OF iced lemon
| ade stands upon the dressing table against
| her masters return. These are tricks love
teaches The same craft that inspires
Il woman to wear cool muslin frOcks
with roses at her belt when husband OF
son comes in limp and weary from work
PITFALLS FOR THE HOMELESS.
All over New York, and every big city
IL the same, there are systematzed pre-
parations made every summer to attract
the patronage Of temporarily homeless
men, Appreciating that the husband
able to let his wife forsake him is neces-
Sarily "A man or means, marks nm as
rich prey worth struggling for. During
office hours there is no danger. but when
work is over then comes the tug OF war.
lie thinks of the gloom OF the house up
town, his carelessly-cooked dinner, long
lonely evening. and in revulsion against
his lot accepts any decently-cheerful invi-
tation that offers itself. In contrast with
that mockery of n home he IS not fast di-
Gus, and after the first or second week
Bridget is able to take a trip 20 Coney
Island whenever she's a mind TO, so rarely
Is master at the house.