The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-01-21

The Rev. Dr. Van Doren, Of Albany. n.
Y. in Q recent sermon upon marriage held
the newspapers responsible for the failure
of young men to marry. because they pub
iished the accounts Of sins and crimes
committed By women. 1T would be .
blessing TO many . young woman" said
the doctor. IF the press OF the country
would withhold the records of divorces
and separations which are brought about
through the i'm purity Of women. and II
such thing could be done probably some
of our young men would forget the faults
of the women and would take courage and
propose; bat as long as the sin and faults
Of women are put before the public so long
will married life appear to many men as
as failure"
This is absurd, for II IL means anything
It means that Ignorance 10 the only path
way to marital life. The man who would
turn cynic and woman hater by reading
the records of divorce court would be 40
big fool IS . woman who would turn
cynic and man-hater when she read the
announcement Of some ''good man gone
picked . pocket, committed burglary,
adultery or perjury. A man who would
distrust al women and all men because
some women and some men 60 wrong il not
tit TO marry. A man or woman who has
no faith in human nature because the
records Of courts prove that both men and
women are failibIs and sometimes 60
wrong. is too shallow and cheap cynic to
adorn the married state.
Good DR.. Van Doren need not worry over
the man or the woman who is afraid to trust
anybody because somebody goes wrong.
You might ~ well argue that all Christ's
apostles were bad lot because Judas sold
his master. Ignorance is not . desirable
state of innocence. A knowledge of the
abuses Of the married state are no more
reason for not entering it with high pur-
pose to sdorn IL than . court record Of
breaches OF trust Is Q reason that should
deter q man from ever trusting q fellow
man. Men or women who are made cynics
by the knowledge Of both good and evil;
who have no faith in anybody because
somebody has proved faithless had better
not marry at all; they are not fit to marry
they are too suspicious and shallow
minded to make q true marriage possible
Divorce courts are like ell other courts I
| they serve to remind us that human ma.
ture is weak; that men and women are
subject to failure and to fall, but q man
| who would cast off woman because of the
records of divorce trials, would distrust
| the mother that bore him or the sister that
| was the playmate of his childhood Peo-
| pie who are made cynics, 90 that they lose
faith in human nature, by the records OF
| divorce courts or criminal courts are not
| people of much brains or heart; they are
| not 1T to marry and IL Is q wise girl who
loses fellow who pretends that he has no
he might IS veil say he has no faith in
men because Of the records of criminal
courts. True marriages seldom trouble
the courts and when they are not true
marriages they ought to trouble the courts.
Let US know both good and evil, the
weakness and the strength Of human na.
ture, but let US not argue that ignorance
is desirable kind of innocence. The man
who has no faith in marriage or in any
woman because marriage Ii sometimes a
failure is as absurd and cheap a creature
as man who would repudiata the ethics
and principles of Christianity because he
had read Of Christian minister coins
wrong or OF frightfui crimes committed in
the name Of religion.