The record-union., 1894-03-29
MODERN MARRIAGES.
Lady Cook Points Out Many Existing
Evils.
How Mothers Are to Blame for Much
of the Misery Existing in
the World To-day.

"Wishing each other not divorced, but dead.
They live respectfully as man and VIE.
-ByIon.
If one were driven in a corner for an
argument against the existing marriage
system, it would only be necessary to re-
fer to the records of the divorce courts
during one short year. What a catalogue
of wretchedness is contained in those
files! Those human documents" " are
more tragically pathetic than the most
startlingly realistic work of the imaglna-
ton ever written in the past or which can
ever be penned in the future. People OF
all ranks and all classes devour their
filthy details, published by the most re-
spectacle as we'll as by the least reputable
OF the daily journals, and yet turn up the
whites of their eyes and hold up their
hands in hypocritical amazement when
any would-be reformer of the existing
horrible state of things steps into the
arena to denounce unhollness, and to
endeavor to bring about a more holy,
purer, and more natural condition OF
things.
How often do we not hear it said by
women of the world, as we'll as by men,
that marriage is a lottery?" lie propo-
sItiou, indeed, is so self-evident as to
be undeniable. a "lottery" That is
precisely what marriage has come to be.
For one marriage Of affection and love
there are many unions of what the
French term "convenience'-that is to
say, marriages wherein the prevailing,
and often the only, element is cashl 1t IS
all question, TO employ mordant
phrase of the poet-Iaureate. of "Proputty,
proputty, proputty" Now, how is the
modern marriage brought about"
oh, CO. nhX
they do not require to be specified, will
deal first with marriage as it Is known IN
what, by polite fiction, are styled 1.-The
upper classes" albeit some of those who
live, move and have their being" in
that orbit have, by their evil example,
done more than any other classes to
bring the sacred institution of marriage
into loathing and contempt. Like most
of the other marts of commerce. the mar
riage Of Modern Babylon is open for all
practical purposes the whole year round
morning, noon, afternoon and night.
Special activity, however, relgns during
the spring and summer months, from
April to the end Of July, the market
place of society is thronged by matrons
and maids, the latter decked out in all
the colors of the rainbow, and further
bedizened by the aid of ''jewels rich and
rare" No expense is spared by the ma
Jronly auctioneers TO make their prop
inducement is offered to purchasers to
come and buy the human flesh and
blood. The proprietorS OF all this beauty
are their own auctioneerS, and set up
their rostrums, as we have all seen, ana
can see every season, in every conceiva-
Bile place: it may be an at-home IN May
tair, a dance in Belgravia, or a Royal
straw berry crush in Pail Mall. But, no
matter where it may be, the procedure
never varies, but is always the same.
4 goodly assemblage having been got
together, the auctioneer- mother mounts
the rostrum and the sale begins:
My lords and gentlemen. The catalogue
of to-day's auction contains, as you will
have seen, an unusually choice selection
OF youthful beauties, differing only in
age hight and color. Many OF them can
trace their family history back to the
days of Adam; they are highly accom-
plished, able to drive, ride, swim, row,
fence and play tennis as well as any of
yourselves. Some have been taught-Or-
perhaps, l should say have taught them
selves-to smoke, but at present, l grieve
to say, these latter are in the minority.
And now, my lords and gentlemen, with
those few preliminary remarks, we will
have lot brought forward. Her age is
Is, and, as you will observe, she is mag
nificent blonde, as like as possible to her
female ancestress. the Countess OF Rutfle-
ton, whose portrait, painted by Lely, you
have all doubtless seen at Hampton
Court. Observe her lustrous eyes, the
texture OF her velvety skin, the round
ness of her arms, the beauty of her bust,
her delicate hands and her small feet.
Approach her more closely, gentlemen;
don't be atraid-she won't mind your
criticism. She is the last of six sisters,
so don't let this opportunity slip. The
reserve price put upon her is only 9l00,
Uu The purchaser need not have any
Inv h oil "a ask mar lar aS to
the existence of grandtaLhers or grand
mothers. Money is the sine quo non:
100000 buys her! Buyers name, please.
Mr. Moneybags Thank you. The So
licitors will wait on you in the morning.
Now put up the next lot"
And thus the sales of human flesh and
blood proceed day after day and year
after year in the marriage mart OF the
modern Babylon. If | am charged with
exaggerating the prevailing condition of
things l ain content to call one witness,
and one only, in support of the accuracy
OF what / have set down, III 40 spirit of
malice or uncharitableness. Let us hear
"Canon Liddon on the Marriage Market"
for that is the exact heading which the
newspapers gave their reports OF that
memorable discourse which the eYer-to-
lamented divine delivered from the pull
pit of St PauPs Cathedral, short time
before his death. Cannon LiddOn Il am
now quoting textually, from the news
paper reports of the perloG), preaching
Yesterday at St. PaufS on the parable OF
the rich landowner who had more goods
than he could stow away, said there were
many counterparts of him in modern
society. After dwelling on four consider
ations as TO the use or abuse of property
TO be derived from the parable, Canon
Liddon said:
.'The London season is approaching
and a bevy of mothers, like Generals on
d campaign, will complain of no fatigue
if they can only marry their daughters,
not TO high-souled and generous men,
but to those who have a fortune. There
will also be a group of young men, who,
having lived d life of dissipation, are
thinking of settling down. They will
look tor a girl, not with graces of charac-
ter which will make her husband and
children happy, but for one possessed OF
a dowry which will enable him to keep
up large establishment. Thus the most
sacred OF all human relationships, both
for time and eternity, is prostituted TO
the brutal level of an affair of cash and is
quickly followed by months and years OF
misery, which, after seething in private,
are paraded to the world amid the shame
and degradation of the divorce court. He
did not underrate the dangers OF revolu-
ton likely to arise from the strained re-
laiions OF capital, labor, strikes and other
causes. but there were dangers nearer
home.n
These words of one of the most devoted
sons of the church who ever lived. made
a profound, but not lasting, impression
on the world generally. Nobody dared
TO criticise them, tor they were stamped