Condon globe. (Condon, Gilliam Co., Or.) 189?-1919, 1895-02-22

nreSlQe6. Inc woman VINO mas q
brute for a husband would still be
protected, and when she procured
her divorce she would stand as a
benefactor to womankind, for the
brute would be disqualified from
foisting himself upon another wom-
an.
THE SIN OF DIVORCE.
The world rightly regards with
suspicion and disfavor men who
are separated from their wives and
women who are separated from
their husbands. And while judges
all over the land are kept busy by
litigants seeking to escape from
marriages which they have con-
tracted, in the event Of success
neither party gains in prestige or
general standing with the casual
acquaintance who knows of their
position. Without doubt this is
unjust in many instances, but the
exceptions have to suffer that the
rule may be maintained. Differ
ence in family, no matter how
exemplary, will occur; but when
they become SO permanent and un-
bearable that a formal separation
is necessary it is pretty conclusive
evidence of serious deficiencies in
character on both sides. In the
judgment of the court the relief
may be granted to one party and
as against the other, but the judg-
ment of the world is the fairer. be-
cause it says that they are both to
blame.
1t is not to be expected that low
born people should recognize the
obligations of married life, or en-
dure it's sorrows and disappoint-
ments in silence. 1t is no more
shock to see them publicly at war
over their troubles than it is to see
them figuring in the police courts
for the settlement of petty neigh
borhood quarrels or disputes over
trifes. Vulgar common creatures,
bred in the stews, with no ambi-
tions to distinguish them from
dumb animals, they simply work
out the law of their being when
they trample on decency and pa
rade their shamelessness before the
general gaze. But there is an
other class of men and women who
when they make scandal of their
domestic difficulties do 80 not only
to their own debasement, but also
to the confusion of everybody who
believes in the nobility of human
nature or cherishes ideals about its
possibilities. Men and women who
have had opportunities for culture
of mind and character can wrangle
in public only at the expense of
their own self-respect and the dis
tress of their friends.
People who enter contracts of
any sort, if they are honorable pro-
pose to keep them to the limit of |
their ability, whether they bring
profit or loss. Marriage is a con-
tract in which the man takes the
woman and the woman the man |
for worse as well as for better,
and if they have character and
strength of purpose, they will per-
sist in the performance of their
pledges, no matter how hard it may
De for them to do so. Everybody
will admit that the husband who
would desert his wife because her
health fails her, or the wife who
would desert her husband because
he is unfortunate and unsuccessful,
is false to duty and conscience. |
But the wagging tongue Of his wife
is often only the evidence of i'll
health, and the irregular habits of
the husband the proof of business
failure or distress. Good people
endure through sad experiences,
even though they are protracted,
because they have vowed that they
will. Domestic martyrdom is as
painful as death at the stake, but
heroes submit to it. and it is only
the weak and cowardly who break
their faith in the hour of trial.
Very little in life is pleasant. Our
careers are SUGGESTIONS of toilful
effort, struggles with sharp and
stinging blows; and their sure end
is death. But we keep on just the
same because it seems that we
ought to. So it is with the pains
of married life. We should not try
to escape from them. We should
try to cure them if we can. If we
cannot, we should bow our heads
and undergo our lot, because we
have sworn that we should. Di-
vorce is like suicide. tits the COW
ards refuge from bis ills.
snm
There is a great demand from
the Eastern and Southern states to
tha n-o,. L1~-1