Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-04-24

L
ton of the marriage relation and the
civil law treats it as a contract of the
most binding character. Fortunately.
also, most men and women respect its
ties. some as a religious duty, some as
a matter of honor, and others merely
because of established laws and Gus
toms. There are. however, a few who
degrade and mock at the marriage re
lation by entering into it as mere
matter of convenience, and it is merely
these people who provide occupation
for the divorce courts. The founda
ton of the marriage relation is love;
the ceremony, religious or civil, is
merely the public acknowledgment of
q union of hearts that has already
taken place. Without such union the
mere ceremony Is mockery if not
something worse. The moral condi
ton of a person who could take the
marriage vow knowing that no love
existed, but that the marriage was a
kind of business transaction whereby
the wife or husband should be provid
ed with supporter, must be SO weak
that the vo W itself would be kept only
so long as it suited his or her convent
ence. 1t is known that there are not
many such cases in proportion to the
the census returns indicate that the
generally supposed to be.
The number of divorced people is
perhaps a fair index to the number
who at any given time have treated
marriage as a matter of convenience
dTshaken off its ties. Now, accord
ing to the census returns of the United
States, that number is so small as not
to make an appreciate percentage
compared with the number of married
persons. 1t is only one-fifth of one per
cent when compared with the entire
population of the country. Among
the negro population the divorced are
more prevalent than among any other
classes. Taking the census returns as
a whole, they indicate high state of
morality and prosperity in this coun-
try. In spite of great deal of free
dom in the matter of marriages and
divorces, the marriage relation is evi
IDENTIFY respected as it should be-
Three-fourths of all the persons of
manageable age in the country, that
is to say, three-fourths of all over
twenty years of age, are either married
or widowed. This is larger proper
ton than Is shown by any of the chief
COuuOTicb III GuTOpcs uue III part, no
doubt. to the relative prosperity of
the American people, but in part also
to their recognition of moral obliga-
tions. Here there are few, if any,
marriages made by force of family in
huence; there are, no doubt, some that
are sordidly made by the principals
themselves, but the great majority
restson the only sure foundation of
connubial bliss-loye. Marriages SO
made.at the proper period of life, be-
fore'either partner has become 80 set
in his or her ways as to be unyielding,
arenot likely to be distur bed in after
Years for, the man and his wife grow
to each other until they become figur-i
atively, at least, bone of one hone and
flesh of one flesh. There is no more
pleasing spectacle than that of a couple
thus united realizing, though in pro
sale fashion, the aspirations of their
early days of love. And, on the other
hand, there can be no more disagree
able sight than that of man or woman
prostituting the marriage ceremony to
a formal union without love to bind it.
Ii in the coming years they find the
ties intolerable and seek relief in the
divorce court, who shall pity them?
Have they not brought this sorrow up
on themselves by entering an unholy
alliance for purely selfish purposes?
Love may be blind, as the poets say.
but there is no better or surer guide to
the marriage Observation-Disclosures Sun.