The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-03-22

New England 10000. Is that not easy
enough?
If the same ratio continue-the ratio
of multiplied divorce and multiplied
causes of divorce-we are not far from
the time when our courts will have to
set apart whole days for application.
and all that You will have to prove
against a man will be that he left his
newspaper in the middle of the floor,
and all you will have to prove against
woman will be that her husbands
overcoat is buttonless. Causes of di-
vorce double in a few years-doubled
in France, doubled in England. and
doubled in the United States. To show
you how very easy it is have but to tell
you that in the Western Reserve. Ohio.
the proportion of divorces to marriages
celebrated is / to IL; in Rhode Island
is l to 13: in Vermont, 1 to IA. Is it
not easy enough?
Iwant you to notice that frequency
of divorce always goes along with the
dissoluteness of society. Rome. for
five hundred years. had not one case of
divorce Those were her days of glory
and virtue. Then the reign of vice
began and divorce became epidemic.
If you want to know how rapidly the
empire went down. ask Gibbon.
What we want in this country and in
all lands is that divorce be made more
and more and more difficult. Then
people before they enter that relation
will be persuaded that there will prob
ably be no escape from it except
through the door of the sepulcher.
Then they will pause on the verge of
that relation until they are fully salts
fed that it is best. and that i Is right,
and that it is happiest. Then we shall
have no more marriage in fun. Then
men and women will not enter the re-
lation with the idea it is only trial
trip and if they do not like 1t they can
get outat the first landing. Then this
whole question will be taken out of
the frivolous into the tremendous and
there will be no more joking about the
blossoms in brides hair than about
the cypress on a coffin.
What we want is that the congress
of the United States change the ma
tional constitution so that law can
be passed which shall be uniform all
over the country and what shall be
right in one state shall be right in all
the states, and what is wrong in one
state will be wrong in all the states
How is it now? If party in the
marriage relation gets dissatisfied, it is
only necessary to move to another
1, 10. fl,sa do
mestic tie, and divorce is effected so
easy that the first one party knows of
it is by seeing in the newspapers that
Rev. Dr. Somebody on March l., 1895,
introduced in a new marriage relation
a member of the household who went
off on a pleasure excursion to New
port. or a business excursion to Chi
cago. Married at the brides house.
No cards. There are states in the
union which practically put a pre-
MUM upon the disintegration of the
marriage relation. while there are
other states. like our own New York
state, that had for long time the pre-
eminent idiocy of making marriage
lawful at u and IA years of age.
The congress OF the United States
needs to move for change in the ma
tional constitution. and then TO APP
point a committeeman made up of
single gentlemen. but OF men of fami-
lies and their families in Washington
who shall prepare a good, honest,
righteous, comprehensive uniform law,
that will control everything, from
Sandy Hook to the Golden Horn.
That will put an end to brokerage in
marriage That will send divorce
lawyers into a decent business. That
will set people, agitated for many
wears on the question of how shall they
get away from each other, to planning
how they can adjust themselves to the
more or less unfavorable circumstances
More difficult divorce will put an es-
TOPPED to a great extent upon marriage
as financial speculation. There are
men who go into the relation just as
they go into Wall street to purchase
shares. The female to be invited into
the partnership of wedlock is utterly
unattractive and in disposition sup
pressed Vesuvius. Everybody knows it,
but this masculine candidate for matri-
monial orders, through the commercial
agency or through the county records,
finds out how much estate is to be in
herited, and he calculates it. He thinks
out how long it will be before the old
man will die, and then he enters the
relation; for he SAYS: IF l cannot
stand it. then through the divorce laws
I'll back out" That process is going
on all the time, and men enter the re-
lation without any moral principle,
without any ffection, and it is as much
matter of stock speculation as any
thing that transpirea yesterday in
Union Pacific. Illinois Central or Della
ware & Lackawanna.
Now, suppose a man understood, as
he ought to understand, that if he goes
into that relation there is no possibili-
ty of his getting out. or no probability,
he would be more slow to put his neck
in the yoke. He would say TO himself:
Rather than a Caribbean whirlwind
with a whole fleet of shipping in its
arms, give me 4 zephyr off fields OF
sunshine and gardens of peace"
Rigorous divorce law will also hinder
women from the fatal mistake of mar
rying men to reform them. If young
man by % years of age or 80 years OF
age have the habit of strong drink fixed
on him he is as certainly bound for a
drunkard's grave as that train start
ing out from Grand Central depot at
| o'clock tomorrow morning is bound
for Albany, for it may DE thrown from
the track The young man may not
reach a drunkard's grave. for some
thing may throw him off the iron track
of evil habit; but the probability is
| that the train that starts tomorrow