Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1895-03-21

~.
Z .XN&&SSSSSS%&> V is a skeleton in the
-.,s hallway and a skel-
eton in all the apartments.
'Unhappily married" are two words
descriptive of many a homestead. 1t
needs no orthodox minister to prove To a
badly mated pair that there is a hell;
they are there now. Sometimes grand
and gracious woman will be thus incar-
cerated. and her life will be 8 crucitiX-
ion, as was the case with Mrs. Sgour-
ney, the great poetess and the great
soul. Sometimes a consecrated man
will be united to a fury. as was John
Wesley, or united to "A vixen. as was
John Milton Sometimes, and general
~, both parties are TO blame. ana
Thomas Carlyle was an intolerable
scold. and his wife smoked and swore'
and Froude, the historian. pulled aside
the curtain from the lifelong squabbie
at Craigenputtock and Five. Cheyne
Row.
Some say that for the alienation of
all these domestic disorders Of which we
hear, easy divorce IS a good prescrip-
lion. God sometimes authorizes divorce
as certainly as he authorizes marriage.
] have just as much regard for one law
fully divorced as | have for one lawfully
married. But YOU know and | know
that wholesale divorce is one Of our
national scourges. l am not surprised
at this when | think of the influences
which have been abroad initiating
against the marriage relation.
For many years the platforms OF the
country rang with talk about free
love millennium There We're meetings
of this kind held In the Cooper institute,
New York; fremont temple. Boston,
and all over the land Some Of the
women who were most prominent in
that movement have since been distin-
guished FIR great promiseuosity of atfec-
ton. Popular themes for such occa-
sions were the tyranny of man, the OPP
preston of the marri age relation. wom-
ems rights and the affinities. Promi-
nent speakers were women with short
curis and short dress and very long
tongue. everlastingly at war with God
because they We're created women;
while on the platform sat meek men
with soft accent and cowed demeanor,
apologize for mascullnity. and holding
the parasols while the termagant ora
tors went on preaching the doctrine of
free love.
That campaign Of about twenty years
set more devils into the marriage rela-
ton than viii be exercised In the next
fifty. Men and women went home from
such meetings so permanently confused
as to who were their wives and hus
bands that they never got out of their
perplexity, md the criminal and civil
courts tried 10 disentangle the Iliad of
woes. and this one got alimony, and
that one got a limited divorce, and this
mother kept the children on condition
that the father could sometimes come
and look at them. and these went into
poorhouses. and those went into an in
sane asylum. and those went into dis
solute public life. and all went into de-
struction. The mightiest war ever made
against the marriage institution was
that free love campaign. sometimes
under one name and sometimes under
another.
Another influence that has warred
upon the marriage relation has been
polygamy in Utah. That was stereo-
typed carlcature Of the marriage rela-
ton. and has poisoned the whole land.
You might as well think Tat YOU can
have an arm in a state of modification
and yet the whole body not be sickened,
as to have those territories polygami-
zed. and yet the body of the nation not
feel the putrefaction, Hear it. good
men and women of America. that so
long ago as 1862 a law was passed by
congress forhtdding polygamy in the
territories and in all the place where
they had Jurisdiction Twenty-four
years passed along aud five administra-
tions before the first brick was knocked
from that fortress Of libertinism
Every new president in the inaugural
tickled that monster with the straw Of
condemnation and every congress stul-
titled Itself Itself in proposing some plan
that would not work. Polysamy stood
more entrenched and more brazen. and
more puissant and more hraggart. and
more Internal James buchanan "a
much-abused man OF his day. did more
for the eNtrpation OF this villainy than
most Of the subsequent administrations.
Mr.. buchanan sent cut an army. and al
though il was halted III its work. still
he accomplished more than some OF the
administrations which did nothing hu,
talk. talk talk! Al last but not until
1t had poisoned generations. polygamy
has received ms death-blow.
Polygamy III TITAN warred AGAINST
the marriage relation throughout tn,
land. Ii was impossible To have such az
awful sewer Of iniQuity sending mp il,
Iniasma, which WAS waited hy the winds
north south. east ANA west, without the
whole land being affected by it,
Another influence that has warred
against the marriage relation in this
country has been pustulouS literature
with its millions ~ sheets every weel
choked with stories of domestic WRONGS
and intldchues, ana massacres. ana out
RACES. until II is "A wonder 20 me tina