Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-04-03
KEW. DR. TA]MAGE
eHH BROOKLYN DIvfNE>D 6UH-
DAY RERMON.
Subject: "wholesale Divorce.''


pgether let not man put asunder.
XIX, 6.
That there are hundreds and thousands o
fnfelicitous homes in America no one viii
doubt. II there were only one skeleton h
the closet, that might be locked up and
abandoned, but in many a home there is 9
skeleton in the hallway and a skeleton in al
<he apartments.
"UDhappily married" are two words de
scriptive of many a homestead. It needs ne
orthodox minister to prove to . badly mated
pair that there is a hell. They are there now,
Sometimes a grand and gracious woman will
be thus incarcerated, and her life will be Q
orucifxion, as was the case with Mrs. Sigour
ney, the great poetess and the great SIOUX
Sometimes u consecrated man will be united
to fury, as was John Wesley, or united to
vixen, as was John Milton. Sometimes, and
generally, both parties are TO blame, and
Thomas Carlyle was an intolerable scold, and
his wife smoked and swore, and Froude, the
historian, pulled aside the curtain from the
lifelong squabble at Craigenputtock and Five
Cheyne Row.
Some say that for the allsyiation Of all
these domestic disorders of which we hear
easy divorce is good prescription. God
sometimes authorizes divorce rs certainly as
He authorizes marriage. Ihave just as much
regard for one lawfully divorSed as I have
for one lawfully married. But you know
and know that wholesale divorce is one of
at this when think OF the influences which
have been abroad Initiating against the mar.
Rage relation.
For many years the platforms of the coun
try rang with talk about a free love millen-
mum. There were 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 promi-
nent in that movement have since been dis
tinguished for great promiscuosity OF affec-
tion. Popular thems for such occasions were
the tyranny Of man, the oppression of the
marriage relation, women's rights and the
affinities. Prominent speakers were women
with short curlS and short dress, and very
long tongue, eyerlastingly at war with God
because they were created women, while on
the platform sat meek men with soft accent
and cowed demeanor, apologetic for mascu.
Unity, and holding the parasols while the
termagant orators went on preaching the
doctrine Of free love.
That campaign of about twenty years So
more devils into the marriage relation than
will be exercised in the next fifty. Men and
women went home from such meetings 50
permanently confused as to who were their
wives and husbands that they never got out
OF their perplexity, and the criminal and the
civil courts tried to disentunSle the "Iliad"
OF woes. and this one got alimonv, and that
one got a limited divorce, ard this mother
kept the children on condition that the
them. and these went into poorhouses, and
those went into an insane asylum, and those
went into dissolute public life, and all went
to destruction. The mightiest war ever
made against the marriage institution wae
that free love campaign, sometimes undes
one name and sometimes under another.
Another influence that has warred upon
the marriage relation has been polygamy In
Utah. That was a stereotyped caricature OF
the marriage relation and has poisoned the
whole land. You might as well think that
you can have an arm in state of mortifcaa
tion and yet the whole body not be sickened
as to have these Territories polygamized and
yet the body OF the Nation not feel the putre.
faction. Hear it, good men and women OF
America. that so long ago as 1862 a Law was
passed by Congress forbidding polygamy in
the Territories and in all the places where
they hal jurisdiction. Twenty-four years
passed along and five administrations before
the first brick was knocked from that for.
.ress of libertinisn.
Every new President in his inaugura
tickled that monster with the straw of con-
demnation, and every Congress stultified it
self in proposing some plan that would not
work. Polygany stood more intrenched,
and more brazen, and more puissant, and
more braggart, AMI mere internal. James
Buchanan, a much abused man of his day,
did more for the extirpation OF this villainy
than most Of the subsequent administra-
tions. Mr.. Buchanan sent out an army, and
although it was halted in its work still he
accomplished more than some of the admin
istrations which did nothing but talk, talk,
talk. At last, but not until II had poisoned
generations, polygamy has received its death
blow.
Polygamy in Utah warred against the mar
riage relation throughout the land. 1t was
impossible to have such an awful sewer OF
iniquity sending up IFS miasma, which was
waited by the winds North, South, East ald
West, without the whole land being affected
by it.
Another influence that has warred agains
the marriage relation in this country has
been pustulous literature, with its millions
of sheets every week choked with stories OF
domestic wrongs and infldelities and massa-
cres and outrages, until it is a wonder to ne
that there are any decencieS or any common
sense left on the subject OF marriage. One
half of the newsstands Of ali our cities reek-
ting with the filth.
"Now," say some, 1--WE admit all thest
evils, and the only way to clear them out or
fore We yield to that cry let us find out how
,asy 1t Is now.
I have looked over the laws Of all the States
and find that, while in some States 1t Is
easier than in others, In every State 1t Is
easy. The State of Illinois, through its Leg
islature, recites long list Of proper causes
for divorce and then closes up by giving to
the courts the right to make the decree OF
divorce in any case where they deem it ex-
pedient. After that you are not surprised
at the announcement that in one county OF
the State Of Illinois, in one year, there were
1888 divorces. II you want to know how easy
it is, you have only to look over the records OF
the States. In the city Of San Francisco s3s
divorces in one year, and in twenty years
in New England 10000. Is that not easy
enough?
If the same ratio continue-the ratio OF
ipl;A Cd 4,ol;a ;aI nf
dfvorce-we are not far from the time when
our courts will have to set apart whole days
for application, and all you will have to
prove against n man will be that he left ms
newspaper in the middle OF the floor. and all
you will have to prove against q woman will
Causes of divorce double in q few years
doubled in France, doubled in England and
doubled in the United States. To show YOU
how very easy it Is I have to tell you that in
Western Reserve, Ohio, tho proportion OF
divorces to marriages celebrated is ono to
eleven, In Rhode Island is one to thirteen, in
Vermont one to fourteen. Is not that easy
enough?
I want you to notice that frequency OF
divorce always goes along with the DISCO
not one case of divorce. Those were her
days of glory and virtue. Then tho reign g.
vice began, and divorce became epidemic. II
you want to know how rapidly the empire
vent down yak f.ibbon.
What we want In this cou...ry and in all
lands is that divorce be made more and
more and more difficult. Then peop,e be-
fore they enter that relation will be per-
sauded that there will probably be no escape
from it except through the door of the sep
ulcher Then they will pause on the verge
OF that relation until they are fully satisfied
that it Is best, and that it is right, and that
1t is happiest. Then we shall have no more
marriage in fun. Then men and women will
not enter the relation with the idea 1t is only
trial trip, and if they do not like it they
can get out at the first landing. Then thif
whole question will be taken out Of the friv-
eious into The Tremendous, ana there w1H DO
no more joking about the bios oms in .
brde's hair than about the cypress on .
coffin.
WHAT we want is that the Congress of the
United States change the National Constitu-
tion SO that a law can be passed which shall,
be uniform all over the country, and whnt
shall be right in one State shall be right in
all the States, and what is wrong in one State