The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-12-12
Enduring are the Worlds Fair honors
gained by Prices Baking Powder.
FREE LOVE AND MARRIAGE.
Some Interesting Comments in Connec-
nectiOn Herewith.

|
spread of Socialistic teaching, creates in
ternati0nal interest says the Literary Di-
Sest. Briefly told, the case is as follows
Miss Edith Manchester is the daughter
of prosperous architect of good social
standing. She is "a years old, and well
educated, her father having provided her
| with the means to become matriculated
student at London university. She also
distinguished herself in botany and zool-
0gy at the Birbeck Institute. For the
last five or six years she has been interest
ed in Socialism, and is now an active
member of the Social Democratic FEEDER
alton. She has an Independent income
of $500 year, to which she added by
working as teacher or clerk For the
last two years she has been on terms of
intimate acquaintance with Socialist
named John Sullivan, who is described as
much inferior to Miss Manchester in
point OF education, in breeding, and in
the standing of his relations. They were
supposed to be engaged, and Miss Ian
chester's father offered no objection to
their marriage. But Miss Manchester
| having adopted the anti-marriage princi-
pies proclaimed by the Socialists and
Anarchists, made known her intention to
cohabit with Sullivan without the GUS
| tomary legal sanction of a union. Then
her relatives interfered and procured her
| NSINlillOll III IL asylum us IL UlOUO-
| maniac. According to English law any
physician may commit lunatic to the
care of an asylum, subject to the approval
OF the lunacy commissioners, who must
give their decision within seven days. In
Miss Lanchester's case the commission
| ers failed to discover proofs of insanity.
and she was promptly released. A mum.
Der or important papers demanded a re-
vision of the lunacy laws. I'VE have no
fn hn n,tiF nl Al,
Daily Chronicle: 1T is high time the
whole system of private asylums should
come to an end" And the Pail Mall Ga
Zette says: I'VE can not believe that an
absolutely rational person is ever de-
coyed into one of these establishments.
But to highly eccentric man or woman
the asylum means prompt, stark, staring
madness. The whole system must be re-
vised." The Spectator and the Saturday
Review denOunces the detention as an
outrage. But the majority of papers
| throughout Great Britain take very diff
terent view. The Standard says:
The action of the parents may have
been injudiciOus and unfortunate. but
they did not fail to comply with the
formalitics of the lunacy law. In any
event, Miss Manchester and her Socialist
| friends may rest assured that her ABB
ductiOn has been regarded by everybody
|
and common sense, not only with equa-
nimity, but with very considerable sym
pathy. There is no people on the face
of the earth more easily stirred to eX-
element and just resentment than the
| English by the very suggestion that any
person has been sent to, or is being de-
| tanned in, an asylum unjustly. Il But
the most fervent advocates of the right
of the subject to escape improper de-
| tnt1t in, l.
selves into a white heat of anger over
Miss Lanchester's brief incarceration, or
of enthusiasm over her release. Her eX-
traOrdinary views as to the marriage re-
lationship might well enough have proved
to be the result of mental alteration, and
| for her sake, as well as for their own.
her friends are to be commended rather
than blamed for testing the point by any
| legal method open to them"
The Birmingham Gazette says: 1T
was never supposed that Mr.. Manchester
had the right to control his daughter from
wrong-doing, seeing that she is over age.
| All he could do was to test her sanity.
And now it is proved that she is sane
| Meanwhile the action of Miss Lanches-
ter's father has been the subject of uni
versal approval. 1t is already under dis
cussion whether testimonial should not
be organized to defray the expenses he
has been put to, and express on behalf
of the heads of families the public APPROX
al of his manly protest against the viola
ton of family honor and public decorum."
A large number of papers lay the blame
of Miss Lanchester's action at the door
of the writers of "SiX-Shilling Dreadfuls"
in general, and Mr.. Grant Aliens "Wom-
an Who Did, in particular.
But the Leader, Newcastle, says: ITO
do Mr. Grant Allen justice, it must be
said that his novel was of a character
calculated rather to deter free lovers
than to encourage them. The alliance
of the hero and heroine of The Woman
Who DID had heart-breaking cOnse-
quences. Many marriages are miserable.
no doubt, but there can be few that are
more tOrturing than those arrangements
which now and then take the place of
marriage, especially if the high contract
ing parties be persons of intellect and
genius"
Mr.. Sullivan is handled pretty severely
by the press. the general view taking be-
ing that the male partner in free love is
wanting in generosity. The Daily
Graphic wonders whether the young lady
has right to sacrifice herself and her
family on the altar of principle to ally
herself with a man "whose nobility of
character is expressed by his willing
ness to accept such a sacrifice while sac
rificing nothing himself"
The ST. James Gazette says: With
out marriage, as perhaps poor Miss Ian
chester may discover eventually-as at
any rate tens of thousands of women
have discovered before-the advantages
of union between the sexes is all on
the side of the man. The woman is at
the mercy of his caprice, his selfshness
and his scnsuality. This is so well under
stood that to abolish marriage would be
to unmakc civilization"
Justice, the official organ of the Social
lists. says:
Miss Lancaster may be perfectly right
in her contentious in the abstract. So
far as that goes we do not differ from her.
But we are living in the world rs it is and
just as we Socialists can not effectively
enter our protest against capitalism by
individual anarchistic action or personal
revolt so neither can we usefully deter
mine that each of us shall go his or her
own way in business. in pleasure and par
ticularly in sexual intercourse, regardless
of the harm which our behaviour may do
to others. We ought not to take a serious
step of this kind without considering the
injury we may do to our own comrades,
to our immediate family connections or
IL,