The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-03-18
DANGER IN EASY DIVORCES.
MISCHIEF PLAYED WITH MATRI-
sIONY BY THE FREE LOVE BOOM.


by Women With short Curis. Short
Dresses and Long TOnEues-PoIyg-
amy in Utah a StereOtsPed Carica-
ture of the Marriage Relation.
Proper Divorce Laws Defended,
hut Wholesale Divorce Denounced
rs Crying Evil
New York. March 17-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage chose as the subject OF his after
poon sermon in the Academy Of Music
to-day a topic Of national interest. viz:
Wholesale Divorce" The great audi
ence repeatedly showed its appreciation
Of The sentiments expressed by the rever-
end speaker and his sturdy blows in be-
half Of the protection OF NJ household
and against the dissoluteness Of modern
society were received with marked appre-
citation. The text selected was Matt Is; 6.
WHIST therefore God hath Joined to-
gether let not man put asundeT."
That there are hundreds and thousands
OF infelicitous homes IN America no one
all doubt. If there were only one skele-
ton in the closet that might be locked up
and abandoned; but in many home
there is a skeleton IN the hallway and a
skeleton in all the apartments.
"Unhappily married" are two words de-
scriptive Of many a homestead. It needs
no orthodox minister 10 prove 10 a badly
mated pair that there is hell: they are
there now. Sometimes a grand and gra-
cious woman viii be thus incarcerated.
and her life will be crucinxion. as was
the case with Mrs. sigourney. the great
poetess and the great soul. Sometimes a
consecrated man Will be united 90 a fury
as was John Wesley or united to a 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 cur
tain from the lifelong squabsle at Craig.
enputtock and Five. Cheyne Row
Some say that for the alienation OF all
these domestic disorders of which We
hear. easy divorce is a good prescription.
God sometimes authorizes divorce as GER
7ainly as he authorizes marriage. 1 have
Just as much regard for, one lawfully
divorced as 1 have for one lawfully mar
T1ed. But you know and I know that
wholesale divorce is one of our national
scourges. l am not surprised at this
when l think Of the influences which have
been abroad initiating against the mar
riage relation,
For many years the platforms Of the
country rang with talk about a free-Iove
millennium. 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
we're most prominent in that movement
have since been distinguished for great
promiscuosity OF affection. Popular themes
for EflCh III .
man, the oppression Of the marriage rela-
ton, women's rights, and the affnfties.
Prominent speakers were women with
short curls and short dress and very long
tongue, evsrlastingly at war with God
because they were created women: while
on the platform sat meek men With soft
accent and cowed demeanor. apologetic
Tor pasculinity and holding the parasols
while the termagant orators went on
preaching the doctrine of free love.
Ihat campaign of about twenty years
set more devils into the marriage reLa-
ton than will be exercised in the next
ntty. Men and women went home from
such meetings so permanently confused
as TO who we're their wives and husbands |
that they never got out Of their perplex- |
lty, and the criminal and the civil cotHts /
tried to disentangle the Iiad of woes. and |
this one got alimony, and that one got a |
limited divorce. and this mother kept the |
NfiANA CA NiA NbilulAl4lIl IudI the father !
could sometimes come and look at them. |
and these went into pOor-houses. and I
NOSE went into an insane asylum. and /
those went into dissoute public life. and
all went to destruction The mirbtiest I
war ever made against the marriage in |
sututlon was that free-love campaign, |
sometimes under one name and sometimes
under another.
Another influence that has warred upon
the marriage relation has been nolygamv
IN Ctah That was a stereotyped carica-
ture OF the marriage relation, and has
poisoned the whole land You migs1t as
wen thlhk mat you can have an arm in !
q state or modification and yet the whole
body not be sickened. az to have those ter
J ltorles polygamized, and yet the bow OF
the nation not feel the putrefaction Faar
It, good men and women of America that
50 long ago as 1862 law was passed bv con-
gress forbidding polygamy in the terri
tpIies ana IN All places where they had
JURISDICTION. Twenty-four years passed
along and five ADMINISTRATIONS beAore the
nrst brick was knocked from that fort
Tess of libertinism.
Every new President in his inaugural
tckled that monster with the straw ~
condemnation, and every congress stulti-
ned itself in proposing some Dlan tba+
would not work Poiyranv stood 80
entrenched, and more brazen. and mora
pulssant, and none braggart. and mora
internal. James Buchanan, a much-a bused
man Of his day. did more for the extir-
patlon OF this villaipy than most of the
subsequent administrations. Mr. Buchan
an sent out an army and although II
was matted in Ms work, still he accom-
phshed more than some of the al.
which did nothing but talk
TX, talk! At last. but not until il had
generations. polygamy has re
ceived its death blow.
Folygamy in Utah warred against the
relation throughout the land II
was impossible to have such an awful
sewer of iniQuity sending up its miasma
which was waited by the winds. nortb
south, east and west, without the whole |
land being affected by it.
Another influence that has v,a,,,ad |
against the marriage relation in this coun
try has been a pustulous literature. with
It's millions of sheets every week chokei /
with stories of domestic wrongs. and in /
ndelities, and maSsacres, and outrages
until it is a wonder to me that there are |
any decencies, or any common sense left |
N the subject Of marriage. One-haif of
he news stands of all our cities reeioing
With the filth.
Now say some, I'VE admit all these
wills, and the only way to clear them ou4