Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1895-04-04
WHOLESALE DIVORCE
TERRIBLE GROWTH or THE EVIL
AND IT'S CAUSES.
Necessity of a Rigorous and Uni
form Law for All States-A Word
TO the Young-sturdy Blows In he
half OF the Protection of the
household

chose as the subject OF his afternoon
sermon in the Academy OF Music to-
day a topic of national interest, viz:
Wholesale Divorce" The great audi
ence repeatedly showed it's apprecia-
ton Of the sentiments expressed by the
reverend speaker, and his sturdy blows
III behalf of the protection Of the house
hold against the dissoluteness of mod
ern society were received with marked
appreciation. The text selected was
Matt. xix, q, What therefore God hath
joined together let not man put assun-
der"
That there are hundreds and thous-
ands Of infelicitOuS homes in America
no II will doubt. If there were only
n skeleton in the closet. that might
be locked up and abandoned; but In
many a home there is a skeleton in the
hallway and u skeleton in all the apart
mentS.
"Unhappily married are two words
descriptive of many a household. 1t
needs no orthodox minister to prove to
a badly-mated pair that there is n hell:
they are there now. Sometimes q grand
and gracious wOman will thus be incar-
cerated and her life will be a crucifiX-
ion, as was the case with Mrs. Siguur-
hey. 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 gener-
ally, both parties are to blame. Thorn
as 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 alienation of
all these domestic disorders of which
we hear, easy divorce is IA good pre-
Scription. God sometimes authorizes
divorce as certainly as he authorizes
marriage. / have just as much regard
for one lawfully married. But you
know and | know that wholesale di-
! vOrce is n Of u national ScOurgeS. !
am not surprised at this when / think
of the influences which have been
abroad militatin against the marriage
relation.
For many years the platforms Of the
country rang with talk about q free
love millennium. There We're meetings
Of this kind held in the Cooper Insti-
tute, New York; fremont Temple, BoS-
ton, and all over the land. Some Of the
women who were most prominent in
that movement have since been distin-
guished for great promiscuosity Of af-
lection. Popular themes for such occa-
siOnS were the tyranny Of man, the OPP
preston Of the marriage relation, wo-
mans rights and the atfinitieS. Prom
inent speakers were women with short
curls and short dress and very long
tongues, everlastingly at war with God
because they were created women;
while on the platform sat meek men
with soft accent and cOwed demeanOr,
apologize for m~asculinity, and holding
the paraSols while the termegant ora
tors went on preaching Inc doctrine of
free love.
That campaign of about twenty years
set more devils into the marriage rela-
ton than will be exercised by the next
fifty. Men arU women went home
from such meetings so 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 disentan-
gle the Had of Woes, and this n got
alimony and that one got a limited di-
vorce, and this mother kept the chill
dren on condition that the father could
sometimes come and look at them, and
these went into poor houses, and those
into an insane asylum. and those went
into a disSolute public life, and all went
to destruction. The mightiest war ever
made against the marriage institution
was mat free-love campaign, some
times under one name, sometimes I'M
der another.
Another influence that has warred
upOn the marriage relation has been
pOlygamy in Utah. That was a stero-
tvped caricature Of the marriage rela-
ton, and has poisoned the whole land.
You might as well think that You can
have an army In a state Of mortifica-
ton and yet the whole body not be
sickened as to have those territories
polygamized. and yet the body OF the
nation not feel the putrefaction. Hear
1t, good men and women OF America,
that so long ago as 1867 a law war
passed by congress forbidding pOlyg-
amy in the territories. and in all places
where il had jurisdiction. Twenty-four
years passed along and five admins
tratiOns before the first brick was
knocked IRON Ule lOEutsS VI iiDSl III
ism.
Every new president in his inaugural
tickled that monster with a straw of
condemnation, and every congress stul-
tilted itself in proposing some plan that
would not work. Polygamy stood more
~entrenchcd, and more braZen, and more
puissant, and more braggart, and more
Internal. James Buchanan. a much
abused man of his day, did more for
the extirpation OF this ~vlllainy than
most Of the subsequent administra-
ti6ns. MI. Buchanan sent ont an army,
and although IL was halted in It's work,
still he accomplished more than ONE
of the administrations which did moth
inc but talk. talk. talk! At last, II
not until it had poisoned genera lions,
polygamy has received its death blow.
Polygamy in Utah warred against
the marriage relation throughout the
land. Ii was impossible to have such
m awful sewer OF iniquity sending up
its miasma. which was waited by the
wirds north. south, east and west,
without the whole land being affected
by 1t.
Another influence that has warred
against the marriage relation In this
nNvG n r.