San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-03-18
CONTRIBUTED SCRAPS.
Written tor the LIGHT.


one encounters on the streets, as to
arouse sympathy even in hearts
not used to the "melting mood"
The faces of these invalids reveals
the history Of their love OF life and
Of their resolute purpose to keep
death at bay just as long as possible.
1t is an awful thing TO know for
months that death is lowering
over you, with his hands stretched
out to grasp you in his cold en-
brace, and, that day by day, one is
falling in strength and nearing the
supreme hour! How keenly men
love life and how shudderingly
they recOil from death! 1t Is this
which is clearly legible on the
faces Of confirmed invalids, and
which imbues their faces with I'M
utterable pathos, and plaintiveness.
Just think of the long agony Of
of dying, inch by inch, even in
ones home, and amid ones rela-
tives and friends! But that is be-
ing in Paradise to dying, inch by
inch, among strangers and with
only hired nurses to minister to us,
in our bodily helplessness. God
pity the sick.
In former days none asked, "is
marriage a failurew OF course
every generation has had its I'M
happy marriages, for men and
women will marry in haste and
repent at LEISURE" and dissimilari-
ty Of dispositions, tempers and
tastes is but too apt to make dis
cord. unless the parties resolve to
attune them selves.
Gibbon relates that Rome ex-
listed for six hundred years
without the occurrence of a single
divorce, Notwithstanding the law
allowed husbands to put away
their wives at pleasure by giving
them a bill of enforcement. But
when Rome came to be civilized
and luxurious, divorces grew to be
frequent and scandalous. Hor-
tensius, the Roman orator. having
fallen in love with the wife of
Cato, the latter gave her bill of
enforcement and sent her to Hor-
tensius, who married her. When,
after a few years, Hortensius died,
leaving his. immense fortune to
his wife, Cato remarked her.
Gibbon mentions a woman in
Constantinople, in the reign of
Justinian, who had beed married
twenty-five times. She was
rustler.
The stately historian naively re-
marks that this woman was no
better than a promiscuous prosti-
tute. He follows this up with the
statement that the early Christians
prohibited second marriages, where
the first marriage had been crowned
and blessed with offspring; but
that the further the stream Of
Christianity flowed from it's source
down the valley Of time, the more
related and corrupt it grew.
Christ limited divorce to but one
ground-adultery. The Catholic
church adheres to the rule laid
down by Christ, and forbids it's
members to seek divorce on any
but that ground. The legislature
has greatly multiplied the grounds
of divorce and not only macada-
mixed, but gently sloped the road
to divorce. Divorces are now OBJ
tainable on so many grounds, that
the grist in the divorce hopper has
been wonderfully increased. In
California a husband was granted
divorce because his wife had con-
Cealed from him the fact that she
wore false teeth and spOrted glass
eye, the court holding that as mar
riage was purely civil contract,
the wife had perpetrated fraud
in concealing the wearing OF false
teeth and a glass eye, and that
fraud vitiated all contracts.
In Illinois husband obtained a
divorce because his wife failed to
keep his feet warm.
Women usually seek divorces on
three grounds, viz: Cruel treat
ment, desertion and failure to sup
port them. Nothing except dire
necessity ever forces a real and
noble hearted women to laundry
the family linen in public. If she
has children, she abhors the idea
OF casting Slur on their father; il
she ever loved her husband in the
in the spring time of life, be sure
though the true may have died
the roots OF that love still lives in
her heart, Notwithstanding she
may be I'm conscious of the fact.
But there are true women, and
there are sham, or counterfeit