Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1895-04-04
train that starts to Albany to-mo,


row morning at 8 O'Clock will get
there, and the probability is that the
young man who has the habit of
strong drink fixed on him before % or
80 years Of age will arrive at a drunk
ards grave. She knows he drinks, al
though he tries to hide it by chewing
cloves. Everybody knows he drinks.
Parents warn. neighbors and friends
warn. She will marry him, she will
reform him.
If she is unsuccessful In the ex-
pertinent, why then the divorce law
will emancipate her, because habit
ual drunkenness is Il cause for d.
vOrce in Indiana, Kentucky, Florida,
Connecticut and nearly all the states.
SO the poor thing goes to the altar
of sacrifice. If you will show me the
poverty-struck streets in any city,
l will show you the homes of the
women who married men to reform
them. In one case out of ten thou
sand it may be a successful expert
ment. But have a rigorous divorce
law, and that woman will say: IF
l am atfianced to that man, il Is for
life"
A rigorous divorce law viii also
do much to hinder hasty and inconsid-
crate marriages. Under the impress
sion that one can be easily released,
people enter the relation without in
quiry and without reflection. Ro-
nance and impulse rule the day.
Perhaps the only ground for the mar
riage compact is that she likes his
looks and he admiIes the graceful
urn ~ Sha nnoSnS at.prnI tho loo a,.na m
ut the picnic! 1t is all they know about
each other. 1t is all the preparation
for life. 4 woman that could not
make a loaf of bread TO save her life
will swear to cherish and obey. A
Christian will marry an atheist, and
that always makes %conjoined wretch
edness; for If a man does not be-
lieve there is a God, he is neither to
be trusted with Il dollar nor with
your lifelong happiness. Having read
much about love in a cottage, people
brought up in ease will go and starve
in a bowel. =
BY the wreck of ten thousand
homes, ny the holocaust of ten thou
sand sacrificed men and women, by
the hearth-stone of the family which
is the cornerstone of the state, and
in the name of hat God who hath
set up the family institution, and
who hath made the breaking of the
martial oath the most appalling Of
all perjuries, ! implore the congress
Of the United States to make some
righteous, uniform law for all the
states and from ocean to ocean, on
this subject of marriage and divorce.
Let me say to the hundreds Of
young people in this house this after
noon, before you give your heart and
hand in holy alliance, use all caution;
inquire outside as to habits. explore
the disposition, scrutiniZe the taste,
question the ancestry, and find out
the disposition, scrutiniZe the taste,
and the heroines of cheap novels for
q model. Do rot put your lifetime
happiness In the keeping of q man
who has the reputation for being a
little loose I'm morals, or in the keep
ing of a woma who dresses fast.
Remember that while good looks are
a kindly gift of God, wrinkles or ac-
cidents may despoil them. Remem-
Der that Byron was no more celebrat-
ed for his beauty than for his dc
pravity. Remember that Absolam's
hair was not more splendid that his
habits were despicable. Hear ii,
hear it! The only foundation for hap
py marriage that has ever been or
ever will be is good character.
Ask God whom you should marry, If
you marry at all. A union formed in
prayer will be n happy union, though
sickness pale the cheek and poverty
| apn,.fu fhn hrnnl trar md 1aafh nY1ny
the small graves, and all the path of
life be strewn with thorns, from the
marriage altar with it's wedding
march and orange blossoms clear
down To the last farewell at that gate
where Isaac and Rebecca, Abraham
and Sarah, Adam anG Eve parted.
And let me say to you who are In
this relation, II you make ID man
or IN happy you have not lived
in vain. Christ says that what he is
TO the church you ought to be to
each other; and If sometimes through
difference Of opinion, or difference of
disposition, you make up your mind
that your marriage was a mistake,
patiently bear and forbear, remem-
bering that life at the longest is
short. and that for those who have
been badly mated In this world, death
will give quick and immediate bill of
enforcement written in letters of
green grass on quiet graves. And
perhaps, my brother, my sister-per-
haps you may appreciate each other
better in heaven than you have ap-
preciated each other on earth.
In the Farm Ballads our Ameri-
can poet puts into the lips of a repen-
tant husband, after a life of married
perturbation, these suggestive words:
And when she dies, / wish hat she
would be laid by me,
And lying together In silence, per-
haps we will agree.
And If we meet In heaven, i would
not think 1t queer
II we loved each other better because
we quarreled here.
And let me say to those of you who
are in happy married union, avoid first
qu%arrels; have no unexplained CORES
pondence with former admirers; cul-
tivate no suspicious; in a momen OF
I.l III