The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-12-31
THE INCREASE OF DIVORCE.
severing tho Marriage Tie No Longer
Shocks ANYONE

Twenty-Five or thirty years ago di.
vorces were so rare as to be regarded in
tbs light of very uncommon exceptions
10 the general rule. The divorce law it,
self is not yet 40 years old in England,
nor 20 years old in France. In Italy
there is no civil divorce whatever at
the present day, and the Catholic church
only grants what are not properly di.
vorces, but annullations of marriage, in
very rare cases, and with the greatest
reluctance.
Even in America everyone can re-
member how divorce was spoken of and
thought Of until very recently. Within
few years it was deemed to be some.
thing very like disgrace, and certainly
a profoundly cynical and immoral pro.
ceeding. To-day we can most of us
count in our own acquaintance half
dozen persons who have been divorced
and been married again. Whatever we
may think of it in our hearts, or what
ever our religious convictions may be on
the subject, it has become so common
that when we hear of fragrant case q
cruelty or unfaithfulness by which a
man or woman suffers the question at
once rises to our lips: "Why does she
not divorce her husband?" or why
does he not divorce his wife?' Wehave
grown used to the idea, and if it does not
please US it certainly does not shock
us. It shocked our fathers, but we are
perfectly Indifferent.
Of course, there are many, perhaps
majority, who, though not Roman Cath
olics, would in their own lives put up
with almost anything rather than 60
to the divorce court for peace. Some &C.
tually suffer much, and ask for no re.
dress. But there are very many who
have not suffered anything at all, ex.
cepting the favorite 'incompatibility
OF temper" and who have taken advan-
tage of the loose laws in certain states
to try a second matrimonial expert.
ment. In what calls itself society there
Stems still to be a prejudice against Il
third marriage for divorced persons,
but at the present rate of advance in
civilization this cannot last long, and
lhC ol'l SlS HIACduCc VI tAc WOiN 1ua{-
rage" will be quite lost before our
Youngest grandchildren are dead; in
other words, by the end of the next GEN.
fury, at the furthest.
There are various forms of honorable
political dreaming and of dishonorable
political misunderstanding nowadays,
which we are accustomed to call col
lectively socialism" Most of these re-
~ for their hope of popular success
upon their avowed intention of dividing
property and preventing its subsequent
accumulation. Marriage is an incentive
ofsuch accumulation, because it perpet-
yates families, and therefore keeps
property together by inheritance.
Therefore all forms of socialism are at
present in favor of divorce, as means
OF ultimately destroying marriage all
together. A proverb says that who
soever desires the end desires also the
means. There is more truth in the say
ing than morality in the point of view
il expresses- But there are those who de-
sire neither the means nor the end to
which they lead, and a struggle is COM
ing the like of which has not been seen
since the beginning Of the world, and
of which we who are now alive shall not
sac the termination.-Mario Crawford,
in Century.