The record-union., 1896-07-20

upon issues within party lines is de-
veloping wonderful independence among
newspapers, and they are breaking
away from household gods right and
left. Now, then, if the journals will be
equally Independent in other respects,
there will be wonderful betterment all
around. Suppose they declare their in
dependence, for instance, of supposed
popular tastes. Suppose they print less
of the doings and troubles Of the rich,
and less fawn and crawl every time a
will be less of envy, jealousy and hatred.
Suppose they less dwell upon, exagger-
ate and glorify by wordy exposition the
fads. fancies, follies and scandals Of
fashionable society-and there will be
far less Of discomfort and bitterness of
heart, for it is fact that such constant
publicity cultivates spirit of unwhole-
some discomfort and leads men and wo-
men to desire and seek the means of
qualification without pursuing the only
course by which riches can be honestly
great deal less of illustrating of crime,
misery, wretchedness and viciousness,
of low living, passion and misdoing-and
there will be less taste for vicious read
ing and a great deal of improvement in
the judgment that this age is one of
folly and crime, when i'll fact it is not so.
proportional to the increase of human
beings and the more intimate mingling
Of people, because of improved methods
OF travel and communication. Suppose
the papers assert their independence by
more publication of the deeds Of good,
the achievements Of honesty and the
glories of virtue and propriety-and we
will have less Of the general belief that
all men are rascals and all women are
unchaste. Suppose they assert their in
dependence Of the alleged taste for the
racy and give us less Of nudity, passion
and the erotic in their literature, pic
torial and other. and we will have less
corruption of taste in youth and girls
and boys, with more OF the blush of mod
esty and the carriage of honesty and
trust, and respect for others.
The British legislator has been trou-
bled for forty years with the PROPOSE
ton to permit a man to marry his de-
ceased wife's sister. At last, after the
matter has divided the people in opinion
so long, a bill granting the privilege has
passed the Lords. The law which this
bill will. if approved by the Commons,
eliminate from the British code is a cam
onica1 relic, an ecclesiastical bit of rub
bish that he's clung to the English gar
ment too dong. There is no blood rela-
tion between a man and his wife's sister.
The second degree is in this case purely
one of the law. The argument of the op-
position to the new bill was mainly that
without the prohibition the wife would
always consider her sister as a possible
rival and this would make it particu-
larly unpleasant in the family. In Amer
lea we consider such a reason none at
all. The same argument might be ad-
Vanced as to any other female relative
by marriage We have experienced no
difficulty in this country in the domes-
tic world because Of the possible rival
ship Of the wifes sister Here men have
married the sisters of their dead wives
and women have married the brothers
of their dead husbands, and the results
have not been Ill, more than in any
other maria ges.