The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-12-02
WOMEN ARE INTERESTED.
Mrs. S. j. Griggs and Mrs. Hargreaves
on Wife Desertion.

Prominent among the charity and So
claI purity workers of Topeka is Mrs.
5 j. Griggs OF South Harrison street.
In her work she has often met the de-
sertion question and today She talked
to State Journal reporter about it.
II think that of all the people that
have expressed themselves on this
subject through the columns of The
State Journal" she said. II agree most
fully with Mr.. WardaH. 1t is early
marriage that is to blame When I
was a little girl the early marriage was
preached from the pulpit and the home
as the preventative of crime and vice
I also agree with DR.. Barnes in that
education of children is what is needed
most as a preventative. Heretofore the
subject Of the marriage relation has
been considered a most delicate one in
the family. 1T should not be. 1T is the
duty of every parent to educate the
children on this line / do not see
why the mother should not talk with
her daughter on this subject or the
father with the son or the mother with
them both, for that matter. 1T is a sub
ject that most intimately concerns
their future happiness.
Fl believe there is only one ground on
which divorce should be granted and
that is the one spoken of in the Bible
inndelity to the marriage vow
1T is true that young people plunge
into marriage. Young girls grow UP to
think only of marriage but after mar
riage they find there are other things
they need to make them happy than
the affection Of q man.
Il don't always blame the man in the
case of separation by any means I
am not of that class. I think that very
often the woman is to blame by her ex-
uTaVagance.
There is one point 7 want to make
particularly and that is that if there
is to be a happy marriage there must
be an intellectual level If one of the
parties to the contract is superior to
the other Intellectually there is bound
to be dissatisfaction and almost sure
to be @ separation
"No young man should marry until
he is sure of means of support for
himself and wife. He should be sure
of this before he undertakes the duties
of a husband and perhaps a father
1t is this condition of marriage that
very often leads later to dissatisfaction
and almost sure to a separation. Tt is
this condition that later finds the man
out of work and unable to get any
while the woman. perhaps of rare in
telligence. as unable TO find her to work
as he. finds herself at the WaShtub or
other drudgery supporting the family.
I don't believe that when poverty
comes i'm at the door love flies out of
the window but if the proper prepare
tion had been made before for the pos
sfble poverty or loss of work there
would not be the dissatisfaction in
married life that there is.
Il doubt not that the advancement of
women i'm industrial pursuits has much
to do with it, If the statement
is correct that she has crowded
man out of the work Of the
higher kind and made him ac-
cept work lower down the scale and the
lower grade of workers out of work en-
tirely undoubtedly she has much to do
with it, While I believe in the ballot
for woman I think that woman's place
is home and there she should rule as
a queen"
Fer many years Mrs. Sarah Har-
greaves Of the Walnut Grove neighbor-
= district of