Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-09-30

ChdCun son govt! 1t would be cur
iOus to know in matters of this kline
whether divorced persons are really
satisfied when they have got their di
yorce-whether the amount of red tap
and parchment expended in their In
terest has done them good and really
relieved their feelings. Whether, fol
Instance, the betrayed husband IS
glad to have got rid of his unfafthfu
wife by throwing her with the ful
authority and permission of the law
into his rivals arms? I almost doubt
it. | beard of d strange case in Eng
land once. A man, moving in goOo
society, having more than suspicious
OF his wifes fidelity, divorced her-the
law pronounced her guilty. Some
years afterward, he, being free, met
Ter again, fell in love with her for the
second time and remarked ner. She
was (naturaIly!) delighted at his MAX
ing such a fool of himself-fOr hence
forth, whatever she chose to do, he
&C uld not reasonably complain without
running the risk of being laughed at
So now the number and variety of heI
lovers is notorious in the particular
social circle where she moves-whlle
he, poor wretch, is perforce tongue
tied, and dare not consider himself
wronged. There. is no more pitiable
object in the world than such a man
secretly derided and jeered at by his
fellows, he occupies an almost worse
low low
while in his own esteem he has sunk
so low that he dare not, even in secret
try to fathGm the depth to which he
has fallen. Some may assert that to
be divorced is a social stigma. 1t
used to be so perhaps, but society has
grown very lenient nowadays. Di-
vorced women hold their own in the
best and most brilliant circles, and
what is strange is that they are very
generally petted and pitied
Poor thing!" says society, putting
up it eyeglass to scan admiringly the
beautiful heroine of the latest aristo-
cratic scandal-"she had such a brute
of a husband! No wonder she liked
that dear Lord So-and-So! Very
wrong of her, of course, but she is so
young! She was married at sixteen
quite a child!-could not have known
her own mind"
The husband alluded to might have
been the best and most chivalrous OF
men-anything but a "hrute''-yet he
always figures as such somehow, and
gets no sympathy. And, by the way,
it is rather notable fact that all the
beautiful, famous, or notorious women
were married at sixteen" How is
this managed? I can account for it in
southern climates, where girls are full
grown at sixteen and old at thirty-but
I can not understand it's being the
case ir England, where miss Of
sixteen is a most Objectionable and
awkward ing6nue, without any of the
charms wherewith to charm" and
whose conversation is always vapid
and silly to the point Of absolute ex-
haustiOn on the part of those who are
forced to listen to it. These sixteen
year-old marriages are, however, the
only explanation frisky English ma
irons can give for having such alarm
ingly prolific families of tall sons and
daughters, and it is happy and con-
venient excuse-one that provides a
satisfactory reason for the excessive
painting of their faces and dyeing of
their hair. Being young las they so
Eobly ASSERT, they wish to look even
younger. A la bonnie heure, If men
a. n+ COZ tlo7-C7,rrf, IL
they have only themselves to blame.
AS for me, I believe in the old. old,
apparently foolish legend of Adams
and Ewes sin and the curse which fol-
lowed 1.-THE curse on man which is
inevitably carried out to this day.
Because" (mark that because)
thou hast hearkened unto the voice
O. thy wife" Cor thy woman, whoever
she be-, land hast eaten of the tree
o. which I commanded thee. saying.
Thou shalt not eat of it, (the tree or
fruit being the evil suggested first to
nan by woman), "cursed is the ground
for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat
Of it all the days of thy life!"
True enough. The curse is upon
all who trust woman too far-the sor-
row upon all who are beguiled by her
witching batteries Or what avail
her poor excuse in the ancient story
THE serpent beguiled me and I did
eat!" Had she never listened she
could not have been beguiled. The
Weakness, the treachery, was in her
self, and is there still. Through eyerv-
thing the bitterness of it runs. The
woman tempts-the man yields-and
the gate of Eden-the Eden of a clear
conscience and an untrammeled soul
is shut upon them. Forever and ever
the Divine denunciation re-echoes like
mutterlng thunder through the clouds
OF passing generations: forever and
ever we uIconsciously carry it out in
cur own lives to its full extent till the
heart grows sick and the brain weary
and we long for the end of it all
which is death-death. that mysterious
silence and darkness at which We
sometimes shudder, wondering vaguel,
can it be worse than life?
| CHAPTER XIX.