The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-01-06
The Increase of Divorce.

Twenty-Five or thirty years ago di.
vOrces were so rare as to be regarded
in the light of very uncommon excep-
tions to the general rule. The divorce
law itself is not yet forty years old in
England, nor twenty years old in
France. In Italy there is no civil d.
vorce whatever at the present day, and
the Catholic church only grants what
are not properly divorces, but annulla-
tions of marriage, in very rare cases,
and with the greatest reluctance.
Even in America every one can re-
member how divorce was spoken of
and thought of until very recently.
Within few years it was deemed to be
something very like disgrace, and GER
taiDly profoundly cynical and i'm
moral proceeding. To-day we can most
of US count in our own acquaintance
half dozen persons who have been di-
vorced and been married again. What
ever we may think of it in our hearts,
or whatever our religious convictions
may be on the subject, it has become
so common that when we hear of a
fragrant case of cruelty or unfaithful.
ness, by which man or woman suf-
fers, the question at once rises to our
lips, why does she not divorce her
husband?' or, Why does he not d-
vorce his wife?' We have grown used
TO the idea, and if it does not please us, it
certainly does not shock us. 1t shocked
our fathers, but we are perfectly indif-
ferent.
Of course there are many, perhaps a
majority, who, though not Roman
Va ,,,t
up with almost anything rather than go
TO the divorce court for peace. Some
actually suffer much, and ask for re-
dress. But there are many who have
not suffered anything at all, excepting
the favorite incompatibilty of tenn
per-" and who have taken advantage of
the loose laws in certain states to try a
second matrimonial experiment. In
what calls itself society there seems
still TO be a prejudice against third
marriage for DIVORCED persons, but at
the present rate of advance in civiliza.
ton this cannot last long, and the old
significance of the word marriage :"
will be quite lost before our youngest
grandchildren are dead; in other words,
by the end of the next century, at the
the furtherest.
There are various forms of honorable
political dreaming and of dishonorable
political mischief making nowadays,
which we are accustomed TO call collec-
lectively socialism" Most of these rely
Cor their hope of popular success upon
their avowed intention of dividing prop
erty and preventing it's subsequent ac-
emulation. Marriage is an incentive of
such accumulation, because it perpetual
ties families, and therefore keeps proper
ty together by inheritance. Therefore all
forms of socialism are at present in ia
vor Of. divorce, as a means of ultimately
destroying marriage altogether. A prov
erb says that whosoever desires the end,
desires also the means. There is more
truth in the saying than morality in
the point of view it expresses. But
there are those who desire neither the
means nor the end to which they lead,
and struggle is coming the like Of
which has not been seen since the be-
ginning of the world, and of which we
who are now alive shall not see the
termination.-From " A Rose of Yes.
lerday," by Marion Crawford, in the
December Century.