The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-11-02
MARRIAGE SYSTEM HIT.
One of thu Curses of France the Mo-
tive of a Popular Play.

One Of tho Curses of France the Mo-
tive of a Popular Play.
Paris, Nov. 2.-One hears a good deal
lately about the marriage question, and
a new play by Mr.. BrieuX, which is
being presented at a popular theater,
has given an impetus to the question.
Mr. Brieux in his new play. which is
called Les TrOis Files de NJ. Dupont"
takes decided stand against the dow
~ system prevalent in France and in
favor of selection on the footing of
mutual regard and affection.
OF the three principal heroines of the
play, to wit, the daughters of Mr.. Du-
pOnt, a grasping man of business, one,
Caroline, is getting on in years as de-
VOut but unhappy old maid another, An
gele, has taken to what is euphemis
ticaily termed a gay life, to the horror
of her outwardly respectable relatives,
while the third, Julie, the object of the
orthodox barter, in which, however, any
amount of trickery has been displayed
by the contracting parties, provision
having even been prudently made for
possible divorce at no distant date, has
been united to a man for whom she
has no love and who does not treat her
in a chivalrous or generous manner.
Matters get hOpelessly muddled ere
the curtain drops at the close in the
last act.
The erewhiIe devout Caroline be-
comes enamored of an individual for
whom she is prepared to sacrifice her
reputation as marriage is impossible,
he having already an old hason to
which he is a slave, but Angelo, who
has OppOrtunely turned up, warns her
by her own experience against such a
mad course; while Julie, after vain eff
forts to live in harmony with a hard,
not to say brutal, husband, gives up the
effort in disgust and goes her own way,
as so many women have done before
under like circumstances, she having,
ere she was welded, had some liking
for a certain young man, who reap
pears, as luck will have it, just when
fresh crisis is impending.
las for the moral which I intended
to convey" Mr.. Brieux explained, lit
is very simple. 1t is that women can
only be happy in a marriage of affec-
ton. Look at the three distinct types
which I have brought forward. Caro-
line, the eldest daughter, is devout and
tries to do her duty, but she is misera-
bic all the time. as she does not dwell
in the atmosphere of a congeniaI home
of her own. Angelo has gone to the
other extreme and has Quaffed the cup
of pleasure to the dregs, but with pre-
cisely the same result. AS for Julie. the
only welded sister, her wishes were
never consulted; she was simply the vic
tim of an odious bargain and was tied
to man who did not understand her
and for whom she had no love"
DO you think such cases are very
common in France?"
Well" replied Mr.. Brieux. Il may
have made the most of the spirit of re-
volt aroused in Julie by the treatment
slider that her mother, Mrs. Dupont, is
a fair and characteristic type of the
average class of married women in this
country; dOwntrodden. but resigned in
the effort to do their duty and to sac
rifice themselves for their children"
The dowry system is the cause of
much of this trouble"
Precisely so, and you will have no
ticed how I have protested against it.
So long as marriages are arranged on
a purely pecuniary basis they are NOR
ally bound to end in failure. Such things
should be conducted with prudence and
there is not the slightest reason why a
young man should not happen to fall in
love with a girl endowed with a fair
share of this worlds goods.
Such matches are of everyday Oc-
currence in England, for instance they
usually turn out well and there is
nothing to say against them. But this
is scarcely the point. The two systems
are absolutely different and it is against
the barter with dowries. so general in
France, that 1 have waged this cam
paign as being totally and diametrical-
Iy opposed to the principle which I have
laid down, and the true and real hap
piness of every woman is only to be Sc
cured by a marriage of affection as
cOntrasted with one of mere sOrdid in
tPrRSf -