The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-12-30
Divorce Dealings.

|, 1t is mooted point whether Shiawassee
Is the banner county In the State for di-
vorces granted In proportion to the popula
tiOn, or not.
Certain 1t is that at every term of court
there is an alarmiDgly increasing number
of that particular class of cases on the cal
endar, and after all said and done perhaps
II Is the best way. Ii Is simply awful to
contemplate the way some married people
live and suffer and endure Some quietly
while others fan the flame of family dscord
by free ventilation and blow their bugles
relative to matters that never should cross
the threshold of their homes.
In casting about to find reason for this
condition in society, we must go back one
generation and see how these people who
are sueiDg for divorce were reared. Was
their childhood home all they could have
wished 1t to be? Were their homes more
attractive than the street so that they pre-
ferred to spend their evenings there? or was
the mothers mind and time so fully occupied
with church matters, missionary meetings.
charity suppers, lodge meetings, and the
like, that home matters went by default and
the children had to run the streets for COM
pany, before they were fairly out of swad-
ding clothes? Was the example of the
parents one of mutual forbearance, or Of
perpetual pickering, fault finding and dis
cord? 1t Is necessary to make these inquiries
because this divorce business Is constantly
on the increase, and the next generation
will be worse than the present, and so dd
ir,h,,tt,Im.
Let us step out on the street and watch
the stream of humanity as it glides past.
Whose boy is that going screaming down
the street like young Apache Indian? A
wash womau's boy. Well his mother has
been working hard all day perhaps, and
wants little rest, or she hasn't had any
tina. today till now to run over to a neigh
boIs to chat moment. And whose boy is
that making an armful of icy snowballs
hard as a stone? He's the shoemakers boy
and his mother has to attend Good Templar
meeting tonight Yes, yes, but whose boy
is that looking in at the saloon door? Why
that's the minister's boy. His mother has
poor health and the elders time is pretty
much taken up attending to her, and pre-
pairing his Sunday sermons. And what
girls are those giggling and looking back over
their shoulders as though expecting or look
ing for some one? Are they Nymphs du
pace? No, their families are respectable
people but those girls are travelling close
along the border. Now they are looking for
beaux. Do they work? No, they wont
work; 1t is too degrading, but one of these
days they will marry one of these worse
than useless boys and then their misery be-
gins.
If this class of youngsters never would
marry they never would If they
knew what untold wretchedness was in store
propagated their species, there would be
some hope, but there isn'.. They have per-
sstently pushed their idle feet under the
parental table--none too well supplied
for years and know nothing about providing
for any one except themselves or of the
cares and responsibilities of household so
they soon become weary and begin to con-
trive how they can escape from their self
imposed bondage. Then comes desertioD
and at length divorce proceedings in disgust
ing detail, and then, final separation.
This is the whole matter in nut shell and
the only hope of reform is in the homes,
around the very hearthstones of our land.
"The hand that rocks the cradle rules the
world" WARD.
Laingsburg, Dec. 30, '9s.