The record-union., 1898-10-01
MRS. .TEATS' TALK YESTERDAY
HER VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND
DIVORCE.
Has Construction of Her Own to
Fit the Injunction by
st. Paul.

Mrs. Mary E. Teats delivered brief
talk at the English Lutheran Church on
sixteenth street yesterday afternoon,
taking for her theme, Home, Marriage
| and Divorce
| Mrs. Teats devoted considerable time
to exploiting what she termed the rights
OF women. She believed the Creator
never intended to set man above her.
She dwelt on the subject of ideal purity
in the home, and insisted that it should
be maintained by man as well as wo-
man. She deplored the conditions into
which society had fallen, and held that
those conditions were largely due to ig-
norance.
Under the head Of marriage, she re-
ferred to the injunction given by st.
Paul on the subject, and said that if
she We're to construe the chapter
physically, she would conclude that
Paul was not an inspired man. The
chapter, however, was subject to a
spiritual as we'll as physical construc-
ton, and she felt certain that the for
mer was the correct one. If the injunc-
ton was rightly understood it would
exalt and not degrade marriage and
the home life.
All marriages, the speaker said, were
not Of God, godly, and occasions
often arose when part Of the marriage
ceremony ought to be eliminated. When
men or women married to secure wealth
or title they were not Joined together
by God, and the words What God hath
Joined together let no man put asun-
der" ought to be left out in such cases.
In o1ri, Of
attacked the diversity Of the laws of the
several States bearing on the subject.
While the laws of the land provide
against the commission Of murder and
theft, they legalize the violation of the
seventh commandment, Thou shalt
not commit adultery She maintained
that the divorce question can never be
settled under the present regime of the
laws of the several States. New York
is the only State in which divorces are
granted only on Biblical grounds, and in
which the guilty person shall not again
be granted a license to marry
Mrs. Teats submitted that one way to
settle the difficulty would be to hays
commissioners appointed from the sew
era1 States to settle upon a law which
would bind all Of them. She spoke Of
the bill which was before the last Ohio
Legislature, which named, as a bar to
marriage, insanity, confirmed drunken
ness, immoral reputation, two convic-
tions on felony charges, consumption
and others. The bill, she said. came
within two votes Of passing, and she
predicted that the time would come
when similar or more stringent laws
would be in effect in all the States of
the Union
! On the conclusion Of Mrs. Teats' ad-
dress, a general discussion of the uues-
tions was INDUCED in by those present.
GOVERNOR BUDD ROASTED.
AT the same church in the evening
Mrs. Teats took for her subject, Moral
Evolution, or the Growing Glory Of
the Nineteenth Century" Before be-
ginning her lecture she said she felt
that vote of thanks was due to the
ministers for the kindness they had
shown and for the use Of their sanctu-
aries; to the press, which had given
such full and fair reports of the work
of the week; to the Mayor, for granting
the use of the Plaza for an open air
meeting, and to the Native Sons Band,
which had turned out in the interest
of the w. c. T. U. Accordingly, a ris-
| ing vote of thanks was given Ex-
Mayor Stefnman subsequently came in
for thanks for free gas used at the sew
eral evening meetings
Taking up her subject, Mrs. Teats
briefly traced the evolution of labor
saving machinery, from the old time
fail to the modern harvester; from the
cross-cut saw to the great electrical
|
stitch" of Hood to the light running
sewing machine Of the present day. She
said, however, that there was a sad
side to the subject, as there had been
no provision made for the thousands
thrown out of employment by reason
Of such evolutions. She felt that in
some instances the advancements had
made bad men out Of good men. In
that connection she recounted her ex-
perience with Kelly's industrial army,
the majority of whom, she said, were
laborers. She doubted whether the ma
terial improvements in labor-saving
machinery had been a success, as it had
thrown countless thousands out of en-
ployment, and made tramps out of hon.
est, hard working members of society.
In speaking of social evolutions, Mrs.
Teats stated that in the best society,
the custom of giving strong drinks to
New Years callers, etc., had been ta-
booed. 1t was true, she said, that the
custom still prevailed among the set
known as the "400,'' but the 400" she
said, was not the best society.
| The lecturer also touched upon the
movement to extend the suffrage to
women. and recounted her experience
| the first time she cast her vote in Wy
| oming. She had been shown every
courtesy, and even a number Of drunk
en- men whom she met Strengthened up
and tried to be gentlemen. She told of
the experience of the first woman who
ever cast vote in Cheyenne. She was
an octogenarian and-went to the polls
on the arm of her son, and took the
middle Of the road to get there. The
men on the streets stood at respectful
attention as she passed along, and lift
ed their hats to her. That, the speaker
said, was the way women who voted
We're insulted, and they were perfectly
wiling to stand such insults.
In touching upon the liquor traffic,
Mrs. Teats mentioned Kansas as a pro-
hibition State, and asserted that in that
state prohibition prohibited. She had
stood before a Sunday-sc school class Of
oo young people, in a Kansas town:
two-thirds of the number had never
seen a saloon or a drunken man. The