Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-09-28

county of the state of Illinois, in one
year. there were S33 divorces II you
want to know how easy 1t is. you have
only to look over the records of the
states. In Massachusetts, 600 divorces
In one year; in Maine, ATS in one year;
in Connecticut, 401 divorces In one
year: In the city of San Francisco, 1888
divorces in one year; in New England,
In one year. 2.113 divorces, and In
twenty years in New England, 10000.
Is that not easy enough? II the same
ratio continue, the ratio of multiplied
divorce and multiplied causes of d.
vorce. we are not far from the time
when our courts will have to set apart
whole days for application, and all you
will have to prove against man will
be that he left his slippers in the mid
die of the floor, and all you will have
to prove against woman will be that
her husbands overcoat was buttonless.
Causes Of divorce doubled in a few
years, doubled in France, doubled in
England, and doubled in the United
States. To show how very easy 1t is.
have to tell you that In Western Re-
serve, Ohio. the proportion of divorces
to marriages celebrated was In one
year one to eleven; in Rhode Island.
one to thirteen; In Vermont, one to
fourteen. Is not that easy enough?
want you to notice that frequency
Of divorce always goes along with the
dissoluteness of society. Rome for 500
haI ~
Those were her days of glory and
virtue. Then the reign of vice began.
and divorce became epidemic. II you
want to know how rapidly the empire
went down, ask Gibbon. Do you know
how the Reign of Terror was intro
duced In France? BY 10000 cases of
divorce In one year In Paris. What we
want in this country, and in all lands,
is that divorce be made more and more
difficult. Then people before they enter
that relation will be persuaded that
there will probably be no escape from
1t, except through the door Of the sep
ulchre. Then they will pause on the
verge of that relation. until they are
fully satisfied that 1t Is best, and that
1t is right, and that 1t is happiest.
Then we shall have no more marriages
In fun. Then men and women will not
enter the relation with the idea 1t Is
only trial trip. and II they do not like
1t they can get out at the first land
ing. Then this whole question will be
taken out of the frivolous into the tre-
mendous, and there will be no more
joking about the blossoms In a brides
hair than about the cypress on coffin.
What we want, Is that the congress
Of the United States move for the
changing the national constitution so
that law can be passed which shall be
uniform all over the country, and what
shall be right in one state shall be
right In all the states, and what Is
wrong in one state will be wrong In all
the states. How is 1t now? II party
in the marriage relation gets dissatis-
fed, 1t Is only necessary to move to
another state to achieve liberation
from the domestic tie. and divorce Is
effected so easily that the first one
party knows Of it Is by seeing it in
a few days or weeks afterward intro
duced into a new marriage relation a
member of the household who went off
on pleasure excursion to Newport or
business excursion to Chicago. Mar
ried at the brides house. No cards
There are states of the union which
practically put a premium upon the
disintegration of the marriage relation,
while there are other states, like the
state of New York, which has the pre-
eminent idiocy of making marriage
lawful at IL and IA years of age.
The cong, tss OF the United States
needs to move for a change OF the ma
tional constitution, and then to ap-
point a committeeman made I'D Of
single gentlemen, but Of men OF fami-
lies, and their families in Washington
who shall prepare good, honest,
righteous, comprehensive uniform law
that will control everything from
Sandy Hook to Golden Gate. That will
put an end to brokerages in marriage.
That will send divorce lawyers into a
decent business. That will set peo-
pie agitated for many years on the
question Of how they shall get away
from each other to planning how they
can adjust themselves to the more or
less unfavorable circumstances.
More difficult divorce will put an
estoppal to great extent upon mar
riage as financial speculation. There
are men who go into the relation just
as they go into Wall street to purchase
shares. The female to be invited into
the partnership of wedlock is utterly
unattractive, and in disposition a sup
pressed Vesuvius. Everybody knows
1t, but this masculine candidate for
matrimonial orders, through the COM
mercial agency or through the country
records, finds out how much estate is
to be inherited, and he calculates It.
He thinks out how long 1t will be be-
fore the old man will die, and whether
he can stand the refractory temper
until he does die, and then he enters
the relation; for he says. III cannot
stand it, then through the divorce law
| will back out" That process Is going
on all the time, and men enter into
the relation without any moral prin-
ciple, without any affection, and 1t Is
as much a matter of stock speculation
as anything that was transacted yes
terday in Union Pacific, Wabash. and
Delaware and Lackawanna. Now. sup
pose a man understood, as ne ought to
understand, that If he goes into that
relation there is no possibility of his
getting out, or no probability, he would
be more slow to put his neck in the
yoke. He should say to himself,