The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1899-09-19
Ease in Securing 1t Imperils
ALI Marriages.
DEMAND FOR SOME UNIFORM Law
While Approving of Legal Separation for
Sioutiy Dsnounces Istter-day Methods
They Encourage Hasty Matrinsoriai
paiga that Rent the Marriage Relation.

AVAts hOu HGlH lUlliCu lD1tllti. lel Lut
man put asUnder." was as follows:
That there are hundreds and thousands
of infelicitous homes in America TO one
will doubt II there were only one skele-
ton in the closet, that might be locked up
and abandoned: but In many home there
is a skeleton in the hallway and q skele-
ton in all the apartments. 'Unhappily
married are two words descriptive of
many a homestead. II needs no ortho-
dox minister to prove 10 a badly mated
pair that there is a hell: they are there
now. Sometimes a grand and gracious
woman will be thus incarcerated, and her
life will be a crucihxion, as was the case
with Mrs. SigOurney. the great poetees
and the great soul. Sometimes a conse-
Grated man will be united 10 a fury. as
was John Wesley, or united to vixen. as
was John Milton. Sometimes, and gen.
orally, both parties are to blame, and
Thomas Carlyle is an intolerable grum-
bier, and his wife has a pungent retOrt al
ways ready, and F'roude. the historian,
pledged to tell the plain truth, has 10 pull
aside the curtain from the lifelong squab-
bic at Craigenputtock. and Cheyne Row.
Sometimes Authorized by God.
''Some say that for the alleviatiOn of all
these domestic disorders of which We
hear, easy divorce is a good prescription.
God sometimes authorizes divorce as GER
tainly as he authorizes marriage. | have
just as much regard for one lawfully di-
vorced as / have for one lawfully married.
But you know and know that wholesale
divorce is one of our national scourgeS.
/ am not surprised at this when / think
of the influences which have been abroad
initiating against the marriage relation.
For many years the platforms of the
country rang with talk about a free-love
millennium. There were meetings OF this
kind held in the Academy of Music,
Brooklyn; Cooper Institute, New York;
fremont Temple, Boston, and all over
the land. Some of the women who were
most prominent in that movement have
since been distinguished for great promis-
cuosity of affection. Popular themes for
such occasions were the tyranny of man,
the oppression Of the marriage relation,
women's rights, and :he affinities. PrOmi-
nent speakers were women with short
curls and short dress and very long
tongue, everlastingly at war with God
because they were created women; while
on the platform sat meek men with soft
accent and cowed demeanor, apologetic
for masculinity, and holding the parasols
while the termagant orators went on
preaching the gospel of free love.
THAT campaign of about twenty years
SIT more devils into the marriage relation
than will be exercised in the next fifty
Men and women went home from such
meetings so permanently confused as to
who were their wives and husbands that
they never got out of the perpleN!ty, and
the criminal and the civil courts tried TO
disentangle the Had of woes, end this
one got alimony, and that one got a lin
tied divorce, and this mother kept The
children on condition that the father
could sometimes come and look at them,
and these went into poorhouses, and those
went into an insane asylum. and those
went into .dissolUte public life, and all
went to destruction. The mightiest war
ever made against the marriage institu-
ton was that free-love campaign, some
times under one name and sometimes
under another.
PoIygamy in Utah.
Another influence that has warred
upon the marriage relation has been
polygamy in Utah. That is a stereotyped
caTicature of the marriage relation, and
has poisoned the whole land. You might
as well think that you can have an arm
in a state of modification and ye. the
whole body not be sickened as 10 have
any Territory or state polygamized and
yet the body of the nation not feel the
putrefaction. Hear ii, good men and wo-
men of America, that so long ago as 1862
a law was passed by Congress forbidding
pOlygamy in the Territories and IN all The
places where they had jurisdiction.
Thirty-seven years have passed along
and nine administrations. Yet not until
the passage of the Edmunds law In l8s.
was any active policy OF polygamy sup
preston adopted. Armed with all the
power OF government and having an army
at their disposal, the first brick had not
till then been knocked from that fort-
ress Of libertlnism. Every new President
in his inaugural tiCkled that monster win
the straw of condemnation. and every
Congress stultified Itself in proposing some
plan that would not work. Polygamy
stood III Utah and in other OF the Terri
tories. more intrenched, more brazen
more puissant, more bragsart, and more
internal than at any tiEe in it's history
James Burhanan, much-dbused man OF
his day. did more for the ex,:rpati1n q
this vIllainy than all the subsequent ad.
ministrations dared TO Go up TO 1882. Mr.
buchanan sent out an army, and although
ii was halted in its work, still he accom-.
plished more than the subsequent admin.
istrations. which did nothing but talk
talk, talk. Even at this late day. and
with the Edmunds act in force. the eyi
has not been wholly extirpated. So fan
from that the old hag OF Mormonisrn (.
now trying 70 put it's foot into our na.
uonal legislature. and IL las its mission.
aries in every State Of the Union. and
holds the balance of power in severa
states. Polygamy in Utah, though out.
Ia"td, Is stllI practiced. Ii has ware
against the marriage relation Throughout
me lanE. Il Is impossible . have eucF
an dNLuI sewer OF iniquIty sending ur
lts miasma, which is waited oy fhs ,9fno.
north, south, east, and wcst Tifbour ,b-
"nolc lAlI Delng affected by IL
AhOther influence that has wsrrer
against the marriage relation In this conn
W mas Deen pust1lCus literature. witt
lus hIIIlons OF sneets every week choke
win stories or domestic WrOnes ard in
ndeldes, and massacres, and outrages
until IL Is q wonder 10 me that there ar,
any decencies or any common sense Ief
on the subject Of marriage One-half o.
tne he"sst&nds OF our great cities reel
With the filth.
Easy To Get Divorce.
Now say some. we admit all tines.
evils, and the only way 10 clear them ou
or 10 correct them IL by easy divorce.
Well, before We yield 10 that cry, let III
md out how easy IL is row. / have look
ed over the laws Of all the States. AM
l find that while in some States il 4
easier than in others. IN every State II 4
easy. The State OF Illinois. through N
legislature, recites a lors list OF prone
causes for divorce. and then closes up b,
giving 70 the courts the right 10 max
4 decree OF divorce IN any case wher
I hey deem IL expedlent After that yol
are not surprised al the announcement
| that in one county OF the State OF Illi
nois, In one year. there were s5s divorces
If you want 70 know how easy II is, yol
have only 70 look over the records OF IN
states. In Massachusetts. 80 divorces Il
one year: In Maine. as In one year; !!
I Connecticut. t9l divorces in one year; 4
the city Of San FraT cisco S53 divorces 4
/ one year: In New England. Ia one year
z,liS divorces, and In twenty years in Ney
| England. twenty thousand. IL that no
easy enough? II the same ratio continue
| the ratio Of multiplied divorce and multi
piled causes OF divorce. We are not IA
| from the time when our courts wlll hav