The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-09-22

country mas DtGu ii I)lSt uIOuS liICId III e
with its millions of sheets every week
| choled with stories of domestic wrongs
and infidclities and massacres and out
RACES, until it is a wonder to me that
! there are any decencies or any common
sense left on the subject of marriage.
| One-half of the news stands of our great
| cities reek with the filth.
The congress of the United States
needs to move for a change of the ma
! tional constitution and then to appoint
| committee-not made up of single gen
| tlemen, but of men of families, and their
families in Washington-who shall pre-
pare a good, honest, righteous, compre-
| hensive, uniform law that will control
everything from Sandy Hook to the
| Golden Gate. That will put an end to
| brokerages in marriage. That will send
! divorce lawyers into a decent business.
| That will set people 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 es-
toppel toa great eXtentupon marriage as
a 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 part
| nership of wedlock is utterly unattrac-
tive and in disposition a suppressed
| Vesuvius. Every body knows it, but this
masculine candidate for matrimonial
orders, through the commercial agency
or through the county records finds out
| how much estate is to be inherited,
! and he calculates it. He thinks out how
! long it will be before the old man will
| die, and whether he can stand the re-
| fractory temper until he does die, and
! then he enters the relation, for he says:
| ''If cannot stand it, then through the
divorce law will back out. That proc
ess is going on all the time, and men en-
| ter the relation without any moral
| principle, without any affection, and it
| is as much a matter of stock specula-
tion as anything that was transacted
| yesterday in Union Pacific, Wabash and
| Delaware and Lackawanna. Now, sup
pose a man understood, as he 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:
Rather than a Caribbean whirlwind
with a whole fleet of shipping in its
| arms, give me a zephyr off fields of sun
! shine and gardens of peace"
Rigorous divorce law will also hinder
women from the fatal mistake of mar
rying men to reform them. If young
man, by 25 years of age or 80 years of
age, have the habit of strong drink fixed
on him, he is as certainly bound for
| drunkard's grave as that a train start
| ing out from the Grand Central depot
at eight o'clock Tomorrow morning is
| bound for Albany. The train may not
reach Albany, for it may be thrown
| from the track. The young man may
not reach drunkard's grave, for some
| thing may throw him off the iron track
of evil habit. But the probability is
| that the train that starts tomorrow
morning 1T eight o'clock for Albany will
| get there, and the probability is that
| the young man who has the habit of
| strong drink fixed on him before 25 or
| 80 years of age will arrive at drunk
ards grave. She knows he drinks, al
| though he tries to hide it by chewing
cloves. Everybody knows he drinks.
| Parents warn; neighbors and friends
warn. She will marry him; she will re-
| form him. If she is unsuccessful in the
| experiment, why, then, the divorce law
will emancipate her, because habitual
| drunkenness is cause for divorce in
Indiana, kentucky, Florida, Connecti-
cut and nearly all the states. So the
poor thing goes to the altar of sacri
| fee. If you will show me the poverty
struck streets in any city, I will show
you the homes of the women who mar
ried men to reform them. In one case
| out of ten thousand it may be a success
full experiment. l never saw the sue
cessful experiment. But have a rigor-
Gus divorce law, and that woman will
say: eff am affianced to that man, it
is for life, and if now, in the ardor of
his young love and the prize to be won,
he will not give up his cups, when he
has won the prize surely he will not
give up his cups" 'No, sir; you are al
ready married to the club, and you are
married to that evil habit, and so you
are married twice, and you are biga-
mist. Go!"
A rigorous divorce law will also do
much to hinder hasty and inconsiderate
marriages. Under the impression that
one can be easily released, people enter
the relation without inquiry and with
out reflection. Romance and impulse
rule the day. Perhaps the only ground
for the marriage compact is that she
likes his looks, and he admires the
graceful way she passes around the ice
cream at the picnic! 1t is all they know
about each other. 1t is all the prepara-
ton for life. A man not able to pay his
own board bill, with not dollar in his
possession, will stand at the altar and
take the loving hand and say: with
all my worldly goods thee endow."
woman that could not make a loaf of
bread to save her life will swear to love
and keep him in sickness and in health.
A Christian will marry an atheist, and
that always makes conjoined wretched-
ness; for if man does not believe there
is a God he is neither to be trusted with
a dollar nor with your lifelong happi-
ness. Having read much about love in
a cottage, people brought up in ease
will go and starve in hovel. Runaway
matches and elopements, nine hundred
and ninety-nine out of a thousand of
which mean death and hell, multiply
ing Oh all hands. You see them in every
days newspapers.
Our ministers in some regions have
no defense such as they have in other
regions where the banns must be pre-
viously published and an officer of the
law must give certificate that all is
RIGHT. so cleroYmen are left defenseless