Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-09-18

ma, which Is waited by the winds
north, south, east and west, without
the whole land being affected by it.
Divorce Easy.
Another influence that has warred
against the marriage relation in this
country has been a pustulous litera-
ture, with it's millions of sheets every
week choked with stories Of domestic
wrongs and infidelities and massacres
and outrages until it is wonder to me
that there are any dencencies or any
common sense left on the subject of
marriage. One-half of the newsstands
of our great cities reek with the filth.
Now" say some, 1--WE admit all
these evils, and the only way to clear
them out or to correct them is by easy
divorce" Well, before we yield to
that cry let us find out how easy it is
now. L have looked over the laws Of
all the states, and l find that, while
in some states it is easier than in 9TH
ers, in every state it is easy. The state
Of Illinois, through it's legislature, re-
cites a long list Of proper causes for
divorce and then closes up by giving
to the courts the right to make a de-
cree Of divorce in any case where they
deem 1t expedient. After that you are
not surprised at the announcement
that in one year there were 1873 d.
vOrces. If you want to know how easy
it is, you have only to look over the
records Of the states-in Massachu-
sets, 600 divorces in one year; In
Maine, 47S in one year; in Connecticut,
4O1 divorces in one year; in the city of
San Francisco, 333 divorces in one year;
vorces, and in 20 years in New Eng
gland, 10000. Is that not easy enough?
If the same ratio continues, the ratio Of
multiplied divorce and multiplied
causes of divorce, 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
a man will be that he left his slippers
in the middle of the floor, and all you
will have to prove against a woman
will be that her husbands overcoat
was buttonless. Causes of divorce
doubled in a few years-doubled in
France, doubled in England and dou-
bled in the United States. To show
y
that in Western Reserve, Ohio, the pro-
portion of divorces to marriages ce1e-
brated was in one year 1 to IL; in
Rhode Island, to 3; in Vermont, l to
IA. Is not that easy enough?
Society Disso1ute.
I want you to notice that frequency
of divorce always goes along with the
dissoluteness Of society. Rome for 500
years had not one case of divorce.
Those were her days Of glory and
virtue Then the reign Of vice began,
and divorce became epidemic. If you
want to know how rapidly the empire
went down, ask Gibbon. Do you know
how the reign of terror was introduced
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 diff
cult. Then people before they enter
that relation will be persuaded that
there will probably be no escape from
it except through the door of the sepul-
cher, then they will pause on the verge
of that relation until they are fully sat
iSfed that it is best and that it is right
have no more marriages in fun, then
men and women will not enter the rela-
ton with the idea it is only a trial trip
and if they do not like it they can get
out at the first landing, then this whole
question will be taken out of the frivo-
lous into the tremendous, and there
will be no more joking about the bios
SONS in a brides hair than about the
cypress on a coffin.
What we want is that the congress
of the United States move for the
changing of the national constitution
SO that a law can be passed which shall
be uniform all over the country an
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 it now? If party
in the marriage relation gets dissatis-
fed, it is only necessary to move to an
other 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 the newspaper
that Rev. DR.. Somebody a few days or
weeks afterward introduced into a
new marriage relation a member of the
household who went off on a pleasure
excursion to Newport or a business ex-
cursion to Chicago. Married 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 stares, like the state of New
York, which has the pre-eminent idiocy
of making marriage lawful at II and
IA years Of age.
Change the Constitution.
The congress of the United, States
needs to move for change of the ma
tional constitution AID then tc appoint
committeeman made up Of single
gentlemen but of men of families