Connecticut western news., 1899-09-21


 Maine. 47S in one year; in Connecticut, 401 divorces in one year; in the city of san Francisco. 333 divorces in one year; n New England i'll one year, 2,113 di- vorces, and in 20 years In New Eng gland 10000. Is that not easy enough? Ii 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 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 oyercoat 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 how very easy 1t is, have to tell you that in Western Reserve, Ohio, the pro- portion of divorces to marriages cele- brated was in one year 1 to Il; in Rhode Island, to 3; in Vermont, 1 to II. Is not that easy enough?
 Society Dissolute.
 I want you to notice that frequency of divorce always goes along with the dissoluteness of society. Rome for 800 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 slivorce be made more and more difh- cult. 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 sepul- cher, then they will pause on the verge of that relation until they are fully sat istied that it Is best and that 1t is right and that it Is happiest, then we shall have no more marriages in fun, then men and women will not enter the rela- ton with the idea 1t is only trial trip and if they do not like 1t they can get out at the first landing, then this whole
 
 lous into the tremendous, and there will be no more joking about the blos- sons in brides hair than about the cypress on coffin.
 What we want is that the congress of the United States move for the changing of the national constitution so that law can be passed which shall I,, ol tho 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 it now? If a party in the marriage relation gets dissatis- fled, 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 1t in the newspaper that Rev. Dr. Somebody a few days or weeks afterward introduced into new marriage relation 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 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 12 and 14 years of age.
 Change the Contribution.
 The congress of the United States needs to move for change of the na- tional constitution and then to appoint committee-not made up of single gentlemen, but of men of families, and their families in Washington-who shall prepare good, honest, righteous, comprehensive 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 decent business. That will set people agitat- ed 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 unfavor- able circumstances.
 More difficult divorce will put an es- toppal to great extent upon 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 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 county records, finds out how much estate Is to be inherited, and he calculates 1t. He thinks out how long 1t will be be fore the old man will die and whether he can stand the refractory temper un- til he does die, and then he enters the relation, for he says, If I cannot stand 1t, then through the divorce law will back out" That process Is going on all the time, aud men enter into the relation without any moral principle, without any affection, and 1t is as much a matter of stock speculation as anything that was transacted yester- day in Union Pacific, Wabash and Delaware and Lackawanna. Now, sup pose 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, "Rath- CT than a Caribbean whirlwind with whole fleet of shipping in Its arms, give me zephyr off fields of sunshine and gardens of peace"
 Rigorous Laws.
 Rigorous divorce law will also hinder women from the fatal mistake of mar rying men to reform them. If young man, by 9 years of age or 30 years of age, have the habit of strong drink fixed on him, he is as certainly bound for a drunkard's grave as that a train Gtarting out from the Grand Central depot at o'clock tomorrow morning Is bound for Albany. The train may not reach Albany, for 1t may be thrown from the track. The young man may not reach a drunkard's grave, for something may throw him off the iron