The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1901-05-31
ON THE SIDE.

| notice that Rev. Prof. Geo. ID. Her
ron has married Miss Rand, who is cred
tied with being responsible for the
trouble between Prof. Heron and his
first wife, and that before the ink is
scarcely dried on his decree of divorce.
This action shows but slight regard for
the sacredness of marriage which he has
as a christian minister doubtless en-
phasized in the past, and is exactly in
line with the socialistic ideas he has of
late adopted. Indeed, he is reported to
have recently said that he did not think
married people should attempt To live
together ii their temperaments were in
compatible Such an idea may not be
quite free love, but is very near it, and
is in exact line with the easy divorce
ment that now obtains in most of our
states, and which to my mind is one of
the most serious menaces to our Amer
lean home life.
~
Speaking of this sanctimonious "free
marriage" reminds me of an irreligious
body that is being formed, a sort of Bob
Ingersall agnostics One feature of this
sect will be a characteristic marriage
vow, to be administered to agnostic
brides and bridegrooms, as follows:
Il desire TO make said contract and do
hereby solemnly promise that | Will do
all in my power to make my wife happy,
and that when | find she is irritated from
any cause, | will not cross nor quarrel
with her, but will endeavor by tender and
loving methods aud kind words to soothe
her and restore her peace of mind; that
| will abstain from drunkenness; that
within three months, if possible, | will
have my life insured, making my wife
the beneficiary: that should our marriage
prove to be happy and we are blessed
with children, | hereby bind myself to
ever treat them with the utmost kind
ness and consideration, and pledge my
self to send them to the agnostic Sunday
school and to give to them all the edu-
cational advantages within my power"
The wife's pledge leaves out all provis-
ions of the husbands which do not
properly apply TO the wife. 1t contains
the further provision:
Should | discover that we are uncon-
genial or mismated, | hereby pledge my
sacred word of honor that / will not
of affection, and hereby further prom
Use that should / find after | have ex-
hausted every effort to make it other
wise, that we are uncongenia or mis-
mated, | will not insist upon our living
| together"
After swearing to these pledges, wife
and husband are to sign them, each pre-
] senting his pledge to the other before
the nuptial knot is tied by a magistrate.
While this pledge shocks one by the
! fippant ease with which it proposes to
dissolve uncongenal marriages, | do not
know as it is worse to openly avow an
to be unpleasant, than it is for parties
to so-called christian marriages tosolemn-
| ly say till death do us part" and then
in a few weeks or months rush into the
! divorce courts.
The fact is that there is too little re-
gard for the sacredness of the marriage
tie among other people than the profess
ed agnostics.
~
Speaking of easy marriages and di-
vorce reminds me of an odd preteXt on
which a Chicago woman asks for divorce,
viz Because her husband has wooden
! leg.
She doubtless could endure wooden
head, but wooden leg never!
What state will first be honest enough
to say that divorces shall be granted
within its borders just because people
want them, or what court will be the
! first to openly Grant them to gratifY the