The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-08-02

of Prof. Heron, distinguished scholar
and preacher, who, accepting views of
socialism, fell in love with rich young
woman i'll his congregation who worked
with him in helping the poor and shared
his view point, divorced his wife, and lived
as the husband of the young woman.
He sent his wife and children to Polk
county, North Carolina, and with his
young wife-they were not married by any
ceremony-went to Europe His doctrine
was that when a man loved another wo-
man it was a sin for him to continue to
live with his wife. And 50 he abandoned his
wife and children, and, hynotized by the
charms of the younger woman, commit
ted the gravest sin of this age. His action
was approved and countenanced by some
of the educated socialists of this coun-
try The papers were full of the per-
Torrance at the time and Prof. Heron
and his new wife were duly excoriated.
The deserted wife and her children had
fact Mr. Dixon's fiction is not more
strange than that incident. In truth as
you read the unfolding of the story you
cannot resist the feeling uhat its inspira-
ton was found in the career of Prof.
Heron. 1t seems to have been made the
foundation for thrilling and powerfut
1,-,~
and their kin enemies of society and
civilization.
The wide reading of this tense story
would do more to kill the miasma of
socialism and those teachings that break
down the family than all the phillipics
that could be directed against them. The
impression produced against them is so
strong that you cannot shake it off. The
story gets into the very fibre of your
thought and is so realistic that you carry
it about with you. You are made to
feel that the characters are alive and near
you-that they pollute the atmosphere you
breathe by their plausible and high-sound-
ing tommy-rot about affinity soul
love- and like expressions that are the
cover for free love and the distinctions
Of the sancity of the home.
You turn away from the tragedy and
sin of Rev. Frank Gordon and his female
companion in sin to the neglected wife
with feeling that, in spite of the wreck
of home and all the evil that wrong
doctrine has wrought, the old-fashioned
woman still abides-the woman who, in
neglect and basely treated, still holds the
world together because she is true to her
marriage vow-"for better or for worse"
The author has written nothing finer
than the picture he draws of the father
Of the cratic preacher, coming out of
his quiet home in the West to protect
and care for the devoted wife. His words
to the hayward son seem like Whit
from across a field of new mown hay
when compared with the malarial atmos-
roundings into which his son has gone.
OF course the story turns out right. The
sinners, who have covered their crimes by
believing or affecting to believe in "affin-
ity" and the like, are uncovered in their
sin, and the old-fashioned morality is
enthroned as the only salt that saves.
Socialism and Divorce are made the ter
rible creatures that they are and the story
ought powerfully to quicken the public
mind to active efforts to check the laxity
of the marriage ties and to put up the
legal fences with regard to divorce
RECONSTRUCTION IN NORTH CAR
OLINAa
Mr.. ]. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, vino