The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-05-15
EDITORIAL COMMENT
some of the Contraats.


Washington Post:
Sweet may be the uses of adversely.
4 but they are as toDgue-biting acid in
comparison with the uses Of prosperity,
as any days newspaper viii attest.
What else than the fact that he has
more money than he knows what to do
with could have brought William K.
I Vanderbilt so conspicuously 10 the front
recently Would there have been such
a popular interest in the fact that plain
John Smith was getting ready to buck
the matrimonial tiger a second time as
to warrant filing column after column
Of reading space with details of the
approaching event, even before the
name of the prospective bride had been
ascertained? We suspect not
No more would it have been worth all
that type to record the experience of
plain John Smith in putting first un-
fortunate gamble through the divorce
court, as was the case with Mr.. Wander
bllt some five years ago. The number
OF columns and the size of the half-tone
portraits which accompany the text are
apt to be in direct proportion to the size
of the fortunes involved in such in
stances.
We don't know enough of the laws of
Rhode Island to be sure whether if
pl6in John Smith had been separated
from plain Mary Smith by such de-
cree as cut Mr.. and Mrs. Vanderbilt in
twain he would have been able to in
duce the court to modify it so as to per
nit him to marry again. If he did, and
the court required that he should fur
nish certificate that he had acted like
a good boy in the meantime, he GER
tainly could not have procured a letter
of recommendation from so eminent an
authority on correct behavior as Chaun-
cey DepeW. In all these respects Mr..
Vanderbilt enjoys a great advantage
over plain John Smith.
In spite of it, there are doubtless per
sons as foolish as Shakespeare's phil
osopher in the Forest of Arden who will
insist that a life exempt from public
haunt has its compensating pleasures.
The chances are that Smith hasn't the
means to indulge in the sort of career
which leads to the divorce court He
married Mary, not because she was
built for cutting a dash, but because
she could make So go a long way in
decorating their little home and adding
a dainty touch to her table To be
frank, when he has got through a hard
days work, he is not in the physical
mood to go skylarking, and then Mary
has a place for him to crawl into where
he can rest himself against the tasks
that must be tackled next morning
And he is just mean-spirited enough to
pretend that he likes such monotony.
Perhaps he and Mary don't always
agree-it would be very strange if they
did, but not having two or three sep
arate establishments to which one of
them can go to get rid of the other
they are compelled to stay under the
same roof. and it is easier to drop
quarrel and start afresh under such
conditions than to try intercourse.
This may be yielding to a sordid neces-
sity, but Smith claims that it saves
a lot OF pickering and some lawyers
fees.
of course. the Smith children miss a
great deal OF the travel they would
have had if a divorce court had decided
that they We're to spend half of each
year with papa in Europe and the other
half with mamma in New York or New
port; and travel is a great educator.
Still, by staying in one place, Smith
says they can keep up better with their
studies al the grammar school.
1t is a waste of words. perhaps, to
compare results in this fashion. Plain
John Smith. it is more than likely. viii
go on assuming that although he does
not take uD so much of the printed
chronicle Of the day as Mr. Vanderbilt,
he is having a better time on the whole,
and that he would rather not see his
picture on the newsstands than see 1t.
If he feels that way. it would be useless
to reason with him. LIS merely a ques-
ton of taste. after all, and we dare say
the poor man has as much right to his
as the hereditary ltimillionaire.