The Irish standard., 1903-04-04
WHAT THE CASE REVEALS.

That truth is stranger than fiction
has often been exemplitied, but never
in more vivid manner than by the now
celebrated Burdick case which has
brought so much unsavory prominence
to the recognized luminaries Of Buff
falo's most exclusive set, says the
Catholic Light of Scranton.
From what has developed it would
appear that Burdick who was once re-
garded by the people of Buffalo as
an enterprising and worthy citizen,
had long been leading double life
and that his responsibility was merely
a veneer serving to cover the hideous
excuses Of libertine and moral
leper. Mrs. Burdick, too, was of the
free and easy moral sort so common
in the society" of the present day.
Some time before his death Burdick
brought suit against his wife for d.
vorce, naming popular young law
yer, Arthur Pencil, as correspondent.
The case threatened to involve all the
more prominent lights Of the Elm
wood, or smart set district, and to
hold 20 public gaze some phases of
FlEwood life not calculated to inspire
respect for the wealth-made upper
strata of that fashionable district.
When Burdick was killed. suspicion
naturally enough attached to Pencil
and though there was no direct evil
dencc to connect him with the crime,
he was generally believed to be the
guilty person. Then came the drama
tic denouement to a perplexing situa-
tion when Pencil, by accident or de-
sign, plunged his automobile over a
precipice and brought to violent
close his own career as well as that
Of his most faithful champion, his
wife.
OF the murder of Burdick or the
shocking tragedy of the Pencils.
nothing need he said here. Both have
been sufficiently, yes, more than suffi-
GENTLY discussed by the secular press
Of the country, and may well be con-
signed to Oblivion. But of the condi-
tion of society to which calumitous
scandals are the natural sequence
there cannot be too much discussion,
too much light. too much serious con-
sideratiOn.
The shameful record Of the divorce
courts of this country is sorry COM
mentary upon American regard for the
sacred character Of the marriage vow,
while the frightful charges and coun-
ter charges characteristic of divorce
cases may justly cause apprehension
as to the permanence of the nation.
For the family is the seed of the ma
ton and that seed corrupted, in vain
to look for any but decaying fruit.
Assyria. Greece and Rome of old, and
modern France. these may serve as
examples for those who are not Of the
blind who will not see.
And wherein lies the remedy for the
evils of which we complain? In an
awakened national conscpncc-awall-
cncd to the fact that the Catholic
church occupies the only tcnahe posi-
ton upon the marriage question, a
position founded upon the absolute in
dissolubility of the marriage VOW, and
the blessed fruit Of which is the at
tainmcnt of the ends for which the AL
mighty God instituted marriage
healthy, happy. vigorous families.
When the country at large appreci
atcs the fact that Goddess marriages,
and Goddess society means in effect
the propagation of race suicide there
will be less reason for discussing that
unpleasant subject, and fewer recur-
renccs Of domestic tragedies of the
Rurdick- Pencil kind.