The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-11
Divorce Society
Is Earl's Scheme

!
the transactions of-the Women's Ec-
lectic Club of America could be cabled
over here the announcement was made
of Earl Russell's Divorce society
| scheme.
The objects of the Divorce society are
principally to agitate that divorces be
| obtainable in the lower courts, for
equal rights for both sexes in the di-
| Vorce- courts, to make three years de-
| sertion on the part of either ground
| for divorce, and not to make miscon-
! duct the sole cause for which wife
may obtain divorce from her husband
| outside of desertion
London is becoming Chicagoized at
such a rapid rate that, if they cannot
| import the actual smell of the stock
yards here, English people seem at
| least determined to secure it's moral
putrefactions.
| The tearing up which Mrs. Walling
| received from her fellow Eclectics is
| nothing to the storm of criticism
which is being raised over the adnis-
sions made in her paper by the strict
set here.
The Mother Grundy papers have not
| had such a bonnie bouche for a long
while, but on the other side the ethics
OF some parts Of the paper exactly fit
in with the ideas of those who form the
| nucleus of the Divorce society.
For instance, the following from Mrs
Walling is very nearly a paraphrase
of it's platform:
! TO prohibit man and woman from
dlssolvlng relationship which is joy
less, and it may be odious discordant
TO their mate delicate moral sense and
GRIPPING to their development, is
! tyranny.
Under our present social condition
| dlVorce, as rule, must inevitably
orlng IN the wake of its happy release
mournful dirge of desolate hearts and
| pnghted careers. 1t is only when we
have arrived at some equitable social
arrangement which provides for the
women and children that, unhindered
by the restraints and exactions Of
prescribed rule and convention can the
| heart unite with it's own love elect.
Marital unrest is neither an ailment
OF the century nor an evil outgroWth of
right and just divorce laws. It is as
old as the world. 1t began with sex.
we nave only to turn to earliest scrip
ture to prove this. If, as it is argued,
our divorce laws only breed conjugal
| discomfort, how is it that this unhappy
complaint is so prevalent in South
Carolina, where there are no divorces?
woman is born and bred to the idea
| that her divine mission, her natural
end in life, is marriage" she says.
Inc girl of eighteen allows herself to
be hurried by an anxious mamma or
I
the subtle enchantment of jewels, flow
ers. music and candle light, into a de-
| Slrable' marriage, little dreaming that
the congenial marriage is made of
something more than social prestige, a
palace and a title.
mo less mournful failures are the
! marriages Of pure sympathy, and the
| marriages of unequal sentiment in
which there is the miserable confound-
| ing Of love for sympathy, it's tender
kim
Here Mrs. Walling has duplicated the
sentiment of the late Lord Beacons-
| Held, as revealed in the recently re-
| discovered and much quoted letter to
his sister, wherein he SCOTS at the mar
riage for love or sympathy idea.
| A writer in one of the leading Wom-
ems weeklies, commenting on Mrs.
| Walling's ideas, says:
! Were there anything new in this parade
! of reasons for divorce the persons respon-
| sible for their utterance might be listened
| to with some regard, but they are as old
! as Sapho and Cleopatra and older by
| thousands of years.
''Those who cannot control their appe-
t1tes, but must eternally be thirsting for
what to them are forbidden sweets, may
not like to hear it, but they are degener-
ates, and no amount Of social veneer will
| cover up the ugly fact.
| 1.-The tendency of the best people one
| meets, of any nationality, by which one
means no class distinction, is to put in a
|
| tuition Of marriage. The higher people rise
| in the intellectual scale the deeper they
find the obligation of marriage incumbent
| upon them.
| But there is a class, both in England
| and America, of men and women whose
| lives are devoted to the development of
| social ambitions and the pursuit of pleas
| ure. TO this people the material side of
| life is everything, the moral responsible
| ity nothing. But they. are only the butter
| flies of society, the ephemera; people
|
| embryo, and who can only be considered
as moral and mental dwarfs.'
| Another writer who yields caustic
| pen comments on the following extract:
THE frugal bride who puts away her
| pretty nightgowns in sachets of orris and
/ reincarnates from a ravishing divinity in
a witchery of laces and ribbons into a
| mere woman, Smeared with ointments and
! horned with curled papers, fOrgets that
| into prose-"
rs it possible writes this fair adjunct
| of the Grundy forces. that women who
| cultivate such singular ideas as this can
be shocked at the nastiness of a modern
| Sapho or see anything to complain of in
the most decadent plays?"
| The Hartopp set doubtless echo the
| sentiments voiced in Mrs. WaIIing's pa
| per enthusiastically in their boudoirs
where the Eclectic club thinks they should
be confined to, but the English woman is
| so Pharisaical compared with her Arneri-
| can sister that she would under no cir
cumstances admit the Impeachment
Inc Divorce society will be nothing il
not International. and we may look for
ward to a trans Atlantic branch as soon
| as 1t is fairly on it's feet here
! Ihe organization is. I understand, to
take the form of a secret society," and 1t
| Will need to be very much so, as | UNI
derTstand that membership in the society
| VIII at least preSuppOSe that divorce is
| IT'S ultimate aim, since all fees paid in
| go to the formation of a fund out of
| winch the legal expenses of those mem
paid. =
One can imagine some grimIy ironical
| cohtTetemps IN such an arrangement, the
| meeting OF husband and wife on the
| same errand bent for instance
Tnere is no doubt that society of this
Kind might prove advantageous here as
! the expenses of procuring a divorce make
| 1t practically impossible for poor persons
| to indulge in this luxury, no matter how
! degraded her partner may be- how be-
| sotted he may have become, an English
| woman of the lower classes is actually
! bound to him for life. with no redress
| except the questionable one of having the
breadwinner- committed to prison.
But the EarPs Divorce society is not
| intended to take in this humble element
| not being in any way philanthropic 1t
| is simply intended for the benefit of those
| who, to quote Mrs Walling once more
nnd that the heart is thing mysterious
| and capricious law unto ITSELF she
| declares. Thou shalt and thou shalt
| nots are somehow more successful in
! breeding perversity and destroying charm
| than IN preserving sentiment and fidelity
For a man and woman to vow to love
| each other forever in the same Wav is
! infinitely more hazardous than to pledge
| for a particular Individual under every
| change of condition, unalterable and I'M
| dying friendship. For how can it be in
| how long it can continue to feel senti-
ment Which goes no more mySteriouSly