Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1904-01-16

Los Angeles, Cal, Jan. lU.-ln tnlS
sermon the nations fragrant, besetting
sin. easy divorce, and the incongruous
conflict of state laws on the subject
are unsparingly characterized. The
preacher indicates the only way out or
this immoral tangle which is wrecking
the home and desecrating the marriage
altar. The text is Mark X, 8, what
therefore God hath Joined together let
not man put asunder."
As the civil war was the mortal clash
between two conflicting ideas. so TO-
day we find conflicting ideas in mortal
combat over the marriage altar. Inc
one is the Christ idea, which declares
that marriage Is not a confederation
that can be broken at will, but an In
dissoluble union. This idea asserts that
after marriage the twain in every sense
becomes one. The second idea declares
that easy divorce is not crime, put
often. for the social good, necessity
It saws that when a man and a woman
are unequally yoked together IL Is pet
ter that they be separated by law, even
If the cause for separation be not SO
serious as that recognized in the Bible
and. more, that they may, If they Wis.,
contract new marriages.
But, though James Bryce In MS
american Commonwealth" ahirms that
the family as unit is 1.-THE one funda-
mental and permanent problem OF hu-
man life and society,"" yet everywhere,
by reading the signs Of the times, we
can see that by easy divorce the sane
tity Of the home is imperiled. Every
where the danger signals are being hlt-
cd TO prove that marriage is becoming
more and more a mere temporary con-
venience. Carroll D. Wright in his Ia
bor statistics declares that in the year
1889 there were 36,072 divorces in the
state of Illinois alone and that there
was one divorce to every fifteen mar
riaCes. He went on to show that from
1857 to 1885 there were 32S, ,716 divorces
in the United States and that each year
the proportion Of divorces to the num-
her of inhabitants in the United States
was on the increase, just as the lndl-
vidual wealth of the Americans per
eapita increases year by year. Surely
such an evil record as that ought 10
brjnq q blush Of shame to the cheeks
of American manhood and womanhood
and might be regarded as a national
disgrace even by the inhabitants OF
the French capital. 1t would have been
n blot on the historical pages of licen-
tious Rome So awful is the spread OF
this divorce evil and SO blunted are be-
coming the once keen edges OF public
sentiment upon this question that Nor
gan Dix. who in nc sense can be called
a sensationalist. uttered last Thanks
giving day this scathing invecuve
against wholesale licensed libertinlsm,
now being practiced through the VIDE
omen doors of the legal courts OF our
land: "The divorce evil is terrible. Ii
is AN evil we must try to uproot. once
upon n time If we ever mentioned the
fact that a person had been divorced
we spoke OF it under our breath, as
subject not proper for conversation. we
then regarded divorce as something
closely related 20 disgrace, and that not
long ago either" Now rapid degen-
eracy Of social sentiment upon this evil
has taken place. We look upon easy
divorce as respectable. We even honor
some of those who have thus criminally
broken their nuptial vows, when, In
stead. we should hold them in everlast-