Mower County transcript., 1904-06-08

! FARMER BEN'S COLUMN,
It's high time that a big roar was
raised on this divorce business and
J I'm nifty glad that the papers are get.
tim hold of the subject in good shape.
tell you it amt righteous to make
wife sWappin' or husband swappin' too
easy, every time you see a face that
suits you leetle better to be able to
shift off the old standby and tie up to
another. [ fgger it out that this is
about the situation on the biggest half
OF divorcin'. The California law amt
SO bad that makes folks tryin' to get
divorced wait year to think it over
before the bands are loosed. But when
woman can hike to Dakota and claim
sn'de residence and get shut of one
husband and turn round and the same
Gay tie up to another that she tenn
porarily thinks she likes better it's a
shame and disgrace that a Chinee
wouldn't be guilty of. Now amt
sayln' but sometimes it's all right to be
separated from an unmerciful brute
but do claim that if divorced people
knew before that they never, never
could marry again they wouldn't be so
eager to get united as now. Marriage
IS an awful solemn business to Farmer
Ben. tell you when I stood up before
the preacher nearly half century ago
and promised that I'd hold out faith
ful to the end meant business.
l amt sayin' but wife and me has
seen stormy weather at times when the
sails would flap in the hurricane and
the old masts creak and things on deck
! was lively but we knew that we had to
stand by and weather the storm and
calkerlated that we'd both hav to 90
down together. And then when the
! sunshine broke out agen and the storm
, subslded it seemed like things never
looked brighter and beautifuller. We
never had the notion in our noodles
that it was better to swap partners and
take chance of gettin' worse bargains.
Now submit this proposition as the
climax OF all my observin' and notin
that the thought Of divorcin never
enters the head of lots of married folks
until they run on to somebody else
that they size up more attractive and
tonguey and trim and flip So long as
the courts and laws and customs allow
easy and quick diYorcin'. just-so long
will be just such swoppin' Of partners
without any idee of justice to children
and decency and righteousness. I'd
rather be Mormon right out than to
play the double wife business thro the
! divorce courts. Make it arduous and
| impossible to ever swap wives or hus
bands and folks will be very likely to
stick to the old standby rather than to
go it alone the rest Of life.
o @ O
That Oil ship subsidy snide is up
agen for discussion and the push is
bound to carry it thro. I'm Just as
! opposed to it as l was the day was
born. It's like holdin' up kite by
| b]owin' the bellows on it, just as soon
as the artificial wind stops down it
comes. l don't believe in tryin' to
bolster up a business that won't stand
on its own feet and that will collapse
just as soon as the subsidies quit. |
don't believe in breakin' up arrange
nents with foreign countries that will
knock out our shippin' our surplus
grain and stock to 'em. If other
countries can build ships and carry our
products across the sea cheaper than
we wish to and we can put our money
into better payin' propositions, why
amt it all right to Civ 'em a show?
Spose that we make discriminatin'
duties against England, France, Ger
many, Norway, Sweden, Italy and the
rest of the push and let down their
earryin' trade bump, and they just
scheme to furnish themselves with farm
products from all other countries but
Uncle Sans dominions, l tell you we'd
feel it in leetle while and would wake
up and discover what fools we were.
If Jim Hill finds that ocean ships is
payin' proposition he'll keep on in the
business without subsidies, but if he
finds that there is more money in some-
thin else he'll probably accommodate
hisself to the irrevocable force of
circumstances.