The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-28

George Harvey in The North American
 Review for July 18th.
 That a second wife fares better than one first welded has become an axiom, the truth of which has been, and n6 doubt will continue to be, amply confirmed by ob- servation. We wonder why. The effect of gradual change from novel to common place relationship is understandable; so also is the result of widening of mental, moral and physical interest on the one side accompanied by a narrowing on the other, but these are features of existence wholly incidental to and in accord with the immutable laws of nature. How often
 it happens, in these days of womeus ex- change that, to the most kindly observer or even friend, the first seems vastly su- perior in all respects to the second com panion despite the abrupt change of attf- tude on the part of him most concerned from indifference of cruelty towards the former to patient devotion to her presum- ably fortunate successor
 The greed of man in the possession or woman has been manifest from the be- ginning. Adam undoubtedly would have taken more wives could he have spared more ribs; and despite his subsequent eX- emplary life barring an eXcusable tenden- cy after service so strenuous to finger too long with the wine, it is quite improbable that Noah lived as recluse during those five hundred long years before he begat our ancestral Shem, Ham and Japheth. Even the canny Jacob, after being tricked by the no less crafty Laban, doubtless in meet return for swindling his guileless brother, was unwilling to part with Lean, and put his hands to the plough for seven more long years to get Rachel. Appar- ently there was little difference in at tractiveness between the two sisters. The "tender eyes, of the elder surely must have counterbalanced the beauty of the younger; moreover, Leah gladdened her husbands heart with many lusty children long before Rachel placed in his arms the little Joseph, who subsequently engaged in predatory activities that in these good days would clearly fall within the pro visions of the interstate commerce act and subject the doer to stern rebuke for pos sessing a swollen fortune. Nevertheless, when later Jacob lifted up his eyes, in conformity with his characteristic caution, and beheld the red-headed Esau approach ing with four hundred stalwart retainers, he promptly stationed the patient Leah and her children on the firing line and se- cluded Rachel and the future young corn monopolist in a protected tent in the rear. We readily perceive, therefore, as previ- ousy noted, that from the very beginning and for no apparent reason, the second
 
 custom has maintained even to these re- generate days.
 Further analysis of the causes of this continuing discrimination might prove in teresting, but could hardly serve any use ful purpose so We may as well place the burden upon the authority of Biblical tra- dition and cease to bear too heavily upon the modern usage, which virtually forbids one to divorce more than one partner without encountering forbidding glances from scrupulous high society of the pres ent day. Since the Puritanic dictum that, having made ones bed, one must lie in 1t, has proven too restricted for twentieth century requirements, it is a comfort to reflect that observance of obligations to second spouse must be maintained to avert the ban of social ostracism.
 But what happens to the second hus- band? To him no truism has been ap- piled and we have never heard his case discussed. Is he, too, regsrded more kind ly than his predecessor, tr is his position