Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1908-04-30
The Epidemic OF Divorce
(New York American.)


Not less deadly~to the social fab
ric than the sweep of typhus or the
cholera is the present local epidemic
of divorce.
The foundations of the home and
family are being shaken by the light
and easy severance of domestic ties
sacredly assumed: and now most
fiippantly put aside.
Scarcely an issue Of a New York
daily paper that does not record the
final separation of representative peo-
pie who have been joined together in
the holy estate of matrimony.
The very prominence of the par
ties concerned-the wide sweep of
publicity in which they live-seryes
to rivet the attention of the people
who read upon this wholesale fOut-
ing of matrimonial obligations
The plain people of New York and
the surrounding country have reason
to conclude that it is fashionable and
aristocratic to be divorced. More
over, the impression is broadcasted
among the masses that it is an easy
and a simple thing to cut loose from
associations that have lost their
charm and freshness, and that any
dissatisfied feeling or disagreement
of opinion they can follow examples
Of high life and fashionable society
to the divorce courts.
1t is impossible to conceive of an
impression more damaging to the
social system under which We live
than the wholesale and almost wan
ton divorcing that is going on among
the prominent families of the me-
tropolis.
The balance of the virtues and of
the graces of character rest with the
common people. In the sweet and
simple creeds of life which have
come down to them from immemoriai
custom and belief, the home is al
ways magnified and glorified. The
names of husband and wife are sac
red, and the severance of domestic
ties is a tragedy which only death
or revolution can dissolve. The home
is the foundation of society and the
bulWark of our national life.
And yet, when these fashionable
jewellers, satisfied with pleasure and
famished for new sensations, are per-
mitted to mock their marriage vows
and fling off at will the solemn ties
which bound them before God and
man, it strikes a serious and stagger-
ing blow at the faith and virtue of
the plain people, who are the hope
and the basis of society.
Something should be done to halt
the epidemic of divorce.
Something should be devised to
make more difficult the process of
breaking homes and separating fami-
lies.
The law and the gospel should both
be brought to bear upon the mons
trous evil which is ravaging society.
All honor to the great Catholic
Church, which sternly frOwns upon
the idea of divorce.
All honor to that ancient and hon
orable creed of all the Jews, which
holds the marriage tie both sacred
and perpetual.
All honor to that section of the
Episcopal denomination which holds
the Divorce outside the pale of the
Church.
1t would be we'll if all the Chris
tan creeds and churches should fol-
low this example, and set their faces
like flint against the severance Of
the marriage VOW.
1t was no mere priest or prophet,
but the Son of God himself, in the
New ana later testament, ana not
the Old, who proclaimed that Who
soever shall put away his wife and
marry another hath committed adul-
try against her; and if a woman shall
put away her husband and be married
to another she committeth adultery
That is the unrepeated gospel of
the Christian world, and it is high
time that the Christian world should
follow tha Catholic and the lew To
its observance.
The wanton wassafl of the fashion
able Divorces should be brought to
an end
For the sake of the children who
are not responsible for their com
ing into the world
And for the sake of the society
which is founded upon the home.