The Charles Mix new era. (Wagner, Charles Mix County, S.D.) 1???-1911, 1909-10-15

the carrier re-
turns indicate that the husband is 60
Ing to have to shoulder the greater
part of the blame.
Hundreds of dusty records contain
ing the details of half-forgotten cases
are being dug out of the vaults Of the
courthouses in the big cities and the
backwoods county seats. Press dis
patches from here and there rel the
country indicate that an epidemic OF
wife assertions, abandonments and
general infidelities is raging. st.
Louis, Los Angeles, Waukegan, VIII
liamsburg, Pittsburg, New York and
Long Island answer to the roll when
the list of recent d~elinquencies Is
called. The modern man seems to be
drifting rapidly away from the old
ideals Of a wife. children, a home and
a competency. says a writer in the
st. Louis Republic.
Modern literature Is full Of erotic
and neurotic tales of clandestine love
affairs; and the churches, courts and
conventionalities seem powerless to
hold the husband to the time-honored
way OF living, loving and dying. He
won't listen to the preacher. he Is not
afraid of the court and he scorns
conventionalities. The old ideals are
losing their grip. The deeps of the
social order seem to be breaking up
and casting their wreckage high and
dry at a hundred places in this and
other countries. 1t looks as IL the day
of chivalry was dead. the true chivalry
that was rooted In something deeper
than a mere desire to appear at ones
best In the complex wheels within
wheels of the society of to-day. For
something seems to be the matter
with the modern husband. Not that
the modern wife is always guiltless
of sins against herself and others.
but the husband seems to be the one
that leads in abandonments, abuses,
inidelities and other sins against the
marriage state.
Old Bonds No Longer Bind.
1t may be that the bow of Cupid is
losing its strength; that the arrows
of the little god are becoming blunted
or that his right arm is losing its cun-
ming. At any rate, it seems that his
and darts are going astray and
causing more heart aches and domes-
tic troubles than the efforts of a ra-
tional little god ever should. Preach
ers. lawyers. doctors, business men
and millionaires of the multiple class
are furnishing from their ranks the
latest examples Of the %loosening and
breaking away from the old bonds.
"Afnnities" came first; then all the
rage was for ''soul-mates,' and now
the black flag OF the "love-pirate" has
been run to the masthead by certain
of the more INSCRIPTIONS buccaneers
dreds of homes In this and other coun-
tries are flying the distress signal.
This thing has swept across the
country like a virulent epidemic. leay-
ing here and there a plague spot Of es-
pecial malignancy. A few years ago
an artist with the artistic tempera-
ment developed to the point that ex-
ceeded even the eccentricities OF a
prima donna, decided that his mar
riage was a mistake, and straightaway
proceeded to correct 1t by taking to
himself an "afinity of the soul" The
matter was carried through with the
most braxen disregard Of public optn-
ion that it il possible to imagine. The
artist and the artists "afinity" went
down to the docks and said good-by
to the wife when she sailed for Europe
with her children. However. the gen.
tleman paid the usual penalty OF the
pioneer. His house was wrecked by
IN angry mob OF his neighbors and
he was rather roughly. handled him.
self. But the popular indignation soon
died out and the artist and his "afint-
" settled down to an existence -.