Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1909-10-14

Hurns indicate that the husband is 60
Hhg to have to shoulder the greater
Nart of the blame.
M Hundreds of dusty records contain
ING the details of half-forgotten cases
hAre being dug out of the vaults of the
Rourthouses in the big cities and the
EbackWoods county seats. Press dis
patches from here and there over the
Mountry indicate that an epidemic of
wife assertions, abandonments and
NEeneral infidelities is raging. St.
Louis, Los Angeles, Waukegan, Will
Ehamsburg, Pittsburg, New York and
Long Island answer to the roll when
the gist of recent delinquencies is
ealled. The modern man seems to be
Writing rapidly away from the old
ideals of wife, children, home and
u competency, says writer in the
st Louis Republic.
n Modern literature is full of erotic
md neurotic tales of clandestine love
affairs; and the churches, courts and
sSonventionalities seem powerless to
bold the husband to the time-honored
EFay Of living, loving and dying. He
won't listen to the preacher, he is not
afraid of the court and he scorns
Heonventionalities The old ideals are
social order seem to be breaking up
and casting their wreckage high and
dry at hundred places in this and
other countries 1t looks as if the day
Hpf chivalry was dead, the true chivalry
that was rooted in something deeper
Than mere desire to appear at ones
pest in the complex wheels within
wheels of the society of to-day. For
I. something seems to be the matter
with the modern husband. Not that
The modern wife is always guiltless
Epf sins against herself and others,
but the husband seems to be the one
that leads in abandonments. abuses,
E1nfidelities and other sins against the
Mmarriage state.
81 Old Bonds No Longer Bind.
81 1t may be that the bow of Cupid is
losing it's strength; that the arrows
kaof the little god are becoming blunted
Eor that his right arm is losing it's cum
Mn1ng. At any rate, it seems that his
A@arrows and darts are going astray and
causing more heart aches and domes-
@tic troubles than the efforts of ra-
Mtlonal little god ever should. Preach
Mers, lawyers, doctors, business men
and millionaires Of the multiple class
ARE furnishing from their ranks the
--latest examples of the loosening and
Mbreaking away from the old bonds.
M Afhnities" came first; then all the
Wrage was for 'soul-mates,' and now
Mthe black flag of the "love-pirate" has
Mbeen run to the masthead by certain
OF the more INSCRIPTIONS buccaneers
#of both sexes. And as result hun
@dreds of homes In this and other coun-
tries are flying the distress signal.
I'D This thing has swept across the
lcountry like a virulent epidemic, leav-
Ping here and there plague spot of es-
pecial malignancy. A few years ago
ian artist with the artistic tempera.
I3ment developed to the point that ex
Aceeded even the eccentricities of a
8prima donna, decided that his mar
rlage was a mistake, and straightaWay
proceeded to correct it by taking to
Nh1mself an affinity of the soul" The
matter was carried through with the
most brazen disregard of public opin'
ION that it is possible to imagine The
artist and the artists affinity" went
8doWn 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
an angry mob of his neighbors and
he was rather roughly handled him
sell. But the popular Indignation soon
died out and the artist and his "affini
&ty settled down TO an existence de