Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-04-27
TELLS WHY OUR FOLKS
RUSH TO DIVORCE
EngliShWOman Shows Faults
in Americans.

London, April 26.-Why are so many
American marriages doomed to fail
ure? Why is divorce growing in the
United States out of all proportion to
the growth of the population?
Most young American men are not
especially interesting. Our young men
are not good lovers Women fail to
recognize that marriage is their work
in the world These are some of the
reasons put forward by the late Mrs.
Anna A. Rogers, in volume entitled,
why American Marriages FAIL just
published in London.
Marriage is not a~man's work, but
one of his dearest decisions from
which he parts begrudgingly. Happi-
ness as husband and father" says
Mrs. Rogers, has always been his
dearest secret hope He dreams of
prolonging through years humanity
improbable condition.
But the wife who insists childishiy
upon treating marriage, either in
theory Or in practice, as a beautiful
dream, is forgetful of how very little
is left of earnest lifework for a wo-
man If she repudiates the dignifed
duty of Wedlock placed upon her
shoulders. Apparently her whole en-
ergy today is bent upon dethroning
herself"
Faults of the American woman, ac-
cording to Mrs. Rogers, are largely
due to the present false and democrat
izing definition of woman one of the
evil effects being the intolerance and
selfishness of young wives, which is
largely responsible for the scandalous
slackening of marriage ties.
They are alarm clock women that
buzz and then run down, superb in
physique, meager in sentiment The
painstak;ng thrift of European women
has no parallel in this country"
Here are some trenchant sentences:
Half of Italy could live on what
New York city throws away in a year
The whole world of women in city
and suburbs betakes itself to the
shops every day between 8 o'clock and
II.
Our women are spoiled, extremely
idle, and curiously undeserving of the
maudln worship they demand from
our hard working men.
High-class women are bent upon the
American worship of everything
ready-made. >"
The college-bred young woman is a
cross between magnificent, rather
unmannerly boy and a spoiled, ex-
acting demimondaine.
But the writer is not less severe
upon the American man, whose virtues
are all negative, it seems, if he has
any. He may not drink, gamble or
smoke, but he shirks all domestic
burdens, except finding the money.
For instance:
What number of American fathers
know the name of their daughters
day school?
Young men lean back and compla-
gently argue that, as their hands and
hearts are clean, and as all other men
are rascals they Should be, of course,
preferred as husbands.
Tired men fill our vaudeville thea
tres even in the day time, TOO near
exhaustion to do more than listen to
wit quite easy of comprehension:
Six years of apprenticeship is need
ed before the honorable title of car
penter" is earned in England. Two
years of slap-dash experience on the
long suffering public generally suffice
us. Hurry counts, not soundness of
work
The clever writer selected host of
other subjects for pungent ridicule
in public life, notably the Puritanism
of a Librarian who blacklisted Miss
Alcott's Little Women" because there
was too much love making in it. This
posthumous book is crammed with
common sense and every page is in
tarnsfiOO