The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-08-17
DIVORCE IN THE PHILIPPINES
A Personal Matter-Judges Only Pass
on Riqhts Of the Children.

on Riqhts Of the Children.
If you women want equal rights,
YOU better go out to Luzon.' The
man from the Philippines had been lis
.ening to the militant suffragist for
the last hour and IA half and had just
got in his word. up in the province
OF Besguet there, where the little
Igorrotes live, they've got it down to
a fine point. Remarkable people those
nountain savages.
They've already settled a lot Of
things our socialist friends are trying
now to get the rest of us advanced
enough to accept They're so progress
sive in these things that they're clear
back to the beginning again. TOR m
stance. they've got George Merediths
10-year trial marriage beat by a l-year
experiment. It's very successful, too.
And dlvorce-thats the simplest thing
in the world with them-and quite
fair to the woman, 100.
1t doesn't happen very often, but
when it does the community steps in
to see that there's fair play The
buknans. or chiefs, ac, as judges in the
matter. not to decide whether they
have a right to part-thats entirely a
personal matter for ,hem to settle
but to see tha here's "A fair division
OF the children and the property.
There was a divorce case ON while /
was up there. in a funny little village
of wooden huts, perched up higher in
the mountains than even the pines
care to climb.
The couple were separating on the
score of incompatibility- they're
progressive enough for that-and as
the land up so high is pretty arid it
didn', take long to so into the prop
erty question There were four chill
dren. SO that was all right, too, | don't
know what would happen if there were
three or five in such a case; perhaps
they'd resort to a Solomon Judgment.
AT any rate the hitch came in the
question of the house, There was only
one of it and naturally both needed it.
or course, you think the man should
have given way. but womans equality
is too absolute out there for them to
have any nonsensical notions about
chivalry.
Well il ended quite peaceably. at
any rate In their honeymooning days
they had built the house eosether, SO
now they simply repeated the perform
ance with equal labor. hanging a sec
ond little wooden hut with a shaggy
roof over their perpendicular comote
bed Whether yhey were reunited by
this reminder of their youth and early
love is more than l can say, though. of
course that's the proper sequel TO the
tale.
THE women have the same indepen-
dent rights Of earning money or food
as the men and they go about it in the
same way. You can see them any day
digging up the sweet potatoes that
grow IN little patches al over the
mountain ridges. or wadins waist deep
in the mucky rice fields that terrace
the slopes or climbing up the paths
with q loaded wicker cage on their
backs like any man polista
Sometimes 6, is father and some
times mother who looks after the
homework and the fat. naked babies
sometimes the lean family dogs. It
an depends on which member of the
household is the tiredest-that one
gets the easy work for awhile. It's
very pretty to see the way baby girl
is welcomed into a family. Her Igor
rotte parents are quite as delighted
with her as II she were a boy-there's
no disadvantage TO her in her sex:
that Is. as far as her people are con-
cerned.-Boston Herald.