The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-12-20
SHAME OF EASY DIVORCE
Preacher Sees Reversion to Custom of
Ancient Rome.
(New York American

~4''
The Rev. FREDERICK Lynch. III the
Pilgrim church, Madison avenue and
121st street, last evening spoke uu The
subject Of Divorce and Free Love-
He said. in part:
Every time the anarchists ur some
writer advocates fref love
as the proper and permanent condo
ton OF society, a terrible hue ana cry
arises from all the decent people of
the land; yet. in the present tremen-
dous growth OF the divorce habit j.
not the Nation rushing toward j about
as fast as it could come by unuulae
consent?
For. in the long run, where is tn.
real difference between divorce teinr
granted for the mere asking Gas it IS
practically tOday) an men and WoGneu
living tOSethe! without maFTiage7
Where is the difference etwecu &
marriage than mag be entered into fox
only q year or so (as many marriages
are entered o today) and the
French union lihre?
Surely these thoughts must come
to every serious man today "a he
watches the rapid increase OF divorce
and the perfect ease with which II
can be obtained. AS he sees one man
diyorcing one woman after another
as the whim seiZes him, he must often
, wonder If we are not reverting to that
condition in ancient Rome. Ma""enae
changes his wife nearly every Year
Some men in New York viii soon b.
doing that il the mad rae goes on.
when he sees & woman marrying
her fourth husband-the others an
livins-he wonders If some ~ uUs
women will not SoOn be en1uIatug
the Roman woman Martial speaks Of,
who had already arrived at her tenth
Observation-Disclosures even the woman
st. Jerome mentions who was married
to her twenty-third husband, she her-
self being his twenty-first WIFE Why
not, if divorce can be had for the mere
asking and a six months vacation
from marriage at RenoF
And even this six months need H"t
interfere with the state OF ma rrlaEC,
for not long ago a New York man
! will not mention his name, although
it was in all The papers-askcd ms
wife to get a divorce from him that he
might marry his affinity She went
West, and on the day OF the divorce
was granted he married his affinity,
but at that same time a physician VIII
whom his wife had become acquainted
while in residence for her divorce. Ill
tyorced his wife TO marry this woman
1T is not always actresses or opera
singers. In certain sets Of CIV loFh
society it IS fast becoming impohuc to
say anything about hamefu divorces
for you may be speaking to a party I'D
one. At q certain dinner whcre abouS
twenty were present one man IefaaIh~
e1 to another. Seven OF these p"opI"
have been through the divorce mlA.
And the worst Of all, people are n"'
getting ashamed Of It any more.
They feel no shame, and &"'}"N.
does not. When three years a@o "
great multi-millionaire divorced MS
good wife, who had shared his poverty
and helped him make his fortune, -
marry an actress did New York so
eiety ostracize e I'm? No. Inc
mingle in the best (God save IN"
mark) society in New York. ana re-
ceive their friends in their Ffcn1h
castle.
Il see nothing but free love il the
increase of the 10 ito of divorces 20
marriage goes on the mex 80 years a
it has the last 80. Divorce at prcSeo'
is increasing two and a half times a.
fast as our population. One can see
the incredible increase in 20 year
when he remembers that in 1880 ths
percentage was only 3S per 10000
population, where as in 1900 it W.
IS.