The Forrest City times., 1911-06-30
"The Common Law"

The following able criticism of Rob- ert Chambers novel, "The Common Law, now running serally in the Cosmopolitan Magazine, appeared in a recent issue of that publication:
 In former issue of this magazine, I referred to one of the many problems raised in MT. Robert Chambers story, The Common Law" spoke then of the perils of the life of the girl-model.
 l should be sorry to see any young woman enter uron the moral hazards of this occupation. One wonders, in- deed, what draws young women into 1t, seeing that the work is precarious, and that the pay is only from twenty hve to fifty cents an hour. And on top of these drawbacks we have the fact that the girl-model loses caste in both Philista and Bohemia-if her occupation happens to be known.
 The Chambers story is now sweeping in the question of the extra-legal or common.law marriage Now, George Eliot was woman of heart and brain who faced this question in her own life. She chose comm0n-Iaw alliance with George Henry Lewes, under what seemed to them a compelling neces- Sity This uncanonized union called down the arrows of social protest and drove her into seclusiOn. But when the death of Lewes broke the bond, and when later on she fac9d another marriage, We see her real attitude toward the marriage ceremony. For to her second husband she was married by book and bell, like any other wo- man, showing by this free choice her full acknow wledgment of the necessity of the established code that safeguards the woman and the child
 In the Chambers story, Valerie West. the romantic, inexperienced girl-model, offers to give herself, with out marriage, to her artist-lover in order to save the pride of his family and friends, and to save disaster to his social and artistic career things that would be damaged by his marri- age to professional model. Valerie makes this startling offer from a quixotic sentiment, from flash of unseltish devotion; but under it all is an abysmal folly. She loses sight of the fact that we can sin against our selves as we'll as against others-that we can sin against our dignity, our sacred honor.
 Are all sorts of sacrihce noble and worthy and wise? No. Because thing is unselfish, it is not necessarily virtuous. Mere sacrifice has no ethical value. Indeed, all true sacri- flee is the cutting out of some lesser longed-for thing for the sake of a greater good. A man sacrifices his taste for strong drink in order that he may get the greater good of sobriety. In fact, there is no real sacrifice in moral law-only seeming one.
 The mistake of Valerie, then, is that she wants to make an unequal exchange-wants to give up much for little-wants to exchange stars for herbs wants to give up her high dig nifty as woman to save the empty didnity of her lover conventional associates. Valerie recognizes the power of society over the fortunes of her artist-loyer: but she forgot some thing vastly bigger than society-her womanhood. She puts too high a value on social standing and worldly success things that are negligible in lfe's great moral issues
 It is the hrst duty of every woman to put high pr ce upon herself She must be given as much as she gives otherwise she falls This is the tragedy of the woman of the street. she does not get as much as she gives. Reciprocity is the principle in morals a. well as in business. If the woman gives all. the mans must give all The ] price of tie woman is the man