The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-12-29
is DIVORCE AN EVIL?

One of the most appalling phases
of our rapid" life is the frequency
of divorce.
Twenty years ago the variety of di-
vorce kept us in ignorance of the diff
ference in state laws granting the
decree, and some of us are only now
learning the diversity of grounds on
which a legal separation is granted
married people, by the states OF the
Union.
Gifted writer's are treating the mat.
ter from all its points; preachers,
teachers, .scientists-each gives diff
ferent reason, each suggests differ
ent cure, and all fall useless when a
common ground is suggested.
Dorothy Dix, in an article, FIX
| travagance as a Cause for Divorce
said in part:
"At the opening of the fall term
of court in Pittsburg one hundred wo-
men and ninety-eight men applied for
divorces from their matrimonial part
ners. Fifty of the men asked for d.
vorces on the ground of extravaganza,
claiming that their wives spent too
much money on fashionable gowns
and hats
It's curious the difference the aver
age man makes between the 'extrav-
agance" of his wife, and his own Eek
penditures"- it's because of this
very difference that nine-tenths of
the divorces, directly or indirectly &C.
cur.
A mans vices are, to him, as neces-
sary as a woman's clothes are to
her.
The average family of middle
class Americans depend solely on the
husband and father as provider of
everything. To him go the bills for
rent, food, doctors, drugs and the
thousand and one necessities.
If the man is blessed with a sensi-
BILE wife Gas the very great majority
of our middle-class families are) the
arrangement is satisfactory, and the
woman learns to stifie all her iong-
ings for things beyond the catalogue
of necessities. Where the man and
woman are fairly mated, and there is
genuine love between them, there is
no hardship for either in this arrange
ment, and usually their condition bet
tiers with their years.
But there is a species of man who
will lie to his wife about his income:
who will sacrifice her twelve months
in the year to make it possible for
him to be "a sport" and to spend his
money where it pleases him to spend:
and it is this stripe of man who is
running the divorce statistics of the
United States to the worlds limit
If there is anything on earth more
calculated to drive the average wo-
man to despair than having to ask
her husband for money, the Record
ing Angel hasn't given it prominent
place in his book. And yet, nine
tenths of the middle-class men will
hold to their pocketbooks like a baby
to its milk bottle, and howl just as
loud as the baby, if separated from
it.
There's just one favor some women
ask of fate, and that is to be the Sec
ond wife of man whose wife has
been one of the patient, toiling, self
sacrificing sort, who stified everyI
longing, smothered every desire, and
who could spell the Bord economy
backward and in four different Ian
guages.
When this sort of man becomes a
widower and has to rely on hired
help, his second wife need ask no
odds of the most pampered daughter
of wealth-provided she has a level
head end gaoilv store of common
sense
Farmers are perhaps the greatest
sinners in respect to an even divvy-