The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1912-04-16
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.


! u an luClueHl lndl occurred Ill NAH
sas City court through which a vein
| of pathos runs, and, the Kansas City
Journals comments thereon,
The cry of anguish rising from the
wreckage-strewn beach upon which
the breakers of the storm-tossed seas
of marital infelicity are so merciless
ly beating finds expression in the wall
II want EN- bofe." what plea could
be more compelling than these child
ish words?' "What master of Ian
guage could paint the picture with
more forceful simplicity?" asks the
commenting Kansas City Journal.
| One word-a monosyllable-ans
both questions. None.
Little Virginia Clark's compelling
plea and forceful simplicity, clinging
impartially to both father and mother
who had become frenzied by the stiff
ing atmosphere of mental contention,
might have melted and reunited
their estranged hearts'if an immuatbe
law had not placed an insurmountable
obstacle as a barrier between her
heartfelt wish and its fulfillment.
The laws of nature, all of which
are immutable, require strict observ-
ance, imposing penalties for non-ob-
serVance that none may escape. Hab-
its may be formed and altered, tastes
may be acquired and cultivated, but
human nature cannot be changed.
Marriage is either the pinnacle of hui
man happiness or it is a whitened
sepulcher filled with the mildew of
melancholy meditations.
There is no effect without a cause
The causes of matrimonial shipwrecks
are varied. devious and in some in
stances, because of the delicacy of
their nature, are past finding out; but
the effect is the same of each and all
an irrepressble desire to flee from
the ills they know of, by the only ave-
nue. of escape provided by statute,
viz: Divorce.
Hasty marriages to be repented of
at leisure, entered into without seri-
GUS thought of the binding obligations
they impose upon each of the contract
ing parties thereto, and with no
thought of either of the others habits,
tastes or inclinations or the mental,
physical and sexual fitness of each
for the others consort, are perhaps
the largest contributors to swelling
the tide of divorce proceedings.
Pre-nuptial knowledge OF either of
the other is generally so meager, that
the invitable disclosures of unthought
of barriers to welded bliss that begin
to reveal themselves to the utter dis
may of one of both after the ill-ftted
and mismatched craft has been launch
ed and undertakes the perilous voy-
age over matrimony's choppy and
treacherous seas, awaken one or both
to the horrors that have arisen to
torment them, and, of the awakening,
is born the desire for release which
only death, desertion or divorce can
give.
When the mistake of marriage the
saddest that can be made, has been
discovered and fully recognized, the
consuming desire to remedy it burns
with ever increasing intensity until
the souls of the sufferers become i'm
pervious to impression by the piteous
pleas such as made by little Virginia
Clark and the growing multitude of
others placed in her attitude.
Marriage is too infrequently regard
ed in its real light. 1t is not, as many
regard it, a divine institution; for it
is authoritatively stated that in the
realms of perfect bliss they neither
marry nor are given in marriage, and
the Christ was born out of wedlock.
God never Joined together in marriage
couple of his creatures, nor did
minister ever unite a couple in marri-
age by divine commission.
A couple suited to each other, enter
ing the marriage estate, finds the
richest of earthly pleasures whether
united by magistrate or minister. A
couple wholly unsuited to each other
entering into marriage relations, en-
tiers vestibule of hell to suffer all its
tortures until death, desertion or di-
vorce brings emancipation, whether
united by an official of church or
state
1t is not we'll to elevate the indis-
cretions of thoughtless marriages to
the dignity of crimes, nor to regard
the victims of mismated marriages as
culprits or criminals, only so far as
Ignorance may be regarded as vice.
Many good people of both sexes have
endured the mental agonies of unre-.
Quilted affection and the resultant
emotions of rebellion against condi-
tons it begets.