Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-10-05
The Daily Story
A Matrimonial Theorist-By Esther vandeveer.
Copyrighted 1914. by Literary Bureau


faith In it cannot be shaken. They are
persons who have been happily mar
/ ried and about whom children have
sprung. To such marriage is their
whole world. They are not Interested
| In any one of the plans which are in
vented for experimental marriage or
easy divorce. To them the loss of a
single child is an frreparable misfor-
tune, and to the family as whole the
loss of either parent is the greatest ca
| lamity that can befall them
1t is either those whose married life
| has been a failure or those who have
| never been married at all who are seek
ing substitutes for the wedlock Of the
present day. The former usually take
the initiative by advancing new ideas
concerning it; the latter, with a few
exceptions, are ready to jump into mat
rimony without consideration.
Among young unmarried persons in
clined to forethought in this matter
were Edward Ellis and Rebecca Sayles.
Neither was disposed to take life, Its
Joys and its sorrows as they came,
but must plan everything ahead Being
mutually interested In many problems
they were drawn together by their dis
cussions, and an attachment sprang up
between them. Ellis weighed bachelor
life against married life and found the
advantages and disadvantages of equal
weight. On the one side there was
something to tie to, on the other lone
Illness that increased with old age. He
granted that if a marriage turned out
happily the advantages outweighed the
disadvantages. If it was failure 1t
was unbearable.
This view of it led Ellis Just where 1t
has led a host of other thinkers on the
subject-first, to guard against injudi-
cious marriages; second, to render them
easily dissolved when the parties found
themselves not mated. He spent
great deal of time on both these prob
lens and at last solved them to his sat
isfactfon. No couple, he said, should be
married without living for at least a
year in close proximity with each 9TH
er; no couple should be married with
out a prenuptial agreement that at the
option of either they should live apart
and both assist in securing divorce.
Miss Sayles, whose views on the sub |
feet of marriage had been Influenced
by the matrimonial troubles of an |
aunt rather than mental bent toward |
the discussion of abstruse problems, |
agreed with Mr.. Ellis as to the pre- |
cautions, but was "at sea" with regard |
to the remedy: She shrank from the
breaking up of a family-something
woman would be more likely TO feel
than a man since the maternal is
stronger than the paternal instinct. She
failed to see how the damage once
done could be remedied. Anyway, it
would leave n terrible scar.
However, if Ellis did not convert her
to his views as to separation, provided
marriage proved a failure, he finally
persuaded her to consent to his pre-
nuptial agreement He was perfectly
satisfied with this, because she was a
girl who would never go back on her
promise. They lived near each other,
met frequently and by mutual agree
ment refrained from trying to convince
each other that they were far better
than they appeared. At least they |
tried to appear what they were, but
whether they succeeded or not is an
open question.
At the end of a year of such inter
natal agreement as to separation in
case their marriage proved a failure
was put in writing. He gave his bride
q copy and kept copy for himself.
The Ellises lived together ten years
without any more matrimonial. dis
agreements than the average married
couple During that period four chill
dren came to them, two boys and two
~, |
those cynical filings at marriage which
have been so popular of recent years.
When he went to the theater and heard
an actor crack jokes illustrative of
what husband must endure he would
applaud vociferously. He read a novel
on the theme of domestic unhappiness
and recommended it to friend. The
friend handed it back with the COM
ment that neither he nor the world was
interested in the subject treated, add
ing that what was wanted were stories
Of married comfort and family affec-
tion. Ellis looked upon the critic ever
after as a man of very narrow mental
compass.
Twelve years after the marriage of |
Ellis and Miss Sayles he one day hand
ed her his copy of their prenuptial
agreement to a separation in case their
proved q failure. 1t gave her
the surprise of her life. She had lis
tened to his jokes about what hus-
bands must endure, but considered that
they sprang from n desire to be face
-ious. She was aware of what the wife
must endure, but during the term of
years she had been married her good
sense had prevailed over the theories
Of inexperienced youth, and she had
come TO consider them on the same
footing as other necessary evils and
hat for the sake of both parents and
children they must be passed over
With as little disturbance as possible.
indeed. she realized that it was far
more important that they be smoothed /
'ver than other necessary evils.