The Press., 1914-11-18
A MATRIMONIAL THEORlST
 His Theories Did Not Work In Practice
By ESTHER vANDEvEER


 In this age of skepticism regard ing marriage there are those whose 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 iu- vented for experimental marriage or easy divorce. To them the loss of Il single child is an irreparable misfor tune, and to the family as a whole the loss of either parent is the greatest ca
 lamity that can befall them.
 It 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, it's joys and it's sorrows as they came, but must plan everything ahead. Being mutually interested in many problems that their elders have found insoluble. they were drawn together by their dis. cussions, and an attaC hment sprLng up between them. Ellis weighed bachelor life against married life and found the advantages and disadvantages of equa! weight. On the one side there war 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 a 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 iniudi ciOus marriages; second, to render them easily dissolved when the parties fOuna themselves not mated. He spent great deal of time on both these prob lcms and at last solved them to his sat isfaction. No couple, he said, should be married without living for at least year in close proximity with each Oth CT; no couple should be married with out prenuptial agreement that at the option of either they should live apart and both assist in securing d divorce.
 Miss Sayles. whose views on the sub ject of marriage had been influenced by the matrimonial troubles of an aunt rather than a mental bent toward the discussion of abstruSe problems, agreed with Mir. Ellis as to the pre- cautions, but was "at sea" with regard to the remedy. She shrank from the breaking up of q family-sOmetlling woman would be more likely to feel than man since the maternal Is stronger than the paternal instinct. She failed to see how the damage once done could be remed:ed. Anyway, it would leave terrible scar.
 However, if Ellis did not convert her to his views as to separation. provfdGd marriage proved a failure. he finally persuaded her to consent to his pre- puptial agreement He was perfectly satisfied with this. because she was l girl who would never go back on her promise. They lived near each 0thEs;, ! met frequently and by mutual agree neut 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 whetheG they succeeded or not is m open question,
 At the end of year of such inter .SO6 natal agreement as to separation in case their marriage proved failure was put in writing. He gave his bride a 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 chil- girls. Ellis remained in accord with 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 il husband must endure he would applaud vOciferOusly. He read novel ! Dn the theme of domestic unhappincss
 
 friend handed it back with the com ncnt that neither he nor the world was in the subject treated, ada ing that what was wanted were stories of married comfort and family affeG= | ton. 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 failure. It 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 | tQuS. 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 l come to consider them on the same | hat for the sake of both parents and hildreD they must be passed over with as little disturbance as possible Indeed StGo realized that it was far more important that they 3e sm0Othed | over than other necessary evils.
 Her husband said Il thing when he handed her the pnIIer, but she knew what he meant. In his prenuDtial agreement he had not thought 1t neces- sary to mention children. He had then not had children and was on the same plane in this respect as other bache. ors. Children in matrimonial separa- ton he had not considered.
 Mrs. Ellis bore up without flinching under the blow. She said not word as to the separation except what was necessary for making new plans. The schools in the town in which she lived ! were excellent, the children had al ways lived in the house they occupied, md it would be incOnvenient to move hem. She therefore told her husband