The daily Alaskan., 1914-11-23
A MATRIMONIAL
 THEORIST
His Theories Did Not Work
 In Practice
By ESTHER vANDEvEER


 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 OF easy divorce. To them the loss Of a single child is an irreparable misfor- tune, and to the family as 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 1t: the latter, with a few exceptions, are ready to jump Into mat rimony without consideration.
 Among young unmarried persons in- 1 clined to forethought In this matter were Edward Ellis and Rebecca Sayles. l Neither was disposed to take life, Its | joys and its sorrows as they came, 1 but must plan everything ahead. Being mutually interested in many problems | that their elders have found lnsoluble, l they were drawn together by their dis | cuSslous, and an attachment sprang up l between them Ellis weighed bachelor | life against married life and found the advantages and disadvantages of equal weight. On the one side there was l something to tie to, on the other lone l 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 It 1 was unbearable.
 ! This view of it led Ellis just where 1t has led a host of other thinkers on the | subiect-hrst. to guard against tnJudt- cious marriages; second, to render them easily dissolved when the parties found themselves not mated He spent a great deal of time on both these prob lens and at last solved them to his sat isfacdou. No couple, he said. should be married without living for at least a year in close proximity with each oth- CT; no couple should be married with out a prenuptia agreement that at the option of either they should live apart and both assist il securing a divorce.
 Miss Sayles. whose views on the sub- feet 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 a family-something 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 remedied. Anyway, 1t would leave 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- nuptiaI agreement He was perfectly satisfied with this, because she was 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 q year of such inter course they were married Ellis pre- natal agreement as to separation tn case their marriage proved a failure was put in writing. He gave his bride a copy and kept copy for himself
 The Elliscs lived together ten years I without any more matrimonial dis IaCrrpmeutS than the average married couple. During that period four chll' drep came tu them, two boys and two girls. Ellis remained in accord with those. cynicni Gimgs at marriage which havn hren Q popular of recent years Wb.n he went to the theater and heard an actor crack jokes illustrative or what a 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 iu the subject treated, add ing that what was wanted were stories of married comfort and family ahec' ton. Ellis looked upon the critic ever after as man of very narrow mental compass
 Twelve years after the marriage Of Ellis and Miss Sayles he one day hand Ted her bis copy of their prenuptial agreement to q separation in case their marriage proved a failure. It gave her ' the surprise of her life. She had hs- tened to his jokes about what hus- . bands must endure, but considered that they sprang from desire to be face E tious.. 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 hao ] come to consider them on the same
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