The Washington herald., 1917-11-30

Most intelligent people have come
to see that divorce % not an unmixed
evil. but necessary evil. It il often
the surgeons knife that cuts away
the cankering sore in a life In order
to save 1t. but Just as surgery Is not
always an infallible cure for dis
eases. SO divorce Ii not ynever-fail-
ing remedy for domestic misery.
Sometimes divorce means jumping
out Of the frying pan into the hre,
as the homely old phrase goes. ana
a man and a woman who have been
miserable together in matrimony hnd
themselves still more wretched after
they are parted.
After all. perhaps one gets attach
ed to ones sparring partner and feels
lost when deprived Of the enemy with
whom one has fought for years.
This ts particularly the case with
women. who are complainants in
vorce actions and who fnd out in
the majority Of cases that their de-
crees absolute are boomerangs that
annihilate them and that even a very
Indifferent husband may be better
sAA1A hS haoDdu0 ~ dh-
Without doubt men have the same
experience, for there Is no denying
that with all its faults. its draw
backs, even its martyrdom. ,matri-
mony does UNIT people for the cell
bate life. and the man who has grown
accustomed to the comforts and dis
comforts Of a home finds himself like
q hsh out of water when he Is cast
forth nm H. -
Ing houses, hotels or clubs.
He may have rebelled against hav-
ing to punch the domestic time clock i;
he may have writhed under the
tyranny Of q wife who kept tab on
his going out and coming in. and who
told him what he should eat and what
he should wear. and what he shouldn't
smoke or drink; he may have be-
grudged the money that went to pay
for shoes and groceries. and milk for
the baby. instead OF for pleasure; his
eyes may have wearied Of the sight
Of fat old wife and turned longingly
toward sylph-Iike chickens, but that
IL while he il still bound hand and
foot in the holy estate.
Let the law strike his shackles from
him and he soon finds that matrimony
has done its deadly work. He is a
tanned and domesticated creature who
has learned to eat out Of a wife's
hand and he is lost without II.
There Is no thrill in staying out at
night when nobody cares whether you
stay or not. What's the use OF max
ing money when a man has no one of
his own to spend II on? Better even
is the nagging Of an honest. faithful.
fat old wife than the jollying OF the
painted lips OF the sirens who work a
man for all he is worth and from
whom he soon turns IN disgust.
Thus it happens that thousands Of
married couples who thought they
could not live with each other find
that they cannot live without each
other. and It Is a pity that there is
not some half way station in the
divorce proceedings where the law
could offer a husband and wife a
chance to take back all the charges
they have made against each other.
and kiss and make 1t up.
The thing that's the matter with
matrimony after all is monotony. We
try to run 1t as a continuous perform
ance, with never a let up or a break
in it, with the same face across the
table at every meal, listening to the
same line Of conversation three hun
dred and sixty days a year. rasped by
the same faults, weaknesses, peculiari-
ties. habits. and it gets upon our
nerves. It's eating. the thirty quails
IN thirty days that no appetite can
stomach.
No wonder marriage is a failure. So
would anything else be IL We get too
much of it We loathe music. litera-
ture and art when we get an overdose