Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-07-14
LITTLE TALKS BY
BEATRICE FAIRFAX

War has way of inspiring young
people to early and ill-considered
marriage. Wedding bells seem to
| be part of the prevailing stir
. the tuttering flags, bands, marching
| soldiers-and strange to relate, the
| boy who is too young to go to war
| feels he is getting into the picture
/ by taking unto himself a child wife.
! So many child marriages have
/ been made as the result of this en-
! thusiasm that among the new crop
of vaudeville jokes, one may expect
something about the kindergarten
classes at Reno for the benefit of
infants seeking divorce.
| misunderstanding almost invaria-
bly, follows when the wife is fifteen,
sixteen or seventeen and the hus-
| band year or two older, and both
ought to be in school studying in
stead of trying to cope with grown
| up problems. However, if these boy
and girl marriages have occurred,
young people ought to try honestly
to make the best of them, instead
of assuming a take my little
dishes and go home" attitude.
| Don't talk afterwards about hav-
ing been too young to understand,
unless you want to put yourself in
the defective class. Every boy or
/ girl of sixteen or seventeen knows
/ that in repeating the marriage cere-
mony, he or she is promising to be
faithful to one person until death
us do part" And after the fateful
/ words are said. it is too late to
| plead Il did not understand"
! y Divorced Boy Ridiculous
Parents do not help matters along
/ by listening to the grievances of the
child husband and wife. The young
people are legally married, and in
seeking divorce before they have
really given their marriage a fair
trial is clear case of jumping
out OF the frying pan into the fire.
A divorced boy is a ridiculous
object No one wants to give him
work or admit him to the company
OF young people under their charge
He may be blameless, but his role is
absurd. He might as we'll go to
nigh school in a pair of false
whiskers and expect to be taken
seriously as to face the world di-
| vorced before he is old enough to
vote.
And the plight of a divorced girl
/ is even more unfortunate. She pre-
sents herself a picture of dismal
sophlstlcation, child in years, vet
one who has well nigh run the
gamut of human experience. So if
the f1edglings have set up a nest of
their own, don't make a bad busi-
ness worse by sympathizing with
their little quarrels until divorce is
the only remedy.
divorce is sometimes necessary.
=! know, when a boy falls into the
! hands of a harpy or a girl into
those of an adventurer, but it is
remedy akin to dynamite and ought
not TO be applied until everything
else has failed.
Lately have had scores of let
ters from child wives, confidinp in
me their tragi-comedies. which are
just as real even il they do happen
TO reproduce the absurd quarrels of
children. They want to get divorces
and in number of cases they must
sue through a guardian, thew are
so pitifully young.
Had to Go Hungry
| one seVenteen-year-o wife tells
me that half the time she has moth
ing 10 eat because her nineteen
year-old husband wants to look
Dig and treat "a bunch of rirIe'
to ice cream soda nearly every
evening. He cannot forego the inn.
portance of playing Great Mogul
at the corner drug store, even if his
| poor little wife has to go hungry
No boy ought to be placed in such a
position of responsibility - he has
| all the greediness and vanity Of
chlldhood and yet a girl must go
hungry on account of his lack of
development. "a
Another tells me almost the same
story, though her husmand's dissi-
pations are not as innocent as ice
cream soda. And the one who
suHers in that family is the poor liz
tie Daby who has to do witbout
clean, wholesome milk because tbo
dairy won't leave any more till the
back bills are paid.
There Is a jungle law that I'M
mistakably dogs the footsteps OF
all or us through life; a distin-
sulshed novelist has called it. "the
Jaw OF the supplanter and the sup
planted" Look about Won. ana
from casual observation Won viii
see that more things than curses
come home to roost. In other words
'as ye sow, so shall We reap"
Some day this particular trapedv
may knock at your own door-son,e |
girl will steal your man away. inst
as you stole some other woman's
man from her.
What Map Happen
Perhaps some day you will have
10 see iran pdpy ire tade away /
because the money that should have |
been spent to save IL was wasted ON |
JOY rides and other hectic amuse- |
ments. Then you will have expert
enced to the fullest the jungle law
of the supplanter and the supplanted
Very lately there has sprung nm
among women a greater sense OF
fairness and decency-"feminine SOL
idarity." I believe II is called. And |
heaven knows. when we read ac- |
counts of the drawing aside OF
skirts" because some unfortunate
has brushed by us, we realize how |
much we need the Christ spirit in
our dealings with each other.
Women are less savage to women |
than they were even a generation |
ago. Al present no woman, unless
she is very unworthy one. will AZ |
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