The Topeka state journal., 1919-12-31
cupid IN BITTER
FIGHT FOR LIFE
IN Topeka, 1878
One Divorce for Every Two
Marriages in This City.
Hate, Jealousy and Infidelity
Are the Main Causes.
IR0MANCES ONLY BUBBLES
War Brides Found Peace a
Sordid Step From Conflict.
Return of slowed Ones' a Cruel
Victim for HI. C. of L.
War Brides Found Peace 1
Sordid Step From Conflict.

Hate, jealousy, infidelity and gen
eral upheavals in Topeka homes in
1919 in the form of the divorce evil
took the place of happy firesides in
more than one-half as many instances
as did love. In other words, court
records compiled today, 81 ow that
there were more than one-half as
many divorces applied for in Shawnee
county as there were marriage licenses
granted.
In reading the above figures one
also must take into consideration that
the number of marriages in 1919 is
extra ordinary, fully q third of them
being marriages planned two and three
years ago and delayed on account of
the war. The rapid increase in di-
yorces also is appalling, tits pointed
out by court officials. when one takes
into consideration. that for fully one
half the year a large percentage of
the families in which divorces have
occurred were separated, were too far
away to scrap-hubby in France and
wifey supposedly knitting in Topeka
and that the domestic trouble has
arisen since the return of the loved
ones to America.
Numerous reasons are advanced by
students of domestic tragedies for the
increase in divorces in the last year
First Is the theory that people mar
rted must have interests in common
day by day in order to perfect an un-
derstanding. The husband left. The
wife went into business, earned her
own money and acquired silk hose,
silk teddies and other 1uxuries denied
her IN her previous Fight for existence.
A return to ginghams and linen and
coarse, red hands of dishwashing and
the like soon sowed the seed of dis
content which ended in the divorce
court
Hasty Marriage Evil.
Then there was the hasty marriage,
based upon the girl building in her
imagination the Topeka boy in uni
form as the man pictured in the i'm
mense publicity accompanying the
war. few weeks of blisG and he
left. Her imagination and his, too,
son who didn't exist. Returning of
the soldier and the disillusionment.
He discovered that after a. few weeks
she wanted something besides love and
stories of the mud in France. That
took money he couldn't command and
kisses which blessed her lips in the
first few weeks, turned to pouts and
domestic turmoil ensued.
The girl on the other hand soon
saw in him something besides the i'm
maculate soldier boy who came to To-
peka on furlo from Camp Funston
once a week. His hands were dirty
each night as he returned home. he
couldn't spend the money on enter
tainment each night which was pro-
vided free to them by a grateful COM
munity in the war days. He. too, de-
manded something besides love and
such sordid things as bread and but
ter and beans and profiteering occu-
pied as much space in his mind as did
soft love words in the days of romance
before the war
The Other Man.
Then. there was the other man.
That is a part of the eternal triangle
which current, gossip saws promises to
maintain its eternity. Then. there is
general cussedness. the husband who
can't face the daily grind of provid-
ing bread and butter three times a
day for 365 days a year and leaves.
Non-support, gross neglect of duty and
extreme cruelty continue to be stock
expressions in divorce cases.
The figures enumerated for di-
vorces represent the number of cases
entered on trial dockets in the two
divisions of the district court Some
of them were dropped before going to
trial. On the other hand. many cases
filed in the court. as yet. have not
been placed on the trial dockets-