The Washington herald., 1920-08-18
TRIAL DIVORCE.

We were discussing the case Of
the Smiths. who were divorced
year or two ago with much launder-
ing Of soiled linen in public, and
who have just remarked.
1t is very common for people
who have divorced each other TO
remarry," said a famous LAWYER"
and it would occur still oftener eX-
cept for the morbid dread most men
and women have of appearing
ridiculous. They think their friends
would laugh at them if they went
sncaking back into the same matri-
monial fold out of which they have
/ broken with such A tale of cruelty,
and heart break. and general woe.
4 am convinced that the feeling
that brings a young couple together
/ and that is made up of the dreams,
and faith and romance and high
hope of youth makes a bond be-
tween them that never quite breaks.
1t may wear pretty thin, and get
fringed in places. but you can patch
it up so that it will hold to the end.
Il am also certain that when the
average husband and wife quarrel
and fall out they are not really out
/ OF love with each other. as they
think they are. They are merely
tired of each other. They have got
] ten on each others nerves instead
| Of each others hearts. and what
they need is a temporary separation
instead of a permanent divorce.
! so when a wife comes and be-
dews the end of my desk with her
tears. and tells me how cruel her
/ husband is to her. and how he neg
IleCts her. and how she suspects
/ that yellow headed. stringy stenog-
rapher of his. though goodness
knows what anybody can see in that
madeup creature passes her com
prehension, and will I pls3se get
! her a divorce from the brute:
And when a pale, Grim-faceo
man asks me to apply for divorce
I for him from wife whose naEgInG
and fretting he can no longer en-
durc. and who admits. under cross
examination. that he does think he
would be happier with a younger
woman, why, l say to them:
certainly. l think 1t would be
highly immoral for two people to
continue to live together who feel
toward each other as you do. l Will
take the case. but only upon the
condition that you separate for a
year. and hold no communication,
either by speech or letter with one
another. You must do just Is l
say. and if at the end of the year
YOU still want the divorce, l will ar
range the matter as quickly and
with as little publicity as possible.
Then. if the husband is rich, l
send the wife to Honolulu or Japan
for a year, and / see that she does
not get nearly as much money TO
spend as she has been in the habit
of having. If the husband is poor
man l send the wife back to live
on her own people, and she gets
only the small amount of money
that she would have as alimony
from divorced husband earning
the salary hers does.
Nine times out of ten before the
wear is over the warning couple
have made up their differences and
have taken their household goods
out of storage and set up new
home. which generally is a happy
one. for they have had a lesson that
they are not likely to forget.
There are many reasons why
peopA who get divorced in haste re-
pentGt leisure. and would like to
have their DEGREES absolutely nulli-
fed il they could. OF course the
main reason is the children. Al
most any kind of a father and
mother are better than none at all,
and no man can listen to his babes
cry for its mother, and no mother
realize her boys need of a father,
without feeling that they had bet
ter have stood anything than or
phaned their children.
Then absence draws sponge
over the peCuliarities and faults in
others that irritated us. We forget
the little ways that aggravated us.
and remember only the kind and
gentle things, as we remember only
the good of the dead.
The man who had thought him
self bored to death with domestic
ity. and who had ,pined for free
dom from matrimOny, finds out that
marriage has ruined him for the
gay life. After a month of club
cooking his digestion is on the bum,
and he pines for home made bread,
and somebody to worry over him
when he has the headache. And he
ascertains that there is no particu-
lar fun in staying out late when
nobody cares whether you do or
not.
And he's scared to death at the
thought of having to marry the af-
finity that he thought he wanted to
marry when he knew he couldn't
marry her.
"As for the WOMAN she also