New Britain herald., 1921-07-26
THE TRAGEDY.

THE TRAGEDY. Horrible is the shock that comes l with the news of such a tragedy as l the staying and suicide in this city | yesterday. |
 Comment upon the event is inex- cusable unless there may be found in it some lesson which might tend to make some man or some woman think more seriously of the necessity for living according to the rules of law and convention without which life would become well nigh chaotic.
 There have been many common law marriages which have proven successful from every point of view. This result has come because of the honesty of purpose of the parties to it. No lapse of any definite time keep the association clean and de- cent. It was so from the beginning. But the common-law marriage is dangerous thing. In it lie the possi- UllllAcS IOI l1lO IIdSSuy O1 UIOhSu hearts, ruined lives, perfidy without payment. A common-law marriage l is recognized by the law only after it has been proven. Many attempts | thereat have been made which have never received the light of publicity because no tragedy such as the one occurring here yesterday brought | them to notice-but among such at tempts there have been many which resulted in tragedy of different, a more pathetic sort-the tragedy of 1 broken heart. .- ... In the case now under notice the woman may have been influenced by none but pure motives. She may have believed in the man. For the man it is possible that in ignorance of the law he might have, believed that he could legally contract such a mar riage here. But it is inconceivab1e to think that his motives could have been pure if it be true that he had a wife and family in the country from which he came.
 Perhaps he would not have dared go through the form of legal cere- mony with the woman for fear of the law of our land.
 And therein lies the only point that will justify a reverting to the awful event.
 Convention, even law, may at times seem foolish or unjust. But law, with all it's mistakes, has been formulated through the ages-has been codified into rules that great minds have de- cided are the rules which will bring the greatest good to the greatest number of people on the earth. Un- scrupulous people may twist the law; clever men may find loopholes in it to escape doing justice-but it is the best we have to govern our actions; our safest course is to follow it. | Convention, with nothing enforc- ible about it, partakes somewhat of the quality of the law. Convention is the combination of rules past experi- ence has proven it wise and decent to observe
 Law and convention provide that man and woman shall not live togeth- CT unless they are married, legally, except in the case of a common-law marriage which is provable only after the fact, not from the moment of the joining of the lives.
 The man knew he was breaking the moral and the civil law The woman may have thought she was breaking neither.
 But all men and all women should realize that, granting the innocence of this woman, she had placed her self in a position of constant danger
 And, granting the innocence of heart of the woman, there would have been no such tragedy had the law and convention been observed by both parties. This is the only lesson, great as it is, that may be found in the aw- full story. -.