The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1940-03-29
By KATHLEEN NORRIS

HE great disadvantage Of a
civilization that permits quick
= and easy divorces is that no
woman can be sure Of her husband
any more, no man sure Of his wife,
and no home feel itself safe.
That is the fact, from purely
practical point of view. The moral
considerations, affecting the vow
men and women take, "for better or
for worse" I leave to the theolo-
gians. I am merely thinking here
that divorce does unsettle the mind
Of husband and wife. If there were
no divorce things would 60 different
ly in the family circle. But as it
is today no matter how determined
the woman is to make her marriage
a success; no matter how anxious
the man is to have his home one of
the happy homes of the world, there
is always this in the back Of the
thoughts of each: "And if it simply
won't work, there's divorce"
In the old days there was much
abuse of a situation that offered no
doorway of escape. No question Of
that. Some men were DULLES at
home, bad fathers, bad providers,
unfaithful. Wives had no redress.
They bore the children and they
bore with the children's father in I'M
complaining martyrdom, year after
year. A friend of mine who mar
ried a foreigner, 80 years ago, lived
IN a hap.
own land, and had to endure the
presence of a beautiful dancer, q
chorus girl, in her own home, as her
husbands mistress. When he went
on pleasant trip, on his yacht or
behind his span Of dashing horses,
the dancer went, too. When the
mistress objected to the noise the
children made, the two smallest
ones were sent away to country
nurse.
Injustices like this made the life
of many faithful wife and devoted
mother insufferable. Only two gem
erations ago a father could order
grown daughters supperless to their
rooms, could forbid their marrying
this man or that, could keep them
and in most cases did keep them,
idle at home, penniless, dependent,
all their days. It came to the IL
Barrett children by slow degrees,
some go years ago, that their father
didn't intend any one of them to
have any love affairs whatsoever.
Girl after girl and boy after boy
meekly surrendered all hope of love
and marriage because papa so Or
dained it.
The Natural Reaction.
Modern marriage, with it's quick
divorces, its resulting independence
and alimony, is the natural reac-
ton to this unnatural situation. Girls
painfully have fought their way to
independence and freedom, and if
that freedom is being abused in its
turn perhaps that is only the swing
of pendulum that viii presently
right itself. Certainly husband to-
day is infinitely more reasonable,
considerable and faithful than hus-
band had to be few generations
ago, when anything he did was per-
force parioned by that helpless
companion, who was always and
forever, to the end of the chapter,
until death actually did him part
from her-his wife.
But today's way means that any
attractive woman, perhaps with two
or three unsuccessful marital expe-
riences behind her, can pick upon
any desirable mate, and even though
he be at the time happily married
. and with two or three small chill
dren, can do her best to win him
away from his wife and family and
home. And society," not to be too
hagrantly inconsistent, must stand
by and approve. Unless high moral
conviction, the influence Of religion,