The Ely miner., 1943-10-07

pressure. No human being has the
right to control the actions of an
other after death; it would be as
reasonable for you to demand of your
dying husband that he never look at
woman-angel until you arrived to
join him in heaven! IF he really
meant only to protect you and his
unborn son from adventurers, from
foolish second marriage immedi-
ately after his death, that danger is
passed anyway. His son is daugh-
ter, and his widow has remained a
widow for three long years, and now
contemplates marriage with an emf
nently suitable person. If he meant,
which is more likely, to continue to
dominate and handicap you, that is
an unworthy motive on his part, and
wherever his spirit is it will be freer
if you forget and forgive his injus-
tice. At 81 you are too young to
abandon all thought of married hap
piness, especially after long years
when you sacrificed your own wishes
to his, living only to please and
satisfy him.
He Exercised Childish Impulse.
The jealous desire to go on living
after death, to continue to influence
this world and a few at least of it's
inhabitants, is a childish and un-
developed impulse. One sees it ex-
empliied in wills, in freakish last
dispositions of estates, in surprise
letters locked up in strong boxes. If,
as I believe, the liberated spirit
reaches new wide horizons where all
our sensual earthly appetites at last
appear to us to be as pitiably mar
row as they really are, how bitterly
must soul regret the blind little
whims and meamesses he left be-
hind him.
One of the most horrifying exam
pies of that sort, some years ago,
was the will of man who left a
large fortune to the woman who
would bear the most children in ten
years. Several women actually en-
tered this disgraceful race; some of
the poor little unwanted babies died:
some were of unmarried mothers:
many came to families already on
relief; several to a vermin-infested
home that had already given to the
relief board a great deal of trouble.
1t was no place for a baby.
If the proper authorities had
thrown out this pernicious will, as
subversive to public morals, there
would have been one long-drawn
scandal less in the world. Had
living man made such proposition
there would have been no hesitation
in shutting him up. But because the
man was dead, and red wax and
red tape dangled from the lifeless
document, it was regarded as sa-
cred, and the infamous conditions
of it were published where weak
minded, irresponsible women could
read them.
Infidelities Nullify Promise.
We're the promise of a different
nature, and Alma's husband living,
she could go to him and explain why
she was Withdrawing it. Because of
complete changes in all the condi-
tions. Certainly she is not more
obligated to him dead than she
would be if he were still here and
she must consider her own feelings.
Sometimes I have advised the
women who write me to obtain legal
separations. l have never advised
divorce. It seems to me a much
more serious thing to dissolve a
marriage between the living than to
cancel death-bed promise made
in the last jealous, sick, domineering
hours of mans life. Doctors de-
ceive patients if they feel it help
full thing. Nurses murmur untruths:
wives say cheerfully you're much
better today" Classify your prom
ise among these soothing deceptions
and forget it. And may the future
be good to you.