Show DIVORCES DISCUSSED The North American Review for the current cur-rent month has three articles on the subject sub-ject of divorce ono each from Bishop POTTER Cardinal GIBBONS and ROBERT G INGERSOLL As a rule the last named suffers suf-fers severely when contesting a point of principle with the better informed class of the clergy on religious topics for it is then that his superficial logic and shallow reasoning rea-soning are most thoroughly exposed but in a polemical contest in which the basis is a social and legal as well as a religious question ho appears to infinitely better advantage albeit even then he seems unable un-able to entirely divest himself of sophistry and to give to his subject that farreaching and comprehensive method of discussion which characterizes the efforts of the other two iWOColonel Colonel INOEUSOLL among other things thinks that the first duty of a human being is to himself he must see to it that he does not become a burden upon others To be I selfrespecting ho must be selfsustaining I by his industry and intelligence ho ac cumulates a margin then he is under obligation gation to do with that margin all the good he can This is first rate but it will be observed so commonplace that the sentences sen-tences amount to little more than platitudes tudes However it is his way of getting at things to put it in the language of the turf he must do a certain amount of scoring scor-ing before he goes under the wire After a little more of the same kind he gently touches the subject proper saying that in true marriage men and women give net g gve only their bodies but their souls This is the ideal marriage this is moral They who give their bodies and not their souls are not married whatever tie core mony may be this is immoral I this be true upon what principle can a woman continue to sustain the relation of wife after love is dead Is there some other consideration that can take the placo of genuine affection Can she be bribed with money or a home or position or by public opinion and still remain a virtuous woman Is it for the good of society that virtue should be thus crucified between church and state Can it be said that this contributes con-tributes to the moral nurity of the human race Is there a higher standard of virtue in countries where divorce is prohibited than in those where it is granted I Where husbands and wives who havo ceased to love cannot be divorced there are mistres ses and lovers The colonel gets in some pretty fine work there it must be conccJed Of course he could not go very far in that direction or in any other direction for that matter without pulling out the ecclesiastical stop of his organ and hitting the church a sly dig cpas < nt He concludes that the sacramental sac-ramental view of marriage is the shield of vice The world looks at the wife who has been abused who has beenjdriven from the home of her husband and the world pities and when this wife i loved by some other man thevvcSflcrox6u S5 So too the husband hus-band who can not live in peace who leaves his home is pitied and excused Is it possible pos-sible to conceive of anything more immoral than for a husband to insist on living with a wife who has no love for him Is not this a perpetual crime Is the wife to lose her personality Has she no right of choice Is her modesty the property of another Is the man she hates the lord of her desire Has she no right to guard the jewels of her soul Is there a depth below this And is this the foundation of morality mo-rality this the cornerstone society 9 this the arch that supports the dome of civilization civiliza-tion Is this pathetic sacrifice on the one hand this sacrilege on the other pleasing in the sight of heaven I One thing is very evident he has not forgotten and does not seem able to ever forget the potency of the interrogation point This is an adjunct to literature which he invariably uses without stint and it must be admitted that as a rule he makes it count up pretty well I is however when Colonel INOERSOLL drifts into a potpourri of blank verse that he is most entertaining at least most readable read-able Some of his metaphors lack symmetry sym-metry parts or reason at times but are always pleasant reading just as the transformation trans-formation scenes in a pantomime which presumably represent nothing in heaven i earth or hades is never a tiresome spec tacle to the eye He winds up his Review article with a strain of this kind which will bear repetition repeti-tion He says To me the tenderest word in our language the most pathetic fact within our knowledge is maternity Around this sacred word cluster the joys and sorrows the agonies and ecstacics of the human life The mother walks in tho shadow of death that she may give another i life Upon the altar of love she puts her own life in pawn When the world is civilized no wife will become a mother against her wH Man will then know that to enslave another is to imprison himself i TIC HERALD can afford to and does stamp the quoted lines with the scat of its unqualified approval The words are not only put in the proper places but there is much of justice common sense and fair play breathed forth by them To maintain and advance our civilization we need a divorce law as well as a marriage law but it does not follow that either should be abused Unquestionably it is a social cute for men and women to live together in the most sacred and binding of relationships relation-ships when their every thought of each other is freighted with the dregs of bitterness bitter-ness and from whose actions one toward the other all trace of gentleness to say nothing of affection has gone And this condition is made ever so much worse by the presence of children to grow in such an atmosphere and partake of the loathsome sprit which it contains every day and hour of their young lives The divorce Uw if it does not should be made to cover such cases and an important feature in the plan of civilization and humanitarianism humanitarian-ism is omitted when it does not |