OCR Text |
Show UNHAPPY MARRIAGES. We cannot say bow many divorces the Utah probaie courts have granted ' during the last few years, but the number is enormous, amounting per-! h ;ps to thousands. While this whole-1 8 ile dissolution of the marriage tics his been coiDg on here, not a few of; the states have also engaged entens-; ively in the Bame bujinLMj. It is not a difficult matter to obtain a divorce j in any of the states, all the laws on the subject being liberal. Besides the the legal separations through the 1 courts, there are thousands of cases every year where husbandi and wives q-iiteach other without troubling the or going to the expense of a suit number of separations, legal and O'-Htrwise, is rapidly increasing in this country, Bhowiog that wo are losing tho wholesome views of life and Bcieiely entertained by our prngcci tors. It also shows that a fearful percentage of the marriages con-j tracted now-a-day, fire unhappy ; ones. Unless there is a change yaui-g people will soon be justified in the be- lief that the marriage Blate is one of infelicity. The frequency of these divorces, and the domestic skeletons so often exposed by the newspapere, tell a Bad story in regard to unhappy marriages. People of spirit and pride cover up and hide these skeletons as long as it is" possible to conceal them, euflering untold tortured of mind, and miseries of body, rather than expose them to the uoympathiziog world. Not uufrequciii'y do they cury them into the gra,ve. Without taxing memory severely, any of us can point to acquaintances and friends whose lives have been wrecked and made miserable by inconsiderate and unhappy marriages, and we are all apt to inquire the cause and draw painful comparisons. Wo see the drama opening with happy promise, tne Joveiy onue, uecsuj wi u ujwersi and the emblems of sweetness and purity, rx-sLnwing her hand upon the proud and happy b.-Uegroom; she trusting and loving, and he sincerely devoted, neither breathing a whisper that could shadow the brow or grate upon the carof the other achaiming picture of loveliness and manhood, eutering upon the holiest of human .covenants. Good wishes follow them spontaneously, and all admire, a they hope no cloud will ever come bat ween them and supreme earthly happiness. But how often it happens that the drama for so marriage has been termed that begins be-gins with music, amiles and sunshine, soon ends in darkness and misery the consequence of a terrible mistake. Just where the error lies cannot always be defined; but in the lawsuits, the newspaper sensations, the crime, and perhaps death, of the parties, the exposure often comes. A fault of temper, a concealed vice, a hidden or unsuspected weakness came to the SUnaiX IU Uispsi iuu urigui. uieam ui worldly happiness; one or the other of the parties may have been petulant, suspicious, exacting, or merely cold and indifferent; whatever lha beginning begin-ning the sweets of love's young dream are too often turned to the bitterness of gall. The husband who in sin cere earnestness swore to love and cherish, uo louger reepacla the oath, and tries to escape from fhe legal obii'-ion; the wife who vowed to love and honor does neither. Her happiness his been lost forever and her life become a blank, or even worso. Tiie world contains no pla:e so hnrriola as the home in which the hnsbau I and wife are at varianca. It is no houa iu any sense of the word. The woauu is an alien under the family rod, and tho man finds no rodt aaJ 0111 fort within the bona;-; tience it is wit b a degree of relief that he cloej the door bsiiind him and goes upon the street or elsewhere to escape the gloom ttud h rror that dell iu his bouse. Wneu we seeso iuany ut tiieso marital mistake, we oulit n it to wonder that ehann, m.irJer, suicide and drunbennesi are si often re sorted to as a in 3 ins It enlin or assuaging the misery. There is, of course, a brighter siJa t j tho marriage picture. rhr3 are truly happy homes, wnere the wite, husband hus-band and children fit admirably in their places, and each is theneces3ary component to the others. These are the natural seqaenc?8 of wise marriages, founded upon love and respect, and enier m it was designed by the laws of love, they should be. While marriage is honorable and the natural condition of the race, it should oot.be contracted without due coiidera'.ion of the cdc sequences, the neiisi ry trials, vexations and privations: without ac intelligent knowledge of the fitnes-t oi the parties to association and domestic life with each other; nor without adequate regard f.jr the binding nature of the obligations assumed. Above :iU marriages, if the pirties would ba happy, should not be con tract i'd like business partnerships, nor out of pique or disappointment. When Americans return tj the old-fishi old-fishi mH, homely idei of home, and entcruiu a higher respect for marriage ;ws, when they strive tj better uuder. stand their fitness for m irriage, and the natures of tin proposed p irties to t e important contract, then will the divoree courts have lesa business, the number of skeletons in closets diminish and happy homes become more numerous. |