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Show TC ist 'SXiZtV'-i&' SXSJC Z"ZZ Z Z Z. ZZz?-Z Z'Z'ZZZ'S I TEMPORARY MARRiAGE !; . ) . EY UAZGZL PEZVCST. Georre Meredith's euggeRtion regrdlna; temporary roarrlare la. to Bay the least, original and will not be readily understood unless one remembers what a p la rue the unmarried woman Is In Ene-land. Not only are ther more cirls than boys born in the United Kingdom, but the mortality amour the mals children child-ren is greater. To this cores that social conditions arsxayate tha era as a great number of young men emigrate annually to th colonies of th Tast empire. Many of the marry abroad, wbll others return ta their natir country coun-try too late to think of marriage, and the result Is that Great Britain U Infested with old maids. , Some of these, becoming- reconciled to their fate, submit patiently to th inevitable, silence the longings of their heart and mak thera scire talrty comfortable. The majority, however, protest and it ia mainly for th benefit of the that the author of "Richard Feverel" aad "An Amazing Marriage" made the suggestion which has aroused the ire and Indignation' of his countrymen. country-men. . George Meredith reasons that In a country whert there er too many women it Is not Just that one woman should keep husband for herself her whole life when an around there are other women who hare no husband at an. Furthermore be has observed that It is far from all legitimate unions which are happy, and his psychologic experience has proved to him that after ten years married life cease to be delicious, i and why should then a condition be continued which brings no bappiners to either of the parties? To be sure there is always the divorce, George Meredith adds, but divorc is always a most brutal proceeding, which supplies column of sensational and scandalous news (or th papers, and he advises that marriages be concluded a are contracts of commercial partnership. . When you rent an apartment, no matter how enthusiastic you may feel About it. you would never think of renting it for life, but yon stipulaU In your lease that afUr the expiration of a certain length of time you shall be at liberty to give it up and Itave it. Why, therefor, should not the same clause b Inserted In-serted In that important of ail contracts, the one in which a person is most apt to commit an error of Judgment, which only daily intercourse can reveal to the contracting parties? Instead of marrying as you do now, "until death us do part," and then, maybe, three years later rack your brains to invent scandalous causes to regain your liberty, why should you not from the start sign a contract for three years, subject to renewal If agreeable to both parties? George Meredith does not propose three, but ten years. He thinks that a person is able to judge how his feelings will be for a period of that length. He also, undoubtedly, thinks that the first clouds need not be considered alarming, that time and dally Intercourse smooths over many discords, and that two married mar-ried people, though they may have misunderstandings during th first years, often end by agreeing very welt. But If the discords remain after ten years th famous author considers them incurable. Husband and wife should then both be free, without ill-feelings and without scandal, because their contract had expired, but the husband must provide for tha education of the children. Both parties should be perfectly free to enter Into other contracts, and it will then be possible for a man to marry three women, tme after the other, and this would give the poor old maids of England three times as many chance as they have cow. Now, one should Imagine that this suggestion would have been hailed with delight by the old maids of England, and that they would even now be busy collecting funds for the erection of a statue of their benefactor but, no! It Is ; just the old maids who are most violent In their denunciations of George Meredith. Mere-dith. George Meredith's project will probably never be carried out either in England Eng-land or any other country In Europe. It has against it the conservative way of thinking of most women, who, curiously enough, today represent both the fear of giving up old traditions and the hope of the moat radical evolution. |