Show CAUSES OF DIVORCE gertrude atherton a very brilliant woman contributes to the contemporary review london a paper on divorce in the united states heronen her opening paragraph is as follows divorce is rampant in the united states it is steadily on the increase it is estimated that 80 per cent of the ac actions eions are brought by women the actions are almost invariably based on the following grounds infidelity cruelty intemperance failure to provide desertion therefore it would seem that men are pretty much alike the world over but that the american man being conscious of his shortcomings has made himself as adjustable as possible and that american women I 1 have a highhanded high handed way of shuffling the cards to suit themselves the lady epitomizes the divorce laws of the several states shows that divorce has lost the odium formerly attaching to it it and that it is spreading in the south where until recent years it has been neither prevalent nor popular then she undertakes to philosophize and observes the typical woman of the united states today is a mental anarchist inevitably this anarchistic spirit in women has bred one dominant and most important attribute the ability to begin life over again every day in the year if necessary these women are rarely morbid and bitter nover never it might be asserted unless they are unhealthy or very young they act rather than talk when it comes to crises the past when disposed of has no further concern for them the present Is theirs the future a condition to be by their imperial will moreover the women of the present two generations who dwell in great centers have in large measure thrown off the shackles of conventional religion and to reiterate an important point the atmosphere Is electrical she expresses the root of the whole difficulty as follows the women have outstripped the men spiritually and mentally the men of the united states possess some of the finest pertain ments of the human race but they are failures where women are concerned their own interests are so restricted that they are unable to interest for any length of time the most versatile and mentally restless women on three continents that is divorce prevails so widely in america because american women axe are mentally undisciplined and restless and their husbands fall to interest them miss Ath ertons treatment and analysis of the subject are in line with the bamby pamby modern modem school of thought upon such subjects a school which is deficient in acumen and robust moral tone overlooks real facts and causes if they seem coarse or un esthetic and reasons in an all abstract and listless but refined sort of way about the greatest questions that affect human life or happiness she states some truths but does not more than penetrate beneath the outer skin of the subject the real cause of divorce Is sin not one couple in a thousand will desire or consent to divorce if both husband and wife before as well as after marriage have conformed their lives to those laws of nature and of natures god upon which conjugal happiness Is III predicated god and nature have both intended that husband and wife sho should aid love each other and cleave together and this great purpose will be thwarted only by transgression on the part of one or the other of the persons united in marriage rare cases of mis mating may possibly occur to which this rule will not apply but they would be so rare under a normal condition of society and popular morals as scarcely to constitute an element of the question A close observer of the divorce courts will note that among the most frequent causes for divorce that come to light are drunkenness cruelty and infidelity to the marriage vow on the par part t of the man ghofour who four times out of five is the defendant when he takes the other side he commonly charges the woman with either infidelity or desertion and often the latter term dinv inv involves olves the former but is used because less offensive contributing to the general result doing very much to produce it are the mans preference to spend his leisure elsewhere than at home and the womans comans habit of nagging him there are students of this subject who assign the nagging habit in wives as one of the chief causes of divorce they argue that it exasperates the husband until his love for his wife dies out and he seeks elsewhere the pleasures of companionship with the other sex the wife soon flom learns the truth and then home borne becomes c a place of torment for both divorce follows as a matter of course but far down below the surpig surface ti fa a cause of divorce that to la seldom OT or never brought out in court nor to in the gossip a divorce suit excites wr nor h in the papers in most cases tho the parties to the suit themselves give it no thought do tact realize that it exists yet often it to Is the cause of all the other causes that result in disrupting the marriage relation by or without a judicial decree it to is the practice of preventing offspring if the husband be the instigator of the practice the wife in spite of herself is forced to realize rea lisse that the man she has haa loved and trusted and to whose care and control she has b confided her all and in whom are centered her dreams and hopes of happiness la is a degraded brute whose chief purpose in entering the marriage state gratification of animal passion such a proposal coming from him dissipates the garb of honor courage and manliness in which her loving imagination had clothed him and reveals him to her a coward a dastard and a hypocrite a coward because he shrinks from th duties and responsibilities of life a dastard because capable of an act most degrading and criminal a hypocrite because wearing an outward appearance of respectability while inwardly reeking with corruption it if the wife take the initiative then the husband realizes to his disgust and horror that instead of uniting himself to a good and pure woman he is mated to one whose nature is so far perverted and debased that she lacks the highest instinct and chief virtue of the sex a desire for maternity and that while willing to enjoy the pleasures and advantages of the married state she is too selfish and too craven to assume its responsibilities it if the prevention of offspring is the result of the mutual consent of husband and wife as is the case in most instances then there is mutual demoralization each sees the other stripped of those qualities which love cleaves to and which an uncorrupted conscience and imagination agi nation approve and admire the husband Is no longer a high minded pure and honorable man in the eyes of his wife he is the slave of a degraded and degrading lust no longer is the wife a sweet and chaste creature of unsullied mind and holy affections she is a thing polluted and denied defiled she has haa submitted her body to lust and again to an outrage upon nature that the fruits of that lust may be forestalled there may be no open admission of these mutual sentiments but they exist in a more or less clearly defined form as certainly as conscience does how can love pure love exist between such ii a couple it cannot love between husband and wife is the reward which the creator bestows bestons upon those who obey his laws but this the greatest solace of human existence Is withheld from such violators of f natural and divine law as have just been described passion may abound and indeed generally does for its cultivation ti and gratification are made chief alms aims in life but it is not love one day it may wear that form but the next day it appears as anger next ims as jealousy next as revenge and thus all the evil there is in the human heart is developed and called into action and divorce becomes inevitable when man and wife resolve to face with patience and courage all the duties and consequences which marriage rightfully and naturally imposes when they cultivate in their hearts a love and desire tor for offspring when they refuse to make their bodies mere harps of pleasure the strings of which are to be played upon for the gratification fi of unholy passion then by a natural law the love that led them to the altar grows stronger with the years it is accompanied by an unshaken confidence which must ever be its foundation if it is to endure and by a charity which like a gentle mantle covers faults and shields from adverse criticism wife and children draw to his home with a resistless magnetism the husband whose duties for the day no longer detain him and the wife who known know the truth and depth of the love her husband cherishes for her and the little ones she with so much pain and suffering has borne to him listens eagerly for his welcome footstep ant and when he enters no matter how humble his home may be a ripple of delight sweeps over the family circle christ draws all men to him because he suffered buffered for their sake and the love that suffers for the sake of the thing beloved la Is a resistless fore force in the spiritual universe so go that wife who bravely endures the pain and danger of childbearing responsive to her h husbands us wish draws him to her by her suffering with a tit tie as resistless as the power of god and as enduring as hla his throne |