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THE SW Y SOUTH
©fte SUNNY SOUTH
Published Weekly *
THE CONSTITUTION BUILDING
ATLANTA, GEORGIA %
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To those who subscribe
fto S»# Sunny South only
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Sunny South Is the oldest weekly paper of Literature,
Romance, Fa€t and lfldtlon In the South It Is now re*
Jtored to the original shape and will be published as for*
marly every week & Founded In 1874 it grew until 1899,
when, as a monthly. Its form was changed as an expert*
meat & It now returns to its original formation as a
weekly with renewed vigor and the Intention of ecttps*
tng its most promising period In the past, f
The Ant and the Heathen
Chinee
HE wise man of the Bible said, “Go
to the ant, thou sluggard.” He
meant to teach the improvident,
shiftless young man a lesson of in
dustry and thrift from one of the
smallest, most insignificant insects
that transacts business on the green
globe. A despised, weak creature,
not visible except on close scrutiny,
unable to defend itself against
mightier enemies and dozens of
whom a single imprint of the foot
would destroy—yet the solon of
wide experiences referred the intel
ligent, active man to its tireless en
ergy and foresight as an example fit to follow.
There is another parallel along similar lines to
which we wish to call attention. How boundless
is the average man’s contempt for the Chinese—
as a nation! We call them flippantly the “rice-
eaters,” the "heathen”—ineffectual remnants of
a people doomed to disintegration by the advanc
ing hordes of western civilization. They are “ef
fete,” powerless, and predictions abound of the
time when they shall either be absorbed into the
more active, potential race of the ambitious Cau
casian, or forced into an inferior position by men
whose brains ^re intensely developed.
We never pause to consider that the Chinese
civilization is hoary when compared with our own;
and as the man is more thoroughly equipped than
the child, it follows that the older civilization con
tains some elements which may be helpful to the
younger. Advanced age does not mean decrepi
tude in this instance. We would, perhaps, chal
lenge the credulity of our readers by declaring
that the Chinese civilization held more promise of
future achievement than does ours, sinister as that
statement may appear. The prophecy ceases to
be startling when we consider the fact that the
Chinese will havte the advantage of our accumu
lated knowledge and wisdom which, it is fair to
. 1 take th-a^u- L,iit a short whi’“co Trfas-
JvSGf? 1$V- y have set themselves to the task. As
for the remainder, remember that the race comes
face to face with modern conditions untrammeled
by a thousand struggling factions; numberless
iron-bound and harmful traditions and prejudices,
and its health, as a nation, unshattered by the
ruinous pleasures and ambitions which make the
modern man senile at forty-five. They have their
piejudices and castes, true; but the full energy of
these forces is outward, against the foreigner; it
is not spent in internal dissension, and the disrup
tion of elements which constitute the empire it
self.
If w r e may imagine such a spectacle the nation
has remained for hundreds of years in a sort of
healthful lethargy, gathering ripeness of national
character until the time shall come for it to take
its place along with the other fast moving world
powers.
Just how senseless is the prejudice against such
a nation is shown by the fact that, despite his slug
gish appearance and seeming slowness of wit, the
Chinaman had many of our modern inventions in
practical working Order centuries before our wise
acres saw the sunlight. It has been definitely
proven that printing from movable types was a
part of Chinese industry before the birth of Christ;
the work was clumsy and ill-developed, to be sure,
but the germ of the idea was there. Chinese mar
iners steered their course over trackless -wastes
by the use of the compass when the vikings were
relying on the intervention of the gods and hap
hazard currents. And now comes another au-
*1 ority and declares that medical, as well as dental
surgery, is an old story with Chinese masters of
the healing art, and that, although they lack the
modern advantages of our skilled surgeons, they
still possess the basic principles.
The tale is only begun. So sensitive and se
cretive is that terribly mysterious race that we
have been unable through years of effort to pene
trate the archives of their knowledge and wisdom.
It is not at all improbable that when our knowl
edge of Chinese history and of the life of the vast,
unexplored interior shall be complete, we will
discover any number of channels in which the
seemingly slower race has kept pace with the
more nervous efforts of the west. Even then, Wu
Ting-fang says they are happier in their ignorance
than we in our wisdom. And as happiness is the
ultima thule of life, there is little to justify our
toplofty attitude toward the yellow men of the
east.
We see the folly, then, of condemning on first
impressions or of despising those wdio do not agree
with our various codes. The same holds true with
the individual. There are very few people whom
we meet in our daily routine from -whom we can
not learn something, even though it may aggre
gate little. The Chinese have covered ground
which it will take us centuries to cover. The man
we meet daily invades circles, lives in spheres
mental and physical, radically different from our
own. There may be the toad, ugly and venomous,
yet Avith the precious jewel in its head; there may
be poor raiment and diffident manners, under
neath which may hide some store of knowledge,
some trick of achievement which it behooves us
to learn. Arrogance and cocksureness are ob
stacles which stand in our light in small as well
as larger problems.
The Most Beautiful Word
in the Language
T is certain that most people living
in cities and a large number resf-
dent in the country habitually min
imize the value and importance of
their home life as a potent factor in
the many turns and twists and curi
ous sins and virtues of human exist
ence. A great many individuals, if
we speak candidly, regard home as
a place of “bed and board,” simply
and solely. When they are hungry, *
they know a place where they may
eat in privacy the foods they like
best, prepared in their favorite man
ner; when the}' are tired, there is a
certain spot, quiet from the blare and glare of the
titeets, wdiere they may obtain the repose which
is to fit the frame for heartier efforts in the next
day’s fray. Here the matter ends, for them. Their
pleasures are sought elsewhere; the club, the the
ater, the library, the homes of friends, flie street
itself, seem preferable to the place in which have
been pitched their peculiar Lares and Penates. It
it these people that never appreciate one of the
truest, most wholesome, inexpensive joys of liv
ing—we may say an entire phase of life, which
the Omnipotent has marked out as an earthly re
flection of the time when ambition and selfishness
shall cease to be the main animating powers of
society.
It is not every one who has learned this secret.
Many people ot restless, never-quiet spirit, crav
ing a mysterious something of which they have
never tasted the essence, wander along feverishly
through their daily tasks and pleasures, impelled
by violent ambitions, acquiring here, losing there,
with never once the soothing influence of a spot
sacred to self and dear ones where, when the door
is closed and the curtain drawn in the evening,
■worldly cares and sordidness are sent packing to
more congenial latitudes. Nor can we construe
into a home only a magnificent house to which the
occupant holds a perfectly clear deed; the rooms
of which are filled with massive furniture; its no
ble expanses of space lit by dazzling electric
gleams; its polished floors covered with soft, im
ported things, too luxurious to be called carpets,
and its every appointment putting to blush the
fabled tales of the wealth and grandeur of the an
cients.
Were this truth, language would be mocking
noise and human happiness a farce. A man may
live in one of these giant deserts of beauty, drain
to vitiation the pleasures and sweets which wealth
can purchase, and be less happy than a forlorn
cat, kicked and cuffed by the world, retreating at
nightfall to'the neglected basket in the loft, and
nestling down to the little furry bits of life, flesh
of her flesh, which call to her for sustenance.
It is the man who gives the sacred word of
home its true construction who enjoys life to its
fullest scope. Such a one works ardently and pa
tiently through the day’s heat with a bright vision
of content and quiet ever before him; of a place,
however humble, where he may read in comfort
by the cheery lamp glow; where he may loll to his
heart’s ease on the porch and puff speculative
clouds of smoke at the blinking, kindly stars; or,
sweetest of all, where he may again become a
child, and .bathe and refresh his tired, cynical mind
in the irinoefent*romp and prattle'of htfle children,
or look into the mild, level eyes of the only woman
in the world. You may be sure that it is not from
such ranks as these that the hordes of the saloon,
or penitentiary, or the merely vicious are recruited.
People wdio are living in this geniilike twentieth
century, both in city and country, have no excuse
for not being home-makers and home-lovers. To
begin with, the price of homes proper, lumber,
brick and land, bring them within reach of all save
the pauper. American ingenuity produces furni
ture at a cost accessible to the day laborer; when
the fortunes of the individual or the family pros
per, there is the cheap, but excellent piano, or
other instruments, to supply the music which col
lege professors pronounce the best refiner of intel
lect and lessener of carping worry. The man and
woman wdio read have the literature of the an
cients and moderns thrown open to them for prac
tically nothing. Through the same agencies they
may study sedulously, if so minded, to improve
their minds and status in life. Other pleasures,
and especially social enjoyments, are relatively
costless. A few dollars tastily invested in repro
ductions from famous pictures, or even the stat
uary which abounds in the stocks of all city de
partment stores, will lend a charm and attractive
ness to home life wdiich, combined with the other
factors we have named, will make of it a city of
refuge when more pretentious pleasures become
strained and unpalatable.
Nor do we deny that there is plenty to be
learned and enjoyed beyond each man’s four walls.
But we do believe that many people are rushing
madly about in pursuit of pleasure when it stands
at their side quietly beckoning.
Edwa|*d and Alexandra Crowned in His-
v toric Westminster
king EDWARD.
E DWARD Vir has been crowned
king of Great Britain and emperor
of India. His consort, Alexandra,
lias also been cro».yned. Although the
excitement and g- oy attendant on the
coronation had bi J anticipated by the
festivities just preceding the king's late
Illness, there was still abundance of me
dieval pomp, and the religious phase of
the ceremonies was emphasized.
Westminster abbey, of historic fame,
wherein the coronation took place, was
thronged with the nobility of the British
realm, and with notable representatives
of foreign nations, the United States hav
ing representation in the person of Am
bassador Choate. Other Americans,
prominent in the world of finance and
national affairs, were also present.
Tho king exhibited little evidence of
the lato trying ordeal through which he
had passed. His face may have been
a trifle more drawn and his step a meas
ure slower, but he boro himself cheer
fully, and delighted tho crowds which
thronged the streets along the route of
the parade, and his noble subjects in the
abbey, by his apparent health and amia
bility. The ritual had been considerably
abbreviated to avoid,putting any tax on
the king*3 energies, but even then It was
replete with solemn, impressive features.
A sensational incident wits the almost
total collapse of the aged archbishop of
Canterbury, upon whom it devolved to
place tho crown upon Uio monarch’s
head.
Toward the ending of tho ceremony,
when the venerable prelate knelt to ren
der homage to tho newly crowned king,
ho narrowly missed swooning, and it
was only with the king's assistance that
ho managed to regain his feet.
Tho crowning of Queen Alexandra was
short and simple. Other features of the
coronation were more toward the spec
tacular. The abbey glistened with Jewels
and'sheen from tile rich garments worn
by the peers ;iid peeresses. The placing
of the coronets and the offering of pray
ers and choruses in unison, was one of
QUEEN ALEXANDRA.
the most beautiful features of the cor
onation.
King Edward bore the fatigue incident
on the ceremony excellently, and is re
ported to be in splendid health and spir
its. Rejoicing and patriotic exercises of
national character are the order of the
day throughout the British empire.
Woman Should Be Strongest in Time of
By HARRIETT PRESCOTT SPOF-
FORD.
S the young wife goes for
ward on the way she has
chosen she will find that
no virtue or accomplish
ment is comparable to one
whose nature she has very
probably overlooked In
earlier days, but which, if
she possesses it at the
needed time, she finds In
valuable—that of making
Illness more bearable to
the sufferer and of rob
bing it of as much of its
discomfort as may he.
It is not everyone throughout our wide
and far country who is able to have at
call that inestimable treasure, the high-
priced and efficient trained nurse; and
therefore the more obvious things of her
art ought to be as much a requisite of a
girl's education as dancing and music,
the making of desserts, the counting of
change and kindred affairs. The wife
who, when her husband, comes home
flushed and fevered and with an aching
head, does not know enotigh to give him
a hot bath and roll him in blankets and
break up his cold, does not know enough
to be trusted with a husband.
But it is not that sort of knowledge,
the knowledge of what the ailment is and
how to treat it medicinally, that is need-
iSicKness
ed so much as that of what to do after
the doctor has coma and gone. In order
to give the sick person all the ease and
contort possible. The young wife prob
ably thinks, for instance, that aho knows
how to make a bod, till she sees one ail
wrinkled and rough and disordered with
the tossing and turning of the invalid,
and learns tho misery that a loose under-*
sheet is to one compelled to lie upon it
a dozen hours.
Health and Illness.
She should have been taught that what
is quite sufficient In health—an under
sheet well tucked in at the head, and
an upper»sheet well tucked In at the foot
—is very insufficient in illness; and that
after the mattress has been properly
dressed with a rubber cloth under a soft
old blanket the under-sheet should he
drawn as tightly as strength and the ma
terial permit and then should he fastened
with safety pins beneath the four cor
ners so that no wrinkle equal to that of
tho crumpled rose leaf shall he felt. And
this is only one of many things of the
sort that every wife will find of unspeak
able benefit to her and Indispensable to
the comfort of those she loves when they
are ill and able to have but little com
fort at the best.
No wife or mother, in whatever ex
alted circumstances sho may be, escapes
tlie burden of Illness in her family. If
tho house Is full of trained nurses ft is
her place to oversee them, to visit the
sick room, to sit beside the pillow and
soothe with her presence and the sense
of her love and watchfulness and pro
tecting care, knowing that this presence,
this consciousness of her ov»rsight Is
more to the Invalid than all his. *rugs
or treatment. Sovereign princesses do
not disdain the task; sopre such, Indeed,
have been known to take part of the
course at a hospital, and such a thing is
not beneath the attention of those who
have a good deal more time at their
disposal than sovereign princesses have.
The cleansing from blood/ the dressing
of cuts and bruises and sores, may not be
pleasant to those who have not the love
of surgery In them, but the life of another
often depends upon knowing just how to
do some of them and similar offices.
There is, in contrast to the slack and in
effectual effort, a best way of extracting
a splinter from a child’s finger, of clos
ing a cut for the sticking plaster, of
co'vering tho broken skin with collodion
over the thin layer of absorbent cotton
that shuts It out from poisonous germs,
of giving a simple massage that shall not
rub tho recipient the wrong way.
There is more than one wise person in
the world who has uttered the opinion
that no girl should be allowed to become
a wife who has not received a short
period of instruction in all this by the
bedsides and in the lecture room of a
hospital, for until she knows how to care
for them in the great essentials of pre
serving health and making the least of
illness *she has no right to take husband
and family in charge.
&he WeeK i» a. Busy
^ World ^
RINCEP FREDER
ICK WILLIAM,
who is reported to
have expressed the
desire of relinquish
ing his rights to the
German throne, and
to have had a vio
lent Interview with
the kaiser concern
ing an escapade at
Bonn, was born on
May 6, 1882, and is
said to be a very
Prince of Germany brilliant and capa
ble young man, very much liked In the
army and a notably proficient scholar.
Ho Is the kaiser’s eldest son and heir ap
parent to the German throne. The
young man has fallen in love, it Is re
ported, with an American beauty, end
his father violently opposes his designs,
refusing to accede to even a morganatic
marriage.
HIEF JUSTICE
OLIVER WEN
DELL HOLMES,
of the supreme court
of Massachusetts,
has been appointed
associate Justice of
the United States
supreme court, to
succeed J u stice
Gray, resigned. The
announcement was
made by President
Roosevelt early thi3
Oliver IV. Holmes week.
Justice Gray resigned because of ill
health and his advanced age, 74 years.
Judge H-olmes Is a son of the famous
"Autocrat of the Breakfast Table." He
has made an enviable reputation in the
practice of law, and it is expected will
reflect credit on the supreme court. His
appointment was a total surprise in
Washington's official circles.
& Th, Mjrfhty Influ|ence of Mothers S*
l ‘ ' t . ~ ■ 7 t 1 " § ;
D.. r U A Dl nTTC TCI 1 CD W
Z5/ie tSunny South Short
Story Contest
A FEW of the competitors in the short story
contest seem to have misunderstood the condi
tions of the contest and the announcements made
from time to time in The Sunny South. Several
letters have been received by the editor asking that
“the promise made to announce the prize winners
on August i” be redeemed. No such promise has
been either directly or remotely made at any time
by The Sunny South. One of the published con
ditions relates that the contest is to “close” on
August i—in other words, that no manuscript
would be received after that date, and that from
thence the reading and judging of the stories sub
mitted would begin.
To expect that decisions in a contest the dimen
sions of the one just concluded should be rendered
one day after manuscript ceased reaching the of
fice would be thoughtless, to express it mildly.
Over seven hundred and fifty stories were submit
ted, and five expert readers are engaged in the
task of reading them and making recommenda
tions relative to the prizes. The editor has named
no definite date for the publication of the awards,
giving his promise, however, that the details would
be completed as quickly as possible. Positive an
nouncement of this date, however, may soon be
expected.
It is gratifying to report to the contestants 5nd
their friends that as more stories are read the con
viction grows that in quality the stories submitted
in this contest will exceed in plot and finish those
brought out by any previous contests.
BISHOP of the church is
quoted as saying that
three-fourths of the crime,
poverty and depravity in
America Is due to the wom
en. "Poverty, depravity
and crime" would bo a
better order unless the
bishop wishes to class
poverty as an evil no less
degraded than crime and
Its forerunner, depravity.
But the bishop's remark
may be true, for the early
Influences of the child are the strongest,
and It may be that the mothers of Ameri
ca have so failed in exerting the proper
influence that to their negligence three-
fourths of the evil of the country may be
attributed.
It Is generally agreed nowadays that
crime and depravity (poverty will have to
be left out of the discussion) -spring from
abnormal conditions and that they. ax - e
social diseases. Those who make a study
of them say that, first of all, health of
body and freedom for the expression of
the instincts of play and workmanship
are the best conditions for . the child in
i!s time of development, and then that
the broader outlook coming through con
tact with the trained minds of parents and
teachers Is almost a guaranty of healthy
morals In any community.
Now, if the good bishop can prove that
the mothers of America are responsible
for the conditions contrary to those which
tend toward social welfare, then they
stand accused, and rightly.
To be healthy, children must have
healthy parents; they must have plenty
of good food, warm clothing, sanitary
homes and plenty of exercise. Girls who
work in factories or stand behind coun
ters have lost much of their vitality; men
who began the struggle for money too
By CHARLOTTE TELLER.
early and without preparation have lost
theirs; those two classes, at least, do not
make good parents. Are the women of
America responsible for factory condi
tions and for the demand for child labor?
Have they the right to make the laws?
When good food, comfortable clothin
and shelter are wanting because father
hood is so low in the public estimation
that corporations may underpay their men
without public protest—is it the women
of this country who have organized In
dustry and reared the stupendous struc
ture of commercialism? Or is it the wom
en who can determine how much of the
taxes shall go to the maintenance of the
public schools and playgrounds?
“Ah. yes,” the bishop may say, “but
you forget the influence of the woman in
the home; It is there that her power may
be felt, and she may work through man
and thus change the laws, or so bring up
her children that they will work for the
change.”
Work through man! Is there anything
more dangerous than the subtle deceit of
obtaining what is wished through in
fluencing thoso who have power? In the
political world that is known as corrup-.
tion; in the home it is considered the
beautiful exercise of woman’s influence.
What Poverty Brings.
The exorcising of influence upon the
children—that is still left to woman as a
means of helping the next generation.
When she feels a love of the race which
prompts her to work for the future, then
indeed has sho become a power for good.
But think of the mother who comes un
der tho five hundred a year limit in in
comes. She lias a daily struggle in
crowded rooms. If she has no ambitions
for her children beyond a comfortable
animal existence, even then her life is so
full of work and worry that she cannot
be a friend to the little ones.
The woman who has to work all day
cooking, washing, sewing, who sees the
needs increasing from year to year, but
not the means of satisfying them, who
Is, as far as her own training will allow,
ambitious for the children's schooling and
future—that is the woman who may exert
the highest influence if she still has
strength. And the woman who has more
of the world’s goods, but lives In uncer
tainty, not knowing what may come to
her children if the father dies or she
leaves them, is no less,to be marveled
at if she has the courage to talk qf
beautiful motherhood ito her girls, for
whose highest welfare she can do little,
because money must be saved against
the.future of possible old age or illness.
The whole race of mothers can do little
In the face of the present conditions un
less they are free from the tormenting
cares, that come with the question of
supporting the families. They are strug
gling in a swift current, and if they do
not speak words of encouragement to the
children, who cling;for a while and then
strike' out ih the Ijb'pe of more freedom,
they are not. to be blamed.
Let the good bishop take the place of a
mother in a growing family for a short
time; let him he confronted with the
natural obligatiops of that place. There
are some who, having mbre imagination
than he. can picture the surroundings
and mental attitude which destroy the
possibility of a mother’s influence; and
these cry out, not against the women,
but for greater economic freedom, for the
equal opportunities which would make
children hopeful of a future and for those
changes which can he bro-.ught about only
by the use of the ballot.
The bishop must go back of the present
generation of motners to the foundation
laying of the modern home, and he will
find it built unsteadily on a system cre
ated by. man, who has had for centuries
the industrial a ltd political power, while
woman was still acknowledged as his
property.
ING OSCAR of
Sweden, who ha3
again proved him
self a brave man by
helping to rescue a
number of half-
drowned persons
who had fallen into
the water with tho
collapse of a rotten
bridge in Stock
holm, is one of the
most lucky sover
eigns In Europe in
King Oscar this respect. The
giant ruler of Sweden mingles freely with
the people, and is thus given unusual
opportunities of distinguishing himself
by little deeds of heroism which, in a
king, are exceptionally noteworthy. He is
said to be inoro personally popular than
any of the European royalty.
FTER a protracted
illness James Joseph
Jacques Tissot, the
artist and the
world-renowned il
lustrator of inci
dents in the life of
Christ, died in Paris
a few days ago’. He
was 66 years old.
Although most of
his reputation
abroad Is due to his
remarkable and
Jimexj.j. Tissot original paintings in
illustration of the life of Jesus, Tissot
wap one of the most notable figures In
tho Paris salon, in which he made- his
first appearance in. 1859, and in which he
exhibited during many seasons thereaf
ter.
Several of Tissot’s pictures have been
more or less familiar to the public every
where, as for instance his "Faust and
Marguerite," “The Return of the Prodi
gal Son,” and his "Partie Caree," which
were exhibited in 1S61. 1863 and 1S70, re
spectively, and which hatm been repro
duced by the thousands in every civilized
country.
New Light of Logic on the Divorce Problem
By ELIZABETH CADY STANTON.
E hear from all sides that the
indissolubility of marriage
is absolutely necessary to
the happiness of the family,
purity of society and the
good of the state. But to
my mind so important Is
unity in marriage, so de
pendent upon this the use
fulness of the homo, the
good of society, the soli
darity of the state, so la
mentable the consequences
invariably resulting from
disunity in marriage that every encour
agement to divorce ought to be given.
Transient lapses from some of the car
dinal lapses might hot be as disastrous
to tho peace of home life as a perpetual
domestic welfare, with no truce ever
granted and no quarter given.
The true standpoint from which to view
this question is individual sovereignty, in
dividual happiness. It is often said that
the interests of society are paramount and
first to be considered. This was the old
Roman idea, the Pagan idea, that the in
dividual was made tor the state.
The central idea of barbarism has ever
been the family, the tribe, the nation,
never the individual. But the great doc
trine of Christianity is the right of indi
vidual conscience and judgment. The rea
son it took such a hold on the hearts of
the people was because it taught that the
individual was primary, the state, the
church, society, the family secondary.
However, a comprehensive view of any
question of human interest shows that
the highest good and happiness of the
individual and society lie in the same
direction.
Tho question of divorce, like marriage,
should be settled as to its most sacred
relations by the parties themselves; nei
ther the state nor the church have any
right to intermeddle therein. As to tho
property and children, they must bo
viewed and regulated as a civil contract.
Then tho union should be dissolved with
at least as much deliberation and pub
licity as it was formed.
There might be some ceremony and
witnesses to add to tho dignity and solem
nity of the occasion. Like tho Quaker
marriage, which the parties conduct them
selves, so in this case, without any state
ment of their disagreements, the parties
might simply declare that after living
together for several years they found
themselves still unsuited to each other
and incapable of making a happy home.
If divorce were made respectable and
recognized by society as a duty as well as
a right, reasonable men could arrange all
the preliminaries, often even the division
of property and guardianship of children,
quite as satisfactorily as it can be done in
the courts. Where the mother is capable
of training the children, a sensible father
would leave them to her care, rather than
place them in tho hands of a stranger.
But whore divorce is not respectable^
men who have no paternal feeling will
often hold the child, not so much for its
own good as to punish tho wife for dis
gracing him.
The love of children is not strong In
most men, and they feel but little re
sponsibility in regard to them. See how
readily they turn off young sons to shift
for themselves, and unless the law com
pelled them to support their illegitimate
children they would never give them a
second's thought.
On the mother soul rests forever the
care and responsibility of human life.
Her love for the child born out of wed
lock is often intensified by the infinite pity
she feels for its disgrace. Even among
the lower animals we find the female
ever brooding over the young and help
less.
Some Divorce Follies.
Limiting the causes of divorce to phys
ical defects or delinquencies, making the
proceedings public, prying into all the
intimate personal affairs of unhappy
men and women, regarding the step as
quasi criminal, punishing the guilty party
in the suit—all this will not strengthen
frail human nature, will n ot Insure
happy homes, nor banish scandal.
No; the enemy of marriage, of the
state, of society. Is not liberal divorce
laws, but tho unhealthy atmosphere that
exists in the home Itself. A legislative
act cannot make a unit of a divided
family.
Many writers on divorce seem to fear
that liberal divorce laws would destroy
tho very foundation of our social life.
Seeing how difficult a matter it is to trace
ail the pitfalls in society to their true
causes, it Is an unwarrantable and whole
sale assumption to attribute all our
social upheavals to the liberal divorce
laws that have been passed within the
last fifty years.
M hence came all the adverse winds that
produced the terrible corruptions and
endless changes in the marriage rela
tions through polyandry, polygamy, the
matterrecht. concubinage and the mor
ganatic relations) so frequent in the royal
families of the Old World?
Marriage has been a bone of contention
In church and state for centuries, that
made the canon and civil law a kind
>
Grove hospital of Detroit and a trustee
of the Detroit Museum of Art. and for
three years was president of the Detroit
park commission.
His course in politics brought him na
tional prominence, for the reason that
in all issues he guarded the welfare of
the nation In contradistinction to those
of a single state.
of football for popes and kings, ecclesi
astics and statesmen, and now, because
under free republican institutions a new'
type of womanhood has been developed,
demanding larger freedom in the mar
riage relation, justice, liberty and equal
ity under the law, our conservatives
think the whole institution Is about to
| topple on their heads.
I would recommend every rational man
and woman thinking and writing on this
subject to run through their life experi
ence, summon up all the divorced people
they know, gauge their moral status, and
If possible the influence of their lives
as writers, speakers, artist3 and philan-i
thropists, and see if they do not com
pare favorably with the best men ana
women of their acquaintance.
In my own circle of friends I can recall.
at most two dozen—all as gifted, moral
and refined men and women as I ever
knew. But few of the women married,
again, and those who did have been
exceptionally happy in their new rela
tions. ;
The rapidly increasing number of di
vorces. so far from showing a lower
state of morals, proves exactly the re
verse.
Woman Is in a transition period from
slavery to freedom, and she will not ac
cept the conditions in married life that
she has heretofore meekly endured.
When the mother, with her steadfast
love of home and children, demands re
lease, we may rest assured her reasons
for sundering the tie are all sufficient to
herself and should be to society at large.
The frequent demands for divorce sim
ply mean that we have not yet reached
the ideal marriage state. Divorce is a
challenge to our present system. -Evolu
tion has been the law of life. The reja,-
tion of the sexes has passed through meyny
phases, and is likely to pass
many move. ... .