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CARTERSVILLE AMERICAN.
VOLUME 11.
The CartersYiile American.
OFFICIAL *ORGAN OF BARTOW CO.
PUBLISHKP KVKUY TUESDAY MORNING
IT
American Publishing Cos.
CAKTIBBYILLK, OA,
OPPIOEI
I'n.Stair*. North-Kast Corner of Wcit Main
1 and Erwin Streets.
\H communications or letters on business
should bo addressed to
AMERICAN PUBLISHING CO.
Cartr*ville G.
crmrTr:—.— — * j
TERMS or SUBSCRIPTION:
One Year, Cash iu Advance * l -£0
Mx Months, •• ‘‘ ™
Three “ “ w
ir not paid in 4 months, *.OU per year.
Papers sent outsido oi the County, 15 cents
additional for postage.
RATES or ADVERTISING:
Eor each Square ol 1 inch or less, lor the first
insertion, sl.W>; oach subsequent insertion, 50
cents. Special contracts made lor larger space
gi> longer time. All contract advertisement*
must be paid quarterly. .. „ .
Local Notices, ‘lO cents per line lor the first
insertion, and 10 ceuts lor each .übsequent m
nertion.
Special Notices ten cents per line.
Tributes ot Respect and Obituaries over nx
lines. 10 cents per line. „ , M .
All personal cards in Local Columns 15
per line.
DIRECTORY.
COUItT CALENDAK-CHEKOKEK CIR
CUIT.
J. C. Pain, Judge. J. W. Harris, Jr., Solicitor
General. , w , . T
Hartow County—Second Monday in January
ai.dJuly. , , ~ .
Catoosa County—Second Monday in February
and August
Murray County—Tniid Monday in February
aua August.
Gordon County—Fourth Monday in Fobrnary
aud August.
I ado County—Third Monday in March an l
September.
Whitlield County—First Monday in Aprsl
and October.
BARTOW COUNTY COURT.
G. S. Tomlin, Judge. J. J. Conner, Sol. Gen.
Goo. A. Howard. Clerk. J. G. Broughton,
Bailiff.
quarterly Terms—First Monday in March,
June, September and December.
Monthly Term—First Monday in eaolunoutli.
JUSTICES COURTS.
Times for holding Justices Courts in the dif
ferent Militia Districts oi Bartow county, Ga,:
Carters*ille— No. B*2ci Second Tue days,
Adairsville “ BWkh Fourtta Friday.,
( uKsville *• 828th....second Fridays,
King.ton “ U.Vld First Fridays,
Euhsrlee ** 85lt Sec’nd Saturdays,
Allatoona “ Bi9th....Third Saturdays,
Wolf Pen “ 1041st Fourth Satiudays,
Stamp Creek “ 963d t hird Saturdays.
Sixth Disti let “ 936 ih... Fourth Saturday e
Pine Log “ 887th First Saturdays.
COUNTY OFFICERS.
J. A. Howard, Ordinary.
K. M. Durham, Clerk Superior Court.
il. W. Cobb, Treasurer.
John A. Gladden, Sheriff. A. M. Franklin,
Deputy Sheriff.
Bailey A. Barton, Tax Collector.
W. W. Ginn, Tax Receiver.
A. M. Willingham, Coroner.
I>. W. K. Peacock, Surveyor.
Commissioners—s. C. Prichard, T. C. Moore,
A. Vincent, John 11. AVikie, T. S. Hawkins.
CITY OFFICERS.
A. P. Wofiord, Mayor.
James D. Wilkersou, Marshal.
Geo. S. Cobb, Clerk.
B. U. Mountcastle, Treasurer.
Aldermen—First Ward, J. C. Wofford, A. It.
Hudgins; Second Ward. G. Harwell, W. 11.
Barron; Third Ward, John Stover, Elihu
Hall; Fourth Ward, W. C. Edwards, Aaron
Colllmm
STANDING COM JIITTLKS.
Street—Collins, Hudgins, Barron.
Finance—Stover, Edwards, Wofford.
Cemetery—Hudgins, Collins. EdwaidS.
Public Hall—Hall, Wofford, Barrou.
Relief—Edwaids, Barron, Harwell.
CHURCH DIRECTORY.
MWHODJBT.—Pastor, Rev. J. B. Robins. Ser
vices, every Sunday at 11, a. m , and 7:30, p. in.
Prayer meeting, every Wednesday at 7:30, p.
in. .Sabbath School, every Sunday at 9:30, a.
in.; Jno. W. Akin, Sunt. Young men’s prayer
meeting, every Thursday ut 7:30, p. m.
Baptist.— Pastor, Rev. F. M. Daniel. Ser
vices, every Sunday at 10:45, a. m. and 7:15, p.
in. Prayer meeting,eyery Wednesday at 7:!5,
}j. m. Sabbath School, every Sunday at 9:30,
a. in.; D. W. K. Peacock, Supt. Young men’s
prayer meeting, every Sunday at 2, p. m. Ser
vice of song, every Sunday at 3, p. in. Month
ly conference, third Sundry ol each month at
3, p. m.
PKKSBVTEKIAN.—Pastor, Rev. T. E. Smith.
Services, every first aud third Sundays at 11, p.
in. Sahbuth School, every Sunday at 9, a. in ;
T. W. Milner, Supt. Prayer meeting, every
Wednesday at 7:30, p. ni.
Episcopal.— Church of the Ascension. Miu
ister in charge. Rev. W r . K. McConnell. Ser
vices. every Sunday, except third in each
mouth, at 11, a. m. Sabbath School, every Sun
day at 10, a. m.
Professional Cards.
T. W. MILNKK. J. W. UiKIIIS, JH.
miLMKK A HARRIS,
Attorney*-A t-JLaw.
i Office over Howard's Bank.
Cartersville, Ga.
\ JOVN U. WIKLE. DOUGLAS WIKLK.
WIKLE & WIHLE,
[ Attorneys-at-Lav & Real Estate Agents
Offices at Court House and on Main Street
above Erwin, Cartersville, Ga. _____
GEORGE H. JOHNSON,
Attorney-at-liaw,
Offloe, West Side Public Square,
CAUXERSVILLE, GA.
Hjjf Will practice In all the Courts.
A. M. JTOUTE. WALTER M. KYAU.
ROUTE A RYALN,
Attorney a-At-Law.
WILL PRACTICE IN ALL THE COOUTS
of this state. Prompt and faithtul at
tention given to all business entrusted to us.
Office, corner Main and Erwin Streets, up
stairs. Cartersville, Ga.
J. M. NEEL. J. J. CONNER. W. J. NEEL.
AEEL, C OXYER A XEEL.
A (tor 11 ey s-At-Law.
WILL PRACTICE IN ALL THE COURTS
of this state. Litigated cases made a
specialty. Prompt attention given to all bus
iness entrusted to us.
Office on Ei win Street, between Main and
Market. Cartersville, Ga.
JAMES R. GOXYERM,
A (toniey-a(-Law.
Office Up-Stairs, Bank Block, Cartersville, Ga
Will practice in all the Courts of the Chero
kee and adjoining Circuits, and in the Su
tneinelCourt. Prompt attention given to all
msiuess. Collections made a specialty.
Railroads.
KENHESAW ROUTE!
WESTERN UTUNTIC R. R.
The following time card in effect Sunday,
Dec. 30,1883:
NORTH ROUND
NO, 3-WESTERN EX PRESS—DaiIy.
Leave Atlanta 7 Sb a. m
Arrive Marietta 8 SO
CartemvilU.... V 25
“ Kingston 952
“ Dalton 11 *3
“ Chattanooga 1 Ot' p. in.
NO. I—FAST EXPRESS—DaiIy. /
Leave Atlanta 2 35 p.
Arrive Marietta 3 27
“ Cartersvilie 4 99
“ Dalton 6 22
“ Chattanooga 800
NO. 11 —LIMITED EXPRESS—DaiIy.
Leave Atlanta 11 40 p. in.
Arrive Marietta 12 39.. in.
“ Cartersvilie 1 43
*• Dalton 3 44
“ Chattanooga 515
Rome Express—North—Daily, except Sunday.
Leave Atlanta 4 05 p. in.
Arrive Marietta 3 <•©
“ Cartersvilie 8 03
“ Rome 7 20
No. 1 carries Pullman car* from Atlanta to
Louisville, Jacksonville to Cincinnati, New
Orleans to Washington.
No. 11 carries Pullman car* from Savannah
to Chicago ami Atlanta to Nathville.
SOUTH ROUND.
NO. 4 FAST EXPRESS.
Leave Chattanooga 8 00 a. m.
Arrive Dalton 9 33
*• Kingston 11 10
“ Cartersvilie. ~... 1142
“ Marietta 12 46 p.m.
Arrive Atlanta 145
NO. 2—SOUTHERN EXPRESS.
Leave Chattanooga 2 55 p, ill.
Arrive Dalton 4 30
“ Kingston . 6 i>2
“ Cartersvi lie •> 31
“ Marietta 7 47
Arrive Ailantu 8 40
NO. 12-LIMITED EXPRESS—DaiIy.
Leave Chattanooga 10 15 p. m.
Arrive Dalton 11 49
“ Cartersvilie 1 47 a. m.
“ Marietta 2 50
“ Atlanta 340
Rome Express—South—Daily, Except. Sunday.
Leave Home... 8 30 a. m.
Arrive Cartersvilie 9 45
“ Marietta 10 49
“ Atlanta H 45
No. 4 carries Pullman cars from Cincinnati
to Atlanta, Washington, New Orleans, Louis
ville to Atlanta.
No. 12 carries Pullman cars from Chicago to
Savannah and Louisville to Atlanta.
B. W. WRENN, Gen’l. Pass. Agt.
IL A. ANDERSON, Superintendent.
EAST 4 WEST R. R. OF ALA.
ON and after Sunday, Nov. 14, 1883, trains
on this road will run as follows:
GOINg WEST—Daily, Except Sunday.
no. l. no. 3.
Leave Cartersvilie 950 a. m. 430 p. m.
“ Stilcsboro 10 02 4 42
“ Taylorsville 10 37 . 5 17
“ Rockniart 11 10 5 50
Arrive Cedartovvn 12 00 6 40
GOING EAST —Daily, Except Sunday.
NO. 2. NO. 4.
Leave Cedartowm 205 p. m. 715a. m.
“ Rockniart 3 00 8 07
“ Taylorsville 335 839
“ Sti.esboro 3 53 8 55
Arrive Cartersvilie 4 25 9 25
SUNDAY ACCOMMODATION—Going Eest.
Leave Cedartown 8 00 a. m.
“ Stilesboro 8 52
“ Taylorsville 9 21
“ llockmart 9 40
Arrive Cartersvilie 10 10
SUNDAY ACCOMMODATION—Going sVcst.
Leave Cartersvilie 2 50 p.m.
“ Stilesboro —3 21
“ Taylorsville 3 37
Rockniart 4 U
Arrive Cedartown 5 00
ALABAMA DIVISION.
Daily, Except Sunday.
Leave East & West Junction 2 55 p. m.
Arrive Broken Aivow 6(0
Leave Broken Arrow 9 00 a. m.
Arrive East & West Junction 1 15 p. in.
ROME RAILROAD.
The following is the present passenger
schedule:
NO. 1. NO. 3.
Lcavo Home 610a. m. 415 p. m.
Arrive Kiugston 855 5 30
no. 2. no. 4.
Leave Kingston. 920 a.m. 555 p.m.
Arrive Rome 10 25 a. m. 650
NO. 5.
Leave Rome. 8 00 a. m.
Arrive Kiugston 9 00
NO. 6.
Leave Kingston 9 20 a. m.
Arrive Rome 10 10
Nos. l, 2,3 and 4 will run daily except Sun
days.
Nos. 5 and 6 will run Sundays only.
Nolwill not stop at the junction. Makes
close connection at Kingston for Atlanta and
Chattanooga.
No. 2 makes connection at Rome with E. T.
Va. & Ga. It It., for points south.
ISH EN HILLY ELI, President.
J. A. SMITH. Gen’!. Pass. Agent.
IF YOU ARE
aoiisra
NORTHWEST
SOUTHWEST.
BESURE
Your Tickets Read via the
IT., C. & St. 1. Ey.
Tlie Mcltenzielloute
The First-clii*s and Emigrant Passengers
FAVORITE!
Albert B. Wrenn, W. I. Rogers,
Pas. Agent, Pas. Agent,
Atlanta, Ga. Chattanooga, Tenn.
W. L. DANLKY,
Gen. Par A Tkt. Agent,
Nashville, Tenn,
EISEMAN BROS
MANUFACTURING
CLOTHIERS k TAILORS
55 WHITEHALL STREET,
ATLANTA, GEORGIA.
CARTERSVILLE, GEORGIA, TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1884.
The Cartersvilie American.
Entered at the Post Office at CartersviUe,
Qa , May 9th, I*B2, as second class matter.
TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1884.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
No. 4.
JOHN NV • LEWIS.
BORN ISOI—DIED 1865.
✓
Iu Spartanburg district, South Caro
lina, on the first clay of February, 1801,
Rev, John W. Lewis was born. He
died in Cherokee county, Georgia, dur
ing the month of June, 1805. His fath
er, Joel Lewis, was a respectable plan
ter, and his mother was a daughter of
Henry Mecliem, a man of high standing
and a Revolutionary soldier who fought
bravely in the battle of Cowpens. His
father died when he was quite young,
leaving him and one daughter, after
wards the wife of Maj. John S. Row
land, of Bartow county, Georgia, She
was a woman of many accomplishments
and very fine common sense. The
mother of John W. Lewis never mar
ried again, but devoted her life to the
rearing of her children, and managed
the estate left by her husband so well as
to be able to educate them liberally and
give each a handsome start in the world.
She was an extraordinary woman, and,
without the advantages of an early edu
cation, possessed a great deal more than
usual native talent. With her devotion
as a Christian, she combined eminent
soundness of judgment, strong will aud
indomitable energy; and her son after
remarked that lie never failed to take
her advice in a business transaction
without afterward finding he had made
a great mistake.
Mr. Lems was educated at Cedar
Springs academy, near Spartanburg
court house, read medicine under Dr.
Richard Harris, of Greenville, South
Carolina, and, after the usual course,
became a physician in Spartanburg. He
was very skillful and soon acquired great
popularity in his profession, and as long
as he followed it, had an extensive prac
tice. Early in his professional life he
was converted and received as a member
into Mt. Zion Baptist church, near his
mother’s residence. In the years 1830
and 1831 he was a member of the legis
lature of South Carolina, and might
have longer retained his seat in it, but
higher interests had taken possession of
his soul, and he retired from political
life. About this time there was a great
revival of religion in almost all the
churches in that region, and under its
influence he began preaching. He was
the means of doing great good in build
ing up the churches and in tlio conver
sion of sinners. Mt. Zion church, espe
cially, grew from a membership of fifteen
or twenty to over one hundred, includ
ing the strongest citizens in the country,
among whom was Dr. Robert Young,
father of Gen. Pierce M. B. Young,
of Georgia. In 1832 he was ordained to
the Christian ministry, and for some
years he supplied Brush Creek church,
Greenville district. He was married in
1844 to Miss Maria Earle, daughter of
Hon. Samuel Earle, an ex-member of
congress from South Carolina, and sister
of the late Judge John Bayliss Earle, of
that state.
Of the character and life of Dr. Lewis,
prior to his removal from South Caroli
na, Rev. J. G. Landrum, pastor of the
church where he held his membership,
and a warm personal frieud, says: “He
w r as a man of strong mind, a deep, origi
nal thinker, of fine practical sense. He
had a warm, benevolent heart, a stead
fast purity in all his friendships. At
times he seemed melancholy and cast
down in spirit; at other times he had a
great flow of genialty, and was a pleas
ant companion. He had extraordinary
forecast, and managed his business
matters with great ability and success.
His early ministry was enforced by a
zeal and love for the master, which al
ways gained for him very large and at
tentive congregations. In a word, the
people loved both the man and his
preaching. His removal from South
Carolina was very much regretted. He
was in every way useful. He was able
iu counsel in church conferences and iu
associations; and iuall that related to the
Kingdom of Christ he was truly a strong
mau, and used his strength well.”
About the year 1839 or 1810, he mov
ed to Canton, Georgia, where he lived
as pastor of the church for a number of
years, serving also Petit’s creek church,
near Cartersville, then one of the largest
and most influential in North Georgia.
He often attended other country church
es iu Bartow oounty, preaching a great
deal in revivals, and on all occasions
when suitable opportunities were offer
ed. He was a bold defender of the faith,
an able expounder of the Word, and an
eloquent advocate of the truth. Many
of his sermons were very powerful and
moving, and the effect produced ou his
congregations was of the most beneficial
character.
Although diligently attending to his
duties as a minister, Dr. Lewis yet
found time to transact much secular bus
iness. He was iu the best sense, a first
rate business man, and did much to
build up the country wherever he went.
The western part of Bartow county was,
when he came to Georgia, almost a wil
derness. He purchased property there,
built two or three iron furnaces, erect
ed a large merchant mill, and, at his
own expense, made good roads through
that section, connecting it with the more
popular parts of the county. Iu 1845,
without his wish, he was unanimously
nominated by the denu crab* to repre
sent the ftirty-first senatorial district in
.the state legislature, and reluctantly ac
cepted the position, but faithfully dis
charged its dulh’S—on one opc mjon, se
curing by his vote the establishment of
the Supreme court of Georgia. In 1857,
he was appointed by Governor Joseph
E. Brown, superintendent of the Wes
tern and Atlantic railroad—a position
which he was with difficulty induced to
assume. Prior to that time, the road
had been paying almost nothing into the
treasury of the state, but during the
greater part of lus administration it paid
about $25,000 per month. About the
beginning of the war he retired from
that post of his own choice. At a later
period, during the war, a Vaeanpy oc
curring iu the position of Confederate
States Senator from Georgia, ho was
chosen by Governor Brown to fill that
place till the meeting of the legislature.
The time of hri service was one of the
most critical in the war; and he not only
commanded the respect of that body of
able men, but was regarded as one of
the most practical and l>est business
members ct the senate. A* hn desired
to retire from political life, he declined
to be a candidate for election. He is
thus one of the rare instances where a
man of deep piety, unblemished Chris
tian character aud great ability as a min
ister oi the Gospel, was abje to attend to
a large amount of secular business, and
to serve the public and his state on va
rious occasions with great credit to him
self and profit L. those whop} he repre
sented. Even his enemies never alleged
that he in any instance abated his zeal
or compromised his Christian character
whije engaged in any service pertaining
to this life only, m, ma-tnr liDW bURIbJg
or how elevated it may have been. He
was at all times, and under all circum
stances, the same able, deypted soldier
of the cross, winning to the fold many
precious souls, who will ever shine a
stars in the crown now 7 worn by him in
the New Jerusalem drove. He received
that crown in the month of June, 1865
the date at whiuh, after an illness of a
few r days, he departed this life in Chero
kee county, Georgia.
One feature in the character of Dr.
Lewis worthy of special note, is, the in
terest he took in young men, and the
generous aid he often extended to them.
This is seen in the case of Rev. J. G.
Landrum, an orphan boy twenty years
of age, for whom his influence secured
an election to the pastorate of Mt. Zion
church, which was the church of the
doctor’s ow r n membership, and which,
having quintupled the names on its roll,
largely through the doctor’s own minis
tration, would have gladly placed him
in that position. It is seen, also, in the
case of Senator Joseph E. Brown, to
whom, when teaching school at Canton,
Georgia, to obtain means for discharging
the debts incurred in a hard struggle to
secure a liberal education, he gave his
board for the very inadequate compensa
tion of the instruction rendered to the
doctor’s children, and to whom he loan
ed money enough to carry him through
Aide Law School before beginning the
practice of the legal profession—a loan
repaid, with legal inetrest, from the ear
liest profits of that practice. Such cases,
with the fruits which have ripened from
them through long years of eminent use
fulness in church and state, ought to in
cite a generous emulgation in those
whom God has endowed with sufficient
means for that form of service to His
cause.
[We arc indebted to the “Biograph
ical Compendium of Georgia Baptists,”
published by Jas. P. Harrison Sc Cos.,
Atlanta, Georgia, for the greater part of
the above sketch. —Ed.]
TABERNACLE SERMONS.
BY REV. T. DEWITT TALMAGE.
A NATIONAL SHAME HELD IP TO PI BLIC
SCORN.
Text, Matt., six: 6. “What tberefoie God
hath joined together let no man put aauuder.”
That there are iu America to-day hun
dreds and thousands of inf elieitous homes
no one will doubt. If there was a skele
ton iu only one closet that might be
locked up and abandoned, but iu many
a home there is a skeleton for every’
home. “Unhappily married” are two
words which tell all the domestic history’.
You need no orthodox minister to prove
to a badly mated pair that there is a hell;
they are there now. Thousands of good
and gracious women are thus incarcerated
and their life is a crucifixion, while many
a good man like John Wesley has mar
ried a vixen or a fiend. Oftener both
parties are to blame, and Thomas Car
lyle is an irritable scold, while his wife
smokes and swears; and Froude, the his
torian, is mean enough, for the shekels
he gets for the manuscripts, to withdraw
the curtain that hid the life long squab
ble at 5 Chayne Row and Craigen Put
tock. For the relief of all such homes
it is proposed to disband the domestic
partnership. Make divorce easy. When
husband and wife find themselves at dia
cold, drop the tune and let there be a
resortment of spirits.
Now, for certain causes, divorce is as
right as marriage, and I have as much
regard for one lawfully divorced as for
one lawfully married. God authorizes
one as certainly as hfc authorizes the
other. But wholesale divorce is one of
the national scourges.
And it is no supprise to me, when I see
what have been the influeneees at work
to disparage that divine and glorious in
stitution. We had for a long while lecture
platforms resounding with the talk of
free love millennium—meetings in the
Academy of Music, Brooklyn, and Coop
er Institute, New York, and • Tremont
Temple, Boston, and all over the land!
the stage occupied by women, some of
whom have since been distinguished for
their promiscuity of affection. Among
their favorite themes were: “The Ty
ranny of Man,” “The oppression of the
marriage relation," “Woman’s rights,”
“Affinity.” The chief spirits of such
meetings were women with short liair,
short dress but long tongues ever-lasting*
}y at W’ar with God aufi sogipty because
they were created women; while a few
men with soft accent and cowed demean
or, apologetic for their masculinity,
sat here and there on the platform
and held the parasols of the termagant
orators as they went on preaching the
gospel of free love. That fanaticism,
rampant for 20 years on the platform,
sent more devils into domestic life than
can he exorcised for the next half centu
ry. Men and women went home from
such meetings so permanently confused
about their wives and husbands that
they never got over the perplexity, and
the civil and criminal courts were called
in to help disentangle the trouble and
this tue paid an alimony and tlio other
got a limited divorce and the father took
the children on condition that the moth
er could see them once and a while, and
souu of the contestants went into the
grave and some into the penitentiary and
some into public dissoluteness and all in
to wretchedness.
As another dejnQFiJijgr pf the marital
relation we have had polygamy in Utah.
It has been stereotyped caricature of mat
rimony and is poisoning the whole nation.
One arm of a man put in a state <4 mor
tification must sicken the whole body,
and it is not possible to have these
western territories polygamized and the
national body not feel the putrefaction.
Good men and women of America, just
look at the fact that the national congress,
in 1862, passed alaw T against polygamy
in any territory or other places where
the United States ha exclusive juris
diction! Twenty-two years have passed
since that law', and five administrations
with all the machinery of government at
their hack and the United States army
at their disposal, and yet they have not
struck one brick out of that fortress of
libertinism. Every new president in
Lis inaugural address tiokles the monster
with tlie straw of condemnation and
congress stultifies itself with a plan that
will not work. Poly agamy in Utah is to
day more brazen, more entrenched, more
puissant, more braggart and infernal than
since it erected its first wickedness!
James Buchanan, the much misrepre
sented man of his day, did more for its
extirpation than all the subsequent ad
ministration put together have dared to
do.
Auother influence that has done much
to demoralize the marital relation lias
been the pustulous literature that fills
the country,millions of sheets of it abroad
every week, choked with stories of do
mestic wrongs, infidelities, stratagems,
murders, until it is a wonder that there
is any common sense or decency left
on the subject of the marriage relation.
Now, for the correction of all these
abuses,it is seriously proposed that divorce
be made more easy. Before I yield to
that cry I want to know how easy it is
now. I have looked over the law of all
the states and though easier in some
states than in others, it is easy every
where. In order that it may be perfect
ly easy in Illinois, after mentioning a
long list of causes for which divorce may
be granted, that state in her law says
that the court may decree a divorce on
other grounds if satisfied of the expe
diency of so doing. You wonder that in
Cook county of that state in 1880 there
830 divorce suits begun. To show how
easy it is, I have to tell you that in Mas
sachusetts 600 divorce suits were granted
in one year, in Maine 478,in Connecticut
401. In the ohe city of San Francisco
they had 333 divorces in 1880, in New
England in one year 2,113, but in twenty
years in New England 20,000. At the
rate of which causes for divorce are mul
tiplied and the numer of cases increases
we are not far oft' from the time when
the courts will set apart whole days for
applications, and all that will be necessa
ry to prove against the man will be that
he left his evening newspaper on the
floor, and against a woman that an over
coat was found buttonless. Within a
few years divorces have doubled in
France, England and the United
States. In Western Reserve, Ohio, the
divorces as compared with the number
of marriages are Ito 12,in Rhode Island
Ito 12, in Vermont Ito 14. Is not that
easy enough? Mark this: in all the his
tory of the world the frequency of di
vorce is always a sign of the dissoluteness
;of society. For the first 500 years of
I Rome only one divorce, ye;irs of her
glory and virtue. But the reign of vice
begun; with it divorce became epidemic,
and if you want to know how fast the
empire went down, ask Gibbon. Do you
know how the reign of terror was ushered
into France? By 20, (KM) divorces in
Paris in one year.
What society needs most now is to
make divorce more and more mid more
diticult. Men and women must under
stand that if they go into the marriage
relation there is no prospect of escape
except through the door of the sepulchre.
That will make the human race pause on
the verge of this relation until they are
satisfied that it is the safest and wisest
and best thing to do. That will put an
eud to marriage in fun. That will take
out of tho relation all idea that it is
merely a trial trip and if they don’t like
it they can get out at the next landing.
That will take marriage out of the
realm of the frivolous into the tremendous,
and the flowers in the bride’s hair will be
no more a joke than the cypress on the
coffin. What is most needed is that the
congress of the United States at its pres
ent session move for a constitution so
that there can be made one uniform law
for all the land, and what is right in one
state shall be right in all the states, and
what is wrong in one state shall be
wrong in all the states. Now disaffected
partners in marriage may move from state
to state, and achieve liberation from the
domestic tie so very easily that the other
partner knows nothing of it until he or
she reads in the newspaper that ‘on
the 14th of April, 1884, by the Rev. Dr.
Somebody,’ the party a little while ab
sent from home on pleasure excursion al
Newport or business in Chicago, lias
been intrtoduced into another marital
partnership, ‘marriage at flu* the bride’s
residence j iu> cards/ In some of the
states a practical premium is put upon
matrimonial disintegration, while some
of the states, like our own New York,
have tlip pre-eminent idiocy of making
marriage lawful at 12 and 14 years of age.
Let congress, through a committee made
up not of single gentlemen hut of men
of families, who fiave their households
with them in Washington, after the re
quisite change in the constitution, pre
pare one good, common sense, stringent
law on the subject ipavriagb and, divorce
whi&h will cover everything from Sandy
Hook to Golden Horn. Then the bro
kerage in marriage will cease and the
divorce lawyers will go into respectable
practice, and those wllO arc planning
how they oan escape from the marital
oaths will go to work planning how they
may adjust themselves to the more or
less unfavorable circumstances.
More rigid divorce ]aw will do much
towards stopping a very common evil—
marriage as a financial speculation. There
are hundreds of men who marry just as
they go into Wall street and purchase
shares. The feminine partner taken into
wedlock is most unattractive, and has a
suppressed Vesuvius of disposition, but
the masculine candidate for marital hon
ors has, through the commercial agency
and through the county records, found
the great value of the estate to be inherit
ed. The candidate calculates the proba
bilities. On the one side the question
is how’ soon the old man will die, and on
the other w hether lie, the applicant, can
stand the refractory temper of his compan
ion till she gets the estate. He con
cludes to make the contract because, if
he cannot stand it, through the divorce
courts he can back out. Without any
reference to moral principle or affection
the wiiole arangement is made, and is as
plainly a stock speculation as anything
that transpires in Union Pacific, Wabash
or Lacks wan a. Let it be certain that
there is no escape from such a domestic
bondage entered into under such circum
stances, and a man will be very slow to
put on the yoke. In preference to a
Caribbean whirlwind, with a whole
fleet of shipping in its arms, he will
choose some summer zephyr that comes
off* fields of sunshine and gardens of
peace.
Rigidity of divorce law will also keep
hundreds of women from the failure of
attempting to reform men by marrying
them. She knows he drinks, although
he tries to hide it by chewing cloves.
Parents and friends warn her. No; she
will attempt his reform by marriage, and
if she fails the law will emancipate her,
for habitual drunkenness is a cause of
divorce in Indiana, Connecticut, Florida,
Arkansas, California and Kentucky, aud
almost all the states. So the poor thing
goes to the altar of sacrifice. Show me
where the poverty-struck streets of any
city are and I will show you whole lines
of houses where are the women w T li
married men to reform them. The re
formatory attempt may be successful in
one case out of ten thousand, but I have
never seen one successful experiment.
Rigidity of divorce law will lead a woman
to say: ‘ ‘lf lam affianced to that man it is
probably forever, and if now in the ardor
of his young love and I am the prize to
be won he will not give up his cups, after
he has won the prize he will surely not
give them up. No, sir; yoir are married
to your clubroom, and married to your
evil habit, and you are a bigamist already.
Go!”
Rigidity of divorce law will put an es
toppel on hasty and inconsiderate mar
riages. Under the impression that for
frivolous cause one can be released by
the divorce law here or Elsewhere, the
solemn relation is entered into without
reflection or inquiry. Romance and im
pulse have too much sway. The ground
NUMBER 52.
for the compact is that she likes his
looks, and ho admires the graceful way
she passes around the ice-cream at a
picnic. Men incapable of paving their
own board bill hike the hand at the al
ter and say, “with all my worldly good*
I thee endow.” Women who could not
make a good loaf of bread to save their
lives, promise to “cherish and obey.” A
Christian will marry an atheist, and that
ia always conjoined wretchedness. Hear
ing aUmt love in a cottage, some one
brought up in ease goes down to starva
tion in a hovel. Plenty of runaway
matches and elopements, nine hundred
and ninety-nine out of a thousand of
wliieh are death and hell! Ministers of
the gospel in these regions having no
defense as in other regions by public
banns or manage license signed by
state officials, are left to blunder by
marrying people that never ought to be
married, because they are too young, or
already under solemn domestic contract.
By the wreck of 10,000 family altars, by
the holocaust of 10,000 sacrificed men
and women, by the memory of despoiled
homesteads, by the hearthstone of the
family which is the corner stone of the
state, and iu the name of that God who
hath set up the family institution, and
made the breaking of the marital oath
the most appalling of all perjuries, I
implore the congress United States, of the
first, for a change in the natioual consti
tution, and then for an all-oomprehen
sive, just and stringent law on marriage
and divorce.
And let me say to the hundreds of
young people here assembled, before you
join heart ftnd hand iu solemn pledge,
use all caution, make all outside inquuy
as to habits, explore the disposition,
question as to the ancestry, scrutinize
the tastes and find out the ambitions.
Don’t tako the heroes and the heroiues
of cheap novels for your model. Dou’t
entrust your time and eternity in the
keeping of a man who has the reputa
tion of being a iittle loose, or a woman
who dresses fast. Remember that good
looks are a gift from God, but that a few
wrinkles may spoil them or an eruptive
disease defaoe them. Lord Byron’s
beauty was only equalled by his depravi
ty. Absalom’s hair was not more splen
did than his behavior was despicable.
Hear it! Hear it! The foundation of
happy marriages lias been and always
will be good character. Ask fathers’
and mothers’ counsel in tliia important
step of your life. They are more inter
ested iu your welfare thau any being on
earth, have already made more sacrifices
for you, and will do more for your 1 nip
piness. Above all, ask God. I onee
was disposed to smile at .John Brown, of
Haddington, because when about to trite r
hand and heart to her who became his
lifetime companion, ho said in the open
ing of the conversation, “Let us pray !”
But as I see more and more the ship
wrveks on all the sea of matrimony, I
feel John Brown, of Haddington, was
right. A union formed in prayer must
be happy, though sickness should waste
the cheek and poverty empty the bread
tray, and death open the small graves,
aud the path of life be strewn with thorns
fiom the altar with wedding march and
orange blossom clear on to the last fare
well at that gate where Isaac and Re
becca, Abraham and Sarah, Adam and
Eve parted.
And let me say to those of you who are
in the marriage relation, if you make one
man or woman happy you have not lived
in vain. What Christ is to the church,
He says you ought to be to each other. If
sometimes, because of differences of taste,
you think your marriages may have
been a mistake, patiently bear and for
bear, remembering that the longest life
is short, aud for those unhappily mated
death will grant quick and complete bill
of divorcement in letters of green grass
written on quiet graves. But perhaps
heaven may more thoroughly unite you
than this world ever could. Our Ameri
can poet of the farm ballad closes liis
most suggestive poem, desciiptive of an
Iliad of domestic w r oes, with these four
lines:
“Aud when the dies I wish that she would be
laid by me,
And, lying together iu silence, perhaps we will
agree;
And il we meet in heaven, I wouldn’t think it
queer
If we loved each other better, because we
quarre led here.”
Ah, these melancholy, dreamy, balmy
spring days, when the birds are mating
and soft airs wander down the shadowy
ravine and a fellow’s liver-pad slips down
so low that he sits on it, how vain do all
things seem, aud how T like a vague un
restful dream there comes creeping into
a man’s heart the determination not to
do a solitary thing to-day that he can
possibly stave off until next week.
All the minstrel companies are playing
the same old “liar contest” gag, in which
the boss liar wins the contest by begin
ning his story, “Once there w r as an hon
est lawyer—” Couklu’t they give us a
little change and still retain the star lie
by saying, “Once there was a funny
minstrel ?”
The Flower presidential boom is fad
ing away for a lack of steam. These
wired flowers never last very long. Aber
you can’t make a presidential boom flour
ish on w T ater, anyhow. This must be a
trumpet Flower, isn’t it? More name
than music.