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' PRESERVE J v/is" sc c r r im/i ww ■ w 1%. » I v IrL I ASA FOR BRIDEJb A Woman Observer's Plan II to Apply the Methods of j|| Science to America's Great- ~~ est Social Problem, and by Creating a College of Observation in s Notorious Divorce Colony, Make Its Graduates Divorce Proof. By Leslie Curtis. Former Associate Editor of the Reno Gazette, Author of R cno Reveries," Etc. EVERYBODY has agreed that di vorce Is one of the most se rious problems of modern America. The law has dealt with it, society has dealt with it. and the church is perpetually struggling with ft No one has yet found any ef fective remedy for the steady growth of marital shipwreck. I have at last found the remedy. The only real progress In the world of science has been made since the microscope was discov , ered. Only in the fields of chemis try. biology and physics has tre mendous progress been made, and the reason is that in these fields the microscope is available. Science has discovered that we learn from observation. If we can see with the eye, we can learn. I would apply methods of science to the scandal of divorce. 1 would, so to speak, put under the microscope the whole wretched, miserable story of matrimonial mis ery. and hy seeing and studying would learn the remedy. My plan is to establish a college of observation here at Reno, where the sad panorama of domestic mis ery and misfits unfolds itself in every possible phase and color. Every expectant bridegroom and every prospective bride should be given a course in my School of Applied Domestic Research. 1 ain certain that a six months’ course of lectures and daily attendance at the divorce courts of Reno would make my graduates divorce proof. Under present conditions, women marry more or less blindly, live blindly, and often end up in Reno or its equivalent with “Bachelor-ess of Failure” written after each name and a past full of knotholes as a diploma. Why not reverse the us ual order and place Reno first? ' Happiness would then be sure to follow, based on a definite knowl edge of what marriage means—and what divorce costs. I am perfectly serious in my idea. The utility of it has already been tested, because it Ims been noted by interested people that the second marriages of Reno "gradu ates” are invariably successful. This because six months’ observa tion of others has taught them to choose more carefully. Another instance lies in the fact that few, if any, divorces are secured by home people. Boys and girls, min gling with the human disappoint ments from the East, learn invalu able lessons and enter matrimony with a seriousness worthy of ma turity. I believe in divorce, but not the abuse of it, and two years in Reno as an observer convinced me that women are to blame for the ma jority of unhappy marriages. Three fourths of the women who go to Nevada do not deserve divorce/), al though they are evidently sincere In thinking themselves abused. They seek freedom because their idea of marriage is fundamentally wrong. This is not true in all cases, but in many. Everybody knows good women who have suffered agonies as the wives of drug fiends and drunkards and who are perfectly justified in seeking freedom. Men who marry for money are also despicable, but it always takes two to make a bar gain. and if girls knew how to choose intelligently before mar riage the drunkard, the drug fiend and fortune-hunter would be over stocked with mittens. Husbands, in my opinion, are less to blame for the prevalence of .11- vorce than their wives. Women z marry for any number of reasons, but men usually for love, because their field of choice is unlimited and they always pick the one girl b- '■S’eA— t SB finFfilli 1 ■—- “Every day the prospective brides and bridegrooms would receive lessons in the subtler phases of marriage and -k.i " divorce. The ever-saddening sight of Reno’s divorce mill through the window I would stimulate their eagerness to learn.” ■T I S\’ • s \ ' Jre.\. - '•* \ iW':' v•J \ W £ \ * \ ■ ■ < Mi \ Sit. - iviits"Leslie Curtis, Who, After Four Years’ Observation at Ktno, Evolved the Idea of Starting a College of Observation There to Study the Causes of the Divorce Evil. BHHH “The most im ''■ ' . V' Vg v- X, w portant course . ’ will be the study HMf ...?/' I \ ——Z Mr ,Ik-‘■: "Z z z T ; zVx \ ■■■ of actual cases '.•■itClj > ■*•’ J* r I in the court. The bride will ■( . W F \ be given a jrx> z / \/v 'I micro s copic I '\V ZZ r view of all their phases.” '** '' s “ B WWIWWO WHI Si llilil I MlllllllWlllimM .nmrnmmimrHnnmmmMliHlllir.lllllMlllillllW ~TT Dm ffl W •; ilwr HUi WBMIHRHmHMRMBWW y 7 l| Milii il isliii'i niow 111 - •—u-g y| j»ah>7l J llwiN m 1J gg 'WW ts i N M \!s • who seems superior to all the rest. ® Almost every man desires to be a i model husband when he does set tle down with his ideal, and has no intention of promoting discord. But when he discovers that his wife’s illusions and ideas are foreign to all the tenets of sane living, he soon loses interest in the partner ship. Wifie goes to Reno, eventu ally, and hubby pays alimony all tha rest of his life. My school for brides would pre vent such tragedies. “Forewarned is forearmed” is an excellent motto. With Reno for a location, life’s lessons could bo illustrated with jiving examples, a far more im pressive method thah dry lectures, or legislative cures. I would have Reno kept, by an act of Congress, just as it is, with special provision against making it any harder to get a divorce. The Government would maintain Reno as a divorce reserve, pavine nil bills incurred by those seeking d - vorce. & Then I would have all the States pass a special act providing funds for the mainte- for any length of time. What la's the reason? wj Acquaintance with these daz zling ladies would soon teach my pupils that beauty usually carries with it an over-developed vanity and love of admiration, which, in the close companionship of. mar riage, counteracts the advantage of comeliness. The prettv woman is so accustomed to compliments that she feels neglected if her husband fails to rave over her beauty every time he comes into her presence. No matter how much a man ap preciates the good looks of his wife, he cannot be always talking about it, because there are more vital -things to occupy his thoughts in these days of keen business com petition. The wise wife will understand this seeming indifference; the un wise vfill find joy in attracting the admiration of other men. This, no matter how harmless at first, will lead to the divorce court sooner or later. Reno is full of beautiful, vain creatures, whose greatest joy In life is to hear a masculine voice whispering, “You are so beautiful!” After my pupils had been given this general view, expert psycholo gists would take up certain appli cants for divorce in detail and dis sect her character as thortiughly as a subject is dissected in a clinic. Course Number Two would be taken every afternoon at the Uni versity of Nevada, for, while my pupils are using human models in finding “What not to do,” they must also be absorbing, in a prac • tical way, “What to do and how to do it.” In the Domestic Science class not only do they teach cook ing so that it becomes a pleasure rather than drudgery, but also econ omy in buying, measuring and util izing food stuffs with the least pos sible waste. All these things in spire in young women the desire to do things right when they have homes of flieir own. Course Number three would con sist of observation in the cottages and apartments of divorcees. Life is unconventional among col ony members, and we would be able to find untidy kitchens and dis ordered boudoirs with tousled dress ers and a thousand and one cos metics in plain view. Expensive lingerie thrown carelessly about indicates several characteristics of the owner, especially if laundry de vastation goes unmended and loops of torn lace are held with pins. Such investigations offer unlimited nance of my College of Ob servation. All the brides and b ride grooms __ would have to g do would be to ® pay for their . T keep and a : nominal tuitiou Xi charge. Course Num ber One would be to dispel the g idea that beau- ’ ■ ty alone will g hold a hus- ■ band. It is a H fact that three- B fourths of Re- ■ no’s visitors B can really be B called beauti- ■ fu . Men rave over them, seek B the ir society 9 and become 5. madly infatu ated —yet they cannot hold a husband How Fish Families in Layers Fill Ocean Deeps TTTT HEN a disaster occurs at sea, \ 1 and people read that some ’ ' leviathan vessel has gone down to the utmost depth of the ocean, imagination is stirred in wondering what conditions sur round her. According to Sir John Murray, one of the greatest authorities on oceanography, the bottom is a desert of pitch-black darkness, penetrating cold, and eternal silence. Worms, sea puddings, and coral polyps sluggishly crawl or sway in the almost currentless depths, and only two species of tish, both of them small, with much head and little body, have been found deeper than a mile and a quarter down. ?i possibilities. Course Number Four is merely a study of folly. Occasionally my pu pils should dine at the Colony Case and other haunts of the husband less elite. Surrounded by merry parties of lovely women and their admirers, lulled by seductive music and served with choicest viands, they could bask in the atmosphere which starts many a pretty traveler on the road to Reno. The glamour of white lights in the great cities becomes a mania with some women and makes them forget the homely things of life that really count. No doubt mv ard -/room- 11 ’■ V > • •.-Al’ “Drive men to run away with their stenographers and others who have a more accurate and less lofty view of their character.” lets would comment on the beauty of this scene and see no cause for censure or alarm. Later, when frequent libations had flushed the faces of flower-like women and loosened up hilarious tongues, they would be assigned to join some party bound for a joy ride. After a wild ride through the mountains my pupils w’ould be so disgusted that they would beg to be taken home. The range of fishes in the sea is ns though it were divided into layers, one above the other, and no fish can live above or below this layer. Thus many of the deeper sish —three-quarters of a mile be low the surface —have been found floating at the top; they had swallowed a fish as large or larger than themselves and its buoyancy had lifted them out of the strata to which they were accustomed. The physiology of a bottom fish is almost Impossible to know, be cause they are built to resist a a tremendous pressure of water, and when this pressure is released —as when they are brought to the sur face in a net —sometimes the fish has burst; the organs are crushed beyond reconstruction. Similarly, if a fish of a higher ■tratum attacks a bottom fish in Course Number Five, perhaps ths most important, is a series of morn ings at the court. There will be studied the workings of the famous “divorce mill.” Here, on the raw testimony of husband and wife, my pupils would be able to absorb the subtler and most corroding horrors of divorce. Stenographic reports would be I ken and used later for analysis by our college psycholo gists. I would depend more for real educational value, however, upon the actual sight of the "mis mated” ones upon the stand. Course Number Six would be di rected solely against jealousy. How to avoid even the appearance of evil would be one part of it. Learning to discount the value of gossip, an other. The suspicious mind is al ways ready to discolor the most innocent action, and the wife who continually harps on her fears will drive a man Into just what she de plores. Every session of Reno's di vorce court is a record of petty jealousies, founded on hearsay and little blocks of nothing. Naegine. largely a fault of women, is closely allied but should not be confused with fault finding. The latter ap pears to belong to the masculine side. Last, but not least, would come Course Seven, dealing entirely with the mental conception of marriage. Many modern maids marry with the idea that they are conferring a great honor on mere man, and he is never allowed to forget it. The fault here is in exaggerated ego. A good woman certainly honors the man she marries, but the honoring is not altogether on her side. She has chosen him from a small num ber of suitors, while he picked her from an unlimited field. In ab sence of anything better, she ac cepts his offer and spends the rest of her life impressing him with the fact that she is far too good for him and has done him an honor which can never be repaid. Such a marriage, founded on the Invisible superiority of the bride, is bound to drive the unappreciated worm to the society of his stenog rapher or some other human crea ture, whose estimate of character is more accurate and less lofty. I have only briefly outlined the high lights of the college I have In mind. The plan is perfectly practicable, and I am sure there would always be enough applicant, for divorce at Reno to keep the students busy. Why not let science have a trial at divorce? the neutral zone where both can live, and —as sometimes happens— his teeth become entangled so that he cannot let go, and he Is dragged into deeper water, he strangles instantly, for his breathing ar rangements are of no use to him under the pressure of water in the lower strata of the sea. As a rule, however, the fish of the various depths rarely feed on those above or below them. There have been brought to light an astonishing number of forms of fish, and especially of prawns of# brilliantly red color, living In the ocean at a depth of 3,000 feet But astonishing as It may seem, these brilliantly colored fish and prawn*, instead of being conspicuous in t .e water at that depth, are almost invisible, when almost any other color could be easily seen.