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THE PAULIST PRESS
401 WEST 59th STREET NEW YORK, N. Y.





DOROTHY’S DIVORCE

I

Letter from Miss Gladys Williams to

Miss Jane Pritchard

Dear Jane:

Dolly surely dropped a Big Bertha tonight when

she came out for divorce. I find I am shell-shocked.

I went to bed after I left you, but I couldn’t get to

sleep. When we were talking together, we were saying

how shocking it was—you said, “Something ought to
be done,” and I said, “What?” Now I am beginning to

think of a plan. I want you to help me. There is no

use of our arguing with Dolly on this subject. When

her mind is made up she will not listen to her old

school chums. She must get opinions from others

who command her respect. Here is my plan. Let’s

you and me write to several of Dorothy’s old friends

and sign her name to the letters, telling them about

Dorothy’s big idea. They will answer these letters

direct to Dorothy and she will get what is coming to

her. I know it will make her angry, but if we make

her mad enough it will wake her up before it is too

late.

Burn this letter. I do not want Dorothy to know I

had anything to do with it and, of course, you will

not want her to know about your part in it, if you go

in with me on this. I would not even put it down

on paper if there was any chance of seeing you before



2 DOROTHY’S DIVORCE

next Saturday. I would not dare to talk to you over

the phone about it; but we must get busy right away

—if we wait until next week it may be too late.
Do you get the idea? If you do, begin writing

letters to some of Dorothy’s friends. I am go-

ing to start off with Miss Chapman and old Browney

and Father Riley and, oh yes! I believe I can get a

good letter from Judge Stauffer. I will try him any-

how. You need not write to any of these, but you can

think of other names and notify me of the ones you

choose.

Yours, for Dorothy’s sake,

Gladys.

II

Telegram from Miss Jane Pritchard to

Miss Gladys Williams

You are on. Will begin at once.

Jane.

Ill

Letter from Miss Lavinia Brown, Professor of

English Literature and China Painting in

the Beauchamp Academy

Dear Child:

Dorothy, you poor, precious darling, how you flat-

ter me by your appeal! I thought you had forgotten

me. I am ashamed to say I did not know that you



DOROTHY’S DIVORCE 3

were married. Doubtless, you sent me an invitation

and it was lost in the mail, and now I am learning of

it only at this terrible crisis when you are contem-

plating divorce. Oh, my child, how I wish that I

could fly to you across the nine hundred miles that

separate us tonight! I long to sit in your dear little

home and pmir out to you all that your letter has

stirred up in my heart.

You girls never dream how much we really care

for you. You are the big events of our lives, as you

come and spend your happy, care-free years at school.

You go out into the great world of action and hardly

give us a thought, wrapped up in your dances and the-

ater parties and sports and foreign travel, love-mak-

ing, marriage and motherhood; but the girls at school

are all we know of the world.

Do not think that this means ignorance. The

very intensity of our interest helps us to see more

than the actors themselves in life’s drama. They are

too busy living to consider the meaning of life; but I

know life’s lessons, for many a girl has taken me

her confidence.

Lizzie Hicks was here this afternoon. I was so

excited by your letter that I told her about it and

asked her to write to you. If you get a letter from

her, do not blame her, but me. I have been advising

Lizzie ever since she got her divorce. I want you to

know how she feels about it now. I have been count-

ing up—twenty-seven of my girls have been divorced
and I have a pretty good insight into what it has

meant for most of them. Dear child, read the letter

Lizzie Hicks sends you, with an understanding heart.



4 DOROTHY’S DIVORCE

She has paid an awful price for her liberty. Be

warned by her, I beg you

!

As you know, I have always been a devout church-

woman. I have ardently desired that Convocation

would adopt the standards which are so plain in the

gospels. Our Blessed Lord forbids divorce. St. Paul

declares that only death can free a woman from the

bonds of matrimony. This is God’s will. You will

be offending Him if you take this step. I suppose

my ideas belong to a past generation. I am glad I

have kept the faith of better days.

In my town, when I was young, only one of our

social set was guilty of divorce and remarriage. It

was Judge Jackson Phillips, our most prominent law-

yer. He divorced his wife because she was insane.

He married Dimple Gray, the sweetest society bud of

our State. My mother was too kind-hearted to ex-

press the indignation she felt, but she never could

be cordial with them. I have seen Judge Phillips with

Dimple on his arm pass before our house, forcing my

mother to acknowledge his bow, and then go on down

the street crestfallen because he knew he could not

bridge the gulf that he had placed between himself

and her. He can never regain my mother’s sym-

pathy.

We were all united in these convictions and so, I
suppose, it was easier for the people of our town to

bear the burdens of married life. We stood shoulder
to shoulder, upholding the highest ideals of woman-

hood, believing them to be revealed to us by the Son

of God Himself.

I am an Episcopalian and you are a Catholic,



DOROTHY’S DIVORCE 5

Dorothy. Your Church is more strict than mine has

dared to be; but we worship the same God and I

know you cannot take this awful step without dis-

pleasing Him. What are you living for? Yourself,

or the true, the beautiful and the good? Once you

obeyed me in the discipline of the school. I say to

you now, in the name of Beauchamp Academy, desist

from your proposition ! If you resist, it will be at the

penalty of forfeiting the friendship of

Your old teacher,

Lavinia Brown.

IV

Letter from Mrs. Elizabeth Walker-Ryan-Burgess-

Beekman-Hopkinson-Moore
Dot:

Lizzie Hicks passed me word you are thinking of

stepping out. Congratulations! I have done it six

times and am just waiting to take on another sucker.

Beekman, dirty miser, did me out of alimony, but I

am getting quite a comfortable living from the rest.

It is the only way to get even with the world. I know

you will strike a few snags among your “holier-than-

thou” friends, especially the priests. Do not pay any

attention to them! Those priests make up all these

laws about divorce for the good of their own pocket-

books. They are nothing but grafters. I am on to

them. Get out into the middle of the road and strike

a lively gait while the going is good!

Yours for happy days,

Betty.



6 DOROTHY’S DIVORCE

V

Letter from Mrs. Elizabeth Hicks

Dearest Dorothy:

Browney told me about your letter and asked me

to write to you. I do so, willingly. I would be glad

to crawl on my hands and feet from here to your

door-step, if I could persuade you to think twice be-

fore you divorce your husband!

I read somewhere, before I was engaged, that a

divorced woman is cut in two by a sword—half of
her goes with the man to whom she was joined by

Almighty God, as Christ said, “They twain shall be

one flesh.” Dorothy, it is true! I have been sepa-

rated from my husband for seven years. The first

three years were sheer agony. I thought at first it

was simply my reaction to public opinion. How I

hated them for looking down on me! Even when

they smiled and said they approved of what I had

done, I knew they despised me. For months I could

not sleep. As soon as I lost consciousness, the night-

mare of disgrace woke me again. It was excruciating

pain. Now I know that the suffering did not come

from what other people thought and said. It is the

suffering of dismemberment.

My dad’s leg was shot off in battle and always,

even fifty years afterwards, he still had terrible pains

in the foot which had been lost. I am just like that.

Tom was horrible in his treatment of me. He de-

served to be punished, but I love him, I long for him.

Only last night, I woke and reached out in my bed to



DOROTHY’S DIVORCE 7

see if he was there. I want to help him! I want to

know whether he is catching cold the way he used

to do when his feet got wet! And I need a protector!

I want to feel I have a man standing between me and

the world. I know no other man can take Tom’s

place in my life.

I was talking to Betty Moore about you and she

said she would write you a letter. She has tried man

after man; and, Dorothy, I want to tell you Betty has

no heart! She has been brutalized. Money is her god.

She is money mad. Every fine element of woman-

hood has been beaten down and is dead in her. I can

never think of our dainty Dolly becoming the coarse

opportunist Betty Moore is today!

Don’t do it, Dolly; don’t do it! I offer you the

experience of seven years of agony. No pride can

bolster a woman up to bear this awful burden of dis-

appointment and regret.

Your friend,

’Lizbeth.

VI

Letter from Judge Archibald Stauffer

My dear Madam :

I consider it a compliment that you have ad-

dressed me in your search for enlightenment on the

question of divorce. I apprehend that you are con-

templating the step. It is a merit, a sign of intellec-

tual uprightness and esteem for morality, that you



8 DOROTHY’S DIVORCE

should hesitate and seek counsel before taking a step

that is irreparable.

With this expression of my respect, I pass on to

say that, in my firm conviction, divorce is legalized

adultery. As Judge, I have witnessed the desolation

of many hundred of families. From my records I am

more and more convinced that divorce undermines

the country, destroys self-respect and degrades wom-

anhood as surely as open adultery.

Great is the force of example. Toleration of one

divorce opens the sewer-gates for passion. The step

you contemplate will not merely wreck your own

happiness, it will embitter the life of your husband,

pushing him into excesses of a criminal nature; if

you have children, they cannot survive the shock of

broken family ties; and your action will make it

easier for others to overcome their repugnance to

divorce. Your example will spread, seizing on the

minds of others like a violent contagious disease.

You are helping to establish an epidemic, which will

not only be fatal to hundreds of thousands of souls,

but will, in time, change the whole course of civiliza-

tion.

Christianity received from ancient Rome the rem-

nants of a society ruined by the degradation of wom-

an. On woman, as maiden, wife and mother, the

Christian home. Church and State are reared. Every

woman who helps to make divorce popular, is help-

ing to destroy Christianity.

In my opinion, my dear Madam, the course you

contemplate is not worthy of a decent woman. The

laws of this country may sanction your divorce, but



DOROTHY’S DIVORCE 9

there is a right above the law of the land. If you go

against it, you will not escape the punishment you

richly deserve.

Sincerely,

Archibald Stauffer.

VII

Letter from Miss Pinky Dean

My dear Miss Roberts:

May I slip in a word with the Judge’s letter, which

I have just typed? I think he is too severe. I get a

chance to give the once-over to these poor sufferers

who come to his court for divorce, and I am here to

tell you I cannot believe that God ever intended for

a man and woman to live together when love is dead.

Is not love the very life of marriage?

What would we think of a Doctor who compelled

a woman to sleep in the same bed with her husband’s

corpse, or, worse yet, to carry it around with her

wherever she goes? I think when love is dead the

husband is worse than a corpse. It is ghastly horror

to put up with the cold flesh and staring eyes of a

man you cannot love.

I have seen women sitting in the court, frozen

with dread and loathing. I have seen them tripping

down the front steps, after divorce has been granted,

as light hearted as little girls. Don’t you believe the

Judge, honey. Look out for A No. 1 ! Love yourself

and give yourself a treat in this life! If you don’t,

nobody will.

P. D.



10 DOROTHY’S DIVORCE

VIII

Letter from Reverend Hugh Riley, D.D.,

Rome, Italy

My dear Dorothy :

I have just received your letter. My illness has

necessitated absence from my parish for three years.

Most of the time has been spent here, where I have

been trying to write a book about the catacombs.

Let’s see, you left home two years before that.

It is five years since I saw you. I suppose this acr

counts for the fact that I did not know of your mar-

riage. I am grieved beyond words by the news your

letter contains, but I thank you for giving me the op-

portunity to appeal to your better self before you take

the step.

If you had waited for your old pastor to marry

you, instead of getting married in some Eastern State

without letting me know anything about it; if, I say,

you had let your old pastor marry you, as you should

have done, I would have impressed on you, Dorothy,

that marriage is not merely a bilateral contract. Mar-

riage is a sacrament, uniting husband and wife with

Jesus Christ in a new and holy relationship.

Just as the priest mounts the hill of Calvary to be

united with the Great Priest on His altar of sacrifice,

so man and woman are lifted up by the sacrament of

matrimony closer to the cross, making them part-

ners with the Author and Finisher of our Faith.

If you married your husband only for what he can

give you, it is not surprising then that you have al-



DOROTHY’S DIVORCE 11

ready reached disappointment and despair. No crea-

ture can satisfy a human soul. Weak and mean and

ugly as we are, in every other respect, in this on€

thing we are truly divine: our appetite for happi*

ness can be satisfied only by the Infinite Good. We
were never expected to find peace and happiness else-

where. Every creature that comes into our lives is a

blessing to us only in so far as we accept it as an ex-

pression of the divine Love Who sends it.

If you enter into matrimony, in love with love,

loyally giving yourself, body and soul, to the service

of God, in this higher and holier career, which is only

second in dignity to the priesthood itself, then, my

dear child, no hardship, or pain, or disappointment in

your help-mate, can mar your happiness! You will

accept every burden that weighs you down, as a shar-

ing of the cross with the Savior, Whose comradeship

has permeated you, soul and body, in this high ad-

venture. The eager soldier accepts fatigue and weari-

ness, and even rejoices in them, because they express

his passionate devotion to the King. The best mar-

riages that I have ever known were between mis-

mated couples.

Only last week I said Mass in the home of Anna

Taigi, that saint of married happiness. Her husband

was unfitted for her—uncouth, domineering, jealous,
but he never knew how he wounded her. In his old

age he wondered at the perfection of her love for him.

She was not loving and serving that man. She was

loving and serving Jesus in him, and it was this fidel-

ity to her Divine Lover, in her docility and tenderness

for her husband, that made her the great saint she



12 DOROTHY’S DIVORCE

is. St. Rita, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, oh, how many

others have been shining examples of this same truth

!

There is no such thing as disappointment and dis-

aster in any marriage which is based on sacramental

union with the Son of God. God made you to love

Him and, therefore. He made you free. He veils His

awful majesty and comes to you as a suppliant lover.

He asks you to choose to love Him. You may turn

your back on Him if you will, but to what will you

turn? To yourself! To self-love, pride and self-

seeking! Examine all your advisers who tell you

that it is a good thing for you to be divorced! One

thing stands out clear and plain in the character of

every one of them—they are selfish. They are seek-
ing their own ease and comfort. They are feeding

their own pride. Isn’t it true?

Now, my dear child, I ask you to imagine what it

will mean to go on for a whole life, loving and wor-

shipping yourself as they do? What it will mean to

go into eternity with no other interest than your own

self? Are you so high, so noble, so beautiful, so pure

and good, that you alone can satisfy your hungry

heart for all eternity? Look in your heart now—^was
this letter, which I have just received from you, in-

spired by happiness? Are you as happy today as you

were when I gave you your first Holy Communion?

I know the answer, even though you hang your head

and refuse to answer me! You are not happy, Doro-

thy! You will never be happy until you come back

to love God more than you love yourself. God made

you for Himself. You will never be at rest until you

rest in Him«



DOROTHY’S DIVORCE 13

What is necessary to patch up the trouble between

you and your husband? You must forgive him some

faults? You must ask his pardon? You must satisfy

yourself with less of this world’s goods than you

crave? Think how Jesus forgave! Think how the

Son of God atoned, not for His own sins, but for the

sins of the world ! Think how poor He was, and how

contented in His poverty! A Man of sorrows, ac-

quainted with grief! Are you better than Jesus,

Dorothy?

“Dorothy,” that means “Gift of God.” Be true to

your name! For God’s sake, do and say all that is

needed to regain your husband’s good will ! Bear the

yoke of matrimony as Jesus bore His cross. No mat-

ter how weary you are, no matter how heavily laden,

you will find that His yoke is easy and His burden

light. There is no other happiness in time or eter-

nity. If you embrace the cross, Dorothy, you will

have no need for divorce. I will say a novena of

Masses for you at the shrine of Blessed Anna Taigi.

Please write to me and tell me that my prayers are

not in vain!

Affectionately your father in Christ,

Hugh Riley.

IX

Letter from Miss Ruth Chapman, Principal of

Beauchamp Academy

My dear Dorothy :

I suppose from your letter, which was received

last week, that you are interested in a debate on mar-



14 DOROTHY’S DIVORCE

riage and divorce. I have asked our Professor Rob-

ertson to supply you with a few facts, which may be

of service to you. I enclose his notes herewith.*

Hoping that they may help you to win the debate,

I am.

Sincerely,

Ruth Chapman, Principal.

X

Letter from Mrs. Bridget Moynihan, Cook at

Beauchamp Academy

My Darling:

Sure, my ears deceive me! Miss Brown says you

are going to get a divorce. I don’t believe it, Dolly,

my child ! I always loved you because you are a good

Catholic girl. Many’s the time I prayed to the Blessed

Virgin for you! My heart feels that you are true to

your holy religion and God’s Blessed Mother. I can-

not believe you would break the laws of your Church

and get a divorce. What put it in that Miss Brown’s

head, alanna?

In your big city of New York, I hear women have

got so far along they do not change their names when

they get married. Miss Brown says she does not

know your husband’s name. I said he had the same

name that you had, so you did not have to change

your name. I know you will not be one of those for-

ward girls! They say your husband does not love

*Se« Appendix.



DOROTHY’S DIVORCE 15

you any more. Don’t give ear to such talk, my Dolly

!

How anybody can miss loving you, is more than I can

figure out.

Well I remember how I loved Moynihan when he

was courting me! I used to get cold all over and my

hands trembled whenever he came anear me. I loved

him so I could not lift my eyes to his. He used to

tease me about it.

We were so happy those first weeks of our mar-
ried life! He treated me like a queen. I wondered

whether I could live through it all, I was so happy.

Then it changed. Well do I remember! The time

came when he never kissed me, hardly said a word,

except to answer questions with a short “Yes” or

“No.” There were days when I cried when I was

alone, wishing the sunshine of the first happiness

back again. But I didn’t complain. I learned my

lesson.

Moynihan has been dead now these twenty-five

years. I know he always loved me. Men are like

that. Love comes to be deeper like a little brook, at

the start, all dancing and singing and throwing up

white sprays in the sun; when it gets down in the

meadows it hardly seems to move, but it is deeper

now. There is more to it, and it is more use to men.

Dolly, do not be put out if he is not as sweet on

you as he was when he was courting, just wait! You

know as well as I do, a man’s love is there for keeps

even when he is taking a little to drink, or carrying

on with other girls. He don’t mean to hurt you.

Trust him in spite of everything! I know that is

best.



16 DOROTHY’S DIVORCE

Oh, Dorothy, child, how well I love you! I am

saying my beads for you a dozen times a day. God

keep you ! Mary guard you

!

Your loving old

Bridget.

XI

Letter from Dr. J. Mitchell Walton

Dear Madam :

During my football days at Dartmouth, I was nick-

named “Mitty.” I received a typewritten letter yes-

terday addressed to “Dear old Mitty.” I read it

through, puzzling at its contents, but still under the

impression that it was directed to me. Only when I

could not recall the signature as the name of any of

my acquaintances, did it dawn on me that I was read-

ing a letter addressed to someone else. It is possible

that your secretary placed this typewritten letter in

the wrong envelope and that some other correspond-

ence of a business nature was intended for me.

I am taking pains to explain the situation, be-

cause I desire to answer this letter, which I have so

unaccountably received.

I infer that you are a married woman, a Catholic,

attempting to seek a divorce. I wish to say to you

that I am also a Catholic, a convert to the Church. I

am unmarried. My devotion to my profession has,

to this time, kept me from all thought of marriage.

But I have a very deep and loyal appreciation of the



DOROTHY’S DIVORCE 17

Catholic ideals of married life and, as a fellow-Cath-

olic, I beg you to permit me to appeal to you against

the temptation which besets you now.

Three times, in the gospels of St. Matthew, St.

Mark and St. Luke, Our Blessed Savior forbids di-

vorce. “What God hath joined together, let no man

put asunder.” “Whosoever shall put away his wife

and marry another commits adultery against her, and

if the wife shall put away her husband and be mar-

ried to another, she commits adultery.” Commenting

on these words, St. Paul says to us, “the Lord com-

mands that the wife depart not from the husband,

and if she depart, that she remain unmarried, or be

reconciled to her husband; and let not the husband

put away his wife.” “The woman is bound by the

law as long as her husband lives, but if her husband

dies she is at liberty. Let her marry to whom she

will, only in the law.” I beg you to read that seventh

chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians and then

read the beginning of the seventh chapter of the

epistle to the Romans, where St. Paul repeats, “The

woman who has a husband is bound to the law while

her husband lives, but if her husband is dead she is

loosed from the law and her husband. However,

while her husband lives, she shall be called an adul-

teress if she be with another man. But if her hus-

band be dead she is delivered from the law of her hus-

band. So that she is not an adulteress if she be with

another man.”

St. Paul does not hesitate to compare the marriage

state to the union which exists between Christ and

His Church. By giving Himself to the Church, Christ



18 DOROTHY’S DIVORCE

sanctifies it. Man and woman, giving themselves to

one another, mutually sanctify each other. A man

should love his wife as Christ loves the Church.

Divorce and remarriage are fatal to the high ideals

of this comparison. “Adultery” is a foul word. One

shrinks from pronouncing it, but it is none too foul

to characterize divorce.

Respectfully yours,

J. Mitchell AValton, M.D.

XII

Letter from Miss Dorothy Roberts to

Dr. J. Mitchell Walton

Dr. Walton,

Sir:

Patience has ceased to be a virtue. I have been

bombarded with letters accusing me of intending to

seek divorce, piling on me every sort of insinuation

and saying I am an enemy of Christian civilization.

I have a suspicion that these letters originated in

a practical joke played on me by one of my dearest

friends. I have said rosary after rosary to keep from

hating her for it.

I have borne all in patience, and foreborne to an-

swer any of the letters I have received, until this let-

ter came to me from you.

I can bear no more.



DOROTHY’S DIVORCE 19

I protest against the liberty you took in writing

to me, when you discovered that my letter was not

intended for you at all. My grievance is all the

greater, because your letter beautifully expresses

ideals that are dearer to me than my own life. Severe

and grand as you are in your indignation, I cannot

help admiring you. Though it hurts all the same, I

want to tell you that I have no intention of getting a

divorce, for a very good reason, and that is—I have
never yet been married ! I am a young girl, working

for my living here in New York.

This wretched joke started in a debate we had in

our Sodality. The girls took my argument for my

own opinion, while I was simply trying to win a de-

bate. It has been a lesson to me. I will never again

argue for a thing I do not believe.

We cannot play with truth. Dr. Walton. It must
be treated with the respect it deserves, for God is true.

Sincerely yours,

Dorothy Roberts.

XIII

Telegram from Dr. J. Mitchell Walton to

Miss Dorothy Roberts

Will you kindly permit me to call? Will start

for New York as soon as your answer arrives.

J. Mitchell Walton.



20 DOROTHY’S DIVORCE

XIV

Letter from Miss Dorothy Roberts to Reverend

Hugh Riley, Rome, Italy

Dearest Father:

I have been a long time thanking you for that

lovely letter you wrote to me about marriage. Many

things have happened since it came, including an-

other letter which cut me to the quick. It was from

a splendid Catholic, a convert, a football hero and

one of the dearest men who ever devoted himself to

the relief of pain. He has been a good doctor to me.

All my hurts are cured and I am now planning to

marry him. This is my first marriage. Father. I was

never married before; and I have no love for divorce.

I would not think of it for a moment. But I do want

to be married and married right by my old pastor.

How can we arrange it? Can you come to America

for the wedding? Dr. Walton begs me to assure you

that he will gladly pay all the expenses of the trip.

Please let us hear from you by cable if possible.

Affectionately,

Dorothy.

XV

Cablegram from Reverend Hugh Riley to

Miss Dorothy Roberts

Invitation accepted.

Hugh Riley.



APPENDIX

Notes of Professor Alexander Robertson, Chair of

Mathematics, Beauchamp Academy

In France, despite the fact that the population re-

mained almost stationary, divorce increased from 5,797

in 1887 to 16,335 in 1913. This was before the World

War. In Germany, during the same period of a quarter

of a century, while the population increased one-third,

the divorces were almost three times as many—6,357 in
1887; 17,835 in 1913. Holland presented an almost iden-

tical figure. If anything, somewhat greater. Belgium

was the counterpart of Holland. But the most striking

example of easy divorce comes from the United States.

There were 22,919 divorces in 1887 and 112,036 in 1916,

175,495 in 1925, an average increase of 5,000 a year. In

the United States there is one divorce for every six or

seven marriages. Much worse in some States than in

others. Oregon has one divorce in every 2 3/10 mar-

riages. Wyoming, one in every 3 7/10. Missouri, one in

every 4 3/10. Massachusetts, one in 10. New York, less
than one in 20. South Carolina, none at all. But it ap-

pears that in the State of Nevada in 1923 there were more

divorces than marriages—1,029 divorces and 1,012 mar-
riages.

Since the war, divorces have increased in Europe.

There are three times as many divorces in Germany than

there were at the beginning of the century. In France,

in 1921, there were 32,557 divorces; in 1925, 20,002. In

England and Wales in 1913 there were only 577 divorces,

in 1925 there were 2,605. This is an increase of more

than 300% in a dozen years.

Since there is a considerable proportion of Catholic

inhabitants in all of these countries, the divorce figures

would be much greater if the Church were to raise her

ban against it.



22 DOROTHY’S DIVORCE

In country places, when people have chosen their

mate in life, they settle down, for better or worse, and, as

a rule, do not think of change. The craving for divorce

is rampant in the towns. In Sweden the total number of

divorces in the urban district is very nearly twice that of

the rural areas. Considering Swedish cities alone, there

is one divorce for every 12 2/10 marriages, which ex-

ceeds the highest ratio of divorce in either Germany or

France. In individual cities, such as Berlin, things are

worse. In 1924, one out of every 517 people were di-

vorced; 15% of infants born were illegitimate.

It seems that the more liberal the laws permitting

divorce, the greater is the proportion of illegitimate chil-

dren. In Uruguay divorce by consent is allowed. Resi-

dence is a sufficient test of jurisdiction. Five years after

this law was established, 23% of the children were il-

legitimate. Six years later 28% were illegitimate. The

ever increasing number of divorces shows corruption of

the ideal of marriage as a life-long engagement. Marriage

is now a mere experiment, a contract voidable upon the

non-fulfillment of certain conditions, and terminable at

will. The old-fashioned marriage ceremony, “for better,

for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health,

until death do us part,” seems little more than a mockery

in the mouths of men and women who regard divorce

as a legal permission to multiply sex experiences.

Divorce is so prevalent that it is becoming accepted

as one of the probabilities of life. It no longer has to be

explained. One young woman, being remonstrated upon

her choice of a husband remarked, “Well, after all, if I do

make a mistake—you have to start marriage just like any-
thing else.”

In England at present, as in many parts of America,

a new liberty is being taken in the spread of license.

Frivolous divorces presuppose frivolous marriages. Peo-

ple who believe that they can be separated for no reason,

find it all the easier to be united for no reason.

Our forty-eight legislatures, with their fifty-two causes

for divorce from the bond of matrimony, permitting re-



APPENDIX 23

marriage, have turned the once sacred place called home

into a hroad corridor, wide open at each end for en-

trance and exit. During the last thirty-five years they

have refused, one after another, to amend their evil ways.

In 1783-1789, when thirteen sovereign States made peace

with Great Britain and immediately proceeded to break

peace with their neighbor by separate tariffs and other

laws, they found that they could not exist, and at last

agreed to be one nation. During the past thirty-five years

it has been proven that the regulation of marriages re-

quires national legislation as much as national tariff or

post office or army or navy. The demand grows for a

nation-wide law, which will bring into line States whose

laws are lax, but permit individual States to raise the

bans against divorce still higher than the national stand-

ard if they desire.

The children of divorce are no longer rare excep-

tions. From the time that they first begin to repeat catch

phrases of the older world, divorce enters their minds.

They become familiar with the sound even, before they

seek to interpret to themselves its meaning. Divorce has

entered into the serious problem of social evolution. Now
generations are growing up educated to it. Children are

isolated in their childhood, strangers in the new homes

of their parents. It is such a hideous offense against

the rights of children that love gives place to hatred.

Another type runs to the other extreme of acceptance.

Which type seems to predominate? Naturally, the latter,

since conformity is the quality of youth. Nothing is so

conservative as youth. In later life the individual tends

to separate from the mass, but in youth the one fear is to

seem different. For this reason the tendency is always

the acceptance of divorce as an extension of the domi-

nant note of individualism.

Prejudice against divorce has diminished in social

circles. The children that formerly were left to drift, are

forced to choose between mother and father. Sometimes

they find one parent replaced by two. To the sensitive

nature divorce is chaos. Many of the younger generation.



24 DOROTHY’S DIVORCE

however, take divorce into consideration when they go
into marriage. Two-thirds of the children brought to

court in France are the children of divorced or separated

parents. Divorce brings about a nation of children,

nomadic and vagrant at worst, and lacking in home-bred

character at best. No statistics are needed to prove this
point. It cannot be otherwise.

It is hard to understand how men who really love
their country can stand back and allow the tide of di-

vorce to rise. If unstopped, it will destroy the nation.

It caters to a very human desire, the desire for change.

It allows men and women to make mistakes with impu-
nity. It legalizes the insatiable quest of passion. It min-

isters to men’s weakness. We are moving steadily and
tragically forward to be a nation of disrupted homes and

outcast children.

Unless modern men rouse themselves to prohibit di-

vorce in the nation, the nation will, inevitably, ^ail.

The tide of divorce is rising insidiously. It is not a

foreign invasion. It is a process of internal decomposi-

tion. It moves toward disaster. One couple, or a hun-

dred couples, may get divorces and prove to be better off

for it; but when everybody gets a divorce, when divorce

is an almost universal practice, the old established rever-

ence for law and order will be gone, and the United

States will be well on that downward journey which

other great civilizations have taken.

The future of the nation is now in the hands of its

children. The character of its children depends almost

entirely on the character of the home. Divorce is ruin-

ing the nation’s homes. Unless it is checked it will ruin

the nation.

The members of The Paulist Press Association receive

two pamphlets a month, including new pamphlet publications

of The Paulist Press. Membership is two dollars the year.



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