OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2051, 15 June 1893, Page 21

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) San Francisco, April 23. "TILT/ DEATH US DO PART." Eliminate tho breach of the seventh commandment as a possible subject for the genius of the old British dramatists or the modern French playwright, and you eliminate the strongest and most frequent source of their inspiration. So, in like manner, purge the statute book* of the various States of this country of all divorce laws and you destroy the fruitful soil whence the cartoonist^ playwright, humourist, and clown gather their richest harvest. Divorce, in some countries, is viewed with a feeling akin to horror. Divorce here, with thousand?, is a joke. Divorce among British youths and maidens is', generally, so distant from their thoughts as to be practically incomprehensible. Marriage to these ends only with death. Here divorce is implied in seven, marriages out of ten. It is discussed without a blush by both partiep. It is always a possibility— a path which may be taken should the marifcul relation prove distasteful. Young couples do not keep house here. They start in furaished rooms and suites al hotels, and have no morepfr3ocalbelongicgs than can be carried away on an express. This has certain advantages when t the fiews oE the fond couple upon marriage are considered. If Brown should, inadvertently, not have married his " affinity," but afterwards encounters her, nothing id more ommon than for his " non affinity " to arrange in an amicable taannur for the desired 41 affinity " to bs established with as little friction as possible. I could warrant, if necessary, cue or tv/o c ise-, the parties io which are "known to the writer, in support of this position. It Ls in strict harmony with B.cial ethics for a man or woman — sometimes very wealthy and " hLjh-toned " people, too— to obtain a divorce and re-marry with their "affinity "— said "affinity" waiting convenient attendance in the background — on tl c sama day. Oar British custom of a pis months' probation before a divorce decree is made absolute is here sneered at as a pieca oE s< upid formality, and the guilty partie- — as in a secant cisc wherein a popular cperatic baritone was concerned — sympathised wkh as victims to a detail which we, in this more enlightened land — or syme parts of it— cm, and do dispense with. If, of course, marriage is not a sacrament, but a merely legal formula invoked for the purpose of giving some appearance of decency t.) the shatneles-ne33 of a promiscuous and uosanctified intercourse, then, I presume, no more need be said. But to those who cannot so view it there appears something inherently degrading in that law which will permit of a man to have frcm six to ten wives all •within as many years, and all in a perfectly legal manner I For particulars see the newspapers. Nor does the viciou3 business end hare. In many cases where the woman is granted a divoics against tie man she is permitted to resume her maiden name, and I need hardly point the moral. To the writer such resumption implies a deliberate intention of remarrying at some other time under distinctly false pretences. Society— that abstraction we both fear and envy — doe 3 not [approve divorce. It is decidedly bad form. ' To siu is a pardonable f mix pas : to be discovered is an unpardonable cirnp. Better to live in contented acquiescence with our partner's clips than to drag such slips before a gaping public. 'This is one of the unwiitten duues society owes to itS3lf. At the same time, speaking generally, society has reduced marriage to a social function. It id an occasion for the m'.llicer and cook, the seamstress, and the horticulturist, with the 1 ridegroom thrown in by way of a stopgap ; and tho difference, I imagine, between the society belle who is bred like a superior horse to run a race for a prize or to sell herself to the highest bidder is only in degree and not ia kind from the rank and filc—tbe under crust— who marry, quarrel, cunp, ar d part. Laxity of the marriage tie, the prevalence of divorce, and the canst qaent corruption of moral* were the dragon's teeth sowed by old Rime and reaped in a harvest of monsters so appalling as to irredeemably debauch the virility a*)d manhood of the action and render it an ea^y prey to the more manly hordes of incoming barbarians. And if a=«ked to institute a comparison between ace'ent E >mc and any modern nation it is notio tbe monarchies of the old world I should turn, but rather to the great E D public of the new, and I feel assured that that great social upheaval we all seem alike to predict and to cread, no matter under which flig we livo, will have America and not Europe for its arena. TII3 GREAT MORMON TEMPLE was dedicated wnh all due pomp and ceremony during the period of 12 days, conimeccirg on the Gth and concluding on the 18'-h inst. Upwards 50.000 saints from all parts of the world poured into Salt Lake City to behold the temple which their ' s tcrifices had raised. It was upon the 24th day of July in the year 1847 that the Mormon pioneers settled upon the bank? of the great Salt Lake. Immediately af'er the preliminary survey of the city had been made, Brigham Young invited half a dozen of his most intimate colleagues to take a walk about the new camp with him. Their terriUe trial?, extreme poverty, and death of hundreds on the toilsome march were momentarily forgotten in what they fondly expected to realise ia the distant futu-e. Suddenly their great chief stopped and turning to those who accompanied him said, as struck the ground sharply with his cane, "Here will be the temple of our Lord." Nearly six years passed before there was any effort to carry these words into effect. Just 40 years ago to-day the corner stone of tha great bnilding was laid in the presence oE thousands of peop'e. "I hirty-nine years later the capstone was placed in position in tbe presence of tens of thousands. The dedication services were secret. No reporter was present. Each Mormon who gained admission had to be of good repute and to produce a C3rtificate of purity from his bishop. No Eaint, however, who was in arrears with his tithiDg, even though he had subscribed thousands, could enter. This is an edict as unalterable as the laws in the book of Mormon itself. From now on no Gentile will ever be per-

mitted to enter the sacred portals. The beiulies of this magnificent structure can never bo viewed by unholy eyes. Its grandeur and its services will, for all time, be a3 a sealed book to the alien and stranger. Forty years of time and 10 millions of dollars have been lavished upon this monument to man's credulity— a credulity which was not shaken even though J^righam Young had prophesied tho second coming of Christ upon its completion. True, the present president had an opportune vision fortalling him that Christ would not appear owitg to the wickedness of many of the Mormons— some of the poor souls had not paid their tithe', I suppose. And, so, the vast building has been reared. The Mormons have their temple, and whab Mecca is to the follower of Mohammed, what S r : Peter's is to the pious Catholic, that will the imposing building on the shores of the Great S-.lt Lake be to the believer in the Gospel according to Joseph Smith. BRIEF COMMENTS. The following "noble words" — vide the New York Sun— were used by the lite Republican S cretary to the Nayy :— " My politics step at the borders of rcy country. Within Us limit 3 I will contend oirne^tiy for those domestic policies which I believe best calculated to advance its piosperity and to increase the welfare and happiness of its people. But outside of those limits I follow j the flag — in tho right always, I hope, but I follow it wherever it may be." Although the words mcl are thoroughly representative, the inference that their utterer i 3 cither a rogua or a fool appears inevitable. Ths Saturday Review attributes the prevalence of lynching in the United S rates to the fact; that its people are reverting to barbarism. This judgment is superficial and inaccurate. Lynching is the one gleam of hope discernible amid the chao3 of legal foulness, and a blessed augury that we t-hall one day emerge from barbarism into a righteous civilisation. Ex-premier Mercier is endeavouring to rehabilitate l.itmelf in popular esteem by preachirig Canadian independence. Inter alia be claims annexation to tbi3 country. Though not so good as independence, it would undoubtedly create a boom in Canada's material and moral life. (N B, — Ex-premier Mercier's own moral record constitutes him an unimpeachable authority upon this phase of the question.) The Behring Sea arbitration meetings naturally creito interest here. The cable remarks upon the rustic simplicity of the few men and their surroundings who represent the monarchy of Great Britain, and contrasts them with the display and number of advocates, attendauts, ushers, stenographers, secretaries, assistants, cleiks, attaches, &c. who represent this republic. Those of us who know what republican simplicty really is express no surprise that these thiugs are so. The Examiner is annoyed because American representatives at foreign courts are to bo raised to thft dignity of ambassadors. It denounces this aping of effete monarchies, and advises that United States representatives should be dubbed plain " agents " and have a painted sign to this effect placed over fcheir office doorway. " Away with this opera bouffie diplomacy 1" is the cry. Severely chaste and inspiringly democratic beyond doubt. Still, it should be pondered in conjunction with my previous note. At a meeting of some 200 ministers and laymen held in the aristocratic Belden Avenue Presbyterian Churc\ Chicago, to inquire into grave charg -s of immorality made against the minister, the meeting became so filled with the Holy Spirit, whose presence it had pathetically besceched — that blows took the place of words. Silence, however, was promptly restored when one brother drew a pistol and presented it at the head of another brother. A?ty surprise your readers may e'eem fit to express at the fact of a Christian elder going armed to a Christian convention will be speedily dissipated bj the remembrance that, this is a free country. At Lewiston, Maine, tha police officers, a few days since, slarted out on a raid and came back with 5000dol worth of liquors. Maine being a prohibition State this haul, from one city only, may be considered respectable. At the same time, the question " Does prohibition prohibit ? " is hardly asked seriously in this country. The heir to an estate of an estimated value of 140,000d0l has, at last, had a settlement with his attorneys. After paying these latter the heir's share, should no other legal /Claims arise, is expected to reach fully 7000dol. And yet people, unkindly, use the term attorney as a synonym for thief. It is dangerous to assume the garb of a prophet. Professor Bryce, in his " American Common wealth," says, apropos of the railroad system, "It cannot be absorbed and workf d by the National Government ; only the most sanguine State Socialist would propose to impose so terrible a strain on the virtue of American politicians." Upwards of 1,000,000 voters' cast their ballots for the nationalisation of railroads in November la?*", and the numbers are growing daily. The legal arguments in the Behring Sea arbitration are having a convincing effect upon the judges. One day last week Lord Hannen combined a sound sleep with a gentle snore, Senator Morgan dozed off and woke with an indignant stare every few minutes, and Sir John Thompson likewise slept well. When Sir Julian Pauncefote, in all the splendour of lace and velvet, waited upon President Cleveland in his capacity as ambassador, the reporters and correspondents contrasted.this display with Cleveland's well-worn frock coat, and were merry and full of glee. Now thr-re is weeping and mourning in newspaper row. The Whiti House proposes to abandon Jefferson ian simplicity, and clothe free American citizens who act as ushers in that badge of serfdom and monarchy — a livery 1 At the R.M Court Christchurcb, on Friday three publicans were fined L 5 each on charges of withdrawing beer from casks without destroying or defacing the stamp. Te Wbiti, an uncartificated bankrupt, who was cited to appear at the deputy-official assignee's office New Plyrm uth on Friday, did not show up for examination. It is said tbat proceedings against Te Whiti are to be taken up from where they were allowed to drop soruo time ago.