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Supplement to St. Croix Avis, No. 160, 14th July 1520. The public meeting held in the Chris- tiansted Theatre last night whs attend- ed by a large assembly and lasted from 8.30 to 20 o’clock. There were several speakers among whom may be mention ed, members of the Colonial Council Abramson and Canegata, Mr. D. Hamil- toa Jackson, the Revd. Barrow, Mr. Fred. McFarlane, Mr. A. C. Bough. The sentiment of the meeting was deter- minedly opposed to the contempiated training school for incorrigible girls being located on Protestant Quay, and a com- mittee of six was elected to draft and forward a memorial to that effect to the Governor. We shall be glad to give space to the minutes of the meeting when same are received. , The schnr. Creole which ought to have sailed from St. Thomas -on her regular ¢ trip last night, is not here today owing ro the fact we learn at the post office, rhat she is still on deek. In event it should not be possible to dispateh the {reole today, the Saranac on her way from Porto Rico will call at St. Thomas .onight and feteh the mail. Ample no tice as to closing of mail on the return trip will be published after the arrival of the incoming mail. ‘,‘."«J‘"a’:‘i"‘“é&%t’.??i"s’niid'i Jearn that the zind intention which promyted the writ- ing of our comment in rjgard to the Navy and Native Bands. as PUb“Sh"’d in last Saturday’s mail edition Os the Avis, has beeresssyndercang --nd a totally foreig “ion®'" ™4 upon the re- ma o moment con- templaic . f the two organizations, nors ven surmise at the time that suct. .. interpretation was possible from the form of expres- sion which clearly enough paid tribute t» both bands, merely mentioning cer- tain disadvantages nder which tne Na- | tive Band labors in order t at those who might be looking for more from the men could know conditions as they really are. Our se atiments as regards the Navv Band have no beer cloaked, and we repeat what has been said in these columns be- fore, «hat it bhas surpassed the utmost expectations of the most exacting; that in its rendition of the difficult classical ! music it plays the band stands high in the estimation of all who know music and want to be fair. To be candid we aould say that this band shows up.so | well that it is doubted that any of the | sther navy bands in the islands can sur- pass it. However, as someone seems al- ways interested in confusing what is written in this connection, so far as the Avis is concerned, this is the last com- ment that will appearin regard to any of the bands. Edaitor St. Croix Avis, Dear Mr. Editor: Kindly allow me space ir your val- uable paper for the last time to admit that I was highly amused and laughed heartil. with your correspendent Fol lower’s letter of the 9th inst: I am compelled now to class him with the little British ‘‘drummer boy’’ who wwas captured by tke French during the Franco-British war many vears ago, vho, after he had beaten several marches on a drum which was brought to him, was then asked to beat a ‘‘retreat’’, the which he declined to do, and told the officer '‘he did not know what that was.”’ As my opponent in his letter show 0 many loop-holes through which he can escape, even in the last sentences of his letter, it would be foolhardy of me to waste more time just now to try to get in his camp I thought when I asked him to define the protestant question, he would have treated me with a litile more cour:esy by inviting me to his quarters, but he was very discourteous and merely kept me off. I want to tell ‘‘Follower’’ in my con- clusion, that I, and the rest of the unfor tunate wanderers. would never change the dear "‘antiquated reminiscences’’ for all '‘his’’* modern ‘‘Retro-Adoration.’’ I’llstill remain personally. Yours unfeignediy: FRIEND. Correspondence On Divorce. (Continued I[I) ““Nearly all intelligent people have given up the idea that the worid is about to come toan end. They do nct now believe that prosperity Is a certain sign of wickedness, or that poverty and wretchedness are sure certificates of virtue. They are hardly convinced that Dives should have been sent to hell sim- ply for being rich, or that Lazarus was entitled to eternal joy on account of his poverty. We now know that prosperous people may be good, and that unfortun- ate people may be-bad. We have reach: ed the corclusion that the practice of virtue tends in the direction of prosperi- ty, and that a violation of the conditions of well-being brings, with absolute cer tainty, wretchedness and misfortune. There was a time when it was believed that the sin of an individual was visited upon the tribe, the community, or the nation to which he belonged. It was then thought that if a man or woman had made a vow to God, and had failed to keep the vow, God might punish the entire community; therefore it was the business of the community to see to 1t that the vow was kept. That idea has been abandoned. As we progress, the rights of the individual are perceived, and we are now beginning dimly to dis- cern that there are no rights higher than the rights of the individual. There was a time when nearly all believed in the reforming power of punishment-—in the beneficence of brute force. But the world is changing. It was at cne time thought that the Inquisition was the savior of society; that the persecution of the philosopher was requisite to the meservation of the state, and that, no matter what happened, the state should be preserved. We have now more light. And staading upon this luminous point that we call the present, let me aoswer your questions. Marriage is the monst important, the most sacred, contract that human be- ings can make. No matter whether we call it a contract, or a sacrament, or both, 1t remains precisely the same. And no matter whether this contract is entered linto in the presence of mag- istrate or priest, it is exactly the same. A true marriage is a natural concord and agreement of souls, a harmony iln which discord is nOt even imagined; it is a mingling so perfect that only one seems to exist: all other considera tions are lost; the present seems 1o be enternal. In ths supreme moment there is no shadow-or the shadow 1= as luminous as light. And when two be- ing thus love, thus unite, this is the true marriage of soul and soul. That which is said before the alsar, or minister, or magistrate, or in the pre- sence of witnesses, 1s only the out- ward evidence of that which has alreadupr haprened withia; 1t sim- ply .rdstifies to a union that has al- reac ' taken place—to the uniting of tworornings of hope to reach the night toginqer. Each has found the ildeal; the man &zs faisnd the o gpman of all the world- . lenr !\ of affection, purity Wwty. and grace, and the a8 Tound the one man of all the v .. her ideal, and all that she knows of romance, of art, courage, herc- ism, honesty, is realized in him. The idea of contract is lost. Duty and obh- gaticn are instantly changed into desire and joy, and two lives, like uniting streams., flow on a8 one. Nothing can add to the sacredness of this marriage, to the obligation and duty of each to each. There is nothing in the ‘ceremo ny except the desire on the payt of the man and woman that the whole world should know that they are really mar- ried and that their souls have been united.”’ To be continued. You Are Invited to call and see the fine assortment of Groceries received Ex S. S. Korona ' A. R. Mclntosh. Christiansted, St. Croix. 11 June 1920, .