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Suppiement to St. Croix Avis, No. 163, 17th July 1920. The Creole arrived helast evening, bringing a small mail frem St. Thomas forwhere she sails with the outgoing mail by 10 o’clock thjs forenoon. The S. S. Korona which had bean ex- pected to arrive in Frederiksted today, is now reported as being looked for in St. Thomas today, and, here tomorrow. No news of the Virginia up to 8.30 this morning. Correspondence On Divorce. (Continued V) “‘The good home is the uni' « f the good government. The hearthstone is the corner-stone of civilization. Society is not interested in the preservation of hateful homes, of pomes where hus bands and wives are seifish, ¢old, and cruel. It is not to the interest of society that good women <hould be enslaved, that they should live in tfear, or that they should become mdthers by husbands whom they hate. Homes should be fill- ed with kind and generous fathers, with true and loving mothers; and when they are so filled, the world will be civilized. Intelligence will rack the cradle: justice will sit in the courts; wisdom in the leg- islative halls: and above all and over all. like the dome of heaven, will be the spirit of liberty. Although marriage is the most impor- tant and the most sacred contract that human beings can make, still when that contract has been violated, courts should have the power to declare it null and void upon such conditions as may be just. As arule the woman dowers the husband with ner youth. her beauty, her love—with all she has:; and from this contract certainly the husband should never be released, unless the wife has broken the conditions of that contract. Divorces should be granted publicly, precisely as the marriage should be so- lemnized. Every marriage should be known, and there should be witnesses, to the end that the character of the contractg enterad into should be understood; the record should be open and public. And the same is true of divorces. The con- ditions should be determined, the pro- perty should be divided by a court of equi- ty, and the custody of the children giv- en under regulations prescribed. Men and women are not virtuous by law. Law does not of itself crea‘e virtue, nor is it the foundation or foun- tain of love. Law should protect virtue, and law should protect the wife, if she has kept her contract, and the husband, if he has fulfilled his. But the death of love is the end of marriage. Love is natural. Back of all ceremony burns and will forever burn the sacred flame. There has been no time in the world’s history when that torch was extinguish- ed. In all ages, in all climes, among all people, there has been true. pure, and unselfish love. Long before a ce:- emony was thought of, long before a priest existed, there were true and per- fect marriages. Back of public opinion 1s natural modesty, the affections of the heart; and in spite of all law, there is and forever will be the realm of choice.® Wherever love is, itis pure; and every where, and at all times, the ceremony of.marriage testifies to *hat which has happened within the temple of th® hu- man heart. OUGHT DIVORCED PEOPLE TO BE ALLOWED TO MARRY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES? This depends upon whether mar. riage is a erime. If it is not a crime, why should any penalty be attached? Can any one conceive of any reason why a woman obtaining a divorce with out fauit on her part, shovid be com- pelled as a punishment to remain for- ever single? Why sheould she be pun: ished for the dishonesty or brutality of another? Why should a man who faith- fully kept his econtract of marriage, and who was deserted by an unfaithful wite, be punished for the benefit of so- ciety? Why should he be doomed tn live without a home? Phara ja still anather view We must remember that human passions are the same after as before divorce. To pre veni. remarriage is to give excuse for vice: * WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF DIVORCE UPON THE IRTEGRITY OF THE FAMIiY? The real marriage is back of the cere- mony, and the real divorce is back of the decree. When love is dead, when hus- band and wife abhor each other, they are divorced. The decree records in a judicial way what has really taken place, just as the ceremony of marriage attests a contract already made. The true family is the result of the true marriage, and the institution of the family should above all things be pre- served. What becomes of the sacredness of the home, if the law compels those who abhor each other to sit at the same hearth ? This lowers the standard, and changes the happy haven of home into the prison-cell. If wewish to preserve the integrity of the family, we must pre- serve the democracy of the fireside, the republicanism of the home, the absolute and perfect equality of husband and wife. There must be no exhibition of force, no spectre of fear. The mother must not remain through an order of court, or the command of a priest, or by virtue of the tyranny of society; she must sit in absolute freedom, the queen of herself, the sovereign of her own sou! and her own body. Real homes can nev- er be preserved through force, through slavery, or superstition. Nothing can be more sacred than a home, no altar pur- er than the hearth.”’ : (To be eoncluded) To The Reading Publi 0 106 neading runlic, I_L:X-SER VICE MEN AND ALL WHO APPRECIATE GOOD LIT- ERATURE. IHAVE the exclusive agencv in this territory for the ‘‘Stars and Stripes’’, a publication issued weekly at Wash- ington, and holding the interest of a large percentage of the American people on the continent. It is a paper chuck full of good reading. Everybody will enjoy it, husband, wife, children, all in the family. A limited supply of com- plete bound files of the 71 issues which appeared during the war and containing all manner of vivid, realistic pictures of the activities of the A. E. F. can be had at sl2 a copy. The subscription to the paper is $2 the year, only half what it is worth. N body who subsecribes to the ‘Stars and Stzipes’” will regret the money paid for it, and [ am looking f>r a number of subseriptions from those who want to keep ir touch with the Nation’s activi ties through one of its leading avenues I news. ‘ 5. K. LARSEN Christiansted, St. Croix, V.L Sl L R | d BY LATEST ARRIVALS, 5 At Stakemann’s Store The famous INGERSOL. and i.EANARD WATCHES, EVER READY. GEM, GIL.LETTE, and AUTOSTROP. SAFETY RAZORS & BILADES, DURHAN DUFPLEX SAFETY RAZ ()11)‘\ g{‘, 131“& 1/1’;‘:". 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