Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 1920)
TIIE SUNDAY OREGOMAN, PORTLAND, SEPTEMBER ID, 1920 3 Home W0'-H8MC ra Will' . 4s., - HA lira. Marie B. Tiffany, I.o Anffeles deelarea that ahe lias spent only be la aulne for a divorce. BY JOHN SHELDON. SUPPOSE you were a hard-working, highly respectable, sober-minded married man with the patience of Job and a hankering for a happy home and home comforts. And sup pose you had a wife who only found time to spend just one day at home with you in three long, weary years of waiting. What would you do? Ask Willis R. Tiffany what he did. Or, suppose you were prosperous .nd had a wife on whom you were prepared to lavish your wealth. And instead of cutting a wide swath in society and the pleasure-loving world, suppose your wife preferred to stay at home playing the part of mother to as many homeless orphans, chil dren of the slums and foundlings as she could entertain at one time In jour house. What would you do? Ask Daniel F. Sullivan what he did. And suppose but what's the use? Sociologists, humanitarians, learned professors and distinguished preach ers have answered from various an gles the familiar old question of why girls leave home. They have told us why wives leave home and why sons leave home. But no eminent lecturers, so far as we know, have undertaken to explain why husbands leave home. So a few husbands, firmly believing that ac tions speak louder than words, have been absenting themselves from home of late, leaving the reason for their departure to be explained by subse quent developments. Take the case of the Daniel F. Sul livan, for instance. They had i splendid home at 826 Kenesaw ter race, Chicago. The only regretful part of their otherwise happy mar ried life was that no little Sullivans arrived to make their union doubly blessed. Mrs. Sullivan has a keen love for little children. Her motherly instinct is finely developed. Having no chil dren of her own. she began about five years ago to borrow babies and tots of 3 and 4 years from slum nurseries. And on these youngsters she lavished ber affections in her own home. The house waa theirs and she played v. V.: '-: hi kMS::0s 1 1 til 3i A I wemsm k r ti " t irc. opera alnser, vrboae husband. Minis, one day at home in three yeara. So mother to them and was as happy as a little girl with a new doll. Irf five years Mrs. Sullivan cared for 132 babies. Some she kept with her for two years. She did not adopt them, but looked out for their sup port and education. Last year she took eight of her tiny charges to Florida for a month's outing. Objected to Other People's Children. Mr. Sullivan objected to his home being turned into a day and night nursery for other people's children. He objected to various things insep arable from happy childhood days. Manlike, he didn't understand why his wife wanted all those squirming. howling, destructive, dirty-faced ba bies crawling around his home. He stood it as long as he could and then he simply left home after set tling a reasonable allowance on his wife. Now Mrs. Sullivan has got divorce on the grounds of desertion. She expects to take seven other women's babies to California for a little outing trip next spring. Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Clark were dreadfully poor when they lived In Amerlcus, Ga., 25 years ago. They had two children at that time, but living conditions were so hard that Clark couldn't bear to see his family suffer. So he left home to see if his luck would change. At first it didn't. Then he wrote to his wife, suggesting that she might do better for herself and the children if she got a divorce. Mrs. Clark refused to do anything of the kind. Some women are that way. She went out to work for herself and the two children and managed somehow to keep a roof over their heads and the wolf from the door. Meanwhile Clark drifted down into Oklahoma. Several times he wrote to his wife, asking if she had got a di vorce yet, but she hadn't. Too Many Twins for Him. Then during the recent Oklahoma oil boom Clark's luck turned. He struck it rich and made a fortune practically over night. Without wasting any time he head ed back to Amerlcus, where his wife received Jiim with open arms. Curing la fire years Mrs. Sullivan baa mothered 1315 children in her splendid home. The divorce ahc - has just obtained iras granted on the grounds of desertion. w-.-.-z--. j. i i i i ipv. a 1 Twin babies OTerwhelmed Paa Lujan of Jim Towm, Cal. He baa diaappeared. his 25 years' absence his two children died, the oldest daughter having been buried three days before his return. The case of Mr. and Mrs. Willis R. Tiffany is a most unusual one, al though there may be some husbands Inclined to say that Mr. Tiffany was to be envied instead of pitied. Mrs. Marier B. Tiffany is a grand opera singer, a member of the Metropolitan Opera company. Her professional du ties made it impossible to be home very much. One day in three years was all she could spare. The one day that Madame Tiffany spent In Los Angeles, where her home was, was November 2, 1919, and she traveled 1000 miles to set there. 3ut even then It was not to engage In do mestic pursuits. It was to sing at NEW AMERICANS GET GLAD HAND WHEN THEY LAND ON THIS SHORE FROM NEW COMMISSIONER IN NEW YORK Frederick A. Wallis Assumes Charge of Ellis Island Sheds and Initiates New System of Humane Treatment to Those Who Have Severed All Ties for Chance in Beckoning World in Far West. NEW YORK. Sept. 18. Each day now about 5000 men and women are receiving a striking lesson in Americanism in a school which many informed people believe has heretofore been a preparatory in stitution for the most advanced course in bolshevism. The school is the Ellis island immigration station and the new principal who has begun a course in Americanization there is Frederick A. Wallis, the new immi gration commissioner. ' There is a daily average of 5000 immigrants arriving now and Wallis estimates that it soon will climb to 10,000. He says every bit of space on every steamer plying the Atlantic will be occupied by immigrants for at least the next 10 years. Despite the difficulties of emigration from war-torn Central Europe and the high cost of passage, 700,000 aliens entered the United States during the year ending June 30 and; according to Wallis. everyone of them got a preparatory course in bolshevism at Ellis island that made them apt pu pils for the incendiary teachings of radicals of their own race when they arrived at their respective destina tions. When Wallis took charge several months ago he found that no towels had been allowed the immigrants for several years. He discovered that whereas nearly 8000 meals were sold to the Immigrants undergoing exam ination in the course of a day no drinking water was provided. He ordered the drinking water turned on and immediately some persons inter ested in preserving the old regime knocked off the faucets. He went about from place to place on the isl and before he became personally known to the guards and attendants and was brutally insulted by several. "It you treat me. a well-dressed American, in this manner, how do : i , . , Iffnata Klncyoah, of Lockport, N. Yat left bome becauae, be aald. bla wife naed to set up at nltfht and go through bla pocketa. the Philharmonic concert at Trinity auditorium. "It is the same old story," said Mr. Tiffany. "It seems impossible for a woman to have a successful mssical career and retain interest in her home. Mrs. Tiffany has been in New York about three years now and during that time she spent one day in Los Angeles. She has worked very hard with her music and deserves the suc cess she has won, but her interests, her whole life and soul are centered in her art, and husbands have a way of disliking to be second, even to a career. The only thing I could do was to apjily for divorce on the groound of desertion. I do not think there will be any difficulty in proving my claim." Two pairs of twins, both arriving on the self same day, proved too much you' treat' the poor immigrants?" he inquired and answered his own in quiry satisfactorily with certain dis missals. "A change In the method of receiv ing the immigrant has been needed for 60 years." Mr. Wallis said the other day. "There was never any reason for receiving as prisoners and treating as such these foreigners who come here with visions of the land of the free. Their first contact with the land of which they have dreamed so fondly is too often some brutal or at leasf discourteous government offi cial. Their first taste of American hospitality is a long session cooped up in some little pen where there is not even room to sit down. "When I came. here I found the de tention pen crowded with 750 men. women and children. They were so jammed they all had to stand up. It was Ellis island custom. I imme diately gave them the' freedom of the large examining hall. As it is now we have an average of about 400 sleeping on the floor every night. I have applied to the army for the loan of 400 cots to remedy that. "Imagine the case of an immigrant coming now from Europe. He has been harassed by more than five years of war and the consequent tur moil. In order to get here he must sell everything he has. He must pay more for third-class passage than was paid for first-class booking before tho war. He travels ten days or two weeks cooped up in the hold of some ship and the holds of all ships smell alike awful. "He arrives here ana the first or deal is quarantine, where he Is ex amined by the doctors. When he has undergone that the customs officers tackle him and sometimes break open his little trunk or handbag. Some times he is at the pier for days be Too Many Babies, Too Many Twins, Poverty, Neglect and Ill-Treatment Are the Queer Reasons Given by Some Mar ried Menand They Are In clined to Think That Wives Are Much to Blame for Most Everything on Earth. iff. for Pas Lujan of Jim Town, a suburb of Rivera, Cal. That is why he left home. At the moment of departure he remarked that there was a limit to all things. First of all. Belle, the family cow, became the mother of two lusty little Jersey calves. Lujan didn't object to that. A calf Is worth $40 or $50 today. But then, about an hour later, the hired nurse walked in on poor Mr. Lujan carrying two very red-faced babies which she wanted him to ad mire. He didn't want twins and said so. Then he left home. Ignatx IClucyosh says he would rather remain in jail all the balance of his natural life than go home. He lived at Lockport, N. Y. "I can't live with my wife." he told the judge when Mrs. Klucyosh had fore the customs officials are through with him. "When they are by the customs they are sent to us on tugs. When they start early in the morning the ships do not furnish their breakfast. Batches of them have arrived here late in the day without having been fed at all. Then we begin on them again here and they have to go through another long, tiresome ex amination and heretofore they have been herded and treated worse than cattle, shouted at and shoved about and not even afforded the bare neces sities of decent existence. "Then they start for some railroad In Jersey. I find that they are often kept standing In the yards for as long as 24 hours and are compelled to walk long distances through the yards, sometimes in the rain, to their trains. What do you suppose the poor, tired Immigrant is thinking about the land of his dreams by that time? Don't you think he's pretty good material for any agitator of his own race who wants to work on him when he gets to his destination? In deed he is! "We owe it to tnese people and to ourselves to greet them with a smile, a little common courtesy and at least the necessities of decency. If an im migrant is good enough tjj be ad mitted to this country he ought to be started right and not treated like a criminal. If he is not good enough to come in he ought to be barred. We must teach these new-comers that here at Ellis Island is a gate that swings both ways, courteously wel coming in. the worthy alien and swinging out to bar forever the agi tator who wants to overturn our gov ernment." One recent Sunday there were 2000 immigrants waiting on the island for examination. Under the old system V. j kjfi' Vtr 1 Mrs. "Daniel F. Sullivan of Chicago and three of ber latest adopted infanta. She bna mothered aa many aa 15 at one time, and now her hatband baa vanished. him arrested for non-support. He explained that he was a hard-working man, trying to make an honest living and save a Utile money. What he objected to was a habit his wife had of getting out of bed when he was asleep and going through his pockets. Early one morning he woke up very suddenly out of a sound sleep and caught Mrs. Klucyosh in the very act of abstracting money from his trou sers pocket. The neighbors had him arrested for beating her. That's why he left home. Some wives don't know when they are well off. Good husbands, like flowers "born to blush unseen." often are unappreciated. Take George Ed wards of-Pleasantville, N. J., as a case In point. Even his promise, backed by action, to do all the house drudg- they would have been cooped up like cattle in a car, hungry, thirsty and filthy. Instead they were given the freedom of the grounds. They were given a picnic lunch and a band con cert. Commissioner Wallis gives them a little talk on America which was in terpreted for their henefit and at the close of the proceedings the band played "The Star-Spangled Banner," translations of which were furnished the immigrants. . "I have never seen anything more touching." Mr. Wallis told me. "The whole 2000 of them wept and laughed in turn. Several of them went to their knees as I passed them and prayed; They were worn out from the long journey and shaken with the fear of the unknown and here for the first time they found themselves accepted and welcomed as human be ings rather than convicted criminals and for the first time they found a promise of truth in their long-held vision of a new heaven and a new earth in a new country." "Mr. Wallis took a bill from his desk and showed it to me. It was for $93. "That's for the band and the sand wiches and the whole thing on Sun day," he explained. Don't you think it's worth $93 and the exercise of a little courtesy to start 2000 pros pective Americans right instead of wrong? I'm going to have something like that every Sunday. I'm going to get Caruso and a lot of famous artists out here to sing and play for these people. I know they'd be glad to give their services. There's going to be no more treating decent Immi grants like dangerous criminals and more than that, we're going to give them a real hearty welcome to. this land of their dreams." While Wallis believes in welcom ing the decent immigrants he also be lieves in barring the undesirables. He strongly favors more stringent Immi gration measures and will make such a. recommendation to congress. J. W. Clark of Amrrlcot, Gt., left home SIX years aso becinne be couldn't atnnd poverty. lie lm rich, today and home a era la ery. if his wife would only stay home, failed to stop Mrs. Edwards from go ing to Philadelphia, he'asserts in a bill for divorce. lilting George Do It. Mrs. Edwards wanted to go to Phil adelphia to live. Her husband begged her to remain in Pleasantville. He did everything a good, kind husband could be expected to do to induce her to stay home. He says he washed the dishes, washed tho clothes, cooked, baked, cleaned windows, scrubbed floors, darned socks, made the beds and attended generally to all the housework to try and keep his wife at home. But she packed up and went to Philadelphia just the same. So he left home, too. locked up the house, and now he wants a divorce. It may be refreshing, perhaps, to turn to a totally different kind of married man and hear the opinion of a woman whose husband hasn't left home yet, although they have been married more than 50 years. Mr. and Mrs. John G. McCarthy cel ebrated the 50th anniversary of their wedding last May. They live On East Thirtieth street. New York city. They have never quarreled, never been sep arated and are quite happy. "I suppose," said Mrs. McCarthy, "that I am just an old-fashioned wife, but I do know that we have been very, very happy, and we have had a very happy home." Then Mrs. McCarthy proceeded to make a statement that no doubt would have drawn down on her head the wrath of many of her sex, could they have been there to hear it. She declared that nine times out of ten, with a strong possibility of the tenth time as well, it is the wife's fault today when married couples cannot agree. When the women stop want ing to be "new" women, or emanci pated women, or enfranchised women, then will marriage once more become a success, was her next assepveration. To make marriage a real success and to keep husbands from leaving home, it Is the home and its care that must come first with the wife, Mrs. McCarthy said. Too many girls today know all about eating celestines of pullet a la something or other, or mousseline of kingfish, or imported caviar, and aren't even able them selves to fry an egg. Don't bother your husband about your own petty affairs during the day, is the advice Mrs. McCarthy gives young wives. Don't weep on his shoulder if the dressmaker has cut two right sleeves for your new blouse, and don't try to make him sympathize with you if you have spoiled the steak. Keep your house hold troubles to yourself and let friend husband find peace and quiet when he comes home tired out from the business cares of the day. And then he will never want to leave nomej i. a