People can get some pretty wacky ideas about marriage. While this article does not fully explain what a “pure” marriage is, I get the feeling that the head of this church somehow thought that only medically pure people should enter into the realm of a pure marriage. There is also the question of what precisely is meant by “race suicide.”
“Pure” Marriage Idea is Not Popular
Dean Summer of the Episcopal Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul is not having much success with his sterilized, hygienic, 100 per cent pure marriage plan.
The plan has been in operation now for five weeks. Over a score of couples have applied at the church to be married. They were all handed a list of questions, embracing questions from did your great grandfather have a fever blister in his left lip, to the applicant’s opinion on race suicide, and were told to have the questions answered and certified by a reputable physician.
But two couples have returned with the blanks filled out. Two thirds of the couples have smilingly declined to take away with them the question list.
Source: The Day Book (Chicago, Illinois newspaper). May 16, 1912.
