Installment VI of Cheating Hubby’s from True Story magazine, circa 1920.

I know one husband who walked out on a wild stag party of his friends, thrown by an all-male club. He was the only man among twenty present who refused to have intercourse with ladies of the evening who were brought to the party for that purpose.

“I value my marriage too much,” he told me, “to cheapen it by a few seconds of pointless pleasure. I wouldn’t want it on my conscience. It wouldn’t have been worth the psychological damage it would have done to me. I think there were other husbands who felt as I did, but they were afraid of being ridiculed by the ‘boys’ if they refused.”

Since roughly one out of three husbands doesn’t have such a high code of ethics, let’s analyze the principal reasons for infidelity, and what can be done about them.

The husband who is guilty of third-degree—unfaithful only once, or at rare intervals—is often a *victim* of circumstances. It isn’t easy for a husband who’s alone to keep his sexual urges in check. His fall from grace is usually due less to his desire for other women than for sexual relief.

(Wow. This is hard to swallow. I always thought it was easier for men to keep the urges in check when alone. The hard part came when the husband found a willing partner—either by chance, or by design.)

If he drinks more than he intended, his moral sense may become blurred. (I suppose only men were/are subject to this very convenient excuse?) He can become intoxicated even faster by a heady perfume and the seductive arts of a prostitute. It takes a great deal of willpower to resist the open invitation of adventurous bachelor girls, widows, or divorcees out for excitement. (With such a laissez-faire attitude on cheating, it’s a wonder any couples during this era ever stayed faithful to one another!) From a moral point of view, it is certainly regrettable that any husband would allow himself to be seduced.

The writer actually continues to say that “if a husband has such a lapse, it would be charitable to consider that he was more sinned against than sinning. Particularly if he is properly and sincerely repentant.
Stay tuned next week for Installment VII of Cheating Hubby’s!!