The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1860-07-19
INNOCENT FLIRTATIONSo


society which cries more loudly than
any other for reform, that feature per
erosllence is the system Of airtation car
ried on by married women. Nine.tonths
OF all tho divorce suits brought by huS.
bands against their wives for criminality
can be traced directly to "innoccnt fir.
tation..' And the weak victim Of an
elopement can almost invariably look
back TO her first error rs committed at
tho time when she received the atton.
tons Of another than her husband.-
These "innocent firtations' of married
women are the denominations of modern
society, and tend as directly to subvert
the domestic relations us visiting tipling
shops does to drunkenness. Sindney
Smith says Show me woman who will
not blush While displaying her beauty,
grace, or charms, and you will have
shown me one whose virtue hangs up.
on Il thread which word will cut -
There are some women who can always
sec in the many who surround them in
their comminglings with society certain
attractive points in others that their
experience tells them are not possessed
by their husbands, and whenever they
discern one Of these apparent cXccllen,
cies in others they are suro to see Il cor
responding deficiency at home, For,
getting that none are perfect, such wo.
men are apt to magnify mole. hills Of
faults into mountains Of crimes. An
uneasiness,, therefore, takes possession
Of them, and they think over their hus-
bands defects until their happiness is
destroyed, and they are prepared to re-
ccirc the attentions of all those who
approach them, hoping and expecting
to find IL "congeniaIity' which their own
imaginutions have convinced them is es-
sental to their happiness, This dis
quictudc is heightened when they con-
slider that thy are bound already in
matrimonial obligations which cannot
be severed, and as society, though gull
ty Of the same tailings, perhaps, equally
with them, will not look with compla-
ccncy upon them in receiving familiar
attentions in public, clandestine meet
ings are next in consideration, and hon
GRAND virtue yield Il willingprcy topper
vertod judgments and sensual appetites.
The wife seeks to keep from her hus-
band knowledge Of her preference for
another, until from her too oft repeated
| ntimacicS with others her heart is ut
tcrly cstrangod from him. Then aC.
tuated BY guilt alone, feeling herself de-
based beyond redemption, she casts
off the cloak Of privacy ard emorges in
to the world an outcast, despi5cd and
shuncd by those perhaps equally as gull
/ ty, and 10y society at large. Is proof
Of this necededY Arc not clopemcnts
the order of the day? Are they not
comming to be more prevalent than
any other species Of crime? Divorces
| by the dozen are ofcommon occurrence,
and society is continually nauscatel
with the tales Of guilt brought to light
by the newspapers and the courts. We
are not sure there is any remedy for
this state Of things us long as parents
persist in training up their daughters
in idlcncss, and sons in luxury and ef-
f6minacy-uttenly ignorant of the true
aim and object of existence, with onl ly Il
paror education for the first and fast
life for the other-having no greater
care than to carefully fit their daugh-
ters in extensive ap. ,carancc for the
matrimonial market, and to establish
their sons in "positions' amongst the
corrupt surroundings Of fashionable So
ciety, thus giving to both an outside
show which is entirely at war with the
real business Of life