The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1866-03-17
UNPROTECTED FEMALES.
The Apotheosis of Old and Ugly Women
Railway Flirtati0ns with Ones Grand
mother--seme Curious Phases of Modern
English Life.
From the London Saturday Review

In parliamentary paper recently issued,
Captain Tyler informs his chief that gentle
men passengers as we'll as railway officers of
ali classes, constantly refuse to travel singly
with a stranger OF the weaker sex, under she
belief that 1t is only Common prudence to
avoid in this manner all risk OF being accus-
ed--for purposes of ex,ortion-of insult or
assault" The paragraph has been approx
ingiy quoted ID most of the newspape !;
and it Is seldom that q statement 40 boid
and at ths same time yeraclous, appears in
departmental report. ANY ons who travels
much knows that good deal of alarm has
been excited among respectable males Of
late by the mama which appears to have
seized the other sex for imagining, or assert
ing, that they have been criminally assault
ed. Upon railways the terror has become a
perfect panic. No man with any considera-
ton for his character will venture within
winking distance of any woman who is rea-
sonably good-iooking, and young girls are
avoided by all prudent persons as if they
had the plague. Old women, and very ugly
women-wumen of that sterling repulslve-
ness that they carry in their faces uuan-
swerable retutation of any possible charge
of assxult-ars at high premium just now,
especially for long railway journeys. Now
is their hour of Compensation. The man
| may turn from them in the drawing room,
may vancouver to be separated from them at
| the dinner table, but in the railway carriage
they enjoy a popularity for which bright ey 50
| and youthful cheeks pine In vain. True as
| the needle to the pole, the cautions passsn
| ger flies to the favored seat what places him
/ under the wing of hairless and cappy age
| The alarm is not wholly groundiess. A pas
sion for particular kinds OF perjury does at
I particular times infest particular people
\ fhe WitchcYafr
dslusion, with all the horrible torments
which were inflicted under it's influence, was
| maintained entirely by the apparently dis
| interested testimony of a considerable num-
| her of respectable witnesses. A similar phe
nomenon occurred in England during the
prevalence of the "Popish plot" panic
There seems to be little doubt that the same
kind of half-conscious taste Tor perjury pre-
walls just now among considerable number
of girls. especially very young girls. Several
instances have occurred recently in which
such accusations have been plainly proved
| to have been the mere fruit of within or NAL
ice, and there have been many moro In
which their groundlessnees was very appar
emit, though not distinctly proved. A partic
ularly hagraut case came before the pubic q
short time ago. One Caroline Barker, 10
tall well-dressed young woman OF PROPOSES
sing appearance" presented herself at tn,
Coventry police station, and made q charge
of indecent assault, accompanied with brib
cry, against man with whom she hai
travelled from Rugby. and who had left tn,
train 1t Coventry. She minutely describst
, his appearance, and the police were already
, in quest of the alleged offender, when tn,
| superintendent, by a little judicious GROSS
! examination of the complainant, extracted
} from her confession that the whole storJ
was fiction, invented to cover the loss o
D her railway ticket.