The Sweetwater enterprise. (Sweetwater, Tenn.) 1869-187?, 1872-04-18
Lead Us not Into TenptatiOn-A
WOman'S Plea for Woman.

There Is ono sin in this world winch,
with all it's fearful consequences, Is con-
fined to u woman alone, visited with mn
dying wrath upou her dctcnselrss head,
committed Ms a curse 10 the mcmurv of
her children, and placed n hr before her
at the very threshold of Heaven, while
it touches man scarcely ms crime. I
shull call it by no pleasing pscudonym
in this article, but by the name which
scathes hey with tongue OF fire shall
call it adultery!
/ Every now and then we hear of some
weak woman caught in the tolls, held up
to tho public and carefully dissectcd MI
her inner life laid bare and gluated over,
oll her past goodness and rcspectability
treated as n sham, and all the props of
outward defense pulled away from life
which, at its best, and with the grace of
God to support it, can only be weak md
errlng; her namo made by-word and
roproach, and published throughout the
land for everybody to read; even her
children taught by careful induction the
crime Of their mother, while every ave-
nue. to escape from the consequences of
her sin arc ungenerously shut out by
the good people who dispense advice and
tracts to sinners, and think they are
cheating Heaven.
1t is q source of painful speculation to
a moralist why any woman, with hap
py home, or even one that was merely a
habitation, should give the world n
chance to snatch this happiness from
her, and shut its noisy iron gates upon
her, and why, when this woman has
reached years of sober maturity. and
passed safely all the pitfalls of youth and
passion, she should fall voluntarily in
mid life.
1t seems to me like this: A girls life
is shielded for her before she knows
there is danger; she is married, and be-
lieved to be beyond it; young wife is
the centre of attraction; then come chill
dren; tho strange, mysterious life that
comes from Heaven makes thousand
responses from the sacred depths of
mothers heart; by and by the baby is
taken out Of her arms, it may be by
death, or it develops into an indepen-
dent life of its own; the husband has
grown careless by this time-husbands
do; ho has found the congenial spirits
away from home, md the wife misses
the tenderness, and the cndearment that
her woman's heart still Graves; the hus-
band il also immersed in business all
Nday, and sleeps like u log all night, and
seems to forget, when with his wife, that
pctting and carosSing are tho aim OF
womans life. He is very willing that
his partner or his friend should be her
escort to the theatre una parties, when
he is too tired or too busy to 30. He
thinks sue is no longer young and gay,
and he is sure Of her love, rs she is his
wife. She Gun look life in the face with
out blushing. 1t has no sealed book for
her. Therein lies her danger. She has
tasted the sweetest drafts of love, aad
now when she thinks it is all past, some
one offers hcr the enchanted cup, offers
it with earnest protcstations of love- She
knows it is sin to listen, but you and |
both know that sin is sweet. BY daily
ing with temptation she falls You may
call it what you will-love, depravity,
infatuation. The crime and sweetness
were another's, the sin and shame arc
hers.
And there is no woman that will stand
up and be her friend. They will fondle
and praise the tcmptcr, and hang on his
smiles with dclight-Lc is so fascinating
SO elegant, SO gallant; he WAS impru-
dent, and indiscreet; if married man,
a shocking, naughty, wicked fellow, but
she, my good people, ,caS criminal.
And some considerate friend writes
an anonymous letter to her husband,
for fear that he should not know that
she was as bad rs he. And having de-
scended to that depth of meanness which
has no beyond, waits until he or she
reads with rapture, "a full account of
domestic infelicity," i'll the morning pa
pers.
Well, for the people who walk the
streets with the scarlet letter branded
on their hearts, l pray God they may
never be uncovered, but think it might
prompt them to little charity, when
one defenseless woman is being torn to
pieces by human wolves. And to those
men who publish their shame and that
Of their children, 1 would say that,
"Joseph being righteous man, was
minded to put her away privily," but
that they are little like the Josephs Of
either the Old or New Testament
Louisville Commercial.
-b-94---
A True Bill.