The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-04-26
/ WOMANs PLEA FOR WOMEN.
etIntO Temptation.


There is one sin in this world |
which, with all his consequences, is |
confined to q woman alone, visited |
with IMPLYING wrath upon her de-
fenceless head, committed as a curse |
to the memory of her children and !
placed q bar before her at the very |
threshold of heaven, while 1t touches
man scarcely as a crime. L shall call
it by no pleasing PseunOnym IN this |
article, but by the name which i
scathes her with a tongue of fire. L
shall call it adultery.
Every now and then we hear OF
some weak woman caught in the
tolls, held up to the public and care
fully dissected, all her inner life laid
bare and gloated over, all her past
goo dness and responsibility treated
as a sham, and all the props of cut
ward defense pulled away from life
which, at its best, and with the grace
of God to support It, can only be
weak and erring, her name made a
by-word and reproach, and publish
ed throughout the land for everybody
to read, even her little children
taught by careful induction the
crime of their mother, while every
avenue to escape from the conse-
quences of her sin are ungenerously
shut out by the good people who dis
penseadYice and tracts to sinners,
and think they are cheating heaven.
1t is q source of painful speculation
to a moraIst why any woman, with
a happy home, or even one that has
merely habitation, should give the
world q chance to snatch this h8ppi-
ness from her, and shut its noisy iron
gate upon her, and why, when this
woman has reached years of sober
maturity, and passed slfely all the
pitfalls of youth and passion, she
should fall voluntarily in mid life.
1t seems to me ike this: A girls
life is shielded for her before she
knows there is danger; she is mar
ried and believed TO be beyond it;
young wife is the centre of attraction;
her husband is loving and attentive;
then comes children; the strange
mysterious inner lie 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 developes into an independent
life Of its own; the husband has
grown careless by this time-hus-
bands do; he has found the congo
NAL spirits away from home, and the
wife misses the tenderness, and the
endearment that her woman's heart
still Graves; the husband is also i'm
mersed IN business all day, and
sleeps like o log all night, aud seems
TO forget, when with his wife, that
petting and cares sing are the aim of
q woman's life. He is very willing
that his partner or his friend should
be her escort to the theatre and rar-
ties, when he is too tired or too busy
to 90. He thinks she is no longer
young and gay, and he is sure of her
love, and she is his wife. She can
look life in the face without blushing.
It has no sealed book for her.
Therein lies her danger. She has
tasted the sweetest draughts OF love,
and now when she thinks it IS all
past, some one offers her the en-
chanted cup, offers it with earnest
protestations of love. She knows 1t
is sin to listen, but you and know
that sin is sweet. But dallying with
temptation she falls. You may call
it what you will, love, depravity, in
fatuation. The crime and the sweet
ness were another's, the sin and
shame are hers.
And there Is no woman that will
stand up and be her friend. They
fondle and praise the tempter, and
hang on his smiles with delight, he
is SO facinating, so elegant, so gal
ant; he was imprudent, and indis-
Greet, if married man, q shocking
naughty, wicked fellow, but she, my
good people, aoas criminal.
And some considerate friend writes
an anonymous letter to her husband
for fear that he should not know
that she was as bad as he. And hav
ing decended to that depth of mean
ness which has no beyond, waits un
til he or she reads with rapture: GO
full account of domestic infeGcity,
in the morning papers.
Well; for the people who walk tn
streets with the scarlet letter brand
ed on their hearts, pray God tina
they may never be uncovered; but
think it might prompt them to lit
tie charity, when one defenseless wO
man is being torn to pieces by human
wolves And to those men who pub
ish their shame and thatoE their chill
dren, 1 would say that, Joseph be
ing righteous man, was minded t,
put her away privily," but that the.
are little like the Joseph Of eithe
the Old or New Testament.