The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-03-27
An Open Letter.
To Any GIRL WHO NAY CLAM r.

ID ANY GIRL WHO NAY CLAIM IT.
They tell me you are what the world
calls firt, that all the little attractions
wiileh nature has given you have been
suoordlnated to base uses, and YOU have
openly boasted of the eonuuests Won
have made through the power of CO.
quetry. Pause, beg of you; it is not
YET 100 laiei you cannot know whittier
this tendency is leading you, or YOU
would never have entered the path.
Ihere are many reasons why you should
pause. The fact that you are so debas-
ing your wOmanhOOd proves conclu-
sively that you never could have known
the power of passion that has many
times made angels of demons.
Oh. you blush. It is well; at gives
hope for the future-it tells that you are
not dead to reason and shame. Shall I
tell you why you are on the brink of
terrible danger? Does not your own
heart tell you that some time, as there
enters into the heart of every man and
woman, sooner or later, 4 love stronger
than death and true as truth, so It must
come to you, and in your soul Of souls
you must feel that only the man worthy
the admiration and love of any woman
is one that would not for an instant tTifie
with the affections of another? DO
you think that the true man whom you
could honor as 4 husband would care to
take to his embrace a wife whose lips
had been sullied by careless and pro-
miscuOus contact with any one who had
CHANGED to be the plaything of the hour.
You may plead, in extenuation of
your fault, that you were engaged to
those whose caresses you permitted, but
in the several instances referred to dis
covered before it was too late that you
had mistaken passing fancy for life
long affection. 1t is no excuse at all.
Indeed, il proves you weaker than be-
fore. You have no right to promise
yourself in marriage to man whom
you are not sure you can love until death.
These are not to be made matters of
haste; and when you so far forget your
wOmanly dignity as to snap at any
chance bait that may be offered, to find
out later that you are mistaken, you
must not wonder that your name is
banded carelessly about among your
masculine acquaintauces, and the better
kind of men begin to shun you.
There is difference, my young friend,
between prudishness and womanly self
respect, and you viii always find that
any man, high or low, pure in thought
or thoroughly debased, will not forget
the difference due to n true woman.
GU ought 10 Know lDSllncllNeiy LnAV
/ familiarity is no evidence of manly re-
gard, and the proffered caress too often
springs from q motive so base that |
need not name it. Guard yourself, then,
that when the time does come in which
you can truly say to any man that he is
more to you than all else, you will have
no reluctance to lay before him the his
tory of your past life, unspotted by the
/ breath Of suspicion, untarnished by
practices not open TO the world; and,
when the time does come, as you would
have true sympathy and happiness in
the future, give each other your conf
( denee regarding the past; let there be no
J sealed pages, no forgotten details, whose
ghostly presence will haunt you ever
after, and, if discovered, east a shadow
between you and him who has trusted
you.