Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-08-25
WOMEN 1T THE BOTTOM OF MIS-
EHTEF

line woman whom thou gayest to be with
me, she gave me of the tree and did eat,''
was the paltry excuse of that old fraud
Adam for his first transgression. The same
excuse has been echoed and re-echoed ever
since when men, detected in crime, have
seen offended justice oyertake them. So
universal has it become to lay our weakness
es and follies upon the shoulders of the
weaker sex that it has become proverb,
generally accepted as truthful, that s'There
is woman at the bottom of all mischief
And it seems to be true that when gigantic
defalcatlons are traced back, woman is
generally found to have had some part in it,
although it rarely turns out to be the woman
whom God gave to the man in marriage.
There are instances in which men are
driven to their ruin by the extravaganza
and ambition of their wives. A desire to
shine in the social circle, to dress better
than their neighbors, to live in an elegant
home sumptuously furnished, sometimes
overcome all other desires, and husband is
driven to bankruptcy or dishonesty to graf
ify that ambition. Notable examples in
public life were afforded few years ago by
the fall of two prominent cabinet officers,
who were driven to theft and bribe-takine
by the vanity of their wives. Happily,
however, these instances are rare and
the woman in the majority of cases
is not wife-or at least not the wife of the
man who finally sacrifices his honor at Ter
beck. Against the Establishments of such
women, man of integrity ought to be proof,
and if he is weak enough to give way to the
temptations she casts in his way, his pride
ought to deter him from confessing his
weakness. 1t is no excuse for a mans dis
honesty that woman tempted him. That
is the most cowardly of all pleas-a confess
sion that he has not the moral firmness nee
essary to resist temptation, and, therefore,
does not deserve to be trusted. He deserves
no sympathy and should receive none.
Most wives have the interests of their hus
bands too dearly at heart to need any words
of advice. But there are some who, by their
extravaganza, ignorantly involve their hus-
bands in financial difficulty and thus become
indirectly responsible for their lapses from
the paths of rectitude. These instances are
exceptional, however.
On behalf of womankind, the impure as
we'll as the pure, we protest against the dis
position so manifest of late to saddle the
shortcomings of men upon them. The in
fuence of woman is oftener beneficial than
injurious, and would always be SO if mon
were constituted Alright. A mans lapses
from integrity are oftener the result of his
own vanity--a desire to appear in better
financial circumstances than he really
is. He spends more money than
he can afford, and with lavish hand
scatters his favors about. When he has
finally reached the end of his rope and is
detected in pilfering from his employees, he
confesses his misdeeds and whiningly pleads,
"Ihe woman tempted me- There is no
manhood in such plea. If man falls, let
him take the responsibility confess himself
a knave and fool, but not sock to cast the
blame upon woman. None but a coward
by nature would do SO. The crimes of the
Wlnslows, the Corants and the Angels of
the country are their own, not those of the
women who perhaps innocently partook of a
part of their ill-gotten gains. If a part of the
indignation heaped upon the heads of poor
weak women was placed where it belongs
upon the vain, morally imbecile men who
often make victim sof the weaker vessels
might look for more sturdy manhood as
result.