National Republican., 1880-03-11
MISCELLANEOUS.
TINE HAWK AND TnE DoVEs.
a NIbblo by NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..


When l was at school the gray old rat who
was my teacher was very imperative about
great many things. have noticed, as I grow
older, that teachers are not the only peopl
who make the most Of II little brief authority
over those weaker than themselves. Among
other things we, poor little mice, were re-
CURED TO strnighten out the crooked roots In
Latin till a shingle was bcggar to II. They
were the toughest roots / ever nibblcd. But
mice, like men, arc sometimes benefited by
tho very things that once seemed their greatest
curse; at least was In that case. ! learned
but little Latin, 1t is true but the terrible foar
of Master Rat burned every fable in that
reader into my memory as translated IL, and
they have furnished me many valuable lessons
since. Certain late events recall one of these
TO my mind, aud | will give my readers the
benefit of it. 1t runs thus:
THE doves fearing the kite, aslccdithe hawk
that ho would defend them. He consented,
but, received into the dovecote he caused y
greater overthrow Ia ono day than tho kite
would have been able to cause in a long time"
Esop was n blind negro, | am told, but he
saw too far to think II necessary to append
tho usual 'Hdcc fdbuid docet' to this, for the
moral is SO plain that "he who runs may
read"
Now these are the recent events that re.
call the fable of "The Hawk and the Dovesp
SO forcbly to my mind. Last week onr daily
papers were rocking for day or two with an
account of horrible thing that took place in
East Washington. Another issue of these
papers told the story of q poor young woman
deceived and deserted The first was a brutal
outrage by brutal negro, while the latter
was seduction by intellect, money and power.
They were alike in one thing: both denied it;
thoy were unlike in another thing: the negro
abused aud maltreatcd his victim, but her
soul remains pure AS the snow; she is stilla
Christian young woman challenging the pity of
tho world, but the blame of none: but tho
honorable gentleman (?) who leads his victim
astray with her own consent, defiles her soul
as well as her body, aud she is henceforth an
aCcursed thing, scorned aud despised by the
world and pitied only by the few gentle souls
who think of Jesus and accept this Magda-
lens tears as He did the precious ointment
Of that woman of Magdala who sinned aud
suffered so many pears ago. The people arose
in their might on account of the first of the
cases aud debated about sending petitions to
Congress for u law making that onense cap
ital one.
Now, looking back only from the beginning
of the present Congress, see pale ghost in
the bayous of Louisiana petitioning Heaven
to avenge her, while chair in Congress is
still filled by the man who ruined hor. sec,
also, a, desperate but once loving woman,
taking her defense in her own hands, while
her seducer is protected by a member
of the same Congress, and given employment
at q large salary in the same. But these two
arc young mon, aud though the crime is no
less on that account, It seems hardly as shame
full as when committed by one whose head is
whitening for tho grave; ard yet, just
Heaven how often the silver hair Of age,
like the snow ii resembles, serves to cover up
filth, rottenness and corruption, especially in
the high places of life till the sun of an in
vcstgation reveals IL all, and the world is
l.I,, glnah &c HaI AnH
then, do they bow their heads and, crying
peccdri, sue for pardon? Nay, verify; but
every culprit, whether hale or hoary, raises
the yelp of "blackmail," baying the poor,
ruined woman down like bloodhounds when
their money fails to buy her off, taking the
matter to the courts in the face of all their
guilt, where their money is always more sue
cessful. God help the doves who flee for pro-
lection from the kite that can, at most,
swoop down upon them but occasionally,
when they are unprotected to this hawk
which they all receive into the dovocoto.
We are taught in an obscure way that man
Is woman's protector, but never for the life
of me could see the truth in any broad sense
of that statement. Man is his own protector,
aud where woman belongs to him lie will
generally protect her as he would any other
possession; but the fact is, women, as class, are
unprotected, for even the laws that are sup
posed to DO impartial are enacted in tho in-
framed. A man is murdered in cold blood; wo
have law to hang his murderer and it is
quite often enforced, too-outsde of Washing
tom but there is an injury done TO woman
either with OF without her consent, that is
worse than mere bodily death a thousand
fold aud few years in tho penitentiary when
a man is brute enough to use force is all the
redress the law affords her, unless the
victim dies (which would be a mercy
beyond computaton) then they may hang the
man as the cause of the death, which was her
only salvation. When the injury 10 accom-
plished by mans oily deceitfulncss, or the
advantage his money gives him over womans
dire necessity, there is barely law enough to
make her some amends, either on q cash basis
or by saddling her for lifO with the wretch
who Is her greatest cnemy-there is just law
enough, say. But If the man is a Member OF
Congress, or any othor big gun, it is like the
Irishman's blunderbuss "it kicks over the
very mon that 1t wasn't wanted to. bedad !"
All my poor doves, I would rather risk
the kite than tho hawk for tho exercise of
little common sense will preserve you from
tho former but the hawk-God bless you--
may be just on your threshold, and the bigger
he IL, the greater your danger for his eyrie
is then so high that no power can save, If
once he gets you in his cruel talons.