River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1881-11-17
---- -
Sowing Wild Oats,

The Cramer case, which is exciting
so much general attention, belongs to
the wildcats variety of products.
Whether the pretty girl whose body
was found in the water at West Haven
little while ago was murdured or
drowned herself in fit of remorse, is of
no consequence, so far as the cause and
moral of this affair is concerned. She
was beautiful and spirited, somewhat
headstrong, given to having her own
way and fond of Irritation. She meant
no harm in going out upon the College
Green in the evening and picking up an
acquaintance there just for the fun of
the thing, and meeting him on the side
walk and going with him on excursions
in the evenings were only girlish ways
of sowing wildcats. The young man
and his cousin were engaged in the
same exciting occupation. Not that
they wished harm to anybody; they
wanted their fill of fun and frolic, OF
excitement and exhilaration, regard
less of commandments and with no
thought of their consequences. The
old fogy ways of living were too slow
and dull for their rapid-transit notions,
and they drowned the decencies in de-
bauch. And the result was that the
body of the beautiful girl who had been
wronged was fished out of the water
dead, and they are left to reflect upon
the perils and penalties of fast living,
behind the grated windows of a prison
their prospect of life destroyed, their
family name blackened, their. home
dishonored, even though they should
be acquitted of murder. This is the
crop that came of that sowing of wild
oats. There has grown up in this coun-
try within half century spirit of
levitv, and leniency toward some
forms of vice, and a general loosening
of restraint on the young which tend to
encourage the sowing of wild oats re-
CARELESS of the yield. 1t seems in
many quarters to be taken for granted
that youth has great deal of folly to
get rid of, and must have its run of
fastness as childhood is expected to
have measles and chickenpox. A
smoking, staggering, pool-playing,
wine-bibbing boy, turning night into
day and sleeping till noon to recover
from his carouse, is only sowing his
wild oats, which is spoken of as SYM
pathetically as though he were baby
cutting his teeth. Whoever has the in
clination to fast ways and reckless be-
havior which goes under that name,
should bury it under all possible thick
nesses of good resolutions ana noble
conduct, and let it fertilize the soil for
a finer growth of manliness instead of
planting it where twill reproduce after
It's kind. For wild oats grow. They
Weld a crop of bad habits, of evil COM
panions, and vicious tastes, of disease,
and sometimes of crime and death.
They produce hundreds of Jennie
Cramer deaths every year. They
colonize the prison cells. They bring a
heavy aftermath of remorse and
wretchedness. There is no crop sown
that brings forth such a harvest of sor-
row, and Indebtedness and shame.
Yet at the present time the customs of
| society and the too lenient judgement
of our easy-going people encourage
the sowing and furnish all the condi-
tions for raising the crop. The time
/ has come for parents to consider
whether it pays them or their children
| to SOW wild oats, when better kind of
seed can be scattered just as we'll. All
possible joy to the young; all possible
innocent pleasure to young people; all
the freedom compatible with safety.
But the lines drawn across the world
by the fingers of the Eternal, which
cannot be crossed, should be pointed
out, and every precipice should be
fenced against the feet of inexperience.
Let the young be made to understand
that the everlasting laws of cause and
consequence cannot be trifed with.
and that if they SOW wild oats they will
be forced to harvest pain and wretch
edness, ifnot disgrace and death.