Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-07-20
SHE LOST HER FAITH.
IT WAS AN "UNcoMMoNLY QUIET
AND ORDERLY NIGHT"

100 w oy0 Oh y AOVcI "hOD0 AAoDAso ssO~O
Not Such ~ . Maiden Wants In .
Man She Il to Tie Up to for Life.-How
She Made the Discovery.
I have q young friend who has lost
most all of her faith in masculine human
nature She probably still believes in her
father and brother, and, of course, her con-
fidence in her favorite clergyman is unim-
paired: but as for the rest Of the sterner sex
she thinks of it as should dreadfuliy hate
to have any one think Of me. But I must
hurry to tell you just how it all happened
My friend Miss Flora never mind her other
name went to Europe about tive years ago
to complete musical and generally artistic
course in Italy. As q school girl of 10 she
formed fond attachment for q
young Knickerbocker. They exchanged
rings and, as they both thought,
their alleged hearts in the bargain.
While she was away she was a great deal
more steadfast to her troth, as girls ususally
are, than he was, l think. at any rate,
she got good many hints from friends at
home, Just before she returned, that made
her doubt whet or his habits were just such
as she wanted in a man she was to tie up to
for life The consequences was that when
she heard that she heard that her Charley
was going wrong she did something differ
ent from sitting down, as most girls would,
and having a good weep First she rote
to him all she had heard, and he. ~ .rring
to lie rather than lose her and he. alf mil
lion, wrote back that he was a saint, and
whoever said he wasn't was q liar, 20 to
speak.
DARING SCHEME.
She didn't believe him, and she wrote to
me- Il am coming home" she said, with
the most daring scheme that l ever bad, and
you and your cousin Bob are in it" knew
it would be something breathless, but was
hardly prepared for what 1t turned out to
be She wanted to get male toggery for her
self and me- and then have Cousin Bob to
introduce us as young foreigners to her
Charley" as she always called him was
like Artemus Ward during the war, per-
fectly willing to sacrifice all my wifes rela-
tions, but l would not 60 myself MY
figure is not exactly the sort for male attire,
my dear, said l.; but you'll do, with your
hair clipped, and you can have Cousin Bohs
She wanted to put in a night around
town with her Charlie, and, as Bob Knew
him very well, it was as easy as an old
stocking Bob wouldn't hear of it at first
81 kick, be said. Gan right said 1; ''kick if
you want to, but you'll either do what
want or you don't go anywhere with me or
my friends next summer" We'll, he did it,
but he said I'd regret it the longest day /
lived
Flora got herself up in the style Of law
student-one Of those buttoned up things in
black, with a mouth and the handle of a
cane always in it, and eyeglasses, and the
stare of baby trying to look like an old
bachelor. She's a born actress, and she
looked true to life She went with Bob and
her Charlie and half a dozen others, mostly
gold-plated young snobs, to see a burlesque.
Flora pretended to be just from France and
unable to speak English, SO that no nobody
tried to talk to her except Bob
AN HOUR OF wICKEDNEsS
Her plan worked to dot She saw and
heard enough to satisfy her. To use her
own words: If went to a nunnery to-
morrow I'd have had more than my share
of wickedness just from that night" Every
one of the young men, except Bob knew
some of the girls on the stage, and they
talked about them, she says, just as jockeys
might be supposed to talk about horses
One of the young men fiirted with q woman
in the audience, met her after the play, and
went away to supper with her, while the
rest strolled to an all night chop house on
Sixth avenue. Flora stood it there just one
hour She drank Rhine wine to which she
is accustomed, but the conversation of the
young men, the stories they told and the
way they behaved with the mattresses who
attended them caused her to beg Bob to
take her home He told me that he had
been wanting to do that from the first
1T was nothing extraordinary" said he;
Tin fact it was an uncommonly quiet and
orderly night the boys were having, but
they talked freely, and although 1 should
have thought nothing Of It ordinarily, still
when l knew that a sweet and innocent girl
was listener and lookeron there suffered
such torture as never did before in my
life 1t gave me a new view Of life, and
ever since then have been half ashamed of
myself in feminine company"
As for Flora, 1 can't tell you what she
said She came and flung herself on my
bed and cried, the next day, till l thought
she would weep herself crazy. Beasts"
and "brutes" were the only words she could
find to apply to her companions Of the night
before, and she assured me that in all the
French novels, all the criminal reports and
all the start ing talk she had ever read or
heard she had never conceived a tenth Of
tho perfectly awful horribleness Of these
young men.
TO CAP THE CLIMAX.
Well, that Is not all There is more to
Flora's case, and in fact, come in here my
self Flora wrote to her Charley, telling
him that she was the French student who
spent that evening with him He tried to
see her. but she said she would rather touch
q toad Then he wrote to her that he was
far better than an average young man; in
fact, that he Was rather a model-sober,
honest, Industrious, and without being ad-
dicted to any vice except smoking. To cap
the climax, her own people took his side,
and she has had assurances that he is an I'M
commonly nice young man from-whom do
you thinki Why, from two clergymen,
from cousin Bob, from q great reformer,
from college professor, from a banker and
from male relatives a score in number.
Flora is disheartened and disguised. She
has not given up the sex She means to
find some decent, clean, manly, self respect
ing, ambitions fellow, who leads one life, as
open as q book, aud she means to point to
him, and tell all who have assured her to
the contrary that it is not impossible to be
decent and be man at the same tima But,
my gracious. It's been a revelation
Gen. Forest a Letter Writer.
@Ycs. said Col Mcclure, appointment
clerk OF the postotiice department, to a re-
porter. Gen Forest of the Confederate
army. though born cavalry general, was
one OF the most illiterate men that ever
lived He and photography, etymology,
syntax and prosc<.y We're mortal foea l
f.N~ II
They would have made Josh Billings and
,aal,,,o . ro,rn0