The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1889-10-24
is SOCIETY CORRUPT?
Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Social Defects
Immoralities Of Country and City Life
Compared.


Immorali,ies Of Country and City Life
Compared
It is only the rustic, the dyspeptic or
| the declasse man or woman who Is
forever talking of the ''corruption' OF
society. Many excellent people, whose
lives have been passed entirely in rural
places, imagine the society of large
towns to be a hot-bed of immortality and
! ungodliness.
People who have striven vainly for
social place and failed to ind the open
sesame, are often loud in their denun-
Citations Of the successful, and are
wont to compare society to whited
sepulchre. But the cosmopolitan, OBJ
servant being, with q good circulation,
knows that human nature is the
same the world over, and that every
where is the same mixture of good and
evil.
During month I once passed in
remote and sparsely settled country
place, I heard Of more immoral actions
among the quiet deniZens than I heard
in two years in the largest city Of
America. Yet should one take the
trouble to select at random, in the
most respectable part of the city, the
same number of human beings, it is
wholly probable that an equal num-
Der of equally immoral, if less vulgar
actions could be recounted.
The whirl and rush of city life seems
alike unconductive to great thoughts
and small gossip, but the morals of
people are very much the same mix
ture Of good and bad in all civilized
communities.
/ l think the repression Of country
life as often brings latent propensities
for evil to the surface, as the tempta-
tions of city life. One Of our smaller
towns has been prolific in the product
OF adventurous women, who shave
achieved notoriety in the divorce
courts and it is curious fact that few
of the great adventuresses Of the worlds
history were born or bred in large
cities. But, whether in town or coun-
try place he who seeks shall find that
which he seeks.
The man or woman who sets forth
on quest Of evil is sure to find it.
Early in life I realized that there was
more pleasure to be derived from Oh
serving good than evil, and conse-
quently sought and found it existing
in abundance about me.
It is the crude idea of the youthful
mind that the world is divided into
two armies-the good and the bad
one clothed in darkness upon the left,
one in garments of light upon the right
and in deadly opposition to each other:
As we mix with the world this illusion
vanishes, for we find the two armies
clothed in the same habiliments, mix
ing togetheriamicably, and the deadly
battles are fought, silently and out of
sight in each human heart, between
right and wrong.
A great native virtue planted too
generously in human heart, and de-
prived of careful cultivation, often de-
generates into rank vice, and the
world not infrequently mistakes a
sterile aud inactive nature for one Of
great chastity and self-denial. The
summer sunlight is beautiful and ben
efcent, but is as prone to produce bugs
as butterflies, weeds as ferns, while the
winter sun produces neither. Yet the
summer sunlight is Of more use to us
than winters chill rays, despite the
bugs and weeds. A wise gardener
urpoots the one and kills the mischiev-
Gus insects.
There is no more godliness in mega
tive goodness than there is heat in
winter sunlight, which does not pro-
duce bugs or weeds simply because it
has not power enough to warm any
thing into being. and not from al i'll
herent objection to weeds !or bugs.
Absolute virtue is that which seethes
with active impulses and is forced by
will and reason into unselfish chan
nels.
The worst man I ever knew had no
| vice. He attended church and broke
no commandment and INDUCED in no
excuses. Yet he nagged his wife and
children to the; grave, and destroyed
every Slower of pleasure which sprang
up by his hearth-stone, and ruined the
tender young lives about him with the
unceasing telnpers of household
tyrant and petty demon.
Disagreeable tempers and uncon-
trolled nervous dispositions ruin more
homes than drink or vice. A fault
finding or sarcastic tongue in family
! circle drives more men and women to
evil than original sin. \ lady said to
NE once: II demand good manners
before good morals from my acquain-
tances. Bad morals can he hidden,
bad manners cannot"
I think 1 would demand good mo-
tives first Of all, since good morals
would of necessity ensue; and be
whose motives were truly good must,
too, desire not to give offence by bad
manners, and 50 all three virtues
would be his.
We're to select the one good quality
which is most indispensable to me in
an intimate friend, l would without