Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-29
IS SOCIETY CORRUPT?
Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Our Social
Weaknesses and Defects.
CITY AND RURAL LIFE COMPARED.
Things Wherein American Social Life is
Little Loose.
THE WORST MAN THE POETESs EVER MET
WRITTEN FOR THE p1spATcH.I

|
1t is only the rustic the dyspeptic, or the
declasse man or woman who is forever talk
ing 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 hotbed of i'm
morality and godlessness.
People who have striven vainly for social
place and failed to find the open sesame are
often loud in their denuncIations of the sue
cessful, and are wont to compare society to a
whited sepulcher. But the cosmopolitan,
observant being, with a good circulation,
knows that human nature is the same the
world over, and that everywhere is the same
mixture of good and evil.
During month I once passed in re-
mote and sparsely settled country place, I
heard of more immoral actions among the
quiet denizens than had 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 number of equally
! immoral, if less vulgar actions could be re-
counted.
The whirl and rush Of city life seems alike
unconducive to great thoughts and small
gossip, but the morals of people are very
much the same mixture Of good and bad in
all civilized communities.
think the repression of country life as
| often brings latent propensities for evil to
the surface, as the temptations of city life.
One of our smaller towns has been prolific
in the product Of adventurous women, who
have achieved notoriety in the divorce
courts; and it is curious fact that few of
the great adventuresses of the worlds his
tory were born or bred in large cities. But,
whether in town or country place, he who
seeks shall find that which he seeks.
AN EASY THING TO FIND.
The man or woman who sets forth on
quest of evil is sure to find it. Early in life
realized that there was more pleasure to be
derived from observing good than evil, and
consequently sought and found it existing
in abundance aboutme.
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 dark
ness 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 hsbiliments, mixing
together amicably, 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 gener-
ously in human heart and deprived of
careful cultivation, often degenerates into
rank vice, and the world not infrequently
mistakes sterile and inactive nature for
one of great chastity and selt-denial. The
inhr ioh TIL nd
but it is as prone to produce bugs as butter
flies, 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 gar
dener uproots the one and kills the mischiev- |
Gus insects.
There is no more godliness in negative
goodness than there is heat in winter SUM-
light, which does not!produce bugs or weeds
simply because it has not power enough to |
warm anything into being, and not from an
inherent objection to weeds or bugs.
Absolute virtue is that which seethes with /
active impulses and is forced by will and |
reason into unselfsh channels.
A REAL BAD MAN.
The worst man / ever knew had no vice. |
He attended church and broke no command |
ment and INDUCED in no excesses. Yet he
nagged his wife and children to the grave,
and destroyed every flower of pleasure
which sprang up by his hearthstone, and
ruined the tender young lives about him
with the unceasing tempers of house hold
tyrant and petty demon.
Disagreeable tempers and uncontrolled
nervous dispositions ruin more homes than
drink or vice. A fault-fnding or sarcastic
tongue in family circle drives more men
and women to evil than original sin. A
lady said to me once: 81 demand good
manners before good morals from my ac-
quaintances. Bad morals can be hidden,
bad manners cannot"
1 think I would demand good motives
first of all, since good morals would of ne
cessity ensue; and he whose motives were
truly good must, too, desire not TO give
otfense by bad manners, and so all three
virtues would be his.
Were to select the one good quality
which is most indispensable to me in an in
innate friend, I would without hesitation
say sincerity. No matter if she be bright,
gifted, refined, smiable and witty, full of
and affection, yet an insur-
mountable wall stands between my heart
ters and in great.
"Come and see me soon," said to a
friend one day, who stepped off car as I
stepped on.
''Yes, tomorrow or next day." she re-
piled.
In consequence I stayed indoors during
both days, missing drive and luncheon,
which declined because felt that my
share in the engagement necessitated my
at home during the specified 4S
hours.
She did not come, nor did she send an
apology. She had spoken from the lips
only, and she had supposed my invitation
was purely polite one, which would be
satisfied with a speedy promise and tardy
iulflment. But fine code of honor in these
small matters permits no carelessness of
invitation or reply.
If say to friend in passing, "Come
around and see me tomorrow" it is my
duty to remain at home during that day, or
to send word if obliged to 60 out. We
have no right to say these things on i'm
pulse, and then waive the responsibility
they incur.
1t savors of moral worthlessness and ire
sponslbility.
A WANT OF SINCERITY.
1 once knew a gentleman who was prone
to make cordial speeches to people in whom
he really felt no interest. In public con-
veyance one Saturday morning he encount-
cred an acquaintance from a neiphborjnp