Wichita eagle., 1889-10-25
AN OPEN DOOR FOR OPEN HEARTS.
The Women OF Wichita Appeal to the Men o
Wichita on a Question of Manhood and
WouanhoOd.

The founding of no charity yet under
taken by the ladies of Wichita has SO en-
listed our sympathies. no appeal yet made
| for good word has come with such not
| to-be-denied force, as that from band Of
women proposing a refuge for the hunted
down of their own sex; home for that es-
tranged, unfortunate class, whose very
| helplessness proclaims their frailty no less
than their utter dependence; yet against
whom, despite all their defenseless weak
| ness, is ever arrayed the strong, unsympa-
thetic hand of self sufficient society: class
whose irremissable stain came only be-
cause of innocency and implicit trust.
whose EQUALIZATION was made possible
only through womanly instincts, and who
is never made the recipient of kindness
unmixed with a curse.
Even if that restraint which delicacy
imposes, were swept aside. there remains the
oppressive consciousness, that in max
ing such An appeal, men will sheer and
women disown, and both in refusing to
believe or trust, deny. The humble Naza-
rine, alone, as he stood face to face
with guilt upon the one hand and self
righteousness upon the other, possessed
the repleteness of compassion and the
comprehensive wisdom necessary to I'M
nerve, with a word, the hands that were
eager to hurl-stones and death
The men of today, like the accusers of
old, who stood ready to Stay, conscience
smitten creep away; but the fallen woman
of the now finds to her dismay no immor-
tai champion to pour into her despairing
soul those healing words, they do not &C
cuse you, neither do l." No teacher of
divine truth comes to the misguided girl
in the hour Of her agony and of her re-
morse with the assurance that she is just
as pure as he who sinned against her, that
the longings of her heart for the good the
true and the beautiful, are just as much
heaven-implanted as the lisped prayer Of
innocence, nor that in the balances Of eter-
nal justice her wrongs weigh as heavily as
of those who hold her touch to be only
contamination.
There is coming another standard OF
justice for women, in the near future, a
standard wherein the rigid lines of the
past will be rounded out with a higher and
a clearer truth, and softened with
truer and greater charity; a stand
ard whereby the brute in the
man shall not be PERMITTED. with inn
punity, to stain the angel in the woman;
a time wherin righteousness will not be
allowed to destroy virtue only to be ap-
plauded by the world as natural
act, while innocence wrecked, creeps
victim away in hopeless sorrow to die, or
sweeps out into dark despair a fiend of
desperation, yet boasting the flexible form
and the fair face of woman.
The human heart Is the same every
where, 1t knows no race, no condition
and no sex, in its longings for happiness;
and, why she, the fsirer and the more
truthful half of the race, why woman, who
possesses and contains all that we believe
Of heaven, should become the subject, be
made the thing less than a slave to her
tempter and betrayer, with his brutishness
condoned and she crushed as being less
than human and all because Of her greater
trust in man, are burning questions whose
answers will yet be forced from man him
self, despite the armor of his selfish ma
ture.
Women are strong only in their con-
seriousness of purity, which once sullied
leaves them all too weak to stand alone.
Their shield of innocency, once broken
they become the ready prey of even weak
lings.
''The Open Door, charity was organ
lied by band of mature women of this
city with the determination to furnish a
guard and refuge for those who may either
in their despair or from loftier motives flee
to them for succor and for a sustaining
arm not only, but with the noble and ex-
allied resolve that that which is more es-
sential as a retaining power, namely con-
sideration and kindness, tempered with
sympathy, love and trust, should be ten
dered and afforded to everyone who might
become an inmate of that home.
And now this appeal is not made to
women only, but to all such men as are
not entitled to cast the first stone," no
less than to those who have led irreproach- |
able lives. The mere brute we do not hope |
do not expect, scarce care to reach or
touch. But these women offer to do if !
they are but permitted. Upon this altar
the sin offerings of thousands of men of
this city ought to be placed without solicit |
tation. AS was intimated in our first |
words, the subject becomes double one |
even for public writer. but how much |
more so for modest women who have un-
dertaken this disinterested charity, |
this noble pledge of laudible faith,
that they make an earnest
not to be rejected appeal to
of Wichita. 1t is a manhood that |
responds in no half-hearted way when ap-
in the right spirit. and a man
hood which we are convinced will ap-
preciate the truth of much that is here set |
Down.
Because of the delicacy involved in the
embracing the proposed effort,
we understand that it was not the inten-
lion of the ladies in the first place to APP
peal to men at all But now that they
have secured their ''home" which they
have christened with that suggestive name
The Open Door''-and which will be open
lay and night, on East Central avenue, as
open as that other door which means only
and shame to the poor help
ess, unfortunate inmates-we suggest
hat these generous women who have
1led ged their best energies and wishes to
he good work, do not hesitate TO make
heir appeal personally and direct in the
spirit that we here offer. TO every chivalric,
ligh-minded man in Wichita.
Is il necessary to say more? We hope
lot.
DISTINGUISHED CALLERS.
A large number of the members of the
Kansas Academy OF Science in a