Los Angeles herald., 1892-05-24
THE PURITY OF WOMEN.

1uICO CRAoO0Co AAosO sepAGA paw OA
late that may well cause Americans with
a spark Of patriotism in their souls to
stand aghast. Recognizing to the full
the frailty OF human nature and the
resistl ess sway of passion in its mo-
ments OF wild uncontrol, yet we say no
ian can read the details Of the Deacon,
Hetherington and Borrowe episodes
without the greatest concern for the
future of the republic and of our civil
ization. The gravity OF the situation is
all the more serious from the fact that
the sheet anchor of civilization and OF
the inviolable sanctity Of the family has
been American manhood and woman
hood rather than anything to be dis
covered on the other side Of
the Atlantic. The condition OF the
English aristocracy as illustrated by the
developments of the Pail Mall Gazette,
and Of the Cleveland-street house kept
by the man Hammond, as well as by
many salacious divorce proceedings in
the higher circles of society, is mani
testify deplorable.
1t is against the growth OF such a state
of morals in America that we ought. one
and all, to lift our voice. 1t is against
such growth Of rank immortality that
the three episodes referred to warn us.
We have spoken of the frailty of
human nature and the headlong course
of strong passions. It is precisely the
lack of any such palliating influences
that makes these offenses 60 heinous.
The offenders are women, not men.
They are mature women, not
inexperienced girls. They are married
women with their husbands and chill
dren to hold them in restraint. In their
cases there is no romance, no extenuating
circumstances of love otherwise proper,
but opposed by those whose interest
was at best secondary. In these cases it
was mere wantonness, and awantonness
most unholy and unwholesome that led
to the two tragedies. not to speak of the
disgusting pusillanimity and baseness
that characterized the Borrowe-D -Drayton
affair, in which the Astor woman fig
ured.
The sympathy OF all who have spark
OF manhood in their souls will 60 out to
Deacon and Hetherington, and the fate
of the two roues who lie cold in the
grave will be felt to have been just. But
what will men Of manhood say of the
three women who played such shameful
parts in these affairs? The nobleness
of American women has bad much to do
with the stamp Of character that has
made American men held in so high
honor. The women who came over in
the Mayflower to the colonies of the New
World, and who went to brave dangers
of all kinds in the western wilds in the
early days of the republic had few pat
ents of nobility conferred by courts and
kings; but they bore the impress of the
highest nobleness that nature ever
stamped on the minds and hearts OF
women. This nobleness has influenced
the sons of these women in senate
chambers, on battle fields and in all the
relations and walks of private life where
great trusts have to be reposed in men.
The offspring of the women of the Mrs.
Deacon, Mrs. Hetherington and Mrs.
Drayton type, will not be noble, will not
be manly, will not be brave, will not be
trustworthy. Let our women become
tainted with the looseness, the brainless
foolishness that marks this trio of bad
women, and which is mostly an i'm
ported article, and the future of this re-
public is downward to decay and death.