Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-09-30

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AID the speaker.
The nsxt step Is tender pleading upon
the woman part that the object OF heI
cares should take more care of hls
health, limit MS smoking and ms slglls,
take out q door exercise aud perhaps
come good stirring rides II The early
morning with her. She gently suggests
something about the healthy mind in the
healthy body, and mum2tes that tie
blue devils only arise from deb1litated
state Of physique.
THIS leads 10 further condolences, and
the subject IL = half boaStful, half de-
spairing tone announces that there Is no
prospect Of his ever returning TO thai
state of innocent Well being of body and
Iaind 10 which his gentle friend would
woo him, and AZ abogt this point Of the
game lie introduces the phrase:
''lf | had met you sooner" or BE
fore saw you / never thought OF all
these things a. 90 now"
These or such like phrases are the
trump cards Of the to-be-reforrned
rake's hand, and although they have
been worn out and discarded hundreds,
nay. thousands of times, they turn up
smiling" today Is fresh and powerful as
ever.
IF have SO much influence, you must
show it by doing as | want you 10,
whispers the reformer, and the subject
either fervently promises that he will
or works up the situation" by gloomiiy
asserting that it is too late, there Is no
back track for him, that the hopes and
joys Of earlier days are fled, that he
could not, if he would. return to that
condition of innocent delight IN simple
pleasures wherein his mentoress stll
dwells, and sometimes he will darkly
appetite has become vitiated and forever
sophisticated.
This latter state of things is very bad
indeed, and the fair reformer rises To
the occasion with much the same ardor
impelling Hercules 10 his Augean la
bors, but alasl not with the same sue
cess, except that like Hercules she needs
bath TO cleanse her from the results OF
her enterprise. There are few proverbs
embodying a profounder truth than that
"you cannot touch pitch without some
of it sticking to your fingers" and the
woman who chooses to descend into the
depths of an immoral mans experiences
In the quixotic idea of pulling him out
of the mud and up to her own clean
standing ground does it at her own peril.
Naturally she finds that too much
must not be demanded at once, that too
tense line is apt to be broken by big
fish, and that good deal Of latitude at
first conduces to safe landing at last.
Pursuing this system she listens to .
great deal she had better never have
heard; does not reprove profane or i'm
moral sentiments except by a look, a
smile, an "Oh, hush!" and "Now. now,
you know you mustn't talk in that
way' until language that at first sent
the color to her face and an indignant
light to her eyes falls almost unheeded
upon her ears, and at most only evokes
the mental promise that when the
bigger conquests of vice have been
achieved she will return and weed out
these more trifing growths.
A bad man is, in some respects. like a
BAD book-one of Zola's, for instance.
You study the one or the other, you ara
altogether shocked and repealed, and at
the end you throw the book aside, but
you cannot by mere effort of will for
get all that you have read; certain
scenes, certain phrases. certain discov-
cries of hitherto unsupported forms of
vice remain in your mind in spite OF
every effort, and life is never quite the
same as while you Were ignorant Of
these blots upon humanity.
And in the end? Far be it from me to
say that no bad man was ever reformed,
or that never a sinner has become a
saint since the days Of Peter and of
Mary Magdalene, nor do l deny that
many man has been helped in his eff
forts at rehabilitation by the influence
of the woman he loved, but what j do
most emphatically deny is that any
woman can reform a man unless he
earnestly wishes to be reformed. The
cure must work from the inside out to
the surface, and cannot be spread over
the outside with any hope of radical
cure.
In other words, the man must reform
himself, and the woman may help him
and make the process easier and more
hopeful and comfortable, and in the end
bestow the reward of her confidence and
approval, but such a triumph as this has
its foundations far below the flower
surface of sentiment. or the futile and
| foolish effort to muzzle wild beast with
Q sash ribbon. or to cover unclean depth:
| with a silken mantle and hide THEN
odors by sprinkling it with altar of roses
a Dad man may by some pnssru
! chance fall in love with pure and sci.
respecting woman. Her unconscious de
+ mand upon him for words and action:
I only possible to honorable and higl
minded men. If they do not abash him
and drive him away, as they generally
do. stir him 10 the effort to show himself
still capable Of meeting such demands
he finds himself recalling forgotten
themes and smiles inwardly at resumina
enthusiasms. hopes. beliefs that he would
/ yesterday have sworn were laid aside
f with his coral and rattle; he masquer
AIDES for an hour in the guise Of his for
mer self; he feels like an imposter and q
, hypocrite, and yet as he walks home
under the cold starlight he stiles sigh
Of regret that be could not return q
that almost forgotten self-that foolish
impossible self If ten wears ago-whC
would have been no uniting companion