The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-04-22
SHOULD SHEaBE BLAMED?

How full, of late, the papers are of social
scandals! Nearly every day the dispatches
bring US accounts of the disruption of
homes, the blighting of lives, not only of
the actual participants in the crime, but of
those unfortunate enough to be connected
with them. Nothing, perhaps, SO COM
pletely makes manifest the great truth
that neither man nor woman lives for him
self alone Through virtuous, noble life
with effort bent constantly in the right di
rection, men gather golden opinions tor
themselves, applause, respect and honor
from their fellow-men; but this respect.
this honor is not entirely absorbed bv the
individual who wins it. The rays of his
glory fall upon those who are associated
with him, upon his friends, upon his fam
lily; his wife shares it, his children walk
in its light, and the honor of the father or
the kindness and virtue of the mother give
them prestige among their fellows. On
the other hand, shame and dishonor fall
not alone upon him who pulls it
down upon his own head; the black
pail of disgrace spreads its ample
folds about all connected with him.
His friends blush for shame; his family
lose their stan ling in society; his children.
and perhaps his children's children. labor
under the burden of his wrong-doing; for
now, as anciently, the sins of the fathers
aze visited upon their children. Indeed
the divine words of Holy Writ did not
make that law; they did not create the
fact; it already existed, and those words
simply announce its existence.
But to the prevalence of social scandals
of late. Yesterday our dispatches con-
tanned more of the details of the melan-
choly case of Lieutenant HETuERINGToN,s
family troubles. According TO the state
ments made IN those dispatches. while he
was absent from his home on duty, a dash
ing Englishman desecrates his wife and
casts stigma upon himself, one the most
difficult perhaps for proud, high-spirited
man to bear. He takes his child to the
wife of his superior officer with request
for her to take charge of it, as his wife
was an improper person to rear the child.
subsequently he relented and agreed to
live with his wife for the sake of the child.
When the superior officer interfered to
avoid further difficulty arising from
the unhappy affair, ROBINSON, the al
legged seducer, claimed that he was
not the party who had sought
the criminal relations. but that Mrs.
HETHERINGToN had 'set her cap at him u
This aroused the wrath of Commander
BARTLETT, and he denounced ROBINSON az
a coward, scoundrel and a villain for
seeking to throw all the blame of his crime
upon woman. "You blame this wonan.n
said he, "you, man, who knows that
woman can never be blamed since the time
of EVE" AS ROBINSON continued IN
either prosecute Mrs. HETHuR1NGToN by
thrusting his attentions upon her. or ao
ceptipg her encouragement to find his wsy
into her presence, the exasperated husband
at last took vengeance in his own hands
and killed ROBINSON.
About the merits of the case we make no
pretense to decide. This merits of the
case we do not propose to discuss.
1t is the idea advanced by Com
mander BARTLETT to the eff oct
that woman can never be blamed
for these offeases. 1t is this with which
we wish to take issue. Usually it is the
woman who bears the heaviest portion of
the blame. On her rests heaviest the
punitive lash of society. 1t makes of her
an out-cast, while too often it makes pet
Of her partner in the great ain, and wei
comes him into its most exclusive circle
where with front unabashed he may seek