Los Angeles herald., 1892-12-19
THE LIoNEss THAT BARS THE WAY.

There seems to be perfect wave OF
discussion OF the social evil spreading
all over the country. That it will
amount to ANYTHING more beneficial to
the public or to those who have been
the subject OF the controversy, than the
thousand Efforts that have preceded il.
admits OF much doubt. But it 10 per-
haps just as we'll that it should take
place. 1t can do no harm II it does no
good.
AN the difficulties that are placed in
the way of fallen women being re-
claimed into the framework OF modern
society are placed there by women
themselves. Men are not intolerant OF
reformed women. In all the world, out
eide OF the infamous tribe OF msc9uer-
eaux, there is not male hand that
would be upliftsd to repulse woman
who desired to re-enter the portals Of
virtuous and respectable society. The
repelling hand is in svery case that of a
| woman.
Why should this be so7
The most plausible explanation is
that women desire to remove from their
daughters the possibility OF temptation,
and the very suggestion of such matters
az to which St Paul said, ''Lst them
not even be named amongst you" Now
this would be all very we'll if they turned
the man who has been guilty of crimes
against chastity from their doors. But as
they do not do this, but rather welcome
him into their parlors, thereby subject
ing their daughters, themselves and all
under their influence to temptation and
contamination, their lack OF charity to
their fallen sisters is absolutely without
conceivable Justification.
There are lot OF sentimental womsn
who are apt to grow eloquent when
descanting upon the imaginary wrongs
that man, in his law-making capacity,
inflicts upon their sex. As a matter OF
fact, this grievance, as far a, respects
ihe United States, is purely fsnciful.
This is particularly the case in Oalifor-
MIA. All the laws here are made with a
view to favoring women. The most
chivalrous disposition towards the sex
pervades both our criminal and testa-
mentary statutes. We have invented
for their special benefit the fction-a
fiction in nine cases GU of ten-of com
munity property, by which the wifs is
assumed to have made half of what the
genius and enterprise Of man may have
achieved, and this ia csses, mind you,
where she may not in all that time have
tied her owa shoestrings, or clasped her
own garters. 1t is the case, also, where
she may have been positively hoatie to
her husband, and may have hung around
his neck like a millstone, handicapping
him, save for his own undaunted efforts,
| to the point of failure and despair
Would we desire to change the law in
this respect? No, we would not. We
only instance this feature of the Cali
fornia law in order to chow the differ
ence between men and women in their
treatment of women. The man is at
al. times msrclful and chivalrous. The
fact that that was formerly not the
spirit OF the English laws, and is not
shown conspicuously in the French laws
of today, has nothing to do with the
matter. The laws of nearly every stat.
in the union are substantially those OF
California. Their animstlng impulse 10
kindness to woman. Only woman her
self is unkind to her erring sister.
Since Pope wrote that "msn's inhu-
manity to man has made countless
thousands mourn" great change has
come over the spirit OF the male biped.
This change dates from the opening
of the present century. Just before the
nineteenth century came into being
there were in England upward of a
hundred statutes under which man
might be hanged by the neck until he
was dead. Murder is about the only
thing for which the authorities will dare
to hang man now in the United King
dom OF Great Britain and Ireland. In
the United States men have steadily
grown more kindly to each other.
Though he may have sunk never so low,
although, of course, q convict's garb can
never become patent of nobility, thsre
is always hope for mans resurrection.
His fellows are Inclined to reach out a
kindly hand to him, and even woman is
not disinclined to aid in the moral re-
Mobilization of member OF the oppoaite
sex. There is scarcely period of his
career, no matter how low he may have
fallen, that he may not pull himself to-
gether and get on the plane of respecta-
bility. He can say to his fellows, as
Henry V. said to his father,
My refor ormatfon, gilt ering Per my fault,
Shall seem more good aud attract .aors eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to set it off
1t is for woman to open the social
gates to fallen and repentant woman.
Whether she will ever do it, in view OF
the record of the past, admits OF grave
doubt. That of late there is slight
movement in that direction is true, aud
every man born of woman will wish
it Godspeed. 1t is in the power of
ministers of the gospel to do the most
effective work of cooperation in reecu-
ing the fallen by aiding in soiSening the
hearts of what ia sometimes sauguinely
assumed to be the softer sex. That
once accomplished, a really Christian
programme toward the modern Magda-