St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-05-08
The POetesS of Passion De-
cideS the Question in the
Negative.
Recalling Instances OF Mems
Keen Sufferings for Sins
Committed.
Men Will Be Compelled to
Suffer More and More for
Their Sins.

uldu goes Tree, ldFUIeu ny NOueu anu
admired by his own sex.
Authors, preachers, poets and orators
unanimously express the opinion that
woman once fallen from her high and
chaste pedestal is never allowed to rise,
while man escapes all punishment for a
similar sin.
have read many books wherein a
fallen woman figured, aud L never yet
read one which allowed her any future
save death or the convent, says Ella
Wheeler Wilcox in the New York Re-
corder. If the male sinner of the same
kind receives any punishment at the
hands of the novelist, it is after long
and successful career of pleasure and
prosperity. and is usually sudden
death in railroad disaster.
Al this, of course, so far as the WOm-
an goes, is an excellent warning to good
young girls; but is it fair to the many
women who have already made one mis-
step? and is it moral reading for the
male young person?
1t certainly is not true to the life of
today. Take any community Of 10000
Inhabitants, look closely into the lives
ety." and you will find women who
have erred and lived down their errors,
and men who have suffered for their
sins.
While my sincere sympathy must ever
go with the woman in these matters,
since by nature on her falls the greater
penalties, yet observation and sense
of justice have compelled me to modify
former sweeping assertions, which |,
like the world at large. have made upon
the subject of relative lmmOralitieS OF
the sexes.
No just and thinking person can re-
side ten years in a large city, or move
about among people, ami not acknOwl-
edge the fallacy of the idea that one
error debars a woman forever from as
ISOLATION with respectable society.
While he who has any faculty for in
spring confidence or any ability to read
human nature, must learn that men
suffer far more for their sins than the
world at large imagineS.
A young man of my acquaintance lost
the girl he dearly loved by having his
name associated with an immoral affair
wherein he was really gulltless of any
Sin.
Both were intimate friends Of mine,
and [ witnessed the agony and despair
of the man during many months. The
immoral people who caused the scan
dial served, at least in this one
case, to damage the man as greatly
as it would have damaged his
tiancee. He has since married another
woman, and is prosperous citizen. 1t
will be urged by SentimentallstS that
had it been woman whose reputation
was thus marred, no future marriage
and success could have been possible.
But this is true only in story books, or
in cases where the woman is peculiarly
sensitive, and whose nature and en-
vironment shuts her away from distrac-
ton and the possibilities of a new life.
Some years ago young girl, dwelling
in a town not many hours ride from the
metropolis of America, was wooed-
seemingly with honorable motiYeS-by
a man of high social position and of
great personal attraction; but by and
by the young man disappeared, leaving
a brand of shame upon the brow of the
poor girl. She was taken away, and
years of bitter sorrow, sharp agony and
binding remorse for her and hers fol-
lowed. The man in the meantime
married a lady to whom he had long
been affianced; but when one day &C
cident brought to the knowledge of the
band during their betrothal she left
him, taking with her the child he wor-
SHIPPED. Deserted and disgraced, this
man surely tasted some of the bitter
dregs OF sin. Meanwhile the wr0nged
girl married, and is respectable wife
today.
This is Woman'S century: and in the
light which it casts upon her pathway
she finds that she, as we'll as man, can
progress up and out of error. 1t Is
undoubtedly more difficult for her to
live down past folly than for her brother
man, unless she is endowed with a GER
tain aplomb which belongs to the
adventures type of woman.
We speak of all erring women under
one category; but they differ as widely
as the falling stars differ.
There are gi;lS who go wrong because
they have no one to show them how to
go right; girls who are housed up like
nuns, yet without a nuns occupations
or devOtiOns, and who finally break
through the false restrictions surround
ing their lives as pent-up rivers break
through dam.
Again, others, whose licensed freedom
of action, together with inherited tie nd
encies, lead to their doWnfalI-tenden
cies, which, properly directed, might
have proved the anchor for a happy
home; many fall through ignorance and
curiosity; more through moral vicious
ness, mixed with vanity and aYarice;
hundreds through starvation prices paid
by mOnOpOlieS for labor; and few,
very few, through misplaced love.
1t is the mercenary and vicious sinner
who becomes most widely known to the
world, and who most frequently poses
as victim of mans perfdy. But the
woman who really deserves our deepest
sympathies for having been blinded by
her love and led into sin bears her sor-
row and shame in silence, and never APP
peals to the public for sympathy. In
olden times such an error was supposed
to end a wOman's career forever; but,
repeat. if we investigate the lives of
society people in any city today we find
among Its rank women who have lived
down serious fOllles.
In Western town famous once upon
a time for its beautiful girls two young
women We'd with each other for the
palm of belleship. Both were beautiful
full of affection; the other ambitious,
mercenary and designing. The sweet,
weak girl was led into disgrace, and
her name became byword in her own
town. The other married rich
man, ran through his fortune in two
years, deserted him and entered upon
a life of adventure, which for years
was a record of gilded vice and folly.
Finally, firing of this life, she was re-
ceiyed by her husband, whose restored
fortunes made reconciliation seem de-
sirable to her. She moves in excellent
society today. entertains and is admired
by large circle of friends. Her early
rival, after years of repentance and
sorrow for her past, married noble and
wealthy man. removed to distant city,
where she is beloved and respected at
the present time.
1t may be urged thai the recital of
such cases will have a pernicious effect
upon young girls; that they will dis
courage good women and encourage the
viciouslY inclined. l do not believe
there is a girl in the land who would
consciously or willingly face the career
of either Of these women. | believe any
good woman, however lonely and un-
loved. would shrink from exchanging
lives with them.