Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-05-14


they met this girl.
We speak Of a young woman OF TWEEN
ty-hve or thirty as old enough to De
sensible and well behaved; but, In fact,
that Is the very time OF life when IL IS
most difficult for an ~unanchoreo woman
to be prudent or reasonable. FROM
fourteen TO seventeen a healthy, vigor-
Gus girl is in danger OF ~imprudence or
folly from ignorance Of her emotions;
from twenty five TO thirty she is in dan
ger from her knowledge Of them.
The blind and cruel judgment OF
Christian communities on this subject
is inconsistent with the spirit OF Christ.
or with the scientific enlightenment OF
the present day in other matters.
When I hear Of a girl Ia that period
Of life who has wrecked her future
and lost her good name through some
great act Of folly, / an moved with
the deepest pity and sorrow. She Is
like the ungathered dead-rlpe fruit
that bursts in the sun and falls into
the dust below.
II is all very well for you, with your
satisfied lives, to sit in judgment and
say: ''But she should have spurned the
first approach; she should have been In
dignant at such a thought; she should
have shown womanlY pride and
strength" 1t is not easy to call all those
qualities to your aid, with youth slipping
behind, with loneliness before, with a
heart breaking for sympathy, a brain
on fire with feeling and veins bursting
With unusual vitality, you encounter a
beautiful and alluring temptation. 1t
is 50 eaoy TO believe at such q time that
the world is well lost for love; that one
hour OF possession would be worth a
lifetime OF disgrace. But no more fall
lacious idea aver dazzled the eyes OF
the soul. Time has yet to show US the
pair OF laWless lovers who, having given
up the world for loves sake,
did not resent it II the
world took them at their word. Love
is the light from Gods eyes; unless he
smiles approval upon an earthly pas
sion 1t never brings happiness or con-
tent.
The weak and tortured girl who
thinks she cannot endure life without
the comDanionship of q man who Is not
free to claim her before the world would
ind h could not DO happy with his
companionShip. One or both would re-
gret the step which debarred them from
the respect of their kind, so dear to the
human heart.
Love OF appreciation is very strong In
most of US. and 1t is well that 1t is 50.
l believe more lives have been saved
from wreck on the rocks of passion
through love Of appreciation than
through principle. II may not be the
best motive for right-doing, but it gives
better motives al opportunity to gain
the ascendancy later.
One would think the unhappily mar
ried nan ought 10 have strength enough
10 protect the Overripe girl against her
self; that his wide knowledge OF human
emotions and temptations should I'LL
him with pity for her. But 1t never
does. Men have not been taught that
~self-cOntro! is necessary to then In
these matters. The whole tendency Of
the world has been toward masculine
freedom aud self-indulgence, and 1t is
not to be wondered at that he is the
tempter Instead OF the protector.
But il does seem a wonder that he in-
variably blames the woman when he
falls. Such is the fact, however; and
many a paSslon-blinded girl, who has
believed that the world was well lost
for the love OF a married man, lives TO
hear him recriminate her for leading
him astray. II is the man who frStand
most keenly feels the lash Of public
blame. Many a case has come under
my observation where the husband has
returned oto the wife who was never
able to make him happy, leaving the
girl who was in every was endowed to
be his companion, so powerful a factor
in hlman happiness was public respect.
1t is well for the overripe girl to re-
call such cases before she yields to the
fascinating illusion held out to her by
her emotions ADD her lover. Nothing
else In ell the range Of human expert
ence is so overwhelmingly alluring as
the attraction of the sexes; and when
the imagination and the senses are both
on fire, reason lends but little light.
But alas for those who live TO sit by
the ashes OF the burned-out senses.
among the ruins of imagination! aud
this is an experience certain to follow
an unlicensed passion. The only hope
Of continued happiness in the relation
OF man and woman is in the strength
enlng and deepening OF the moral
and spiritual nature OF both; for
physical attraction alone is a plant
that rarely outliyes the season. How
frail, then. must be the chances OF hap
piness for the two who violate moral
laws to seize the perishing flower Of de-
sire! Only those who have been tempt
ed by its perfume D false splendor
and lived TO wear the royal rose OF a
worthy love, or those who, having
plucked il only to see its leaves wither
and die, leaving the ugly thorns, can
realize how irail such hopes OF happi-
ness arel ELLA WHEEIER-WHCOX.