Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-29
HER HUSBANDS FRIEND.
How Men Look Upon One Who is a
Home WrecISer.

From the st. Louis Republic.
In certain conditions and circles of So
ciety It seems to be always an open ques.
ton how far the husbands friend may be
invited to associate with the husbands
wife,
To the ever pure, the ever good and ever
religious woman, who has been reared with
no thought of treachery or impurity, the
suggestion of doubt as to woman's ca
pacity to repel and resent the insinuating
advances of men is held to be an insult to
the sex. And yet there are women of there
tofore good moral character who have
fallen at the first onslaught. This fact is
not due SO much to the weakness OF
womankind or the wickedness of men as to
an individual lack of proper training and
the want of such calmneSS of Judgment
and moral nature as every honest woman is
presupposed to possess.
Her husbands friend, particularly If he
be an unmarried man, has done vast deal
toward Wrecking homes He is none the
less a scoundrel because the woman is q
fool. He deserves all the ruin which
eventually comes to him, and it is a cur
ious contradiction in the makeup of or
dnar1ly honest men that they despise a
seducer, a home-Wrecker and an adulterer
no matter how they may have themselves
dalled with the sharp edge of crime-and
that IT is part of their public duty to crush
who unblushingly parades his vices. Women
talk vast deal about the extent to which
roueS are admitted into good homes, when
the woman who falls is goaded and hound
ed 10 her death. This condition. is not en-
urely fact in this country, for no man in
NlteS to his home another man whom he
even suspects of bad character, and he is
just as quick to crowd out of the circle
the man who violates the law of society as
the woman is to destroy the fallen sister.
Fefhaps men are not quite SO "sqUeamish"
IN thelr contemplation of vice. They are
more familiar with it, and consequently are
more apt to contemplate ii with degree
OF philosophical patience which no woman
can understand.
But while the man may shake hands and
drink and smoke with person of motor
lously bad character his interchange of
fricndlineSs generally ends where it began
In the bar room. The person whom he
takes to his home and introduces to his
wife and daughters is altogether different
That man is one who has commended him
self TO the man by reason of his cleanliness
or speech and person, his utteEance of senu-
melts honorable to manhood and his pos
session of name among men as being an
honest gentleman. This is the outward
type of man who now and then appears in
the divorce courts as correspondent
DraZen, nervy, reckless to truth and in
different to consequences.
There is no argument in these executions
and occasional incidents against the hus-
band having his friends and introducing
them into his home; but he should first
nave such friends are beyond question
worthy of his trust and confidence and
then he should see that in the course of
friendship all the accepted proprieties are
observed.
1t is altogether useless to philosophize
over the woman in the case She is a queer
compound of deviltry, who, having reared
daughters and sons TO honest manhood and
womanhood, succumbS to the blandish-
ments of her husbands friend and goes
down the broad road to ruin. No matter
how unhappy her domestic life may be, It
is the business of her heroic virtue and
angelic womanhood to represent for all
ufne the purity and goodness of social life
W hen she fails in this and yields herself
she Is thenceforward socially unclassifed
Part OF the shame and blame may be laid
at the door of her husbands friend, but at
the same time, she knows that without her
own active encouragement and sympathy
her husbands friend would never have
violated the laws of hospitality and of the
land Not because of any suspicion that
ne rs Joseph, or too good to conniye at
womanS ruin, but because q married
woman is rarely ruined socially and per-
sonally without her active volition, and
for the most part, by her own prearrange-
ment. Men know too well the penalties at
tached to such crimes to rush heedlessly
or forcefully into them, and at the first
indication OF resentment the meaneSt of
them sinks away into his own disgrace
Women are the conservators of their own
peace and purity. They stand armed and
trumpet-tongued at the citadel of their
own virtue, and though their husbands
friends, the honest woman will remain
honest 1t is the morally weak woman
who falls and who needs to be protected
from her husbands friend.