The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-02-11
wOMEN'S CODE OF HONOR.
The Statement Disputed that They
Are Lax in Any Particular.
London Spectator.

jim cptSbdlOls
Lady Constance. Lytton, lays down two
propositions which will be received, we
think, by her sex with something OF sur
prise; She says women ave no eD oe not OF
dishonorable are more deserving or honor,
because no external pressure compels them.
but only their own goodness Except on
one rather restricted point, we may ven
ture to doubt whether either proposition Is
we'll founded
We fancy women are at least as honora-
BILE as men, and that they are kept honora-
BILE by a code at least as severe as that
which presses upon the other Sex. This is
certainly true, and is, We fancy, admitted
by Lady Constance Lytton to be true, as
regards the weightier matteDs of the law.
Upon their own especial point or honor
women are admitted to be better than men,
and they are kept so, not only by the teach
ing Of ages and of religion, but by a code
supported by both sexes which presses up
on them in many cases with even frlghtful
severity. They are never forgiven by their
own sex for a breach of their cardinal law,
and the apparent forgiveness In occasional
cases of the other is deeply Favored with
contempt. If they yield again TO tempta-
ton which should be stronger with them
than with men, the temptation TO relieve
nervous suffering by drink, they are de-
ounce with a bitterness hardly expended
on any vice, and almost inexplicable, except
upon the theory that men always associate
drink in women with unchaStty-a belief
which seems to have descended through all
ages The code in this case has been as
rigid as iron, and except in the lower
GlooC vi llAC WI lO@Nos ~ nus AOAAC
it's work SO perfectly that overtndulgence
In drinking may be said throughout the
world, outside Of Polynesia, to be a purely
masculine vice.
AS regards all forms of pecuniary tempta-
ton, except one, the writer would certainly
say that women are greatly more honorable
than men. 1t may be only an individual eX-
perience, but he has found them much more
reluctant TO borrow; and when they have
borrowed, much more rigid, though not, il
is true, more punctual, in repaying. The
trusteeship of two thousand years has, in
fact, drilled them into an appreciation of
the duty of paying, which the opposite sex
can hardly be said to possess, the abSo-
uprightnesS by an abstinence even from re-
quests for loans. The woman who is lax
in ~pecuniary affairs is almost invariably
without any principle at all. In this case,
who borrOws and pays not again being
held by her sisters TO be an offender with
whom it is safest to have as little inter
course as possible. The single exception is
gaming. The writer never knew a female
gamester, but he cannot resist the uni
versal testimony that where she exists al
all the woman who games is less likely to
pay up than the man: and that the opinion
of her own sex, though 1t would not con-
done her offenSe, would be far less hard
same delinquency. The woman, in fact,
cannot be reasoned out of q conviction that
a game is a game and nothing else, and
that nonpayment Is rather a breach of So
which society could not continue TO exist
She does not see, as a man does, the
treachery involved in failing to pay a bet
and, therefore, regarding il as a trife, is
trivial in her judgment Of its turpitude. In
the great majority of grave cases, how
ever, women are at least as honorable as
men, and help with all their hearts tC
maintain a much severer code.