The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1895-04-27
THE SOCIAL FABRIC.

The murder of the two girls in San
Francisco have filled every community
with horror, and the press have begun
moralizing ON the causes. One es-
teemed cotemporary blames the local
customs and social systems for the
terrible deed. 1t says that similar
tragical results are to be looked for
where the same carelessuess in the re-
lations of young women and men ex-
ist, and they are permitted to go into
darkened and deserted church alone at
night. In this it is assuming premises
which have not been proved; for on
the inquest it was drawn out in evil
dence that the young people were in
the habit of congregating at the pas
tors study or church library, and then
proceeding in body to the place of
entertainment or social enjoyment. 1t
is more than probable that Miss Will
liams believed this to be the plan
: adopted when she went with her mur-
derer to the room in the rear of the
auditorium of the church. That such
custom could prevail without
affording a lustful brute any
opportunity to satisfy his hellish
desires will be acknowledged by all.
There is no testimony to show that
young people were in the habit of visit
ing this place in couples at unusual
hours, or when the pastor or other
person were nor present, and if such
a practice had been known to be in
vogue it would undoubtedly have been
stopped by the elder members of the
church, especially by the mothers and
fathers. Whoever the scheming viii
liam may have been, it is cOnclusively
proved that he would have been dan
erous in any community, governed by
the strictest and most Puritanical rules
regarding the intermingling of the
sexes. A man possessed of such cum
ming and deceit, and so capable of act
ing the hypocrite, would overcome any
walls of protection that could be raised
around the weak and innocent. Such
beings are lower than thugs, and no
young lady is safe while they are tole-
rated in society.
1t may be that the social fabric is
constructed on an unsafe basis, and
that thorough reconstruction is nee
essary. Sometimes we think that the
true causes of seductions and :ravish-
ments are farther removed, and that
they may be traced back to early train
ing and associations of young girls in
the formative period of their charac-
ters. The light, trashy food that the
brain is fed upon, in the shape of sem
sational literature, is not apt to
develop strong women, mentally Or
otherwise. While the press of the
country have been unit in condemn
ing the five-cent novel in the hands of
boys, they have never said one word in
reference to the purely artificial edu-
cation girls are receiving. From the
time they are old enough to attract at
tention from the opposite sex until
they are sold in the market to the
highest bidder they devote more time
to fashions foibles than to the devel-
opment of mind or body. They are
hot-house plants, which cannot stand
exposure to the adverse elements Of
natural existence, and frequently be-
come the victim of smooth-talking,
polished hyprocrites. They respect
and seek the company of Shiny
sycophancy more than bluff honesty,
and if the man of worth and merit has
rough hands and an Questionable
necktie he is rejected as an associate
and life companion for the lecherous
fopwith fashionable clothes of faultless
fit. Is it any wonder that poor Blanche
Lamont, Minnie Williams and their
associates held in higher esteem the
cultured medical student than rough
and uncultured but honest and virtuous
country boys, taking into consideration
the usual trend of fashionable society?
These girls were gifted with that curse
of the sex, beauty, but were pure and
virtuous. This fatal gift made them
objects for the wiles of the designing
hypocrite, and they came within the |
range of his deception and sacrificed
their lives rather than accede to his |
desires. These girls had questionable |
strength of character, and, if they had |
different environments would have |
lived to be honest wives and mothers. |
City life had an attraction for them,
and to be courted by social snob sat-
isfied their ambition.
In the last few years we are happy
to see an effort being made in the right
direction, and in the family little at
tention is given to the art of cooking
as well as considerable to music and
French. Girls need strength of mind
and trained faculties for discovering
the real from the fictitious, the worthy
from the unworthy, honesty from hy-
pocricy and virtue from vice. Society
has many Williams, and these are gener-
ally found in the lead, with cultured
manners and very profuse in their pro-
fessiOns of virtue and honesty. They
are more frequently met in cities than
than in country towns: but women
should be able to distinguish them, and
to unseat them from their social promi-
nence.
An OLD SONG.