The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-19
m Judgment on Others.

and selfish people. I believe in Cod. The
qudllty prefer in a human being Is
man. Yvette Cs5Iiibert
Last night I saw wonderful play-stop
az critic, am going 10 infringe on your
grounds. It was called THE Benefit OF
me Doubt. and it was the judgment given
IN tne divorce court when the only sin
woman had committed had been that OF
syinpathizing with an unhappy husband
ana letting him ind IN her home a resting
pace from his wife's Jealous temper. the
SIN OF thoughtlessnesS. 1t was written by
that wonderful playwright who seems to
read a Woman's heart as you might a
Iesnion page, PinerO, and it showed what
sucn a verdict meant to a woman. i do
not know where this writer has gotten all
ms knowledge of Womankind. There was
the hippant mother, who found great relief,
a. many a woman does, in taking of her
stays; she took advantage of this relief
Wnen her husband died, and now again
Wnen her daughter was dishonOred. The
play IS good and well acted, but 1t is the
wonderful moral in il that appeals to me;
and yet, how many women in the audience
thought of 1t! 1t told of the misery GER
tam 10 result from Platonic friendships.
1t told, oh! so well, that a married wo-
man and married man cannot be friends
unless the other wife and the other hus-
band share in the friendship. ! call that
worse verdict than guilty-that which
only gives the woman the benefit of the
doubt.
Little Mrs. Snowflake. who has known
Tom Wildrake ever since they were chill
dren, lets him drop in at afternoon tea.
lets him come to dinner with them when
ne pleases, and listens sympathetically
TO his story of the unhappy home, and of
the wife made fiend by jealousy. Some
DAY. and II may not go as far as 1t did
in the play to the divorce court, little Mrs.
Snowflake finds that her friends are drop
ping away from her, that she isn't invited
to quite as many conservative houses as
she used to be, and if by any chance she
speaks to her husband about it he looks
at her in a curious way that she doesn't
understand. But in time she does. And
she realizes, too sadly, that all that the
world has offered her is the benefit of the
doubt. And if it were not that Snowflake
himself gives such good dinners and had
such pleasant country place, even this
would not be the verdict.
Miss We're de We're. in her early life lost
the love of her heart But she has a
good friend in Jack Fin de Steele, who
when he died, and who can talk over her
happy days with her. Everybody knows
anybody Suddenly Miss We're de We're
finds that the elderly flowers of society
are not anxious to have her associate
with their buds, and she has to face the
question, "Shall / give up this man
friend. to whom I am really helper and
from whom gain much that is comfort
ing, and with whom there is nothing that
the angels in heaven might not see or
hear, or shall L suffer from the benefit
of the doubt" This is always feminine
verdict. / don't care who the judge may
be that gives it. No matter how much he
may consider himself a man. at heart he
is woman, for it is the woman who
gives to that other woman nothing more
than the benefit of the doubt. One ques-
ton is asked in the play, it is this: Must
a woman lose her character and paint her
face before she can have a man as a
friend?" AS the world goes, am tempt
ed to answer Yes but one of the peo-
pie in the play says, This is a damnable
is beautiful.
1t is the people who are not brave
enough to give verdicts Of Guilty" dt
are there in this big town who are only
given the benefit of the doubt? Some OF
them are as innocent as the girl child that
you hold up closely to you; but when all
womankind shrank from them, they got
so they didn't care. And then there could
be no doubt of the verdict Others-and
there are no martyrs who suffer as they
do-have kept their own self-respect and
some out of this wicked world with that
intangible verdict hanging over them
1t was harlot who came to Christ and
His verdict was different from that of the
judge of to-day. He only asked of her
are human beings, who sit upon the judg-
ment seat and only give women the benefit
of the doubt. What are their own lives {?
And what are the lives of those women in
society who throw about innocent women
that intangible atmosphere that means,
while it does not say, Keep away from
or mine to have done this, what can we
hope for? Do you believe that great Judge
win at the last day give anybody the
benefit of the doubt? oh, no. He will say
Guilty or Innocent" and He will con-
slider all of the temptations. To-day, as
I tore the paper of my Dickens calendar
I read this
May tell you why it is a good thing
for us to remember the wrong that has
been done to US? That we may forgive
it" And that 1 believe, is the judgment
that will be given to many woman who
has not Sinned, but who has been Judged
by the Vehmgericht of the world and re-
ceived from it as her verdict 1.-THE Benefit
of the Doubt" God help her who receives
this judgment! I do not need to ask God
to punish them who give it upon her and
yet you and her neighbor, who are women
verdict of the worlds, that damnabie YER
dict, 1.-The benefit of the doubt" may never
be given to your child, or her child, or to
Bah.