The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-08


His wife would have been with him,
but her social duties prevented her" Her
social duties. What is the world coming
to? are the social duties of a woman
to rise superior to her duty and her de-
votion to her husband? Shall your social
duties. or my social duties. make us the
less loving. the less quick TO recognize
that which is really right, or that which
woman should dog OF how much worth
is society when pat in the balance against
true love? There fell on the newspaper
as 1 read this. a little valentine sent me by
a child lover. and below the flaming heart
and the smiling cupid, We're the words
Its love that makes the world so
round" is it2 or is it ones social du-
ties? Did the wonderful women of the
past. who gave their lives, not by merely
dying, but by living from day TO day IN
such a way that life was daily death
did these women consider their social du-
ties as most important, or did they be-
Meve that it was love that made the
world 20 round? Think Of all the great
women of tradition-think Of all the "o-
men of Biblical lore, and be sure II was
love Of God or man that ruled them, and
not their social duties.
DO YOU suppose that when Ruth chung
to her mother-in-law. claiming that my
people shall be my people. thy God, my
God, il was because she thought 1t So
cial duty; or was it a reflection OF the love
she bore her husband, Of the duty she lett
she owed him. and which made her help
the woman who bore his name and needed
her help? The comic papers ana the
vulgar people laugh and jest about moth
ers-in-law-it always seems 70 me dreaa-
ful thing. A woman wins the love OF
your son-the pride OF your near me
child that has been cared Ior py You
through long illnesses posSloly huIseu
back by YOU when close 10 death, ana 10
whom you taught everything that was
beautiful and noble. Because of this new
love, shall he love you any the lessE Ana
snaI not the woman 70 Ni I,ts se 10
given the strongest love of his lie, ana
who feels hon0red by bearing his name,
shall not this woman give to you VINO
bore him and cared so much for him,
great love, an enduring love, a love not
governed by the law, but by the heart
and its rulesI Think il ali over. Haven't
you known mothers,in-law VINO were vert
table refugees in distress? | sometimes
wonder If a woman ever thinks OF her son
when she is disagreeable to the mother
of her husband. My friend, even in this
good, and as you treat the mother of your
husband so your daughter-in-laW VIII
treat you. II you ind that your SOCIAL
duties are too great to allow you to con-
slider the woman who is the mother OF
your husband, you can look into the fu-
ture and you will see that to you win
come just such treatment from the one
who wins the heart of that son who, to-
day, is nothing but a baby boy. ! despise
these so-called mother-in-law jokes, and
] cannot imagine how woman with eth
er heart or brain can smile at them.
But that wasn't the text of my sermon
for ] am moved to sermonize a bit to-
day. Suppose the social duties of the two
Marys had kept them from arising early
that morning-would they have met
the angel at the tomb? Suppose his
social duties had kept Christ so busy that
He could pay no attention to the poor
and the blind, and the sick of body and
the sick of soul2 What would have hap
pened then? My friend, did you ever
try to think out what your social duties
wereE Plainly put, they are simply what
you owe to the society in which you live.
But sometimes, ] think they go further
than that, and the society in which we
really live is that in which love reigns
ana no other society can demand duty
from us. Women are wonderfully true to
the demands of the heart, but sometimes
there comes a curious, a mean ambition
It Is to be at the head Of a gossiping, fritz
tering, silly set who are friends dear
friends in prosperity, and who are indir-
ferent when sorrow comes unless that sor-
row IS draped IN the most expensive Grape
and lived down according to the rules OF
etiquette, TO burst out at the proper time
IN great gladness and in overwhelming
merrlment This society, il is true Is
made Of men and women; men and wo-
men with hearts, but hearts so well COW
cred with social draperies that except in
a physical way, they scarcely know how
TO beat I don't know whether it is for
good or for i'll that in the social world
you and / and our neighbor wear the
conventional mask-we teach ourselves to
smile when our hearts ache; we teach our
selves to overlook neglect when we are in
trouble, because it is wise to be on good
terms with the social rulers: we throw
ourselves down before the social car of
Juggernaut and are rolled over. crushed
wounded, hurt and we rise up with a
smile.
But always somebody is misiudged bv
society. Yesterday it was a woman who
throwing back the great crepe veil that
society ordered she should wear. claimed
her right to God Almighty's sunshine and
to hope. The day before it was a woman
seen coming out of pawnshop-the look
er-on told the story, and society made up
its mind that she had pawned her Jewels
TO pay her dresSmaker'S bill. whereas in
truth they had been put there to get the
money to bury the dead. The day before
that it was a girl-Society criticised her
because ii said she affected religion-she
knelt so many hours in church-and the
truth was that the church was warm, and
her tiny bedroom in the fashionable board
ing house was cold and cherries. And
she had not the courage to go where
life was simpler and more comfortable he
cause she feared society, and because she
believed she must live UP to her social
duties. Another day. Ii is man. and
somebody laughs because he ALWAYS seems
so hungry at dinner or at supper-he
will not work, and the pittance that
comes to him monthly barely paws for his
fashionable clothes and a room in a we'll
known apartment house. Do YOU wonder
that he is hungry And he isn't Just one:
there are hundreds like him And there
is another. No word is too vile for what
he is now, and yet there was a day when
he was truthful, honorable and a gentle-
man. But he felt the demands of So
ciety. He thought his social duties of
most Importance. and not having money
enough to live as he wished, he managed
to get, nobody knows how, letters that
compromised first this woman, then that
woman and then another woman so al
ways there was somebody to pay him to
keep from making those letters public
and he is a prominent guest at smart
dinners, and he is a favorite on yachting
parties, and he is spoken of as being
so liked, by all the women" Nobody
thinks 10 say, so feared. And yet. it
was because he felt he must paw what
he owned TO society by appearing we'll
dressed, and living like a lily of the field
that from being a gentleman by birth and
education, he became a blackguard
And there IS another, a woman bright
plquante, perhaps, a bit sarcastic. but
then men laugh, and say that probably
she would have softened if she had mar
rted; and the man who takes her out 10
dinner, doesn't dream that her beautiful
fan is paid for by a Scurilous story written
against her hostess: that her gown was
presented to her by a woman to whom she
wrote this note, MY Dear Dolly. I have
nasfI+ Ell, e.