Delaware gazette and state journal., 1896-01-23

THE MUSIC OF THAT WONDERFUL VOICE
Il call it fine, can think of no other
word for it. 1t has strength, it ia
clear, ringing, distinct, and there is
never note too high, or too low. Every
syllable has its value, and | have only
heard one other woman, whose French
compared with that of Yvette Guilbert,
and that was Sarah Bernhardt Her
wcrk--well, you have heard enough
about her work, and yet | wish instead
of teaching her plantation melodies, 80
she may have soma English songs in her
repertoire, that some one would make
her understand the meaning of the
words, and once she did that, neither
you nor / need doubt her ability to
draw the picture of that wonderful
poem of Dante, Gabriel Rosetti's,
which begins,
Lazy, laughing languishing Jenny.
Fond of kiss and fond of a guinea.
| have paid the usual fashionable
call on Mademoiselle, and it is time to
say "Adieu." Alas that her time
here is 80 short that it cannot be "Au
revoir," and yet l think, as people,
we are sufficiently clever to appreciate
what'is good, and to say to this wonder
full woman, "Come back to us and be
welcomed heartily" In my card case
| carry little card, which | value
very much; ii was written as Jest,
but 1t was the expression of the likes
and dislikes of this clever woman, put
rs she proudly said, in English. This
is how it reads:
] like the green. | like very much the
lilac and the roses. don't like the birds
and selfish people. / believe in God. The
quality ! prefer in IA human being is
goodness for n girl, and honesty for a man.
IvETTE GuILBERT.
THE SIN OF TuoUGHTLEssNEss.
Last night | saw wonderful play
stop Mr.. Critic, am uot going to in
fringe on your grounds. 1t was called
1.-The Benefit of the Doubt" " and it
was the judgment given in the divorce
court when the only sin woman had
committed had been that of sympathiz-
ing with an unhappy husband and
letting him find in her home resting
place from his wile's jealous temper,
the sin of thoughtlessness 1t was writ
ten by that wonderful playwright VINO
seems to read woman's heart us you
might fashion page, Pinero, and it
showed what such verdict meant to a
woman. | do not know where this
writer has gotten all his knowledge of
womankind, There was the flippant
mother, who found great relief, as many
a women does, in taking off her stays ;
she took advantage of this relief when
her husband died, and now again when
her daughter was dishonored. The
play is good and well acted, but il is
the wonderful moral in it that appeals
to me; and yet, how many women in
hn tttl nF N.l &c
the misery certain to result from pla-
tonic friendships. 1t told, oh 80 we'll,
that married woman and a married
man cannot be friends unless the other
wife and the other husband share in
the friendship. call that a 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 children, let's him drop in at
afternoon tea, let's him come to dinner
with them when he peases, and listens
sympathetically to his story of the un-
happy home, and Of the wife made a
tiend by jealousy. Some day, and it
may not go as far as it did in the play,
to the divorce court, little Mrs. Snow
flake finds that her friends are dropping
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 il 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 tho 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.
WOMAN AS JUDGE.
Miss We're de We're, in her early life,
lost the love of her heart But she has
good friend in Jack Fin de Steele,
who knew her sweetheart. who was
with him when he died, and who can
talk over her happy days with her.
Everybody knows his character. That
is everybody who is anybody. Sud-
denly 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 | am really helper, and from
whom | gain much that is comforting,
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 a
feminine verdict l 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 give to that
other woman nothing more than the
benefit of the doubt. One question is
asked in the play, it is this "Must a
woman lose her character and paint her
face before she can have man us a
friend?" AS tho world goes, | am
tempted to answer Yes" bu' one OF
the people in the play says, This is
damnable world There he is
wrong.
THE WORLD is BEAUTIFUL.
1t is the people who are not brave
enough to give verdicts of Guilty.
or "Innocent" who are damnable
How many are there in this big town
who are only given the benefit of the
doubtg Some of them are as innocent
as the girl child that you hold up
closely to you; but whom all woman
kind 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 gone out of this wicked
world with that intangible verdict
hanging over them.
1t was a harlot who came to Christ,
and His verdict was different from that
of the Judge of to-day. He only asked
of her that she sin no more, and He
forgave her because she loved too
II Ins.