Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-07-29


easy in his mind regarding his fail
Ieeress? Can he leave her to her OWL
devices with safety? Are there not
men, hOaStful too Of their blue blood. >
| who are perhaps ready to stoop to the
| ChIef's trick of entering his house dur
ing his absence by means OF private
keys, and stealing away his wife's af-
fections?- is not she, though a
mother of three or four children, ready
TO receive with favor the mean robbeT
OF her husbands rights and honor?
Read the London newspapers any day
and you will find ttat once moral
England is running a neck-and-neck
lace with other less hyperCritical ma
tiOps in pursuit Of social vice. The
barriers that once existed are broken
down: professional Eeauties'' are re-
ceived in circles where their presence
formerly would have been the signal
for all respectable women instantly 20
retire: ladies of title are satisfied to
caper on the boards of the theatrical
stage, in costumes that display their
shape as undiSguiseCly as possible to
the eyes of the grinning public. OF they
sing in concert halls for the pleasure
OF showing themselves off, and actu-
ally accept the vulgar applause of I'M
washed crowds with a smile and bow
of gratitude! Ye goGsi what has be-
come of the superb pride of the old
reglme--the pride which disdained all
ostentation and clung to honor more
closely than life! What a striking sign
Of the times, too, is this: let a woman
faint her virtue before marriage. she
is never fOrgiVen-her sin is never for
gotten; but let her do what she will
when she has a husbands name ~
screen her, and society winks it's eyes
at her crimes. Couple this fact with
the general spirit OF mockery that pre-
walls in fashionable ciTcles-mockery
of religion, mockery of sentiment.
mOckery of all that is best and noblest
III the human heart-add to it the gen
cTal spread Of 'free-thought." and
therefore of conflicting and unstable
Opinions-let all these things together
go on for a few years longer, and Eng
land will stare at her sister nations
like bold woman in a dOmino-her
features partly concealed from a pre-
tense at shame, but her eyes git ,ering
coldly through the mask, betraying to
all who look at her how she secretly
reVelS in her new code of lawlessness
coupled with greed. For she will al
ways he avariciOus-and the worst of
1t IS, that her nature being prosaic.
there will be no redeeming grace to
cast a glamour about her. France is
unvirtuous enough, God knows, vet
there is a sunshiny smile on her lips
that cheers the heart. Italy is also
unNirtuous, yet her voice is full of
bird-like melody, and her face is a
dream of perfect poetry! But England
unvirtuous will be like a cautiously
calculating, somewhat shrewdish ma
iron, possessed of unnatural and un-
becoming freshness, without either
laugh, or song, or sJ1ile-her one god,
Gold, and her one commandment, the
suggested eleventh, Thou shalt not be
found out"
L slept that night On deck. The cap
tain offered me the use of his little
cabin, and was, in his kind-hearted
manner, truly distressed at my per-
sistent refusal to OCCUPY it.
ct is bad to sleep in the moonlight,
signor," he said, anXiously. ''It makes
men mad, they say"
[ smiled. Had madness been my des-
tiny, l should have gone mad last
night, thought,
Have no fear!" I answered hi
gently. THE moonlight is joy to me
it has no impression on my mind
save that Of peace l shall rest well
here, my friend-do not trouble your
self about me-"
He hesitated and then abruptly left
me, to return in the space of two or
three minutes with a thick rug OF
sheepskin. He insisted so earnestly on
my accepting this covering as a pro-
! lection from the night air, that tC
/ please him, yielded to his ent1 eatieG
and lay down, wrapped in its warm
! folds. The good-natured fellow ther
wished me 'BuCn riposo, signor!'
! and descended to his own resting
! place, humming gay tune as he went
| From my recumbent posture on the
deck | stared upward at the myriad
stars that twinkled softly in the warn
violet skies-stared long and fxedI,
till it seemed to me that our ship ha(
also become a star, and was sai1in:
through space with its glittering com
panions. What inhabitants peop1et
those fair planets, wondered? Mer
men and women who lived and love;
and lied to one another as bravely a
we do? or superior beings to whom tn
least falsehOod is unknown? Was ther
one world among them where n
women were born? Vague ftncies-
odd theories-fitted through my brair
| lived over again the agony of my I'M
prisonment in the vGult--again
, forced myself to contemplate the seen
l had witnessed between my wife an
her lover-again I meditated on ever
small detail requisite to the fulfillmer
: Of the terrible vengeance I had DE-
| signed. have often wondered how. i
= countries where divorce is allowed.
e wronged husband can satisfy himse
$ with so meager a compensation for h
e injuries as the mere getting rid of tt
woman who has deceived him. 1t is I
O punishment to her-it is what 81
u wishes There is not even any vel
I special disgrace in it according to Il
n present standard of social observance
e Were public whipping the recognize
+ penalty for the crime of a marie