The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1897-09-26
WHO SHALL CAST THE FIRST
ST0NEy


A few weeks ago the newspapers
found temporary sensation" in the
elopement of a young and beautiful wo-
man with a married man The sooner
the names and the incident are forgot
ten the better it will be for them, and
no good can come of raIing up
scandal. LET the dead past bury its
own dead" Let charity cover with its
soft and kindly mantle the folly Of an
erring woman.
But this need not prevent consider
alton of the subject generally. 1t is of
much importance to the welfare of So
eiety that its moral traditions shall not
be saerilegiously disregarded, and that
the code of honor which has been
adopted by civilization shall not be vio-
lated with impunity. But what is So
eiety going TO do about it? In all the
wide range OF literature from the Incl
dent of Potiphar's wife to that apocry-
| phal but beautiful story of the Magda-
lene; from the confessions of Jean
| jacques Rousseau to the works of
Madame Sand, the difficulty presents
itself and the problem remains I'M
| solyed-what is society going to do
| about it? Not the exclusive aristoc-
| racy of self-appointed tribunal TO pass
| upon conventional morality, but that
| great, wide society OF all mankind
which must needs live amidst sin and
| jog along shoulder to shoulder with the
| Cleopatras and the Josephines, the
Byrons and the Royal Georges of ali
ranks and degrees-what shall that So
| eiety do about Il?
The case to which special reference
| Is made becomes all the more suitable
| for test because the usual order OF
| things was reversed. The injured hus-
band took back with forgiveness the
| guilty wife; the offending husband. on
his way 10 rejoin his wife TO whom he
| had been disloyal. was overcome by re-
morse and committed suicide rather
than face her. This is not in keeping
| either with the usual conduct OF the
derelicts nor with popular conception
Of the responsibility and degree of cnlp-
ability. In ali compliance with estab-
lished rule, the fallen wife. utterly dis
graced and beyond all hope Of redemp-
ton. should have committed suicide in
| preference to meeting the stern anger
% her husband. and the scorn OF So
eiety. The other man should have
passed on back 10 his normal life. and
his share In the transaction would soon
have faded into oblivion.
The topic concerns all mankind: II
is being more urgently pressed upon
/ public attention by a movement which
ts permeating all the churches, and Il
is grave enough a subject 10 merit the
earnest thought of both men and wo-
men The world vscillates between
/ two extremes-that represented by the
! idea that nan and woman are on A pre-
eisely identical moral plane: and that
/ which extends So extreme a leniency
/ that virtue loses its throne 10 the
/ usurper Wanton.
Society knows what 20 90 with its
Phrynes and its Nsnas- They have
nothing 70 DO with this subject Nor
does the treatment o. moral lepers. vic
TINS o. an hereditary physical falling
4 or tnordinate sensitiyeneSs. come with
/ r. the scope q consideration. There
a-e, too. vampires among msn whose
stealthy flights ard iasldlous gloating
ever helpless objects q, their wl,es
make them more ths subjects Of path
oAogy than ot geatle spiritual remou-
sr-a1ce.
/ Il is the exceptional lapse from strict
! regard :ar tie sanstity q marital rsla-
tons. or the almost innocent departure