The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-08-28
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WITH ENTIRE FRANKNESS.
g BY HtnRf JAMES :.
s. MISREPRESENTATION OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES 50
BY HENRY JAMES.


To say aught against a woman is
never a pleasing task; but when a
woman descends from her high estate
to become an unholy and unclean wan
ton, polluting her environment with
the utter foulness of total and ire
deemable depravity, her sex no longer
protects her. To permit it to do SO
would be a wrong 20 others. / do not
refer to the outcast, for misfortune
may have been her lot, and charity ex
tends to her a hand, knowing her to
be no worse than some to whom is
permitted still to wear the cloak of
responsibility. I refer particularly to
that wretched and despicable creature,
Margaret l.. Shepherd, who parades
her own infamy for money and while
doing so processes to be a reformer g In
her chosen task she ISLANDERS women
the hem of whose raiment she is not fit
to touch, and in telling of the lewdness
of Sisters of Charity, one of whom she
processes to have been, lies with
venom unequaled, and shows a black
ness Of heart never exceeded by the ira
Queer Of innocence. Lost to all shame,
dead to the impulses which stir wom-
anhood and purity, her words are the
words of the abandoned. A slanderer,
liar, mischief maker, she deserves
the scorn of men, the loathing of
women. / can write this fairly be-
cause all the traditions of my youth
were Of the severest type of Protest
antism. In the town where 1 was reared
there was no Catholic church, and as a
boy / had no idea that Catholic looked
and acted like any one else. 1t was my
boyish notion that Catholics were of a
separate type. But later in life there
came to me knowledge that Catholics
and Professionals serve one Master, only
through different FORM are touched by
kindred emotions, are under the same
flag, love the same country and the
same God. 1 have learned to revere
the unselflsh devotion of the Sisters,
their courage, their kindness and their
Wilderness of soul, and 1 abhor such
vermin as this Shepherd, tonguing
strumpet, unfit to associate with de-
cency and beyond the desire of reform.
That she can find profit in selling her
wares is a reproach to our civiliza-
ton.
e. B. P: You mistake my purpose
entirely If you think I would criticize
an article with intent to cause the
writer pain. To demonstrate my sin
cerity, the article in question shall be
passed over without word of COM
ment.
A woman go years of age, the mother
Of eight children. has killed herself
rather than become the mother Of the
ninth. l do not blame her overmuch,
and yet her course seems little hard
as to the eight already born. She
should have paused to reflect that the
youngsters were not to blame.
Doctors surely ought to know more
than ordinary people about the rules
of health. and probably do, but the
knowledge does not seem to do them
any good. I have noticed with sur
prise that they die as readily as though
the art of healing had never been prac-
ticed Within the last few months
there have been lost to San Francisco
by death Doctors Stanton. Lovelace
and Morse, all young men, all physi-
clans of standing, and the last at least
of eminence in the medical and surgi-
cal world: To me 1t is inexplicable
that men should study to cure dis
ease, and live SO as to promote it and
become its early, victims. The three
mentioned had hardly passed half. the
allotted span of life.
Readers will bear with a few words
about the Republican convention, or
such as feel they cannot may skip this
paragraph. In line of duty l had at
tended the Democratic pow-pow, and
returned with deep and abiding dis
gust for the outfit, which was neither
Democratic, Republican, Populist nor
a wholesome combination. 1t named
a ticket which is destined to be licked,
partly because it deserves this fate and
partly that the Republicans have been
shrewd enough to put up a better one.
But neither gathering had special rea-
son to feel proud of itself. 1 had ex-
pected at the latter to hear many good
speeches, and to get spellbound, but
out of the dozens delivered there were
not above four appealing to any emo
ton save ennui, and one of these was
delivered by General Barnes, who was
there only as a spectator, and kindly
filed in an interval which Reuben Lloyd
had created by lingering over lunch
Another was the address of Davis in
nomination of Gage. 1t was finished,
scholarly, incisive, giving evidence of
nicely in preparation Of phrases; in
construction and delivery the work of
an elocutionist, not an orator. The
best speech from delegate was that
of T. B. Hutchinson in behalf Of Judge
Buckles, the Judge subsequently going
down to honorable defeat. l must also
advert to the remarks Of Van Duzer
and the witty monologue of Matlock.
Otherwise the talk was not only COM
monplace, but most of 1T without ex-
cuse the speakers merely desiring to
place themselves on exhibition. aAs to
detail of the convention, it was so COM
pletely covered by the exhaustive re-
ports of The Call that nothing remains
to say. The subject was introduced
simply to lead up to the status of Sac
ramento as a convention city.
Sacramento was the very essence OF
hospitality. The citizens had decor
L. 49,