The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-03-21

a friend Of the girl. She had told him
that she was weary of her life as a wait
ress, and had threatened to end 1t. He
SAID he had endeavored to drive the
thought from her head. The night before
, her suicide he had talked to her and en-
deavored to comfort her and believed that
| ne had succeeded.
The tragedy stirred the women of Ma
dera like an electric shock They were
| horror-stricken to think that man they
received in their homes as friend could
do such a deed. They determined to
punish him and protect their homes.
| Then the mass meeting was called by
] the women at which the resolution al
ready quoted was passed After that the
| Bessie Evans Club was founded. Ex-
planning its purposes Mrs. DR.. Mary Bu-
| tin, one of the leading women of MADEIRA,
said:
1T appears that there are crimes that
| the laws of man cannot reach The tragic
! deaths of Amy Murphy in San Francisco
and of unprotected little Bessie Evans
are illustrations. 1t seems that men can
not provide a punishment for the acces-
series to these self murders, but women
! can, to a certain extent. They cannot
inflict capital punishment, but they can
| fix the punishment or social death TO
| such men. To all those who make play
| things Of women's hearts the doors OF
| the members of the club will be closed.
Our daughters shall be taught to fear
| and abhor them worse than they would
pestlence, and with increased efforts we
shall strive to teach our boys to honor
yir lc No
matter what their station in life.
When we called our first meeting
few days after Bessie's death, we hardly
knew what We intended to do, but we
were united on one idea, and that was to
request Kutner's firm that he be not al
lowed to return. We did not know wheth1
er t odo this as body, or by a commit
tee, but our husbands, brothers. fathers
and sons, the men of the town, settled
it for US off-hand. They said That is
out of your sphere of action; that is the
mems work. Whenever you want Kut-
ner to go, ladies, you pass the word and
be goes. The men will see to that and
you need not bother your heads about the
details of his going That settled that
point, and I hope every community in the
country has such men as We have here
in MADEIRA
1--WE then decided on the idea of this
club. IT is the intention to make it an
open club room for women, and more es-
pecially for working girls, those who have
no place in which to entertain friends
and admirers. Girls tell us they have no
place in which to entertain. The hotel
parlors, or the parlors of their employers
\ s
they have callers they must entertain on
the street, or take them to their rooms.
The club intends to obliviate all this by
having rooms that shall ae open to all the
girls. We shall make them as coZy and
home like as possible with books, musi-
cal instruments and ported plants. Then
We shall have a number of teas and ice
cream sets to which the girls shall be
welcome.
I'VE hope to Sc clubs similar to ours
all over the land. Where is there city
or town of any considerable size that has
not a tragedy of this nature on its rec
ords? Let Nthem do as we intend doing,
adopt the name of the victim for that of
their club, and if possible let the proceed
ings of that club follow the man to the
uttermost ends Of the earth lest he for
get. We shall engross the story of Bes-
sic Evans and frame it on our walls for
strangers; for US it is engraved on our
hearts"
Behind these good women of MADEIRA
are the fathers, brothers, sons and hus-
bands, with money and muscle, and
whenever a man develops the Kutner
traits the women have bue to pass the
word" and he goes