The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-04-10
|<.isti,n Life Column.
-WoRD OF wARNING.

sdsrA .,ar at her have been friends;
VI IS seen OF society has been
'n0 all the world charming She
pore ~avs been 80 hedged about with
bSs 40 ann red with innocence
l0's, i,b. tna5 sne arrives at the age
'Da bar ri. enipg charms begin to az
Fhtn 10 attention of social pirates,
EsC' oven suspectiDg that any one
~ ocss by peal her i'll, much less
"uU w,e.k her life. And yet thou
GEL y, the bes homes and the kind
ssDu' ..outs in the world turn their
81 S.a-s out toto society TO drift
dSO in the sn4res and traps lying
sU ,bom, let them go at will with
S,m.n of doubtful morality g linR
S,I. and parti. g that take up nearly
~bole night, and keeping as late
~, AZ th. y please with whomsoevPr
nlesse, and then are horrlf-d
IN they are awakened to the horrible
-. that their girl, that they sent out
y inno,ence and trust to cope with
-. vorld. has fallen q prey to some
',bsm,pg but polite, genial and win
'jDg man who is ali guilt.
70, nsrents who are thus guilty
.u,.a a daughter who has fallen into
-, from which they could and should
E.,s warned and saved her9 IL is the
s..t wrong step of a girl taken limo
..,tIv. and no the last, that ruins her.
I,d nine times out OF ten that first step
,bs careful. watch'ul eye of parents
amid have prevented LIT not parents,
.bo knlw how full the world is Of
.ssnDtstion to women, blame too
bs,snly the dauSh,er who has fallen
he reason Of not kno wing a tiJhe OF
the things OF which her mother might
have warned her.
Far j. is too often the over endul-
yspeg and mistaken kindness of par
snts that give the reins and license
for this fret step in the way that leads
% the ruin OF the girl, and to the ,
row snd woe of all who love her. Any
desc observer in q city, or 10 a town,
can Gee almost every day sweet and
lovely and Innocent girls taking this
fatal first step. o Ie morning the pas5
week, the writer Of this heard two
school girls on the street, neither Of
them over sixteen, talking With hIshed
and TOO ANXIOUS faces Of the ''OOys.'
Que said: On, we had just too good q
time for any tnIDg. didn'E wet But il
my mother only knew that I was out
till two o'clock in the morning with
CbsrlIe, she would nearly kill me;
prtmised her to be home at ten" That
mother ought to have known that thai
promise was not kept. For the minute
that any daughter, of any age, much
less one of an az 80 tender that she hsl
just begun to be stirred by the con
sCiOusness Of her sex, begins to concea,
anything from her mother, that min
ne ner feet r taking hold on the
downward way.
ner times, girls are seen taking
this step in handkerchief fl rtatior
With some man they DO not know; OF
Il they d., that they ought not t.
know. again, it i5 , in q steI
TOO far at the ball, in some sscI ihce o
nodPsty, or too great famiiiarEy, o
Which the young libertine, who was be
partner, boasts to his cbums the mex
day, adding still moro to it. Some
lines IL is taken in receiving and an
aFering a clsndestine letter, at other
nlong and late wslss at night. II i
saken, too, IN a claodestine kiss at tn
gate or In a car riage-a kiss not Of
brother or an accepted lover but of
Pirate and his poison; it is t ken in tn
secret reading of an iLh3mmator,
Dock secretly and shre wdly loaned
and many other ways which we nee
MT menlion.
Its taken, and with an innocenC
mat a prudent or watchtul mother G
ta'her ought to have Wsrnsd, and e
have prevented.
Iae sweetest, pureet, thing in all th
"Ofd ls a pure Young girl, when sd
= list emerging from the violet fel
" Youth and blushing into all th
Ossuty OF womanhood. 8 ;anding thu
mner purity she moves, a thing MOI
u heaven than OF earth, and all heAve
."n'alns nothing that ought to be moi
Sac'ed from the touch of the spoileI
o1s tae earth is not heaven, and the
"uIca tue good people would hedg
S0'ut as sacred, thousands of evil
asa'ted men would trample down int
Sue nIre Of earth and into the fires
I''' Tor a moments qualification
-''' O'uEa' lust. Let the parents VII
AAGW FEFu n-A "