Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-02-13

4
on the contrary. respect them and de-
fend them against all injury Yet this
/ descendant of a knightiy race. like
thousands of his class now and afore-
| time, makes seduction a pastime. and
| is deaf to the cry of natural affection.
| His little daughter, surrounded by light
! characters, will probably be early cor
lrupted, and lead an immodest life,
when an inversion of the old pagan
tragedy of Oedipus and Jocasta may
occur by no means for the first time in
Christian London. May we not say to
such men in the words of Pope:
Go! If your ancient but ignoble blood
Has crept thru scoundrels ever since
the flood
Go! And pretend your family is young;
Nor own your fathers have been fools
so long.
What can ennoble sots or slaves, or
towards?
Alas! Not all the blood of all the How
ards"
know of cases in which men of all de-
grees have behaved shabbily to the
women whose fayors they have sought,
and with heartless neglect towards the
fruit of their amours? And we ask. Is
it consistent with the polity of an hon
orable people that such criminal mis-
conduct should continue without re-
dress? Does it not offer an incentive
to wickedness when 1t may be thus
committed with impunity? And why
should honest men and women be heay-
lily taxed for murders, the suicides, and
other public evils caused by profligates,
and for the support of their abandoned
children? Whether married or unTnar-
ried 1t is the moral duty of every faith
err to provide for his offspring in a prop
err manner and the state should enforce
it by every possible measure.
But we fear that 50 long as men alone
make the laws they will continue to
deal tenderly with what they emphati-
cally term the softer vices" and look
with a venial eye on seduction, forni-
cation, adultery, and desertion. as more
or less joke. Even the poets, whose
pens should be always welded for right
simetimes exhibit the same want of
moral sense. Witness one whom we
honour in other respects Robert
Burns A notorious adulterer dies. and
Burns writes a witty epitaph "On a
Wag In Mauchline," from which we OBJ
serve that according to the poetic idea,
and waggery may be synony-
nous. 1t goes on:
Lament in Mauchline husbands a,
He often did assist we;
For had we stayed whole week ava
Your wives they ne'er had missed We.
We Mauchline BARNS, as on we pass
To school in bands thegither,
o tread We lightly on his grass
Perhaps he was your father"
We open at random the pages of De- /
brett, and the first name on which the I
eye alights is that of a well known
baronet, rich and noble in his life, and +
oaded with honours and public Offices. +
But no genealogy is given. Even his
'ather's and mothers names are I'M
1oticed. Why? He was illegftimate-
son. Therefore the courtly Il
iehrett is discreetly silent. Yet his
manly and princely father not only rec
,gnized his child, but gave him all the
support possible, and would have made
lim the heir of his high rank and great
ortune, did our laws allow 1T. Then
Why this contemplate suppressio veri?
Because our virtue is assumed, be-
ause we practice in private what we
Condemn in public: because we have
leither the candour to confess our
ices nor the courage to rectify them;
BECAUSE society is living lie. But if
We would reform we must first be hon
st. AS Gautier says: Let us with
pen brow and transparent soul. learn
lot only how to die for the truth, but
earn also, what is much more difficult;
ow to live in It,"