The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1904-09-11

even begin to see the wrong they had
done her. They would not have dared
to calumniate the false bOaster as they
illuminated the innocent hard work
er. The boaster was a mantle
worker a woman-therefore the dis
honor Of passing of literary work not
ones own must naturally belong to
Accused Eve. so they thought-nOt to
Coward AdamI OF their humiliation
when all the truth was known, history
sayeth nothing.
Yet, with all the weight OF her curse
more or less upon her. and with all
her sorrows, shattered ideals, wrecked
hopes and lost loves, Accused Eve is
still the most beautiful, the most per-
feet figure in all creation. Her fail
1ngs, her vanities, her weaknesses, her
sins, arise in the first place from love
even if afterward, through Coward
Adams ready encouragement, they de-
generate into vice and animalism. Her
first impulse in earliest youth is a
desire to please Adan-the same i'm
pulse precisely which led her to offer
him the forbidden apple in the first
days of their mutual acquaintance
She wishes to charm him-to win his
heart-to endear herself to him In a
thousand tender waysEto wind her
self irretrievably round his life. II
she succeeds in this aim she is invarf-
ably happy and virtuous. But if she
Is made to feel that she cannot hold
him on whom her thoughts are CEN
tered-R his professed love for her
only proves weak and false when put
to trial-if he finds 1t easy to forget
both sentiment and courtesy, and is
quick to add insult to injury, then all
the finer and more delicate emotions
of her nature become warped and nm
strung-and though she endured her
sufferings because she must, he re-
sents 1t and takes vengeance when sha
cam or resentfulness against wrong
and revenge for injustice come what
are called bad women" Yet I would
humDly venture to maintain that even
these bad" were not bad In the first
instance. They were born In the usu-
al way. with the usual Eve impulse
the desire to please, not themselves
but the opposite sex.
II their instructive efforts have been
met with cruelty. oppression, neglect.
deSertton and sometimes the most
heartless and cowardly betrayal, they
can scarcely be blamed II they play
the same tricks on the unloving. dis
loyal churls for whom they have per-
haps sacrificed the best part OF their
lives. For innocent faith and trusting
love are the best part OF every woman's
life; and when these are DESTROYED bv
the brutalizing touch of some Coward
Adam the woman may well claim COM
pensation for her souls murder.
Accused Evel Still she Ioves-to
find herself fooled and cheated: still
she hopes. even while hope eludes her
still she waits, for what she may never
win-still she prays prayers that NAV
never be answered-stilI she rears the
men OF the future. wondering per-
chance whether any OF them will ever
help to do her justice-wiu ever place
her where she should be as the ac-
knowledged queenly "helpmeet" OF her
stronger but less enduring partner!
Beautiful. frail. trusting, loving Ac-
cursed Eve! She bends beneath the
curse-but the clouds are 1Ifting-there
is light in the sky OF her future dawn
And 1t may be that worse maledictfon
than the one pronounced in Eden will
fall on those who make her burden Of
life heavier to bear!