The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1906-01-06
W0MEN'S SENSE OF
HONOR UNDEVEL0P
dan Maclaren, in Chicago Tribune.)


mother, and he is unworthy to have a
daughter This man should not be
! trusted in any serious affair of life, for
| his moral vision has been perverted and
! is quite unreliable. He is color blind
! in his soul, and cannot see the white
! of the lily nor the redness of the rose.
! What strikes a sound man and compels
his homage is the high qualities which
blend together and come to perfection
in the character of a good woman. Her
/ instructive purity, her habitual un-
selfishness, her ecpacity for sacrifice,
her unTeserved devotion to those whom
she loves, and the rapidity and GER
tainty of her moral insight Within the
/ range of virtue she is almost at every
point an example to men and their
/ despair If a woman were quite fault
Tess then she would be too good for
this world, for even gold cannot be
wrought and used unless it be mixed
with alloy. Perhaps we ought not,
therefore, to be quite disappointed that
a woman has the defects of her quail
| ties and that there are flaws in the
marble of the Parthenon. Her failings
are many, but there are two which
catch the eye of the world, and some
times try her friends. They are closely
allied, but they are not quite the same.
and the first is an imperfect sense of
justice.
Most people feel that women have
not the same idea of justice as men.
but of course when one makes this
statement ne is ready in the same
breath to offer qualifications He is
speaking of women as a class. He ac-
knowledges freely that there are wo-
men endowed with minds as impartial
and capable of dealings as fair as any
man, but he suggests that they are the
exception. 1t has also to be frankly
admitted that a defect in the sense Of
justice with women springs from one
of their finest qualities. The reason it
is more difficult for her to be perfectly
just in all circumstances, and to every
person, is partly her emotional nature
but largely her personal devotion. A
woman's loyalty is not so much to prin-
ciples as to people and on the person
she lavishes a wealth of affection. Since
you cannot have the light without the
shadow Ii follows that the person she
dislikes inherits the wealth of detesta-
tions- If she be lowered with the love
of love she is apt also to be cursed with
the hate Of hate. With a woman ev-
erything is more or less personal; God
has made her so for good ends You
dare not, therefore, criticise her church;
you can only point out a fault in her
child at your deadly peril. Every one
lis beneath the shield of her love, every
one is faultless that belongs TO her.
We honor her for this chivalrous 10y
atty, we recognize in its wealth of pas
sion her power in life, but can you ex-
pect to have both partisanship and JUS
tice?
Is 1t not the case that every. second
woman is tempted to cheat at a game
il she can get the chance, whether it
be croquet or whether it be cards? She
has little conscience about the matter,
and men have got to have little con-
science about her doing 1t. They will
shrug their shoulders and accept it as
woman's way. If a man had done
such thing he would be cast out of
his club and out of society without
mercy. 1t is only rascal among men
who will cheat at game. and many
rascals dishonorable everywhere else.
are honorable here If a woman can
get the better of a railway company
by passing a child or 13 as under u.
or travelling in q higher class without
paying the excess she will be quite
happy, and if she can get a quantity
of eau de cologne through the Gus
toms without paying she will boast of
1t for weeks. but men do not like those
little rogueries, and do not think they
are worth mans doing. One could
which woman had filled UP and which
affected her interests. When woman
wants to circumvent some person she |
may be model Of all the virtues, and |
her husband may not be quite free |
from some of the vices. but she will |
give him advice which will make his |
hair stand on end, and which he can |
hardly make her understand is per- |
fectly out of the question.
When il comes to secrets let il be |
granted that if the right woman be |
found she will keep a secret as well as |
any man. There are women who in |
this matter are like the depths of the
sea. and anything committed to them |
VIII never be revealed. As rule. how
ever, TO tell secret to a woman is to |
have 1t published abroad. It is not that |
she will start out to tell it through pure |
malice or to crafty her love of gossip: |
she Will simply not be able to keen i
and Will not feel that she has me /
anything grossly -dishonorabIe v,,.cn
she has not kept it. What trouble !,on
have got into, and what scandals have
convulsed society, and what great I'M
lertakings have been ruined, and what
terrible tragedies have happened in his
tory through women not being able.
and not feeling the obligation, to hold
their tongues! Friedships have been
broken up and men have been ruined.
good men also have been sent to shame
and to the scaffold because women
nave been careless in this point of hon
Or. Is 1t not pathetic that a woman
who for some reason has to confide in
4 man will beseech him that he should
not tell his wife? She will trust the
nan whom she only knows in his pro
essional capacity, she will not trust his
wife whom she may know as a friend.
From the days of Rebecca unto this
present, clever and delightful women
'ond wives. and good mothers have
played their little tricks and have not
)een ashamed
There are two reasons for this start
ing defect in womanly character. and
me of them is natural Women are
he weaker sex, and in the arrange
nents Of creation the weaker animal
las always held its own against the
stronger by trickery. A lion practices
10 deceit because it does not require
)ut a fox is skilled in every maneuver
md when you come down to the in
ects they copy the color of the leaf on
which they lie that they may escape
heir enemies. The smaller animals are
ull of hypocrisy. When society was
barbarian, then the woman had to
Practice many arts to hold her own
-gainst the violence of men. and so
While a man is apt to strike his enemy
n the face a woman circumvents her
" guile. AS the evolution of life pro-
eeds and the arrangements of society
ecome more perfect. then the woman