Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1907-05-03

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Much as / love my sex, | know
from personal experience that there
are many states or degrees of moth
erhood, and that the young are
growing up all wrong because OF
these weaknesses. It is easy to sec
the worlds way-loved ease and
pleasure and money--that she seems
not to have had one iota of regard
for her daughters real welfare. How
dead she seems to all that is highest
and noblest In woman. At that par
ticular time when her innocent child
was budding into womanhood she
should have given her the protection
OF home; she should have prevented
her from contracting the exciting
conditions into which she was push
ed. IL this mother was as careless
OF her daughters moral welfare as
the testimony in the court shows,
she Ia the one that I would recon-.
mend for special sanitarlum treat
ment. would be the first to sign a
petition TO that effect. Alas! there
are mothers who as Indifferent set
about to outline the lives of their
children. and often some OF the most
unhappy marriages have resulted
from such mistakes. Judging from
the testimony given iabout Evelyn
Nesblt's mother she ignored all the
higher instincts OF true womanhood,
and sacrificed her daughter.
Indifferent motherhood Is a hered-
i:ary taint. and II In being passed on
TO an alarming degree through tho
blood and marrow of our civilization
The accepted forms OF conventional
life tend to strengthen this tendency.
There IL something so uncanny and
unnatural In Evelyn Nesbit's moth
er's life that the unfortunate woman
who has lost her way I'm the world
seems clean In comparison. Such n
one 1--WE often find has drlfted away
from the path OF Righteousness blind
ly and ignorantly. a victim. But
how many reminders Evelyn Nesbit's
mother had of her duty to her child.
daily In contact with her in her In.
nocence. OH the pathos OF that sad
statement of Evelyn Nesbit In court
whore she stated that Stanford White
had told her that all women were
like herself. and that he persuaded
her To believe that this was really
soil think | report correctly.
In this fact alone have we not
proof that the child was absolutely
neglected In her moral training by
the one who should have been her
guardian angel all along the way?
When young Thaw showed To Evelyn
Nesbit the shocking errors of Stan.
ford White. his immoral philosophy
and acts, she arose In her sweet
womanhood; uneonsciously strength
ening her moral nature for the awful
ordeal she was To pass through
When the time came aud she was
challenged by her gratitude aud love
for Thaw to help him. she horoica'-
ly met the issue, made womanly
secritlce, idii an heroic act, by laying
bare her sad life TO the world, All
this must prove TO any fair-minded
person that the royal forces of that
girls higher nature were beginning
TO blossom. When we see this real
nobility of character manifesting.
we can say boldly that had the moth
or done her whole duty by her child
a thousand million stanford Whites
could not have marred her life.
My subject is not an entertaining
one, indeed Il is loathsome In mary
aspects Hut may II not be that
some great lesson may be learned
from this simple digest? Cannot the
strongest and wisest OF womankini !
bestire themselves TO protect not only
their young. but the innoeents OF
the whole world By new efforts. The
cry OF the suffering is close at our
doors, and We are challenged 20
serve humanity in such a way that
the evil In the world shall lessen
Well We know there is little In the
general aspect of everyday life that
can hold One at ease or az peace
How startling are the ineonsisten
eies, the marked evidences that we
have OF mans inhumanity TO man.
Every large city In the world tells a
story OF sin and shame. ON the streets
In houses OF m-fame, everywhere
We see the monster vice. growing In
It's influence while careless and in-
dinerent mothers, women and par
ents, move along In their selfish en-
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