The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-05-11

would be q DenedlctlOn not only 10
himself and to whom he loved but
Ito all whom he came in contact. In
Imy compassion | wish that my voice
might reach him in his lonely cell,
THAT | might touch his heart with my
conviction--with the pathos of my
Ifeeings--with the intensity of my
hope for him, and for his faithful
wife and afflicted mother. He Is a
new man, grown strong through with
lsuffering; higher purposes have been
Iingrained into his life because he
protested against evil
There is another character / would
Icall your attention to; the mother Of
Evelyn Nesbit. Relying upon the
Testimony Of the daughter her great
effort to screen her mother from re-
Isponsibility and from the general his
tory of the case-to me this woman
was a mother but in name absolutely
lacking in those qualities that should
stand for motherhood. This woman is
mot exceptional character, not the only
lmother who appears to have failed in
Iher duty to her child: there are many
such as light from the lives of their
Ichildren.
Much as love my sex, know from
personal experience that there are
manystates or degrees of motherhood.
Iand that he young are growing up all
wrong bcause of their weaknesses. Il
Is easy to see that Evelyn Nesbit's
lmother loved the worlds way-loved
ease and pleasure and money-that
she seems no. to have had one iota
Iof dread for her daughters real well
fare. How dead she seems to all that
is highest an noblest in woman. At
that particular time she should have
given her the protection of home:
Ishe should have prevented her from
contracting the exciting conditions into
which she was pushed. If this mother
was as careless of her daughters NOR
al welfare as the testimony in the
court shows, she is the one | would
recommend for special sanitarium
treatment. | would be the first to sign
"a petition to that effect. Alas. there
lare mothers who are as indifferentlv
Iset about TO outline the lives of their
Ichildren. and often some of the most
unhappy marriages have resulted
trom such mistakes. Judging Dom
the testimony given about Evelyn
INecbits mother she ignored all the
lhigner Instincts OF true womanhood
and sacrificed her daughter
indifferent motherhood is a hered-
Iitary faint 10,
to an alarming degree through the
blood and marrow of our civlazion.
IThe accepted forms of conventional
life tend to strengthen this tendency
There Is something so uncanny and
unnatural in Evelyn Nesbit's mothers
life that the unfortunate who has lost
her way in the world seems clean in
comparison. Such one we often
1nd has drifted away from the paths
OF righteousness blinly and ignorantly
a victim. But how many reminders
Evelyn's mother had of her duty TO
her child, daily in contact with her in
nocence. Oh. the pathos OF that sad
statement OF Evel' Nesbit In court
where 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 i report correctly.
In this fact alone have we NOT nroof
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 Stanford White
his immoral philosophy and acts. she
arose In her sweet womanhood: nm
consciously strengthening her moral
nature for the awful ordeal she was
TO pass through. When the time came
ana she was challenged by her graft
itude and love for Thaw to helm him
she heroically met the issue, made a
womanly sacrifice did an heroic act
by laying bare her sad life TO the
world All this must prove to any
fair minded person that the royaI
forces of that girls higher nature
were beginning to blossom. When
we see this real nobility OF her whole
character manifesting we can boldly
say that had the mother done her
right duty by her child a thousa
milliorl Stanford Whites could NOT
nave marred her life.
MY subject is not an entertain
Ing one, indeed 1t is loathsome In
many aspects. But may II not be
that some great lesson NAV he
learned from the simple digest
cannot the strongest and wisest of
womankind bestir themselves IN nro-
tect not only their young but tho
innocents of the whole world nv
their efforts? The cry of the suffer =
ing Is close at our doors and we are
chailenged to serve humanity In sucb
way that the evil In the world
shall lessen. Well we know there is
little In the general aspect of every.
DAY life that can hold one. nj ease
or at pecce. How startling are the
Inconsistencies, the marked evidences
that we have of mans inhumanity 10
man. Every large city in the world
Q tells a story of sin and shame m tbe