The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1908-09-25
Moral Value Of Tar And
Feathers.
By Dorothy Dix.

DOuy OF tnelr fellow citizens yearn
TO tender their warmest congra-
tulations and good wishes to the
Washington gentlemen who ad-
mlnistered beating and a coat
of tar and feathers the other
night To the gay fascinator who
was trying to break up the hap
py home of one of their number
1t is not always easy to find a
punishment to fit the crime, and
It has been particularly difficult
TO decide what sort of retribution
should be visited upon the scoun-
drel who cajoles weak wife into
betraying her husband.
Bloodshed is too drastic, for it
is not worth while for a goodman
to lay the burden of murder on
his soul for the sake Of revenge
upon villain and woman who
is no better than she should be.
Suing the man for alienation
of the wife's affections is hideous
to man of sensitive honor, and
the money that is the price of a
woman's shame smells to heaven.
But there is something pecu-
liarly appropriate in the notion
of giving the despoiler of a fire
side a good. enduring coat OF
tar and feathers, for the color of
lthe tar symbolizes the blackness
Iof his deed, and the feathers
show what a goose he was to
risk so much for SO little, and to
believe that a woman who is
faithless to one man will be loyal
to another.
Moreover and this is the
most important point Of all-Don
Juan In coat of tar and feathers
is no longer romantic hero
he is a figure of fun, a thing
for mockery and gibes and ri
bald laughter.
No woman could look a second
time at a man who has once been
put in that ridicu Gus position.
The entire feminine Imagination.
working overtime, could not
again fit him out in the dan
gerous trappings of chivalry.
denceforth and forever after he
would be so innocuous to the
fancy of the fair sex that he
might safely be employed to /
chaperon girls boarding
school.
1t would be to laugh. and not
70 elope, when they looked att
him and recalled him as the un-
derstudy of the silly quank-
quack. For not only, clippingI
out neatly manicuring the
Icloven hoofs of the tempter, 4
who steals into the domestic
paradise and beguiles Eve into
partaking of the forbidden fruit.
nothing has ever been suggested
that so happily filled the bill,
and met longfelt want. as tar
and feathers.
No mans fascinations for
women could survive that cru
|cial ordeal. No woman could
look at him without snickering
and giggling behind her hand
kerchief; and when a woman
laughs she is safe.
The trouble with Lothario has
always been that he was pic
turesque. That is what made
him so dangerous, and so irres-
istible to women. He had a
dark past, but it was yelled in
romance. He was terribly wick :
ed. but it was a spectacular
wickedness that piqued the
imagination
There were tales about bim
as a heart breaker, and three
volume novels whispered of his
intrigues with married women;
this husband had shot at him;
that husband had divorced his
wife on account of him. These
stories did not warn women
away from him. They simply
tolei them on, for they cast the
glammor of the wickedly heroic
about him.
But suppose, instead of being
about duels and affairs of honor
and broken hearts, the stories
had related how Mr.. Lothario
was treated to cost Of tar and
feathers by the first irate hus-
band whose home he invaded;
would there over have been
second lady fall victim to his
charms?
Nay, verify The first dab of
the tar brush would have put