The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-11-07

Slp-Seered victim be innOcent-hOW
long will she stand and be strong
against the terrible odds against her?
And If she be guilty, it's none Of
your particular business. is it?
And your poor, OverwoTked mouth
does need rest now and then!
Listen TO Kpling:
IF she has spoken a word, remember
thy lips are sealed,
And the Brand OF the Dog is upon
him, 10y whom is the secret re-
vealedl
II she has written letter, delay not
an instant but burn il.
Tear it 10 pieces, oh Fool, and the
winds to her mate shall return
it!
If there be trouble to Herward, and
a lie of the blacklist can clear,
Lie while thy lips can move, or d
man is alive to heart"
Strong? Rather-but the sentl-
ment is there!
Kipling knew that innocent, fool
women do compromising things, with
their various temperaments, without
thought OF harm, perhaps, but Just
harmful and Just extreme enough,
perhaps, to drag them deep down
lhIO IAO AAlIS VI SOSSiH anu even OS-
yondi
The Average Woman.
The average woman isn't really 50
bad at heart!
But she possibly needs watching.
She isn't generally speaking,
nearly as well balanced as man, with
her passion for fattery, attention
baubles, self-adornment and so on.
If she were, she wouldn't be wear
ing great, terrible headgear dubbed
~styIe"-And she wouldn't array her
self like a Hottentot queen with
dangling rows of false, false cuTls,
bobbAAg and nodding in stately pre-
cision.
But she does!
A woman will do the most irregu-
lar, foOl-hardy things-for she's i'm
pulsfve, generally; then the world
thinks things and the tongues wag on
and oni
Being an extremist (aT women are
extremists, you see) it's ten-to-one
shot that she goes to one extreme or
the other-t depends on just how
weak or just how strong shen bel
Oh-it takes a mighty wise sort OF
man to understand the glittering,
binding glamOr Of a wOman's tenn
permanent, sometimes and so few Of
them dol
The Very First Stages.
You'll see. now, probably the point
that I've been making. It's the first
stages in the downward path of these
unfortunate women in which you and
I and all of us may figure occasion
ally, and to our lasting regret, if we
but have hearts and are thoughtful!
knowing what we do Of conditions
as they exist, we ought to be very,
very careful OF scattering snap judg-
ments Of people broad cast, for oo-
CasiOnally there's a mighty we'll
meaning, foolish, innocent little thing
that's going to be dragged away
down below where she doesn't be-
long,
There isn't one Of us, really, who
doesn't need human help and human
encOura cement now and then, and,
knowing all this, how ready We
ought to be to keep these mouths
Of ours snapped tight on the shady
side Of the things We somehow
know, and smooth it all out with
good resolve and with sympathy!
i This is Gods WoTk-Our work
and it's results, even as the promises
made more than 1900 years ago, will
indeed be Beyond the price OF
Rubiesi"
The mis-step of a woman? Il
means so fearfully, fearfulIy much
life time step of the natural ex-
tremist-a woman the world over!
It was Ella Wheeler Wilcox who
said:
When woman drifts from good to
bad,
To make her final fall complete,
She puts her soul beneath her feet
Mans dual selves seem separate;
He leaves his soul outside Sins
gate,
And finds it waiting when he tires,
Of Folly's pleasures and desires.
But woman, far more cOmplicate,
Can take no chances with her fate;
A subtle creature, finely spun,
Her body and her soul are one!"