The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1909-10-22
FLIRTING DECLARED
TO Be MOST IMMORAL
AND FIENDISH WORK
MRS. CHARLOTTE PERKINS GIL.
MAN SAYS THAT NEW GRADuA-
TON or SINS is NEEDED.
"WOMEN WORSE LIARS THAN aEN''
Double Standard For The Two Sexes
Is Eternally Wrong-signs Of a
Change Are seen-Treason Defined
as the Worse Crime.

NEW YORK, Oct. 19.--Flirting,
which young women thing so innocent
a pastime. is grossly immoral, de-
clared Mrs Charlotte Perkins Gilman
in a lecture ON Assorted Sins, at
the Rand School, No. III East Nine
teenth street, yesterday morning
Mrs. Gilman started her more conyen-
tional sisters six years ago by declar-
ing that every married woman should
work like her husband should hand
her children over to trained teachers
for rearing, and cease attracting men
through personal adornment. She won
at that time the sobriQuet of The
Truly Modern Woman"
THE woman who flirts is doing
fiendish work l knew one beautiful
girl, perfectly decent and cultured,
who took great delight in urging men
on. l could never understand how
she found pleasure in it.
"'Oh it's fun she answered, when
| asked her why she did it. Fun, to
get a man so that he can't wait an
other minute before he embraces you.
And then, rot let him, she added
gleefully
There are thousands like her, who
either don't realize or don't care about
the harm they do
Mrs Gilman spent over an hour re-
asserting the sins of the world &C
cording to their Importance, but she
found that there are so many she
couldn't get half through with them.
High on the list, along with flirting,
she places lying.
There is more lying among women
than men," she asserted When it
comes to business and politics, some
times think the men have it over the
women. But socially the women are
much worse. Most women would
rather lie than hurt a persons feel
ings. Personally 1 don't see any
reason why we shouldn't hurt peoples
feelings. Woman is not to blame for
lying-she has been subject creature
so long. The habit of being subject
creature makes for deceit.
Lying comes from helplessness.
We call the knights of old honorable
because they didn't lie. But they
don't deserve the term. They were
powerful and didn't have to. 1t was
looked on as servile to lie."
Mrs. Gilman says that our sins must
all be graded differently than they are
in the Ten Commandments.
Our notions of sins are out Of
date" she said. 1--WE have looked on
sin too long as disobedience to God,
and the field of sins as level one.
But, on the contrary, it is very irreg-
is hard to tell where the line is to be
drawn. They rise one above the 9TH
er in Importance and injury to society.
who ever made the last grading
of sins, put them in the worng boxes.
zone of the sins to which we have
failed absolutely in giving sufficient
Importance is that of double standard
of morality. There is no reason why
one sex should have different
standards from the other 1t is not
ethical, and even biblical commands
don't sanction it. 1t results from the
patriarchal age-the age of the domi-
nance of man over woman-a most
unnatural relation.
EVEN in this country, in the twen-
tieth century. we have the unwritten
law. If a woman is unfaithful to her
husband, he may kill her, and in many
places get off scot free. But there ,
are now some indications of turning |
tide. have read recently of women
rising up and killing men, And juries
are beginning to get their point OF
view.
I'm morality we must adopt that
standard that makes for the best pa
rentage. Any standard of ethics that
interferes with good parentage is
wrong.
But of all sins treason is the worst.
We realize that to commit a crime
against society is by far the worst.
Yet we often fail to realize when we
are committing treason or a crime
against society"
SWEPT OVER NIAGARA.