The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1909-08-04
..SHE WAS A CONVERT.

.SHE WAS A CONVERT"
Marshslltown Times Republican:
No matter where it happened. no mat
ter who she was, who made the COM
ment, or why. It might have hap
pened anywhere in the world. She
was not what che ought to be. che WAS
weak and perhaps wicked. She tried
to do better but she fell again and =
newspaper cav its opportunity to say
s.she was one Of the FIRST Of the
converts. -
Hers is common story: 90 COM
mon that we pass by without notice
when its finale 10 said or written.
80 Once she was pure as the snow but
she fell.'' The whole history is in
the verse.
Men deepised her and women shun-
ned her. She lived in . half world
and among the most brutal Of the half
world. She hated herself: for she
remembered. She hated those with
whom she consorted. shuddered ut the
men Who bought her and flung her
aside. Sometimes she thought of
morphine. that nepenthe Of the last,
and stopped trembling ana affriRbted
on the brink Of the suicides grave.
She knew that soon or late she must
die dishonored and dreamed it would
be by her own hand. Often she
thought that hell had no such horrors
40 life. Hedged in and tainted every
day with her sin and her dishonor she
writhed like Q victim at the stake.
She saw the interminable years reach
out to the horizons rim aud cav upon
the clouds no sun CLEAN of hope, no
promise of brighter day here or
hereafter. And she was young. In
our home and of our children she
would have been sacred and beauti
full bud that the love lit eyes of par
entail pride would have watched I'm
folding in the delight Of q supreme
happiness. Just girl who needed a
fathers arm and mothers heart to
lean upon: just girl and lost.
And one night she came into re-
vival meeting. Here she might sit
among her own sex. the sisters that
had cast her off ss she had perhaps
deserved, she had not gone to church
since since that day when she left
tn. world for the demi monde. And
as She sat and listened to the songs
and heard the plea Of the preacher it
all came back. The sense of what
she had lost. the knowledge Of what
she had been and the crushing compre-
hension Of what she might have been
came over her. She craved hope as
the lost wanderer in the desert longs
for water. Altar she saw the CLINT
of the nails in the crucified hands.
and family heard the promise of the
crucified. And in y new resolve she
put the past behind her and lifted her
eyes in hope to the future. It was
her pledge or her lost airlhood, her
vow made to such womanhood as life
had left. And she went: out with the
light Of new hope on her face.
Went out where? The question
struck her like q blow when she
stepped from the lights into the dark
ness Of the night and the future.
Where was she to go? What refuge
remained to her? Her fight vas alone
against mighty odds She lost it.
She fell and the newspaper that waited
opportunity chortled % she dropped
back into the abyss that she wal
zone Of the-converts. "
Is her blood upon her head? Moth
, er sitting at ease in the shadow Of q
protecting home with your children
i about you; father. with your innocent
daughter on your arm. 10 her bloot
upon her head or 3ours? Christian
who prayed with her ON that nigh
when she looked ont beyond the mirl
e.
of earth an! caught CLEAN Of til,
perfect glory and who left her at tn
door where the shadow fell upon he
path. is her blood on her head Or ours
Shall her blood be required at. on
hands? What shall We answer whe
We stand to make our last accounting
7 What Of this little one to whom "
did not as we should have done I
Him?
@-------=----- #
!, ADMITS WORKING THE FARMER
Logan Observer: We hate to 81,
. it away but there has been so mue
said, individually and through Il