Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-08-20
From the Outlook.

To the Editor of the Outlook: Il
si1--lN1ay8I make use Of your columns
for a personal explanatio lon, and also to
set forth certain traits in our press and
people which manifest themselves, be-
|$lieye, In an equal degree in no other5
country? III {
The personal facts are these: On
June 1b delivered a commencement
address at a girls college in Boston,
taking for my subject the common OBJ
jectlons to the higher education of
women, obi ections generally rat Their felt
than formulated by hesitating moth
ers Five were mentioned: ( the danger
to health, to manners, to marriage, tn
religion, and to compantonshfp with
parents in the home. These i described
from the parents, point of lew, and!
then pointed out t he sconcepti ons on
which Believed them to rest. In speak
ing OF manners, / said that a mother
often fears that attention to study
may make her daughter awkward, keep
her unfamiliar with the general world,
and leave her unfit for mixed society.
TO which r replied that in the rare cases
where Intellectual interests do for a.
time oyershad ow the social, we may
we'll i bear In mind the relative diff
culties of subsequent repair. a girl
who has had only social interests be-
for q does not usually gain elIectual.
ones afterwards while the ways of the
world are rapidly acquired by any.
young woman Of brains. TO illustrate,
I told of a strong student of Radcliffe
who had lived much withdrawn during
her course there, alarming her u ncol-i
legiate parents by her slender interest
In social functions. At graduate ion they
pressed her to devote a year to balls
and dinners and to mas tering what they
regarded as the occult art of manners.
She came to me for counsel, and / adj
vised her to accede to their wishes.
.Flirt hard. NJ. ,,fsaid !, and show that
a college girl is equal to whatever is
required OF her. This was the only.
5allusion to the naughty topic which
my speech, an hour in length, con-
tanned. ,s.
That evening one of the yelloWes st
Of the? Boston papers printed q report
of my ADDRESS on Filtration and the
next day a reporter came from the sans:
paper requesting an interview. The
interview I refused saying that ] had
| given no such address and I wished my!
name kept altogether out of print, The
following Sunday, however, the bubble
was fully blown the paper printing n
| column Of pretended interview, gener-
ously adorned with headlines and quo:
tation marks, setting forth in gay col
Isors my advocacy of flirtation.'
And now the dirty bubble began to
float Not being a constant reader Of
| this particular paper, / knew nothing OF.
| its mischief untila week had gone by
Then renlonstrances began to be sent to
me from all parts Of the country de-
| nouncing my hoary frivolity. From half
the states of the Union they came, and
| in such numbers that few days of the
past month have been free from "a
morning insult. MY mail has been.
| crowded with solemn or darisive edit
torfals, with distressed letters. abusive
| postal cards, and occasionally the Leaf
llet of some society for the prevention
| of vice. its significant passages marked.
During all this hullabaloo have been
silent. The story was already wide
| spread when my attention WAS first
called to 1t. 1t struck me then as mere
" a gigantic piece Of summer Stiffness.
| arguing emptiness of the editorial mind
| I felt too. how easily a. man makes
himself ridiculous in attempting to
prove that he is not fit subject for
ridicule. and how In the long run char
actor is It's own best vindication i
should accordingly prefer to remain.
silent still. But the story. Ike all that
touches on questions of sex, has!
shown a strange persistency My
friends are disauieted Harvard is
| DETAINED Reports of my de-
praFity have lately been sent to me
from English and French papers, and
! In a recent number of Life I appear in
a capital cartoon. my ,ittera nee being
reckoned rs one of the principal Incl
dents of the month. Perhaps, then, 1t
| is as well to say that no such incident
has occurred. and that now, when all Of
us have had our laugh, the racket had
better cease. 81
But such persistent pursust of an un-
offending person throws iiltp strong re-
lief four defects in our newspapers, and
especially in the attitude of our people
toward them. In the first place, the
plan of reporting practised here Is a
mistaken one, and is adopted, so far as
I know. nowhere else on earth. Our
| papers rarely try to give an ordered
outline of an address. They either re-
| port verbatim, or more usually the re-
porter Is expected TO gather lot of
taking phrases. regardless of connec-
| ton. While these may occasionally
| and less to printed reports of addresses.
Serious reporting of public speech is
coming to an end. 1t would be we'll
1 If it ended altogether, SO impossible is
it already to learn from the newspapers
] what man has been saying. \
| OF the indifference to truth in the
Flower class of our papers their vuig nri-
| ty. intrusions into private life. and
4 eagerness at all hazards to print some
thing startling. say little. because