The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-06

Whether types of the adventures set your moral nerves aquiver with disgust, aversion or compassion depends upon ones pfejudlces and point of view. Wo- men almost universally hold their skirts aside for the woman of -ques- tionable standing. They do this for various reasons which need not be en- tered into here. It Is no doubt well, in the main. that social adjustments should be as they are. but 1t would be more just to consider somewhat the causes lying back of the phenomenon Of the wicked woman.
 Sheltered woman can have little idea Of the lives of the great masses of the unsheltered. women born bad and all their lives wretchedly environed. We are too apt to content ourselves with a wholesale condemnation and then pass on our comfortable way. In many cases we have small right to sit in fudEment upon those who diner from us mainly in the barrenness of their opportunity. We forget that 1t is a law of nature to progress in the direc- tion that offers the least resistance.
 I present Beclxie Sharpe as the most agreeable type of the female rogue known in fiction and perhaps the most real, as well. She Is so real that we are constrained to treat her as per son rather than a character. Sne is real because she exhibits both good ana bad characteristics. Human nature is dual; it must have lights as well as rhadows; noble traits intermingled with fxnoble; cleverness and folly. 1side pS side. No natural human being is pure fv good and none are wholly bad. The ereatness of Beckie Sharpe is largeiy due to the admirable and natural ming ling of these good and bad elements It ia not my intention to excuse her' but I would show her to you as nave found her.
 man without scruples. without love or faith. ...n,. ,norals without religion. Can any ! thing In life be more hopelessf
 Every sentence that Thackery wrote about her was written to show her un- worthiness. He is ruthless In his treat rner,t of her, and takes infinite pains 70 ,As,,s no loonhole in her heredity, early .rv,ronnents and later education where any sort of moral. excellence might
 Her father and mother were degrad- ea. fhe one a clever abandoned sot with scarce a penny between nimseii and starvation: the other, Frencn dancer. Imagine the tipsy ieering com pany that frequentei this poverty stricken Bohemian abode, deficient m ail the attributes ofla real home. Con ceiye the poverty, the scheminE, the wheeling of tradespeople, the lies that must be told, the debts to be evaded to scrape together q meager and wretcneo existence!
 m infancy left motherless with an arresponsibie father, the domestic diff ficuities soon fell heavily upon Beckies 6 6- 1aits that she never knew any real childhood. and could cajole the butcher and the baker before she was eight years old. No better preparation could Re desired for her subsequent career that so largely involved living well on s.nothing year"
 There is no hint of responsibility or Integrity In those dark early days. The very genteel Miss Pinkerton Is shown to have a blighting influence upon the budding spirit of our little Beckie Even in her childhood days she was keen enough to see through people $ pretenses and recognize the selnsh InainsprinEs of their lives. She knew Miss Pinkerton to be boastful. toady- lna hypocrite. and a tryant, when she dared Amelia. her only friend. wal too stupid to win her respect. The other young ladies in Miss Pinkerton'i establishment were either naughty acurnfuI or indifferent and pretendet fo like poor woolly-headed Mis' Schwartz. the mulatto heiress who pos. sesses no charm save that luster lent by gold
 Beckie's heart overnowed with con. tempt An envious desire crept in tc command equal respect and recognition The only weapons at her command were her wits. Can we blame her for using them?
 Our heroine's strong point was in. fellect, and, in compon with most clev. or people. she despised the stupid Fail rre, through excess of cleverness tC appreciate other forms of worth al good. or better than brains, is not un usual fault of clever people. We valuI what we understand. we understand we are, and we cannot conceive tha which we have not. at least in some de gree. Emerson has said that in ordel 10 read a poem well. we must hav' something of the poet in us. This fl equally true of other qualities. be they moral or intellectual The foundation must exist before any building can bt done.
 Beclkie had little, or no conception O goodness: to her it appeared as a sham or at best but a form of weakness tI be scorned and avoided.
 The only genuinely unselhsh ant OIULnN -thc- DOOk WaS bashful and awkward Major Dobbin Dear. patient William. goes farther thai any other character towards purifying and redeeming the tainted atmospher of Vanity Fair. But he would hav nothing to do with Beckie ani tool no pains to conceai his disapproval 0 her. Still she was s-paagnanimous enougl 10 bear him no grudge. and near tn close of the story suddenly throws eau ton to the winds and tells Emmie 0 George Osborn's faithlessness in orIe to win her to the brave and deserv ing Dobbin. She exclaims. "Ah. if could have had such a husband as tha "a man with a heart and brains too would have not minded his larG feet"
 This is, perhaps. the only place In tn story where Beckie acted from distn terested motives. yet she did not Iov, herself more than many mores respec table women do. There are wives nnt : mothers who exhibit more petty selfish ness and practice more small tyranie than did Mrs. Rawden Crawley. He iniuuities were not the iniquities of ; petty spirit. She would mimic ant