Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-07-21
"sHE WAS A CONVERT"

No matter where it happened, no
matter who she was, who made the
comment. or why. 1t might have hap
pened anywhere in the world She
wasn't what she ought to be, she was
weak and perhaps wicked. She tried
TO do better but she fell again and a
newspaper saw its opportunity to say
she was one of the first of the --
converts
Hers is a common story; so COM
mon that we pass by without notice
when its finale is said or written "Cnce
she was pure as the snow but she fell"
The whole history is in the verse.
Men despised her and women shun-
ned her. She lived in half world and
among the most brutal of the half
world he hated herself; for she re-
nembered She hated those with
whom she consorted, shuddered at the
men who bought her and flung her
aside, Sometimes she thought of NOR
phine, that nepenthe of the lost and
stopped trembling and affrighted on
the brink of a 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 as life
Hedged in and tainted every day with
her sin and her dishonor she writaed
like victim at the stake. She saw
the interminable years reach out to
clouds no sun CLEAN of hope, no prom
I Use of brighter day here or hereafter.
And she was young. In our homes
and of her children she would have
been a sacred and beautiful bud that
the love lit eyes of parental pride would
have watched unfolding in the delight
of a supreme happiness. Just a girl
who needed a fathers arm and moth
er's heart to lean upon; just girl and
lost.
And one night she came into a re-
vival meeting. Here she might 81
among her own sex, the sisters thai
had cast her off as she had perhaps de-
served. She had not gone to church
since-since that day when she left the
world for the demi monde And a:
she sat and listened to the songs anG
heard the plea Of the preacher it al
came back. The sense Of what she hat
been and the crushing comprehension
of what she might have been came ovel
her. She craved hope as the los
wanderer in the desert longs for water
Afar she saw the CLINT of the nails il
the crucifed hands, and family heart
the promise of the crucfed And il
a new resolve she put the past benin,
her and lifted here eyes in hope to tn
! future. 1t was her pledge to her los
8 girlhood, her vow made to such WON
t anhood as life had left And she wen
out with the light of new hope on he
] face.
: Went out where? The question
struck her like blow when she steppe
from the lights into the darkness G
: the nigh. az the future. Where ne
4 she to go? What refuge remained t
4 her? Her fight was alone agains
a mighty odds. She lost it. She fell an
q the newspaper that waited opportunit
a chortled as she dropped back into th
:. abyss that she was zone Of the -
e converts"
n Is her blood upon her head? Mothe
t sitting at ease in the shadow of a pr.
tecting home with your children abor
d you; Father, with your innocent daugf
n ter on your arm, Is her blood upon he
r head or yours? Christian, who praye
o with her on that night when she locke
y out beyond the mirk of earth an
e caught CLEAN of the perfect glory an
1t who left her at the door where II
y shadow fell upon her path, is her bloc
d on her head or ours? Shall her bloc
) be required at our hands? What sha
le we answer when we stand to make o,
Is last accounting. What of this lit
IS one to whom we did not as we shou
l. have done to Him2