El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-12-16
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Says the Easiest Way Is the
Hardest Way.

: For a long time she wore the golden
side of 1T out to the world, smiling
and singing across it, to audiences in all
parts of the earth.
She seemed to retain her beauty and
her powers of pleasing.
She had money and success and what
passed for love.
Then. by and by, the shield began
to darken. until finally both sides were
black. The last decade of this wo-
mans life was a miserable one. She
has ended her career physical, finan-
cial and moral bankrupt
a Tale of Corinth.
The easiest way proved the hardest
way, as ii so often does
Centuries ago there lived a beautiful
woman in COrirth- Her beauty at
tracted men from all parts of the world
She dwelt in splendor and was the
leader in her own circles, laden with
jewels and feeding on flattery and con-
quest.
Then, as is inevitably the case. she
declined in her powers of attraction.
Younger women wrested from her tie
sceptre as a ruler over the senses Of
men.
Unfortunately she did not die. She
lived on. faded and old, walking the
lovers (she who for years had attract
ed them to her as the magnet attracts
the steel finally in the hope OF OBJ
tanning aims.
The Lie Story OF Lafs.
1t is pitiful story, this story of
Lais, when old and all her beauty
gone
Lais. the erstwhile courted pleasure
queen
Walked homeless through Corinth.
One Knocked her mien-
One tossed her coins; she took them
and passed on
Down by the harbor sIoped q ter
raced lawn
Where fountains played: she paused
to view the scene
marble palace stood in bowers of
green
Twas here of old she reveled till the
dawn.
Through yondef portico her lovers
came
Hero and statesman, athlete. mer-
chant sage:
They flung the whole worlds treas-
ureS at her feet
To buy her favor and exaIt her shame.
She spat upon her dole of coins in
rage
And faded like g phantom down the
street.
The Last Refuge.
Ofttimes in the parks of our large
critics in the early dawn. or, indeed. anv
hour Of the day or night, may be seen
the modern type OF ''Lais. when old"
Some woman. who has in her dav
been queen Of the Terderloin or. of
n ~ Nr-I.o hos =
Iustfui, idle men. now sits in the park
bedrsggled. sodden-f faced. homeless and
old
They do not all marry lords and mil
Enraires, as SO many foolish girls
think
Over in Paris you will see them
swarmirg about the theaters-shape less :
old women. seeking To mako asfew pen-
MES by doing odd little jobs of some !
sort about the scenes of their past
greatness. where they lived butterfly {
existence of folly fer brief time.
The Ness of PottaEe.
The potter's field, the suicides grave. !
the insane asylum and the almshouse
mary Of these women
One Of these leaders in the primrose /
path OF folly said in she height of her
socalled successful career" ut is . !
for any girl to think that this
is the easiest way to earn a living She
doesn't know what she is coming to- /
She had better keep out Of it and work
her hands to the bone"
So even putting all moral considera-
TORS aside. my dear young woman, do
not let the temptation rest one moment
in your mind to sell Your birthright of
honesty for a mess of pottage
Work, hope, aspire. Let your life be
an open book which all the world may
read. 1t is better that the record be a
good one and a sad one than a black
1910. by the New York
Evening Journal Publishing company
Buy Buster Brown sh ,es for your boy
)r girl for XmaS-The Bee Hive.