The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-11-24
SENTIMENT AND PRACTICE.

SENTIMENT AND PRACTICE.
An evidently wellmeaning correspondent
comes along frankly TO The Tirgin,an
for writing sentimental editorials in general.
and for commencing that part of the work Of
the Y w C. A. looking to greeting to unat-
tended women, in particular. In the obfuscated
cludes that we and the Y W. C. A. are partners
in crime in movement designed to lure girls
temptations of city life. It all goes to show
at what a curious angle the most obvious edi-
torial ueubration may impinge upon the ap-
perception Of the occasional reader
so far as writing sentimental editorials is
concerned, We plead guilty to a Joy in so DOING
when We can ind the kernel Of human interest
around which to spread the sentiment, That
IL CONNECTION which, our correspondent to the
contrary, has nothing whatsoever OF sectional
ism about it The Yankee has no patent on
this obvious sort of feeling In fact. he is
more than apt to be clumsy at its expression,
when he tries H. He runs too much to figures,
for one thing. lie has not the Southern facility
to tears He has not the Southern enthusiasm
in the universal tenderness OF heart, on which,
again regardless of seeton~~one may bet with
perfect assurance of a vindicated judgment. Cut
sentimeut--eyen seutimentahty-ou OF edi.
torials or out of life. and you get dry pro
vender Love makes the world go round, and
nobody knows the fact more thoroughly than the
editor who. at a loss for interesting comment
in the daily grist, vhangs the old. familiar
chords with an absolutely consistent success.
Having so far replied to the charge of senti-
serious light in which it evidently appeals to
our critic. Is wicked Richmond trying to
lure the innocent milk maid from the country
dairy Is it endeayoring to take the nnsophs'
! ticated maiden from the farm and wash ont the
roses Of her cheeks in the waste of the factory
and the shop? Is ii in league with the forces OF
evil which. ever burning out its grist, ever de
sres new material of simplicity and engenuous-
ness IL it, as charged, attempting through the
medium Of Yankee methods, as evidenced by
Y W C. AS and sentimental editorials, to
hold up lure for the unprotected girl to come
along to destruction? We think not.
Our correspondent himself thinks.-and he is
in large measure born out by the facts--that
the women who give trouble in the city in
large proportion country bred. They sink the
deeper in vice for the very height OF their fall
from virtue But who has ured these pitiable
ones to their fall? Certainly not the y W. C. A.
Certainly not the sentimentally fearful edi-
torial writer who depicts for them in advance
the danger OF the fall itself. And is not the
very fact that 20 many country girls find ruin
in the city the very best argument for such
work as that which the u ". c. A. proposes
10 doe Does not the very fact itself make the
work necessary and raise the obligation OF doing
ito We are not of those who hold to the belief
that there is anything more immoral per sc,
In city than In country life. The excessive in
nocence and freedom from vice Of the rural sec.
, lions are, indeed largely fable. But 1t is
certainly true that the city holds out the great
er temptation to innocence. Vice and vicious
tendencies know mo particular habitat. but for
all that 1t il the work of high purpose which
seeks to introduce the young woman coming to
!. city to the good instead of the worser In
Huences And that is about all there Is to
this matter-barring the sentiment at which
out correspondent gags.
There would he no city, did people not come
TO it, They are coming whatever we or any
one else may say about it, or think about it.
Many Of them are coming from the farms, and
from smaller towns. in high hopes Of indie
pendence and success So runs human nature.
Which, then is the more humane action. to sit
aside in the full knowledge Of their danger and
let them take chance against odds, or to pro-
vide them in the beginning with the odds
against disaster? Perhaps this is the "sent
mental" view. but we are not afraid of the yer.
dict on the point.