Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1911-07-14
WOMEN NOT HONEST
!. EVEN TO THEMSELVES
The yAlone Can Stop the
Present Dishonesty In
the Nation

EREE once more to face the world
L after three days in Jail, Mrs. Ro-
berta G. Hill, tie first woman to be
imprisoned for smuggling, has, she
says, but one piece OF advice for 9th.
er women-"think of the conse.
quences before you let yourself be
tempted"
Think of the consequences How
many of the women who faced the
customs officials charged with Snug
Cling during the last year have stop
ped to think of what the results oil
their attempted dishonesty might
have been.
In fact, the optimism born of a
belief that they will "get out of il
somehow" is an essentially feminine
trait and one which makes the resist
ing of temptation doubly hard to the
average woman.
'If l get found out I'll pay the
duty" she thinks, hanging two coats
instead of one over her arm, with the
shabbiest uppermost.
And when she does get found out,
if she is fined as well as forced to
pay the duty, she is indignant; but
now-now that smuglers must face a
cell, must put their names upon the
records of the tombs. will fear OF
the consequences make women hon
est?
= 1t is no light thing to spend even
three days in jail 1t is a smirch
that wealth and social position and
argument can never remove.
1t is, in fact a shadow that must
always lie across a woman's life. The
memory of the narrow walls, of the
voice of the warden, of the cries OF
the other prisoners; the food, the
smells, every feature of it will remain
a living nightmare, punishment that
will last far longer than the furs and
Jewels that brought it about.
But how far such shadow viii
carry a lesson to other women re-
mains to be seen.
1t is so essentially a part Of wo-
mans duty to teach the future gen
erations to play fair" to be upright
and honorable, that it seems to prom
Use years of graft and civic troubles
If the women will not learn them
minds Ito be honest in their OWE
Women's psarts and actions.
diff rent from INT view of honesty is
WY. They think, illegal idea, any
them, that dishonesty is majority Of
ton of doing something tl,% a ques
another. ipuei
If they succeed in riding on 9
train without giving up their ticket
or if they manage to evade the CON
ductor on the trolley car, they feel
zest in the successful accomplish
ment of the little thing, not a trou-
bled thought that they have defrauded
a company.
They will lie fearlessly to pro
tect some one they love and thous-
and times a day practice tiny arts
to deceive that they never look upon
as dishonest although legally such
things are.
And why? Because they do not
face facts clearly. They refuse. to
even allow their own minds to ques-
ton whether a thing is right OF
wrong, and in consequence it is nit
until they are face to face with act
ual punishment that the enormity OF
their crime reaches them.
Even then it is not always the
grief over an action that was dishon-
est; 1t is chagrin that they were
caught and held UP before the world
branded as dishonest.
If women are to keep going for
ward step by step; if it is really up
to them TO enforce civic reforms and
to take the government one that will
lift the nation high in the records
of the world. then. first of all, wo-
men of today must eliminate this
feminine point of view of honesty.
It. is the women who must stop
smuggling and lying and cheating.
For you know it is always the wo-
man who leads. Even the men must
admit it.