The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-05
How a Girl May
 Protect Herself
By Msude Radford Warren )


 My Dear Mrs. Warren-I have been tempted several times to write on this subject and ask your advice as to what girls can do to protect themselves from the most insu ting remarks which they have to endure from young men,
 q have met quite a number of so- colled gentlemen and I am very sorry to say that from all have heard some of the most insulting and base remarks. I also have a friend who looks at tEGs matter in the same way, but it is not until after we have he- come acquainted with these common creatures that we know what they are. They appear so different at first.
 "I think you will agree with me that this topic is one that lots of girls need to be enlightened on, and for the good of others and myself I ask but a few words of helpfulness.
 "A Constant Reader.'
 The writer has evidently gone through a painful experience, and un- fortunately she is quite right which she implies that hundreds of other girls have suffered as she has.
 ON THE FIRING LINE.
 It is one of the disheartening facts who have respect for al women, there are others who would prey upon any attractive girl, and who consider one who works for her living as the faireSt game, as most definitely on the firing line. This preying may take the form of trying to embarass or humiliate a modest young girl, or it may include the attempt to lead her astray entirely. In any case, such creatures must be reckoned Gn with vileness of the world, such as Vermin or snakes or diseases, and must be avoided in the same way.
 ''If a girl is insulted,'' Madame Grun- dy will say, "she has brought it on herself. A man goes no father than a girl permits"
 This is usually true, but not always There are nice girls who are spoken to kl,r- kT,- name, whose degenerate D easure tt is to distress women by making unspeak- able remarks and comments. This sort of thing however; sho,1Id shouId not not cause her any diminutiOn of ,self-res- pect. It is no more her fault than it is when a flick of mud from a passing carriage-wheel strikes her Cn the face.
 But suppose there is some weakness in a girls character, not necessarily an evil spot, but let us say, a failure to keep herself always in hand, to ex- act the full respect due her. It is a fact that the kind of character one has cannot be concealed; it always shows in time to some people, and the only way to be safe Is to develop a safe character. A girl who may be delicate and refined at core, and yet who cannot command the respect due her, is. indeed to be pitied. She must make herself over
 When such a girl has allowed d man to talk to her in risque or even in an insulting fashion, he may feel that he would not have dared to address her if there had not been something low fn herself. Here she makes a mistake. She may be pure and sweet in every way, her only fault inexper- fence and failure to keep others from depreciating her because she has not as strong self-respect as she should have, does not instantly appreciate what is due her from others. This failing is no moral flaw, but it often causes just as much suffering as if it were. A girl should resent the very first remark made to her which is at all off color. She can do this either in directly, by changing the conversation and ignoring the remark, or she can do it directly by saying:
 ''No one can make a remark to me like that and remain on the list of my acquaintances.''
 To put the matter on the very low est grounds, it does not pay a girl to be anything but refined in her own speech and most particular in exact ing the respect due her from other girls and men, and in refusing to have anything to do with a man who takes any kind of liberty. For such an at titude protects her from harm, keeps her rated high among her friends, and wins her ultimately the love of some young man who wants his wife to be the soul of purity and delicacy.-Wo- mans World for January.