The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-06
EVENING CHAT
BY Ruth CAMERoN.

In a Boston lodging house a Young
woman killed herself the other day, be-
cause she discovered that the man to
whom she had thought herself engaged
for fourteen years. was a married man
He had been married twenty years. He
mad son ten years old and lis home
vas i'S3: III the same city where this
girl boarded and worked as I waitress
And yet, for fourteen years, he had
been able to deceive her as to his true
position in society.
In some way her suspicions were
aroused and she went to his home found
his wife there, saw his child and then
went back to her lodging and put bullet
through her heart.
Coming to make his usual call the next
day, the man-if we do not too much de-
grade the word by calling him THAI
found her dead body stretched out on the
couch. Perhaps he received some of his
punishment then and there. Perhaps ne
was too much hardened by the life of
systematic deception which he had led
Tor fourteen years to mind this little in
cident very much. Who knows?
But I did not bring up this dismal sub
Jecl 10 speculate on that phase of 1t. The
point / want to bring out is tIis-doesnt
the uncovering of such a double life bring
home to you, fathers and mothers, the
necessity of knowing all you possibly can
about the young men who are paying
court to your daughters?
OF course, it is most unlikely, perhaps
impossible, that such conditions should
exist in your case as these which
brought this poor little waitress to prefer
to seek ''the undiscovered country from
whose bourn no travel returns rather
than face the dreary wreck her life had
become. But what do you really know
about the who comes to see your
Louise or your Dorothy, and takes her TO
the theater and the dance. etc? DO you
know who his people are and what his
past is, and what is thought of him in his
home town? To be sure there is no
formal engagement between your Louise
or your Dorothy and this man but is IL
well to wait until there is, to find out
that he wasn't fit man even to have en-
tered your home?
An agonized father wrote to me the
other day from a distant city to tell me
that he had discovered that the young man
to whom his daughter was insisting on
becoming engaged, was the son of a
woman who kept house of iII-renute
He has tried to break off the engagement
between the two, but as the daughter is
of legal age If not of the age of reason
has had much difficulty He wants me TO
try to make the girl that a little I'M
happiness now is better than life of
misery. I wish with all my heart I could
help him save her In this case the in
PRODUCTION was performed by a trusted
friend of the family. who ought to have
been more worthy of the trust imposed IN
him, but there are many cases where the
parents have only themselves to blame
for such tragic conditions.
Know the man who calls on your daugh-
ter. Know his family. Know his past
1t may be that you will neglect this duty
to her with impunity. 1t may be that you
will sow the seeds of lifelong tragedy
by such neglect.
Do you care to take the chance?
And you. daughters who for reasons of
death or disease, or for any other cause.
have father mother to do such in
vestigating for you, do it for yourselves
Ask the man who says he loves you to
take you to call on his mother. You can
Judge pretty accurately by her and his
home if everything is as it should be-
Furthermore, take any other course that
is open to you to find out about his char
acter and his past life.
And don't say that any such fnvestfga-
ton would be distrusting John and you
won't insult him that way. That's what
the poor little waitress probably would
have said.