The Republican journal., 1912-03-21

to weeks end than winning head prizes.
They grow nervous, bad tempered and
ugly playing cards. Little crows feet
appear at the corners of their eyes after
an evening with whist, and deep vertical
lines How themselves just above their
noses There are more plain women In
EmYe.ria WHO lost their bloom at the
rented csrcl1lables than there are women
who haze worn themselves out over the
kitchen fire. 1t is worry, not work, that
makes women fade, and cards are sap
ping the life out of the town. Only the
young people patronize the public library.
The old folks make What's trump? the
chief end of man.
"Cards have invaded the churches.
One church has big fractional row
blooming upon the horizon because the
pastor has jumped cards. Another
church narrowly avoided it last winter.
A third pastor sees his best customers
whooping it up in whist clubs and hasn't
the nerve to say word. In the mean
time poker rooms, which are just as i'm
proving and elevating and just as helpful
to the town as whist clubs, have opened
on Commercial street and the town is
enjoying the fruit of the seed the women
have planted.
Would it require very great stretch
of the Imagination to substitute Pratts-
burgh for Emporia in this article? And
yet people brazenly argue that there is
no harm in card-p)aying.
Are you willing to accept this testi-
mony from the lips of the champion
whist player? Listen:
"Des Moines, Iowa. Interrupting the
pastor in the middle Of his sermon in the
University Church of Christ here to-day,
Mrs. A. B. Sims, holder of the national
woman's whist championship, and one
of the leading society women in the
State. denounced card-playing in any
form as sin and weakness of the
flesh. There was a congregation of
thousand and Mrs Sims sudden declara
ton caused general surprise. For many
years Mrs Sims had been an active men,
Der of Women's clubs, existing chiefly
for whist and other card games Since
bridge became the fashion she has be-
come remarkably adept in the game.
Her particular hobby, however, has been
whist, and since she took up the game,
about twenty years ago, she has won
several hundred prizes at whist parties.
''She won the woman's championship
of America in the tournament IN st.
Louis year ago. For almost two years
she has travelled far and near to take
part in whist tournaments. Her first
mark ed success in these meetings with
experts was in Cleveland two years ago,
when she won the first prize. Her cap
ture of the championship twelve months
later was looked upon as natural step.
at has been the belief of whist eX
perts that Mrs. Sims has no equal among
either sex in the country. She took
great pride in her victories, and had
planned several important engagements
for this month. She played in a whist
party here only few days ago. At that
time she surprised her friends by saying
she was thinking seriously of abandoning
cards, but no one took her statement
seriously.
"Her change of mind is the result of
evangelistic meetings held In this city
during the past three weeks. Mrs. Sims
has been regular attendant at every
meeting and it now develops that grad
ually she was influenced until she decid-
ed that cards were sinful. She told no
person of her intention to make her
declaration in the church. Not even the
members of her family knew that she in
tended to forsake the whist table.
"Mrs. Sims was sitting in pew near
to the front Of the church. The pastor
had just referred to the spiritual awaken
ing in the community as an outcome of
the special service when Mrs. Sims quiet
ly arose and motioned to the preacher
that she desired to speak. The pastor
stared at her blankly and stopped short
in his talk. Then, facing the congrega-
ton, Mrs. Sims told of her reform. Her
voice was low and steady and she did not
seem to be laboring under impulse. She
referred to her success as card player
and said that the only satisfaction she
now got from her triumphs was the
weight they would lend to her renuncia-
ton of cards forever. She said that card
playing was demeaning vice, and that
its tendency was to keep women from at
tending to their household affairs. Her
only object, she declared, was to in
fluence women to follow her example. "
What is the harm in dancing? No
harm in itself. would not advise one
legged man not to dance. If young peo-
pie were to come to me and ask II they
might dance, l would tell them eyes.
Go out in the back shed and have it out. !"
There are some who say that the Epis-
copalians believe in dancing. That this
is not true is proven by the following,
taken from a Milwaukee, Wis, paper:
"The plan of Rev. Frederick Edwards.
formerly of Maiden and Brockton, Mass,
to hold dancing classes to teach the chill
dren of his congregation good manners,
is not approved by the Living Church,
the official organ Of the Episcopal church
in America, in its issue published here
today.
1.-THE Living Church declares that TO
promote dancing and merrymaking is not
the function of the church. The publ
cation editorially says: The parish house,
by introducing young people from we'll
protected homes to public dance of any
description may increase rather than
decrease the peril that may attend any
degree Of social intercourse. The Edu-
cational Church out of its legitimate field
may thus tend to promote the very evil it
is intended to counterfeit. The Institu-
tional Church may be power for good
in small community in which public
Saturday night dances in halls, some
times over and frequently connected with
saloon, would be the rendezvous of
mixed company of young people. 1t is
quite within the province of the church