El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-03-01
Afraid To Tell the Truth
Craven COwardIce. Of Friends who'll
Not Tell Truth About Bridegroom
tO-Be Responsible For Many
Matrimonial Tragedies.
n no-ofh- UfI


A PRETTY. sweet. innocent and
"A utterly unsophisticated girl met
4 \ a handsome and daring young
westerner at summer resort last Au-
gust and fell in love with him. The
man asked her to be his wife, and they
are to be married in a few weeks.
In the meantime woman who lives
IN the -WeSterner'S home town has met
this little New England girl, and she
Is wondering if she shall tell the truth
about her Iance, that he is a drunken,
worthless lOafer, who has lived a life
Of abandoned debauchery and been
engaged in several shady enterprises,
or shall she keep silent and let the
girl 20 to her certain doom UnWarned.
This craven cOwardice is responsible
for many a matrimonial tragedy, be-
cause ii makes it almost impossible for
father, who is trying to find out
something about the stranger who mas
asked him for his daughter, to really
discover whether the man is worthy CT
not Everybody is afraid to interfere
in the love affair. or TO tell what they
really know, and so when they are
asked what sort Of a man is John
Jones, they say: "Oh, Jack is a good
fellow. and omit to add that he is
good for nothing.
Or they say, Jack is a fine sales
man and a good mixer" and they keep
silent about his dissracefUl entangle-
The Bankers Letter.
Once I knew q lovely young girl
who became engaged to a man who
lived in another state. Her father
wrote to the leading banker in the
place from which the man came ask
ing for information about him. The
banker wrote back a letter in which
he deScanted upon what a line and
ariSrOcratic family the youth belonged
to and how prominent they had al
nd hat rrnlra Il D. &c
father was, and what a noble woman
his mother was, and what a proud
name he bore
There wasn't one word in the letter
that reflected in any way upon the
young man, and If, as we observed
when it was TOO late, the entire COM
municatiOn was a laudatiOn Of the
youths family no one noticed il at
the tine. So the girl went along and
married.
Yet that young man was the Black
sheep Of a good family and the banker
knew it. There was no kind of dis
graceful behavior of which he had not
been guilty He was not even honest
for the banker had dismissed him from
a post in his own bank after catching
him stealing. Yet he let an innocent
young girl be sacrificed and her whole
life ruined, rather than offend the
young man by telling the truth about
him.
Worst Than Death.
Yet If there is any place in the
world where every sentiment Of chiv-
airy and Of honor calls upon a man
to go to a wOman's rescue, it is when
ne sees a girl about TO jeOpardize her
whole future by marrying an IN
worthy man. r-.-.-.
Death is heavens own mercy 10
a woman compared with miserable
marriage. The instant of physical SUI
fering while bones break and the heart
stops IS as nothing to the lOng-draWn-
out years Of suffering in which a
wounded heart thrObs with an agony
that is never stiued.
We bring our girls up in the fool be-
lief that they have some sort Of mys-
teriOus power called "wOman's sacred
influence" by. which they can work
mircles. So if you tell one that a man
is lazy. drunken, immoral. or brutal
she viii smile sweely at you and go
blithely forth to the altar in the firm
conviction that the minute she be
comes his wife he viii be a changed
Your BOunden Duty.
Also she never forgives you for hav-
ing forced her to hear the truth, for
ever a losing office, it's simply bank
rupting to'tel a woman the thing she
doesn't want to hear about the man
she loves.
No gratitude nor hero medals go to
the one who rescues a girl from max
ing a bad match, but sometimes in
doing your duty you do rescue one
Sometimes you find a girl who has
sense enough to listen to reason. and
prudence enough to be warned against
a william. even with a classical profile.
And very often you find fathers and
mothers who have enough backbone to
put a stop to such a, marriage If they
find out in time that the man is IN
worthy.
But at any rate, whether the girl
listens to you or not, whether it. stops
the marriage or not IL is the bounden
duty of any one who knows that a
man is a bad character. and not fit TO
ma rrv n warn Tho Girl