The Washington times., 1914-02-21

ness. Even the bromidic limerick
deals with her:
"A woman in her siadness when
she's glad!
A woman in her sadness when she's
sad!
A woman in her madness when She:
mad!
But a woman in her sadness,
woman in her madness or 2
woman In her gladness
Is nothing to q woman in her bad
ness when she's bad"
1t is the intensity of the female
character that is responsible for
both her goodness and her badness.
Woman is nothing if not intense.
There is very little of the hypo-
critic about her when her feelings
are once aroused.
shall never forget the impression
made upon me by the tragic story
of General Boulanger. the greatest
hero that the French nation has
ever had, since Napoleon. / was in
Paris wncn ne IeIuTueu HI thc HGdu
Of the victorious French army. The
people went wild over him, and the
presidency OF France was offered.
with so much authority attached
thereto. that It would seem as If once
again the empire was to be estab-
iished.
Tragic End In Sight.
But when the commission called
to ask IL he would accept these hon
ors, he paused a moment. his face
as white as craven marble, his hand
grasping a chair to steady himself.
he said: Gentlemen, I cannot give
You my answer today. I must wait"
There was the rustic Of silken
petticoat behind the arras Of tapes
try-she, who listened there was his
Nemesis.
Less than three months afterward
he was dead, a suicide on his mis-
tress' grave.
In following the history of most
of the successful exploiters it Is
seen that. while. for a time they
seem to sail along on '.flowery beds
of ease and are capable of controH-
ing the destinies of the world. ike
their prototype, Cleopatra. they in
variably come to tragic ends. Either
they become surfeited with success
and end in a mad-house or the psy-
chopathic ward Of a hospital, the
victim Of the drug habit. or I'LL
nameless graves.
In this particular they differ es-
sentially from the man expioiter,
who Is generally able to maintain his
own to the and and shows. by his
cleverness and his sense of SELF
preservation. that after all the male
exploiter cannot be defended or ex-
cused upon the same grounds that
the woman exploiter is.
Man At the Crossroads.
In the vast majority Of the cases
Of women who have become notort-
ous, il you went back to the parting
of the ways, you would find almost
invar ably that a man stood at the
crossroads and that 1t was to- the
influence OF this man, more than &c
any other influence that she owed
her detection from the path OF right.
When a woman's faith in the man
she-ioves Is wrecked. she seems to
lose faith in humanity and Sin God
himself-the Heavens above seem
brass; she wonders. If there be
God, why he should permit such
trial as this come into her life. II
she is not crushed under the weight
of this knowledge. she arises to sub
lime heights Of womanhood, to
heights which possibly no other wo-
man has ever reached: or else she
sinks to the uttermost depths of hell.
Hanging over my desk as l write
are two pictures which typify this.
The upper one is Raphael's ''Madon-
ma" In her arms is clasped a baby,
on her brow sits the peace and Sc
renity of perfect motherhood.
Just beneath hangs Murillo's Mag
dalene."
Side by side are the possibilities
hidden in every woman's heart
the Madonna or the Magdalene,
which shall it be-the queen OF love
or the victim OF love:
Arise To Noble Heights.
While writer's have painted the Lu-
crctia Borgias of real life and fancy
in all heir hidcous cruelty. they