Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1915-06-13
A Son Speaks
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
in June Cosmopolitan Magazine.

M OTHER, sit down, for have much to say
IVA Anent this widespread, over-growng theme
OF Woman and her virtues nd her rights.
! left you for the large, loud world of men.
When | had lived one little score of years.
l judged all women by you, and my heart
Was filled with high esteem ana reverence
The sisters, daughters, mothers of my friends
l held but holy Thoughts. TO fallen stars
COZ whom you told me in last sweet talk,
Warning Of the dangers in my path)
l gave wide pity you bade me to-
Saying their sins harked back to my base SEX
SHw o Ten
Thinking to write his name upon the stars
Went from your presence. He returns to you
Fallen from his high altitude OF thought,
Hiding deep sears of sins upon his soul
His fair illusions shattered destroyed
And would you know the story of the fail?
He sat beside good mans honored wife
At her table. She beautiful
AS woods in early autumn. Full of soft
And subtle wcheries of voice and look
His senior, both in knowledge and in years.
The boyish admiration of his glance
Was white April sunlight when it falls
Upon blooming tree. until she leaned
So close her rounded body sent quick thrills
Along his nerves. He Thought it accident
And moved a little soon shs leaned again.
The half-hid beauties Of her heaving breast
Rising and falling under scented lace
The teasing tendris Of her fragrant hair,
With Intermittent touches his cheek,
Changed the boys to the mans desire.
She saw that first young madness in his eyes,
Smiled, and famed the flame That his fall;
And some mangled fly may crawl away
And leaves his wings behind him in the web,
So were his wings of faith in wcrnanlood
Left in the meshes of her sensuous
The youth, forced into sudden manhood went
Seeking the lost ideal of his dreams.
He met in churches and in drawing rooms,
Women who the mask of innocence
And basked in public favor yet who seemed
10 find their pleasure playing with mems hearts,
AS children play with loaded guns. He heard
CUnti the tale fell dull upon his ears)
The unsolicited complaints of wives
And mothers all unsatisfed with life
While crowned with every blessing earth can give,
Longing for God knows whatnto bring content
And soPenly or with appealingsfUoK
Asking for sympathy (The FIRST blind step
That leads from wifely ASfor down to shame
is Outlines hid with flowers OF synpathy0
He saw proud who would flush and pale
With sense Of outraged modesty if one
Spoke OF the ancient sin before Them bare
10 all mems Sight or fimsily conceal
by wells that bid adventurous eyes proceed,
Charms meant alone for lover and child
lie saw chaste virgins tent and tantalizes .i9ao
Lure and deny, lnvite-and then refuse,
And drive men forth, half crazed, to wantons AIMS
Mothef, you taught me there but two kinds
OF women in the word>the good and bad
But you have been too sheltered in the safe
Old-fashoned sweetness of your quiet life
10 know how modern davs
wake license Of their newround liberty
why, L nave been more tempted and more shocked
by hehes and beauties in the social whrl
by trusted wives and moth their homes
Than by the women of the underworld
VINO sell their favors Do you think me mad?
NO. mother; l am sane, but very sad
miss my boyhood's faith in woman's worth
Torn from my heart by good folks of the earth