The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1916-01-21
" Go in Peace
Sin No more

Some years ago woman was tried
at Woodward, Oklahoma, for prosti-
tuition. The evidence against her was
convincing and was not denied. Some
thing about the case aroused the indig-
nation of Temple Houston, a great
lawyer, who instantly undertook her
defense. After referring to legal
questions involved and discussing the
evidence he bent over the jury so he
could have almost laid his hands on
the shoulders of each and in a low,
clear voice, closed his address with
these words:
Gentlemen, you heard with what
cold cruelty the prosecution referred
to the sins of the woman as if her
condition was her own preference.
The defense has painted you a pic
ture of her life and surroundings. Do
you think that they were of her own
choosing? Do you think that she will
ingly embraced life so revolving
and horrible? All, no! One of our sex
was the author of her ruin; more to
blame than she; then let us judge her
gently. What could be more pathetic
than the spectacle she presents? An
immortal soul in ruins! Where the
star of purity once glittered on her
girlish brow, burning shame has set
its seal forever! And only moment
ago they reproached her for the depths
to which she had sunk, the company
she kept, the life she led. Now what
else is left her? Where can she go
and her sin not pursue her? Gentle
men, the very promises of God are
denied her.. He said: "Come unto me
all we that labor and are heavy laden
and / will give thee rest" She has
indeed labored and is heavily laden,
but if at this instance she were to
kneel down before us all and confess
her Redeemer and beseech His mer-
cies, where is the church that would
receive her? And even if they accept
ed her waen she passed the portals to
worship and to claim her rest, scorn
and mockery would greet her, and
those she met would gather around
them their skirts the more closely to
avoid the pollution of her touch.
Would you tell me single employ
ment where she could realize, "Give
us, this day, our daily bread?" Our
sex wrecked her once pure life. Her
own sex shrank from her as they
would the pestilence. Society has
reared its relentless wall against her
and only in the friendly shelter of the
grave can her betrayed and broken
heart ever find the Redeemer's prom
Used rest. They told you of her as
sumed names as feeting as the shad-
ows on the wall; of her sins and hab-
it's; but they never told you of her
sorrows, and who shall tell what her
heart, sinful though it may be, now
feels? When the remembered voices
of mother and sister, whom she must
see no more on this earth, fall again
like the music on her erring soul she
would return but must not--no not in
this life, for the seducer has destroy
ed the soul.
"You know the story of the prodigal
son; but he was son.
"He was one of US like her destroy
er; but for the prodigal daughter there
is no return. We're she, with her
wasted form and bleeding feet, to
drag herself back to her girlhood
home, she the fallen and the lost,
what would be her welcome? Oh,
consider this when you come to de-
eide her guilt for she is before us and
we must judge her. They sheer and
scott at her. One should respect her
grief, and tell you that there reigns
over her penitent and chastened spir-
it desolation now that none, no one
but the Searcher of all hearts, can
ever know.
"None of us are utterly evil, and
remember that when the saffron
scourge swept over the city of Mem
phis in 1878, courtesan there opened
wide the door of her gilded palace
of sin to admit the sufferers; and
when the scythe of the reaper swung
fast and pitiless she was angelic in
her ministering Death called her in
the midst of her mercies and she went
to join those she tried to save. She,
like those the Lord forgave, was a
sinner, and yet believe that in the
day of reckoning her Judgment will
be lighter than those who prosecute
and seek to drive off the earth such
poor unfortunates as she whom you
are to judge.
I'M