The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1916-09-08
DID SHE HAVE THE TRUE MErAL9"

DID SHE AVE 1.-THE TRUE METAL?"
Not many weeks ago we attended a picture show, not in
Grenada, in which the principal character was a vain, society
woman, whose husband often tried the stock market. Inc
husband invested his all, and for days the tide was against him
and it appeared that he would go broke. during TINS TIME MS
wife insisted on keeping up her social gaits, and in spite of her
husbands admonitions to cease to spend money, she Kept on
purchasing elaborate and costly gowns, and the fact that the
husband complained about expenses caused the wife to grow
petulant and to become irritated. There was a wealthy Japa-
nese in the city who was wont to give the wife referred to, at
tention, and, as they say is the custom in high society," this
wife went car riding, to balls and to other social functions with
the Jap-he had lots of money. There was a swell Red Cross
Society ball and at this gathering the wife was honored by
being made treasurer Of the Local Red Cross organization, and
Another stock dealer and "a friend of hers knew that she had
this money, so he proposed that if she would loan him ten
thousand dollars, he would invest it and was sure that the in
vestment would return both of them four-fold. lnasmuch as
her husband was I'm a tight" she decided to accommodate her
and lost, then this society whippersnapper was in distress of
mind and she could see visions of glaring newspaper headlines
of the shortage of a prominent society leader" 1t was at this
time that the little wealthy Jap saw his inning. He knew the
wife was chatting under her husbands financial embarrassments
and the restrictions he had suggested to her and that she was
indeed lukewarm towards him, hence he proposed to give her
the ten thousand to replace what she had lost, upon condition
that she sell herself to him to which proposition she consented.
Just after she had accepted the Jap's coin, her husbands luck
changed and his Investments made him immensely rich.
among the first that he wanted to know of his good luck.
When she saw that her husband had all the money she needed,
and began to scheme as to how she could replace what he had
given her. Finally she told her husband that she had loaned
Red Cross funds and had lost and she recounted her consequent
distresses. The husband at once made her out a check that
would set her square,, but instead of carrying the check to
where he thought she would, she carried it to the Jap, but he
refused it and wanted to hold her to the trade, all of which re-
suited in her shooting the little yellow devil. The husband ap-
peared on the scene in time to be charged with shooting the
Jap, and, like any true man, plead guilty and was about to be
when the woman in the case" told the secret, that
was she, and not her husband. who fired the shot. But to the
lesson of the show:
What is the moral idea that demands such stories and such
pictures?
Are our moral standards today as sure and as safe as they
were IN the days OF our mothers and of our grandmothers?
1t is said that Everybody enjoys things of the kind, and
we know that what Everybody is doing" can not be brought
to Judgment because a minority can not try a majority.
The surprising thing to us about the show was that the i'm
mense crowd hung on with bated breath, and that thew ap-
plauded the woman when she barred her body to the court to
show the brand that the Jap had placed upon her shoulders
w!th a red hot instrument the night she shot him. 1t was stated
OF the woman that "she showed the true metal at the crucial
hour We do not think that s!s had the true metal. 1t is
our opinion that she would have kept her obligations with the
Jap had not her husband been lucky enough to have made
money to meet her social needs.
Ihls affair may have been a trifing matter, but somehow it
has forced itself on our mind and rather coerced us into medi-
tatlon as to why the public would delight in escapades such
as this; we have been puzzing ourselves to know where the
thirst or the taste for such heroism begins. Is it in any Of the
teachings of the present day?
A more rigid censorship would be better for the picture.
shows and certainly better for those of tender wears who visit
picture shows.