Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-26
DO MY SINFUL FOLLIES PAY?
Is QUESTION FOR HUSBANDS
BY Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Copyright, 1916, Star Company.

NOps III, Ius
This is question | would like
every man who reads these lines to
ask himself. if, in his inmost con-
science, he finds that the words |
am about to write apply to him.
A great tragedy occurred in court
circles: a princess of royal blood
killed the paramour of her husband,
old, and she had been married to the
man of her choice only two years.
She was young, beautiful and low
ing; she had signed away her right
to the throne in order to marry the
man she loved. She was an expec-
tant mother. Yet all these proofs
of her devotion and sincerity did not
awaken in her husbands heart suf-
ticiently high sense of manly honor
and pride to keep him from allowing
a physical passion for another woman
to dominate him.
And to make the insult to his
young wife still more pronounced, he
brought the actress who had won his
uCdIl W HIS HOUlt-uuubI the
roof with his wife.
The wife learned of the intrigue.
and in moment of terrible anger
that anger which is insanity-killed
her rival. Did the giving why to
physical infatuation at the sacrifice
of all noble ideals pay the husband? ?
Hundreds of men who read these
words are tempted from within and
from without to yield to fascinations
similar to that which placed a Prince
before the world in the role of the
most contemplate man living.
Men by nature, habit and custom
of society are subjected to such temp
tations and have always held to- the
belief that they were less reprehen-
sible when they yielded than a
woman under similar conditions.
One Question for Every Married Man
to Ask Himself Frankly.
Putting that question aside, the
one question for a married man to
ask himself is, Does it pay? Does
it pay to follow every impulse of
the desires, and appetites and passions,
and to weaken the will power and
vitiate the moral fibre by self-indul-
gence?
Does it pay to deceive a woman
who loves and trusts you, or to defy
her and argue that your nature is
one requiring more license and in
diligence than hers?
Would it not eventually bring you
more happiness were you to control
those lawless impulses by the exer-
else of your higher nature, and to
live up to the ideal of the woman
who loves you? 1t will become cas-
Ter each time you resist, just as it
will become more and more difficult
each time you yield
Think it over, and ask yourself
which pays best, as you recall the
tragedies occurring daily in the world
through this self-indulgence of hui
man beings. Then there is the graft
fication and pleasure you find in the
drink habit.
Does that pay?
You gain a half hour, or perhaps
two or three hours, of mirth and
freedom from care and then you go
home to pain, grieve or disgust some
loving woman-mother, wife or
daughter. perhaps all thrca.
You do this only once in a while,
perhaps, and say that a woman
should be liberal-minded enough not
to make a scene over such an oc-
currence. | agree with you that the
wise woman treats a man who is,
as rule, sober and kind, with great
care when he first yields to the weak
ness of drink
She should think of him as some
thing to pity and to help until he
is sober and able to reason about
his conduct. Then she should not
hesitate to make him relaize, as
quietly and kindly as possible, how