The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-08-20
NV Hall Man Gives Another View Of
the Causes Of Her Troubles
for Which She Bid for
Sympathy.
THE RIGHTS OF SOCIETY
,ity Official Gives the Philosophy of
the Law Against People Doing
as They Please Regard
less Of Others.

Myrtle Stice was arraigned before
Justice Borrows on charge of vag-
.ancy In the city case. pleaded not
guilty and will be tried Thursday af-
ternoon, while the same charge under
he state statutes will come up later.
vagrancy is legal term including be-
ing an unmitigated nuisance to or
ganized society in almost any way not
otherwise provided for in the law
And Myrtle still languishes in the
city jail despite her strenuous efforts
10 raise herself from the class of yag-
rants into being a deep and interest
ing problem in sociology.
She gave out an interview recently
claiming that all her troubles are due
to the senseless cruelty Of mankind
which has special pick on her,
while she Is good and trying to make
living for herself.
Another Angle Of View.
Myrtle Stice put up a fine plea for
herself in The Gate City the other
day" said the man in the city hall.
aand her story would excite the sym
pathy of anybody who does not know
the rest of it. 1t opens up the entire
subject of the difficulty OF woman
coming back from the primrose path,
even II she wants to return to sober
virtue.
why don't you tell the rest Of the
story Of this young woman whom the
police do not desire in this town, any
more than the police OF Fort Madison
and of Hamilton want her within their
bailiwick?
1.-THE bottom of all her troubles is,
that she acts as though she has
right to do as she pleases, re-
gardless Of laws. customs, the rights Of
others. or anything else in heaven or
on earth. She Is aging the price for
trying to buck the civilization Of the
world, and Il at is all there is to 1t.
Smallpox and Woman's Whim.
"Her troubles are not all due to
prejudice against admitting women OF
her profession into the home: of peo-
pie of different ideas. A few years
ago, she had light attack Of small
pox and by the laws protecting the
public against that disease, she was
luarantined In the detention house OF
Keokuk
"One day she telephoned the mayor
that she had run away, eluding the
nurse. and wanted to stay down town
where she was. She answered an
enquiry by saying that she was in the
superior court room telephoning to the
mayors office sixty feet away. Then
things began to happen.
dick Evans rushed into the court
room and took her back to the de
tention house, while the court room
was locked up tight, and the city hall
bunch crowded toward the Main street
end of the offices. The rest of that
day and night was spent in disintect-
ing the superior court room, when
was some job with all its papers and
pigeon holes.
That Merry Milkmaid Episode.
Myrtle felt as much peeved at that
episode as at any of her later arrests.
She makes q great point OF being pre-
vented from working at honest trades,
and it is rather hard for her TO keep
Job and act on all her little whims
at the same time.
"She quit her residence in the Ham
iton dairy and walked across the
bridge carrying some yello paint, not
because the people lacked sympatny
with any desire to work she might
have. but because she was caught auto
MODELLING late at night witt married
man. Being up Until the small hours
with other women's husbands in auto
mobiles was thought to lessen her ef-
ficiency as milkmaid to an extent
that would enable the dairy to get
along without her.
'The police of Fort Madison said
she made them too much unnecessary
work of nights, and they ordered her
out of that town in self defense. If
she had gone home from her employ
ment and slept nights like the young
men in similar employment. she might
have kept her Job.
Making Things Hum.
Certainly the Keokuk police have
been bothered enough by her erratlc
behavior to justify them insisting up
on her absence from her old nome
Town which she says she loves SO
much that she can not bear to I'VE
elsewhere. Within an hour after she
gets out of court on one charge, she
may commit another entirely different
onense against the laws made for or
ganized society, causing the police an
other chase after her. She has been
given thousand and one chances, but
acts as though her promises are even
less than scraps of poper.
She is going to keep in hot water
until she realizes that she can not do
as she pIeases, unless she pleases
10 give due regard to the rights OF
other people, including the general
public which does not like to be ex-
posed to smallpox, and those people
WHO do not like to have their wives
a.d daughters compelled to see GER
lain actions in Main street.
When you know the whole story,
IT demands sympathy. but sympathy