Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-08-29
Lies Problems
Are Discussed
by MRS. WILSON WOODROW


glanced through letter in a round.
schoolgirl hand which lay upon my
desk my mind reverted involun-
tarily to a village in which l once
spent several months. It.was before
the days of motion pictures, and the
only attraction was with the apollo
like leading man of a ten, twent' and
thirt repertoire company appearing
at the end of the third act to make
his nightly announcement.
And on Saturday afternoon,
ladies and gentlemen we will give
special matinee for the ladies and
children, at which time we will pre-
sent, by special request, East Lynne,
with appropriate scenery and the full
strength of the company. The prices
remain the same-ten, twenty and
thirty cents
that announcement. Always on Sat
urday afternoon the bill was East
Lynne" and always the house was
packed with eager girls and women.
veniently within reach. Almost any
one in the audience could have
prompted the actors had they
yet the sticky sentimentality of the
hackneyed old play never seemed
to grow stale. The ladies and chill
dren" dt;i, oeofiIr,u continued - and perhaps may
sorrows of Lady Isabel and shudder
gloatingly at the crafty deviltry of
Francis Levison.
drew @ em 1. I Sir FTancis. s iRasHst With ms his
curled mustaches and sinister graces
and shiny, silk hat and inevitable
Gigaret. eggsar. Every woman there from
widow : pictured herself as the
hapless Lady Isabel, and secretly
wondered whether she would have the
strength tctaa to- to resist the arts Of SO
Vicariously they all thrilled to the
lure of danger.
l had supposed, though, that the
handsome scapegraces as type dear
to the famine heart = brotherhood
of Lovelace and st. Elmo al i Bertie
Cecil - had somewhat gone out of
fashion. In these days when woman
is demanding an active rather than
passive role. 1t has struck me that
more favored creation was the
vampire lady of the movies; to pose
Circe Turing men to their ruin was
preferred to serving merely as a
fluttering victim.
And perhaps. this is true of those
who have reached more sophisticated
years; but sixteen" l find, .till
clings to it's melodramatic idols 1t
wants to recoil shrinkingly from the
nsdons and leyison the
And And the proof of it lies in the school
girl letter which l have before me.
Not in what it. says. oh, no! But
She is sixteen. she writes. Re-
Gently her Imagination has been in
trigued by some of her girl friends
with dark tales regarding the boys
ed and disgusted by these revela-
tions. Can such stories be true?
she asks. Oh. Mrs: Woodrow. tell me
they are not true!
Calm Yourself my child. The
stories are not true. 1 assert that
boldly and with absolute conviction:
for. although 1 have no acquaint-
you refer. l have knowledge of the
masculine nature in general And
from the cradle to the grace one
OF It's strongest passions is to show
sex.
In tenderer years this takes form
in exhibits of monkeyshines or feats
of athletic prowess to win the APP
But as adolescence approaches.
more subtle note is struck and there
after maintained in greater or less
pose of one who has sounded the
deeps and knows ali that the World,
the Flesh and the Devil has in shop.
open recital of experiences with cor
but rather by hints and innuendoes'
manfred IKE frowns and portentous
shakes OF the head.
| have talked to all sorts of men
from clergymen to cab drivers. from
senators to stevedores! but never did
l know one who, if the opportunity
offered. did not take pains to sug-
gest that he might reveal a particu-
larly lurid and variegated past.
And of all the 'pasts," the lurjd-
est, the most scarlet and Sustained.
is that acquired just about the time
of graduation from school to college
Then. fancy. runs free, imagination
is unfettered by any question of doubt
On the part of the round oh aaLad