The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-03

There's a lot of different kinds of
sins,-most as many, / reckon, as
there be thoughts to think 'em. Some
folks think some sins is the worst, and
some folks thinks others. 1 recoliect
when l was & young woman, right
soon after me and Pa Jimkins was
married, hearin' her that was Char
lotte Perkins Stetson make talk in
which she said that the cardinal sin
wasn't what we was commonly sup
posed to think it was at all, but that
it was MEANNESS.
1 remember at the time that felt
somewhat shocked and the least mite
offended at such bold speakin. 1t
want the way l had been brought
up to think or to talk. When l was
girl folks got behind closed doors to
talk even about divorces. TO- fear some
of US young ones would hear and have
our minds poisoned. So when this yere
Mis- Stetson talked so outspoken about
things we wasn't supposed to know.
1 felt like some one had ought to tell
her a few things.
But, la, times has changed SOS
body dCN't hardly know her own
thoughts of yesterday, when she meets
them face to face today. It's like goin'
thru an attic that you've kind O. neg
lected at housekeeping times for some
years. When you meet up with some
of the funny old style clothes that you
=,
you look at 'em and wonder how you
could ever have done it. You'll likely
as not Singer at 'em. And as for
wearing them again, leastways with
out no alteration, you'd die before
you'd do it, even after you get SOS you
don't care about the latest thing in
fashions.
Well. it's just that way with
thoughts. Thoughts that looked right
smart and presentable today, will be
sent to the attic tomorrow-and that's
where they'd ought to be after they
get musty and out of date.
So I'm thinkin' today that that there
Stetson woman wasn't so far wrong
that time when didn't none of us like
| what she said, she havin' what you
might call advanced style in thoughts
Leastways, this is what I've been
thinkin' lately; that of all the sins,
maybe, the one 1 despise the most is
| the meanness of talkin' away a botly's
| character.
There's women in this town-la,
yes. mebbe you didn't guess it. but it's
| true-who don't think no more about
saying things about another woman
thatll blast her reputation into little
bits. then they think of sittin' down
to their meals. And they go to church
on Sundays too, and call themselves
| Christians.
Sometimes they come right on in
i the open and say the things, and some
times they spread it by telfin' what
some one else has said. Sometimes
| they follow it up by sayin' "Of course,
/ don't believe it, but" And that
the most devilish thing of all. even
| heard a woman tell not long ago how
badly she felt over what folks was
saying about young woman in town.
and 1 give you 'mys word I'd never
heard it till she told it. Another thing
L give you my word for is that no
one ever heard it from me afterwards,
| with or without the salve.
Shakespeare, or whoever that Teller
was who said that if you stole my
purse you stole trash, but that 1t was
a different thing to steal my. good
name, knew what he was talkin' about
1 reeollect oncet hearin' my mother
| say about a woman who had made
a light remark about some girl. Its
a pity she amt got no daughters OF
her own, and mebbe she'd think twice
before she'd talk away a girls char
acter'
But, la, it don't seem to make nc
difference, because I've hearn the
mothers of daughters biithely talkin
away the regulations of other girls
without pang. Seems to me, that OF
all the sins, that's the worst, and Tn
hoping that some day every woman
who honestly searches her soul to find
out what's wrong with it, will recog.
nize that particular sin, and pray the
good Lord to help her to overcome it
instid of putin in so much time pray
in for the salvation of the heather
Chinee, and the sins of all the Other
folks. MA JIMKINS.