The Washington herald., 1920-04-23
SYMPATHY.

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II there is one thing in the world
from which women should pray
more fervently to be delivered than
from anything else it is sympathy,
whether given or received.
Sympathy Is woman's pet vice and
her ever-present danger. 1t is her
standing temptation. 1t is her drug,
her dope. the thing that takes away
all of her sense and judgment, and
renders her a mush of gush and
slush. in which she is liable-nay.
certain-to do the things that SHE
will spend the balance of her lIte
repenting.
Once touch a woman's sympathies.
and her intellect automatically stops
functioning. and has no more per-
ception of the consequences of what
she does than an idiot, and no more
perspective of life than a jack rab-
bit.
tale, and it never occurs to a woman
to look into the truth of his story,
or to ask herself why she should
support an able bodied, husky man
of IS or so because his dear mother
died when he was years old, leay-
ing him a poor little orphan 10y.
which hurt his tender feelings so
that he has never been able to work
since.
1t is woman's sympathies that
nullify justice in so many cases. and
turns the criminals out of prison
that the courts have spent thou
sands Of dollars putting in.
\ mans hands may be red with
blood, his soul STEPPED in crime, he
may be q menace to the community,
but IL anybody will get up a moving
story about his poor old mother or
his little children. they can always
count upon getting thousands of
sympathetic women, whose tear
ducts are more active than their
brains, to sign petition after petit
ton to have him pardoned.
When you wish to interest wom-
On in any cause you don't waste
any time and effort. IL you know
your business. in appealing to their
heads. You go straight for their
heartsI and II you can rouse their
pity II matters not whether the
thing you put up to them is just or
unjust, worthy or unworthy, sensi-
BILE or foolish, you have them with
you to the last sister. and they will
work themselves to death making
hannel petticoats for the poor little
naked children on the equator. or
deny themselves to contribute to
the ice fund for the Esquimos.
But as much harm as women do
when they go plastering their SYM
pathy fndiscriminately over the
world. its effects are not so disas-
ferrous rs their own seeking for
sympathy.
For while women like to give
sympathy to others, they have a
morbid mania for receiving 1t them
selves, and are shameless in the bids
they make for 1t.
Heaven knows why anyone should
desire to be an object of pity, ee-
cause pity has in It an element of
contempt We look down upon those
we pity as somehow being weaker,
and less fortunate than ourselves.
Women know this, and yet in spite
of this knowledge their hunger for
sympathy is such an Unsuitable ap-
petite that they will guIp it down
no matter with what arrogance and
patronage it is favored, nor how
bitter Is the portion Of criticism and
advice that Is mingled with II.
Strange and inexplicable are the
{ things that women will do In order
to indulge themselves in the luxury
OF wallowing in pity. A woman
viii tell you the most intimate Sc
crets Of her life. She will strip
every reserve from her domestic life
and tell you of her husbands faults
and weaknesses. the particulars of
his business affairs. his private
opinion Of his partners, his anxiety