The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-02-20

} Take the matter of lying, for instance
4 man who tells another a point-b blank
lie with intent to deceive. is regarded
as rotter The epithet liar is a
fighting word between men. A man
has to sink TO pretty low level be-
fore he is too cowardly to speak the
truth TO other men. and he must be
pretty crooked before h. condescends
to make false statements about a mat
ter to the other men with whom he is
doing business. His word is as good
as his bond" is the HAN mark of the
gentleman. 1t is the gentleman's agree
ment. y
But men have no shame in lying to
women, and no conjunction about 1t.
Men do not feel that it smirches the
| honor in the slightest degree to de-
celve women, and he who is Truthful
James with other men 'unblushingly
understudieS. the role of Ananias the
minute he enters feminine society
OF course men excuse themselves for
this by saying that mans guardian
angel drops a tear that blots them out
Oh the lies that he tells women that
grease the social and domestic ma
chinery, and make it run with less fric-
ton. Also that the things a woman
doesn't know she doesn't worry about,
and that the only way that you can keep
a woman happy is by telling her what
she wants to hear, whether it is true or
not. So the end justifies the means
This, of course, is nice point in
ethics, Possibly to camouflage the
truth in matrimony may be a sin that
leans to virtues side Anyway, hus-
bands, almost universally subscribe to
this view Of the subject, and many
man who would not deviate hairs
breadth from strict veracity with an
other man is cheerful liar to his own
wife
And the most insulting part of this
O1pnd9pjtNr L 10 al m fbt Ep-
men tell women-stock lies that are so
old they have moss upon them and that
would not deceive even girl baby in
her cradle-lies about missing trains,
and sitting up with sick7 friends, and
having to work overtime and being
compelled to stay downtown against
their will to entertain buyers from
oklahoma and so on.
Whether men are less honest In
money matters with women than they
are with other men is because women
offer a shining mark to anyone who
wishes to cheat them, and are less apt
to invoke the law against swindlers
than men are, or whether men have
general idea that women haven't any
right to money anyway, and it's no
harm to take it away from them, no.
body can say.
The one thing that is certain is that
as soon as a woman has a little money,
she is simply beset by men who are
trying to steal 1t from her She Is
bounded by men with propositions that
are so TRANSPARENCY fraudulent that no
man would have the face to present
them to any other man who was not in
carcerated in the Home for the Incura-
bly, Feeble Minded.
When one thinks of how little the
average woman knows ABOUT business;
when one considers how helpless the
ordinary woman Is to earn dollar IL
she is thrown on her own resources;
when one remembers how hard the
woman who works earns her little
money, and by what crimping and self
denial she saves up her ptiful little
hoard of dollars, it would seem that
she must make an irresistible appeal
to any chivalry and pity and kindness
in a mans heart, and that few men
could be brutal and callous enough to
be willing to cheat, her out of the
money that means far more to her than
money can ever mean to a man.
But so FAR from this being the case
the sight of a woman's pocketbook APP
pears to rouse all the sneak thief in
stincts in many mems breasts, and un-
less she has a death grip on it they
snatch it and run away
OF course there are many exceptions
to this rule. There are many men who
are fair and honest with women, and
who protect them even against them
selves, but the great majority Of men
are far less honest with women than
they are with other men.
Copyright, 1920, by the Wheeler Syn
dictate, 1nc.)