Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-09-30
IN HE other day I was told pitt
full and tragic little story. A
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he OIner DAY was toIu d pill
full and tragic little story. A
i man married beautiful
young girl, who was hardly
more than a child, a clinging, trust
full, innocent little creature with no
knowledge the world to guide
her, or protect her.
More than that, she was one of
the clingingvine women who reach
out instructive tendrils towards any
masculine support near them, and
she was as bound to have love, and
tenderness, and caresses, as a flow
er is compelled to have sunshine and
water in order to live.
The husband was a siren, cold,
hard man, obsessed in his occupa-
tions, which took him from home to
far parts of the earth. He was away
often for months upon months at a
time. Even when he was at home
he repulsed his wifes endearments,
and scolded her for her babyish de-
sire to be petted.
The pretty little wife, who must
have love or die, found a man who
wasn't too busy. or too preoccupied
with his own affairs to feed her hun
cry heart on the food that her hus-
band denied her. He paid her all the
delicate little attentions that she
craved He told her how beautiful
and how lovely she was. He kissed
the lips the husband had been toe
| indifferent to kiss, and, at last, when
| the husband came back home he
foTnd hi his home empty %pG ta and HE he
wife away from him.
I do not for a moment justify the
conduct of either the wife or the
lover, but it seems to me that the
greatest of the three sinners in this
tragedy, and the one who is most to
blame. is the husband.
A woman should be strong enough
to stand alone and resist temptation
She should have honor enough not
sworn to be loyal, but when God
does not give a human being back
bone, we cannot expect 1t to verte-
brate.
The husband knew his wifes weak
ness. He knew just how avid she
out unconscious pleading hands to
every man, just how she purred like
a kitten under a caressing touch. He
knew how credulous and unsuspi-
cious she was.
And, knowing this, 1t was his duty
to protect her even more against her
self than against the men with whom
she came in contact and when he
failed to do it her sin Was upon his
head.
For a man who marries a weak
woman and does not safeguard her
weakness, is just as much to be
blamed as if he failed to hold a lit
tie child's hand over rough road
and let it stumble into pit.
When a man marries, he takes his
wife's life into his keeping far more
than he realizes. He literally be-
comes her keeper and is responsible
for her moral well-being as well as
her physical.
He recognizes that it is his duty
to feed and clothe her, but only too
often he fails to perceive that he is
Just as much bound to provide fol
her spiritual needs as he is for hel
bodily ones, and that it is just as
important to protect her against the
temptations that 'beset her as it Is
to protect her against the danger OF
cold and starvation and homeless
ness.
This duty Of keeping the woman
he has married safe from harm lies
all the more heavily on a man be.
cause the husband is usually Older
than the wife, and he has necessar.
lily seen much more of the world
than she has. BY observation, OF
experience, he knows to what bit
ter ends so many pleasant looking
paths lead.
The man, for instance, who is
married to a woman who must have
some man to lean upon, some man
upon whom to lavish her affections
some man to pet and f1atter her, Is
a fool not to realize that if she can