The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1921-07-23
Real Path to Ruin Lies in Small
Town, Says Mother of Sad Wife
Parent of Woman Deserted by
Husband for Jaunt With
Preachers Spouse Says Gal
lon of Gas on Main Street Is
Equal Of 500 Bill in Broad
ways Scale Of Vice Prices.

NEW YORK. July 23.-ln one Of
his recent treatises on psyche
analysis. Andred Tridon, a leading
interpreter of Freud in the United
States. observed that you can find
more assorted and concentrated vice
in the average American small town.
IL you care to probe for II, than Is
to be discovered along the most
blazing highways of New York. Chi
cago, and San Francisco. He ex'
planned:
1T merely is more hidden"
A little later Sherwood Anderson
wrote: "Winesburg, Ohio" and
translated into the terms Of fiction
the clandestine side of Main street
which, he points out, Is not to be
found by merely promenading down
that thoroughfare at high noon. Un.
less, perchance, one Is commercial
traveller.
Mrs. Lucy Ostrom, of Monticello
is not a psyche analyst. Neither does
she exercise the talents Of The
modern fiction writer.
Naughty Main Street"
Nevertheless. Mrs. Ostrom came
| forth yesterday with some remarks
on small town life, gained from
first-hand cleaning, which placed her
directly beside the Messrs- Trtdon and
Anderson for powers of trained obser
walton. She said:
THE paving stones OF Main street
are far more crimson, even on .
rainy day, than Is the asphalt OF
Broadway on q mOonlit midnight"
Mrs. Ostrom was prompted to utter
ance Of her village erudition through
the recent and much discussed actions
of her not wholly beloved son-in'l law
| Earl Vernooy, who has been fitting
about New York State countrysides
| for some days with Mrs. Clark Duryea
the wife of a Holiness preacher, by
his side.
Vernooy eloped with Mrs. Duryea
about a deck ago, both departing In
his flivver despite the remonstrances
Of their respective spouses. On Thurs
day they returned home, contrite and
begging forgiveness. Btu their help
me cts declined courteously but firmly
to forgive. Thus, finding the doors
of their domiciles closed against them
they had to elope all over again.
The Real Path to Ruin.
At last reports they were still elop
| ing, though II was said by some
Monticellans that they weren't enjoy
ing II especially.
All Of which explains Mrs. Ostrom's
observations. She said:
II have long heard that Broadway
was a primrose path to runin. /
don't believe 1t. The real pathway
to hell is not Broadway-it is the
sneaky. nasty, lowdown coutry road
which leads through the small town.
1t is on that road that more souls
ride to hell than ever got there by
traversing the slipperiest parts Of
Broadway.
There, in the so-cailed hick village
lies the true primrose path to perdi'
ton.
You can get more wickedness for
a gallon Of gasoline in a small town
than you can acquire for a 500 bill
on Broadway. And it's Of the very
worst variety, too, because it's all
so covert and hidden and sordid, and
CLOSED over by veneer of SNUG
sanctimonious innocence.
"Once a Good Boy"
Just take the case OF my son-in
law, Earl. Now, he used to be a good
boy at heart. He was a kind and
loving husband, and he held and en-.
joyed the affections of a mighty fine
wife, which l say even II she is my
daughter.
And then came his downfall. He
bought a flivver.
Now, a man running around alone
on country roads with a flivver is a
menace to virtue. Automobiles and
home brew today are running more
happy homes than all the other wiles
of Satin combined. You can see what
village flivvering did for Earl-two
happy homes broken up, his own and
that of the Rev. Burea-
'If ever I have a boy to raise,
I'm going to bring him up right At
the corner Of Forty second street
and Broadway, and he's not even
going to see village until he ar
rives ut an age Of discretion. And
that, in a man, Is about Is"
I'm a city a man has to spend most
of his time at hard work in order to
earn a livelihood. But in the small
town he has plenty of time to go fool
ing around-and you know what they
say about an idle man and the devil.
IF you add to that the possession of
a flivver, then all you can do is to shut
your eyes and blindly place your faith