OCR Text |
Show FLIRTING. "I didn't think!" A woman flings trie whiteness of her reputation in the dust, and, waking to the realization of her loss, when the cruel glare of the world's disapproval reveals it, she seeks to plead her thoughtlessness! asi an entreaty en-treaty of the world's pardon. But the flint-hearted world Is sflow to grant it, if sihe be a woman. "You have thrown your rose in the dust, go live there with it," the world cries, and there is no appeal, although the dust becomes the grave of all' that is briglit and lovely and sweet in thoughtless woman's really innocent life. - A young- girl flirts with a stranger on the street. The result is )omething disagreeable, and straightway comes the excuse: "Why, I didn't think! I meant no harm; I just wanted to have a little fun." Now, look me straight in the eye, young gossamer-head, while I tell you what I know. The girl who will flirt with strange men in public places however harmless and innocent it. may appear, places herself in that man's estimation upon a level ' with the most abandoned of her sex.jand courts the same regard. Strong 'language, 'lan-guage, perhaps you think, but I tell you it is gospel truth, and I feel like going into orders and preaching from a :pulpit whenever I sse tv thoughtless, gay and giddy girl tiptoeing her way upon the road that leads direct to destruction. de-struction. " , -, The boat that dances like a feather on the current a mile above Niagara's plunge is just as much lost as yhen it; enters the swirling, swinging wrath' o waters, unlets some strong, hand head it up stream and out of danger. A' flirtation today isa a ripple merely,, but tomorrow it will be a breaker, and then a whirlpool and after that comes hopeless hope-less loss of charj " . Girls, I have seen you gather up your roses from' their vasea at night and fold them away in damp paper to protect their loveliness for another Vy. I have seen you pluck the jewels like sun sparkling- from your fingers and your earsv and lay them in velvet -caskets which you locked with a silver key for safe keeping. You do all this for flowers, which a thousand suns shall duplicate in beauty, and for Jewels' for which a handful of dollars can reimburse reim-burse your loss, but you are infinitely careless with the delicate rose of mald-enliness, mald-enliness, which, once faded, no summer shining can ever woo back to freshness, fresh-ness, and with the unsullied Jewel of personal reputation, - which all the wealth of kings can never buy back again, once lost. . . See to it that you preserve that modesty and womanliness -without which the prettiest girl In the world is no better than a bit of scentless lawn lni a milliner's window, as compared to the white rose in the garden, around which the honey beea gather. See to it that you lock up the unsullied splendor of the jewel of your reputation as carefully care-fully as you do your diamonds, and carry the key within your own heart. 1 J |