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Show Reflections of an Ungodly Man Editor Tribuno: While reading the reports of the closing of tho stockade and thej prosecution of tho "scarlet women" I have boon reflecting upon this moral problem. Society is certainly a strange mother, condoning the very foundations of evil and thoii rejecting the fruits thereof countcnacing the causes that make prostitutes and then condemning the unfortunate. To me this kind of farcical operation always reminds mo of a man cutting oil the branches of a tree, or plucking the blossoms and twigs, that ho may kill the treo itslf. So long as wo have no bettor ideal , no different teachings and.no more ex altcd opinions of lifo wo shall have prostitutes, robbers, bribers and other samplos of genuine llcll. We permit the boy to eat what he likes, to do about as he ploasos, to dross in all tho latent fads and fancies, and then wonder why ho goes astraj-. The girl has instilled into hor very being the necessity for falsity, sham, deceit and intellectual bribery. To see tho rosmts of this feminine production ono need but stand on the corner and watch the procession go by; to note the false pride, the puro vanity, the deceit and conceit which is displayed on all sides. Our young women have what thoy call "modern idens," which make them, when they can get tho money, tabboo the kind of hard, physical labor that "mother used to do," because it is degrading, unclean un-clean and distasteful. The avcrngo girl gels very little real physical exorcise, exor-cise, while sho lives on rich foods, wears "vanity clothes" and enjoys all the ligbt, frivolous pleasures which beset our society. We all sanction, tacitly, at lenst, the young man's sowing of his wild oats, but we condemn tho woman who helped him. Wo look up to and. even admire, tho man who robs the poor widow, just so long as it is in the lino of regular business. Tho poor, country girl, who comes to work out in the average metropolitan met-ropolitan town soous falls under tho glare and glitter of this social duccit. Our society demandB so much of the average working girl that she cannot meet its demands on the wages sho receives. re-ceives. The good people will say, "Oh, but she should remain homo under the care of thoso who will care for her." But they don't stop to think that oven per teacher, "that, swoct Miss Jones," inspired tho girl with tho desire' to be more, to see moro and to dress bettor ":han the parents would or could afford. How few of those who consider themselves them-selves toachers, religiously or otherwise, other-wise, strike at tho coro of theso matters' mat-ters' It is not in books, in sermons one n week, in annual lectures, or othor than in the home and school that morality must be taught. It is the home life which prodliccs and fosters immorality, although tho school attunes itself to the maternnl and paternal requirements. re-quirements. You ask how this can be true! Well, reflect a little, brother. Look bnck upon your youthtime, your childhood days, for that matter, 'and see how easily your parents mado the course to bad habits, to ruin. What a largo percontage of times 3-011 have do ceived j'our parents, they taking your falsehoods, your cunning, for the real truth. Did you evor ask j-oursolf why yon deceived or desired to decoivo your parents? ThcrcS is a reason, and this reason lies at the bottom of social evil. J say again, it is the homo and tho school that make immorality, and either ono would do so without tho other. You narents arc actually producing this evil about which you cry in derision. Go home, you parents, and there perform diligently the duties which nature imposes im-poses upon you. Study tho earthly side of child life. Learn the lessons which need but inspecting that they may be mastered. Do you read of the recent divorce caso and then comment care-lossly care-lossly on its merits and demerits bo-fore bo-fore your children? Do j'ou dress so as to make pcoplo believe you aro something some-thing which you arc not and then lot your dnughtor do likewise? Do you livo irregularly and cat to gratify do-praved do-praved taste? Do you actually study , the great questions that arc beforo tho nation, such as economics and civil affairs? af-fairs? What do you know about, the trend of socioty? Oh, yes, vou read, but do you digest what you read? In short, aro you just an animal, obeying animal instincts yourself, to tho disregard disre-gard of reason and correlation of truths, and then sending others to prison because thev have followed tho Bamo trail just a little farther? The future rests with tho children of today. Tho first fourteen yoars of lifo is tho period that makes men and women what they are to become. The teacher and the parents bond tho twig as it must grow. Tho sum total of our environments mako up the total of nature's na-ture's teaching force, but the most delicato, necessary and important part of that teaching is during tho days of childhood. You can't deceivo your children. There is a psychic force, which you must give to thoso who love you and associate with you, which no ears need hear or oyos sec that it mny bo potent for good or evil. Your immoral idons, actious or lack of action, all reflect in vour child, however much you may congratulate con-gratulate yourself in your blind conceit con-ceit Theso unfortunate women aro the products of that society you uphold, and wero started on their caroers by those who loved them most. SEARCHER. |