Show THE MORALS OF SOCIETY MEN trie THE following extract from the correspondence of a vigorous lady contributor tri butor to an eastern journal exposes the doings of the young youn bloods of the country who are received in the best society and whose excesses are popularly apologized for as I 1 sowing their wild oats ill t 1 I have a young friend who has lost los t most all of hey he faith in masculine human nature she probably proba oly still believes in her father and brother and ot of course her confidence in her favorite clergyman is is unimpaired but bat as for the rest of the sterner sex she thinks of it as I 1 should dreadfully hate to have anyone think of me but I 1 must hurry to tell you just how it all happened my friend is miss flora never mind her other name which has an irish sound far away anav back in the last century her irish grandfather came over here and founded the great fortune of the family by 1111 importing irish linens she went to europe about five years ago to complete P lete a musical and generally artistic course in italy As a school girl of 16 10 she formed a fond attachment for a young knickerbocker they exchanged rings and as both thought their al alleged legeZI hearts in the bargain while she was away she was a great deal more steadfast to her troth as girls generally are than he was I 1 think at rate she got a good many hints from friends at home I 1 just before she returned that made her doubt whether his habits were such as she wanted in a man she was to tie up to for life she heard so something methin cabout about an actress and about a certain button club which everyone knows is the name of a coterie of poker players on murray hill and the last picture he sent her gave him a face that seemed to her just a wee bit bloated and bialous bibulous well flora is one of the pluckiest pluck iest lest girls I 1 ever knew she thinks nothing of a five barred gate when she is mounted she won a wager wage r at newport by swimming across th the e ba bay y from the bluffs to t the he opposite shore andl and brin bringing ing back an apple from an orchard there abdat and at another time in orange she caught a burglar in her bedroom horse whipped him and held him until they could get a policeman the consequence was tb at when she heard her charley was going wrong I 1 she did something different irom sitting silting down as most girls would w and having a good weep first she wrote to him all she had bad heard and he be per farringto f erring ferring to lie rather than lose her taud her half Lu million illion wrote back that be was a saint and whoever said he was a liar so to speak she believe him and she wrote to me 1 I A am coming houle home she said I 1 with the most daring scheme that I 1 ever had and you and your cousin bob are in it 3 1 I knew it would be some soine thin thing breathless but I 1 was hardly prepared lor for what it turned out oui to 10 DC she wanted to get male tor for herself and me and then have cousin bob introduce us as young foreigners to her charley as she always called him I 1 was like Artem during the war perfectly willin willing to sacrifice all my cifes relations but I 1 would not go my figure is not exactly tue the sort for male attire my dear said I 1 I 1 lits its too er too t too oo 00 dont you know but do with your hair clipped and you can have cousin bob she wanted to put in a 86 night around town with her charlie and as bob knew him very well it was as easy as an old stocking bob would not hear of it at first 1 11 I kick he said he actually used that expression to me all right said 1 I kick if you want to but either do what I 1 want or you dont go anywhere with me or my friends next summer well he did it but he said id regret it the longest day I 1 lived flora got herself up in the style of a law student one of those buttoned up things in black wi ta a mouth and the handle of a cane always in it and eyeglasses and the stare of a baby trying to look like an aa old roue ches a bor born actress and she looked so true to life i that I 1 wanted to sprinkle salt on her to keepfer keep her fresh she went with bob and her charlie and half a dozen others mostly gold plated young snobs to see a burlesque flora pretended to be just jast from france and unable to speak englishoe Engl isho that nobody tried to talk to her except bob her plan worked to a dot she saw and heard enough to satisfy her to use her own words wards if I 1 went to a nunnery tomorrow to morrow id have had more than my share ot of wickedness just from that night every one of the young men except bob knew some of th the girls on the stage and tb they ey talked about them she ohe says saya just as jockeys might be supposed to talk about horses one of the young men flirted with a woman in the audience met her after the play and went away to supper with her while the rest strolled to a place called the silver grill an all night shop house bouse on sixth ave flora stood it there just one hour she drank rhine wine to which she is accustomed but the conversation of the young men t the he stories t they hey told and the way they behaved with the waitr waitresses ses who attended them caused her to beg bob to take her home he told me he had been waiting to do that from the first I 1 it was nothing extraordinary said he hel in facet face it was an uncommonly quiet and orderly night the boys were having but they talked freel yand although I 1 should have thought nothing ot it ordinarily still when I 1 knew that an innocent girl was a listener and looker on there I 1 suffered such tortures ortures or tures as I 1 never did before in my life and ever since then I 1 have been half ashamed of myself in feminine company As for flors flora I 1 cant tell you what she said she came and flung herself on my bed and cried the next day till I 1 thou thought tit she would weep herself crazy beasts and brutes were the only words she could find to apply to her companions of the night belore before and she assured me that in all the french novels all the criminal reports and all the startling talk she tad ever read or heard she had never conceived a tenth of the perfectly awful horribleness of these theme young men well that is not all there is more to floras case and in fact I 1 come in here myself flora wrote to her charley telling him that she he was the french student who spent that evening with him he tried to see her but she said she would rather touch a toad then he wrote to her that he was far better than an average young man in fact that he was rather a model sober honest industrious and without beins being addicted to any vice except smoking to cap the climax her own people took his side and she has had assurances that he is an uncommonly nice young man from froin whom do you think thin k why from two cler clergymen gyme n from cousin bob from a great reformer from a college professor from a banker and from cinege mae relatives a score in number to each she has indicated her experience and each has substantially replied well I 1 know to tola la young girl that seems outrageous but youns young men must be young men and charlie is better than most ol of his age and sex flora is dis heartened and disgusted she has not given up the sex she means to find some decent cleinman ly self respecting ambitious fellow w who ho leads one life as open as a book and she means to po point int to him and tell all who have assured her tot to the ti contrary that it is not impossible to be decent and be a man at the same time but bat my gracious its been a revelation to me I 1 thought the moon and I 1 were pretty wide awake but its news dews to me that young men who lead such lives can be considered exemplary characters aud and cousin bob too go into the north woods sad and hide yourself I 1 11 1 I wrote to him 1 I should feel like turning a hose on you if you came near me I 1 really believe I 1 stall sall have more patience with the sissies radience tience and the mo molly ra y coddles among mankind after this surely them they are reputable CLAKA laita BELLE |