Green Mountain Freeman

Woman's Character.

BY EMILY R. PAGE.

There is not among Nature's most delicate

treasures a bud so tender and fragile as is the

character of woman. The slightest breath of

suspicion is sufficient to wither its virgin purity:

the veriest mist which may by chance float be-

fore its star-like radiance will, ere one be con-

scious of its existence, gather into a dark, threat-

ening cloud, obscuring and forever shutting out

the light which is enshrined upon the altar of

virtue.

As ripples on the quiet bosom of the wave,

though awakened by the kiss of a tiny blossom

leaf or the fall of a floating feather, go on still

spreading and expanding till the charmed circles

break on either shore, so, when the lightest word

of suspicion falls from an unguarded lip, it is

echoed by another and yet another and another,

increasing as it goes, until what was at first

simply a surmise or an unmeaning remark, be-

comes confirmed by repetition and is everywhere

reported and credited; thus the character of the

person assailed, though before as stainless as the

summer dawn of heaven, is now forever and ut-

terly ruined; she becomes at once the object of

eyed distrust—her most trivial actions are watch-

ed with a thousand Argus eyes, reported, can-

vassed and misunderstood, either intentionally or

through ignorance, and made the subject of

heartless remarks and indecent mirth; slighted,

avoided, misjudged and disgraced, the cup which

was once brimming with the unchecked happiness

of innocence and youth, is now bitter with the gall

of despair, and, weary and alone, the star of her

life goes down in obscurity and oblivion.

And to whom is this ruin attributable? The

answer is only too obvious: to those individuals

who contributed to confirm the first unjust sus-

picion; to those who, instead of analyzing the

charges and accusations preferred against her,

with a view to ascertain the source from which

they originate, that the truth or falsity of the

statements might thereby become established,

who, instead of first satisfying themselves rela-

tive to the innocence or guilt of her whose char-

acter is in question, unhesitatingly cast their

mite of decision into the scale of condemnation,

making no allowances for a possibility of false

reports, or for the many unguarded, yet at the

same time purely innocent steps so common to

the path of youth. To the door of these hasty

and inconsiderate, or self-willed and obstinate

beings, must be laid the irreparable loss which

is sustained; upon them devolves this mighty

weight of crime; with them this fearful account

remains to be settled; for, had each one individ-

ually, independent of the conduct of his fellows,

discharged his duty faithfully and aright, the

reputation of her, who is now friendless, forlorn,

and an outcast from society, would be as un-

stained and spotless as the heart of the yet un-

folded rose. Had they acted in accordance with

the Divine teachings of our lowly Master, when

the first unjust suspicion ripened into birth, they

would have sought her, and with gentle words of

admonition, warned and advised her to be guard-

ed in all her conduct, that even the most fastid-

lous should be able to discover no occasion for

reproach or condemnation. Had they kept in

view the glorious example of Him who died that

we might live, they would have pursued such a

course as would enable them to feel the sweet

assurance that they had endeavored to insure

the character of the accused against further sus-

picion, instead of employing every possible ef-

fort for the promotion of the opposite end. Had

they performed a Christian's part, they would

have manifested to the world their disbelief and

disapproval of the base assertions advanced, and

influenced others, as far as possible, to discoun-

tenance them; thus the entire evil would have

been nipped in the bud, and the fearful consum-

mation prevented.

But let us now candidly inquire whose honor and

integrity is first and oftenest called in question.

Is it the child of opulence, the daughter of the

purse-proud devotee of Mammon, who has been

nursed in the arms of luxury and surrounded by

all the superfluities common to the palace and

the hall? Is it her upon whom countless bless-

ings are continually showering,—whose path-

way is bright with blossoms, and whose stream of

life flows ever smoothly on amid pleasant places

and beneath the fadeless sunlight of prosperity

and happiness? Oh, no! it is the poor, the low-

ly, the unprotected, the fatherless, the motherless

and the destitute, who, in their long life journey.

have no staff on which to lean, no aid on which

to rely, but the unstained purity of their names.

These are the especial objects of the world's

distrust, and not those whose position in society

sustains them in whatever course of conduct

they may choose to pursue. She who cannot

fold about herself the tinsel drapery of wealth

—who cannot command the deference and hom-

age of the unprincipled world, by that universally

acknowledged sceptre of supreme power, the

magic wand of gold, is, from the very nature of

her situation, expected to exhibit a higher and

more exalted manner of life than would be re-

quired of her could she hide her misdoings be-

hind that mantle by whose deceptive glitter vain

mortals are so readily beguiled. Yes, she who

does not possess the power of bartering for

friendship and indulgence, must walk cir-

cumspectly and with caution before the world,

taking care to guard well the light of her only

jewel—for with her, unblessed as she is with the

smiles of that golden Deity before which mortals

bow as to the Baal of their idolatry, her charac-

ter is emphatically her all. And yet it is to her

that the arrow of slander is first directed; and

because she cannot rank among the so called

nobility of earth, in point of wealth, because she

chances to be humble, in the world's accepta-

tion of that term, they suppose, as an unavoida-

ble consequence, that it is of no import whether

she sustain an unimpeached character for puri-

ty and virtue, or directly the opposite. And

thus the cold world unfeelingly robs her of this

her only treasure, and then laughs and mocks

at the wreck it has accomplished and the ruin it

has wrought.

There are very many ways by which circumstan-

ces conspire to blight female reputation. Among

the most prominent causes are thoughtlessness.

envy, hatred and a desire for revenge; and, oh.

how inhuman, how fiend-like even, must be the

promptings of that heart which would seek, by

vile insinuations and utterly false statements, to

despoil an innocent and trusting girl of her sole

inheritance, and pluck out, as with the hand of a

demon, every star from her heaven of hope,

leaving her to sink beneath the weight of

undeserved reproach, into an unwept and

untimely grave! And yet how many are

there, who, with the design of accomplishing

their revenge for a fancied wrong, feel no hesita-

tion in advancing statements which they know

are as false as their own perjured hearts, and

which they are conscious cannot fail of disgrac-

ing and ruining her concerning whom they are

uttered, and yet feel no compunctions of con-

science when they see their base inventions

credited, and their unhallowed design secured

when every unprincipled person who chances

thereafter to meet her, considers himself fully

authorized and even called upon to insult and

abuse her—when her former associates shrink

from her presence as from the polluting touch of

the leper—when the cold sneer is on every lip.

and the glance of scorn in every eye. He who

will willfully and designedly attempt the accom-

plishment of so degrading and ignoble a purpose.

is deserving the supreme contempt of every

upright and honorable person! Yet such cases

of shameful defamation are of frequent occur-

rence, and have been the bitter experience of

too many a glad young heart.

It is often the case that the public mind, be-

coming estranged and prejudiced by some tri-

fling inconsideration in speech or conduct on the

part of the person suspected, by some slight in-

discretion incident to youth and inexperience,

regards acts, which, from the very unguardedness

of their nature, should be received as the result

of entire innocence, only as incontrovertible ev-

idence of her utter abandonment to the ways of

guilt, and as proof of her hopeless degradation.

Thus the world gives itself no opportunity of

becoming acquainted with the nature of the be-

ing whom it condemns; it does not stop to re-

flect that the morning buds of youth are but

just unfolding along her pathway—that she

has no conception that the world is not just as

bright and beautiful and blissful a Paradise, as the

fond illusive visions of childhood have pictured it

that the free gushings of her unfettered heart

are yielded tenderly and trustfully to the keep-

ing of others, with no suspicion of deception or

betrayal; no, the world does not consider this

but gives her credit for the same amount of ex-

perience, the same knowledge of art and intrigue,

the same cunning and skill in the practice of

deception which characterizes its own experi-

ence and conduct to so great an extent; and con-

sequently, fixing the basis of all its reasoning up-

on this ground, it must of course be prepared to

see all her actions in a perverted light, and to

form judgments concerning them according to

its own corrupt surmises, and the knowledge it

possesses of falsity and sin; supposing her in the

dewy morning of her life, capable of being actu-

ated by the same motives of craftiness as it

knows prompts its own heart, although that

heart has grown old and polluted, and hardened

in its experience.

It is plain, therefore, that the greatest difficul-

ty arises from the fact that people judge of others

too entirely from a knowledge of themselves

and this, in our humble opinion, is far from be-

ing a correct standard whereby to estimate fe-

male character, and more especially that of the

youthful and unprotected. Viewing the subject

in its true light, therefore, does it not appear the

immediate duty of each and every individual, as

an accountable being, to observe the utmost

caution in all his remarks and observations, lest

he utter that which may tend to lessen the beau-

ty of woman's character, for it is far, far better

that she be asleep 'neath the clods of the valley

than to live on bearing the withering blight of

ruined reputation.

Bradford, June, 1852.