The Wichita Daily Eagle

Temptation.

"I shall never," says a New York woman active in philanthropic work, "carry my pocketbook in my hand in the street again. A recent experience has showed me its danger to others besides myself. I have been interested lately in a young man, a typical growth of the tenements, and have been trying to encourage him to lead a better life with, I hope, some degree of success. A few days ago I met him on the street and stopped to ask him how he was prospering. In my hand at the time I was holding my pocketbook and from the moment that we met I saw his eyes fastened on that with a hungry look that made me tremble. I did not dare put it in my pocket lest he should discover my distrust, and yet I felt that it was cruel to stand there with it flaunted in the face of his desperation. The interview was painful. I asked him a few questions, to which he scarcely replied, so fascinated was he with the sight of the purse and so soon as I could with ease I bade him good-by and walked on. As I did so he raised his eyes to mine with a conscious, hunted, yet baffled look, that told me as plainly as if he had said it that were I not the reverse the result would have been different. When I turned the corner and was out of his sight I stopped, weak and faint, to recover myself, and put that purse in my pocket with the vow that it or any other in my hands should never again offer temptation to a fellow creature."-New York Times