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Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL
Newspaper Page Text
IW&WWWW THE STORY OF THE ONE FOOLISH LITTLE MOTH AND THE TWO FOOLISH LITTLE MOTH GIRLS By Jane Whitaker. A little moth flew in through the window and circled the room coquet tishly as though to show me that it hadn!t the least intention of going near the bright light and singing its wings. Bujt ever narrower grew the circles, ever closer it swept toward the flame, until there was a little hiss and the moth dropped to the floor, dead. And the other night two little moth girls, with bright eyes and smiling lips and all the vanity of youth in their hearts stepped out of a nickel show and saw the flame standing at the cub, a big touring car with, two flash ily dressed men and another man and a, woman sitting in it. And coquettishly the two girl moths looked at the flame. They hadn't the least intention of going near it and 'singing their wings, but ever they drew closer, listened to the invitation of the men that they take a ride; played with the temptation and then yielded to it, and lo, the flames scorched the moths. For the woman and the man who lent the tone of respectability to the party were only decoys. They' left the flame and the two moth girls and the car flashed on through the night. Ever faster it went and the flashily dressed men laughed boisterously and paid no heed to the two little frightened moth girls, who realized they had flown too close tothe flame and wanted to get away fronx.it, and beat their wings in fear. And then one of the moth girls jumped; jumped while that car was going thirty miles an hour, not to ward their homes, but out toward the loneliness of the country. And the moth girl was bruised; one arm was broken, her face was disfigured. And because the other moth girl screamed as her companion jumped, am the men were afraid of being caught, they stopped and let her out, let her run back to the huddled, broken moth girl on the pavement and they drove swiftly away, leaving the moths to their fate. And just as the moth that dropped to the floor in my room was only one of a million moths that have been scorched to death because they flew too close to the flames, so this moth girl who was bruised is ust one of the many moth girls who have paid a price for their folly. Yet these girls do not seem to gain wisdom any more than do the little miller-moths. Surely it would seem that even the silliest girl would realize that men do not invite girls to ride in automo biles without intending to exact a price. It was a girl's life not long since and it has been several other girls' lives, but the exacting of life seems a lesser price to pay than the girls who have been, dishonored and left lying out on a lonely road until some passer-by discovered them and took them, forever smirched, back to their homes. These men who have automobiles could not have a honorable motive in asking a girl they do not know to ride with them, and the girl would realize this if she would but think. They have friends of their own, a wide circle of friends usually, but the girls they know they must respect, and the girls they do not know and who do not know them, they may ravish as the price of a few hours of amusement, and then go out of their lives and escape detection. The fascination of a ride in an au tomobile is not just its swift flight through the night. It is the lure of the unusual. If every one owned an automobile we would probably prefer to ride in the street cars through very familiarity and consequent contempt for autos. But the thing that appeals to' these moth giris the fact rthafc an-auto- &Ai-& ,J6i vhi M r "jtilrfTie -Pw i -i i y "' t-SnS