Fair to Look Upon | Page 3

and she looked out of the corner of her eye
and blushed divinely.
Now this Serpent represented, so it has always been believed, a very
shrewd person. He saw that this woman had no garments, and that after
she had eaten this fruit she would know better, and delight in clothes
ever after. So he gave her the apple.
Almost instantly after she had eaten some, not because she particularly
liked apples, or had any idea of their adaptability in the way of pies,
sauce or cider, but because she wanted to "be as gods knowing good
and evil," as the Serpent said she would. Discontent with her wardrobe
crept into her heart and ambition for something better sprang to life.

[Illustration: "WHILE ADAM WAS IDLY, LAZILY SUNNING
HIMSELF IN THE GARDEN."]
In the distance stood Adam. With a thrill of rapture she beheld him, her
aroused soul flashed from her eyes and love was born, and she ran
toward him through the flowers, pausing on the river's brink to rest, for
weariness had touched her limbs.
She watched the waters running south out of the garden, and like one
coming out of a dim, sweet twilight into a blaze of glory she looked
and wondered "why" it ran that way, and lo! Thought blossomed like a
rose, and generosity laughed in the sunshine when she put the apple in
Adam's hand; and Adam, with the only woman in the world beside him,
and the first free lunch before him, forgot all about God and His
commands and "did eat," and the results prove that free lunches always
did demoralize men--and always will. And modesty blushed rosy red
when Adam put the apple to his lips, and invention and ingenuity,
new-born, rushed to the rescue, and they gathered the fig leaves.
Then memory like a demon whispered in her ear: "The day that ye eat
thereof ye shall surely die." She glanced at Adam and deadly fear
chilled the joyous blood in her veins. Then she argued: "He will be less
angry with me, a woman, and His vengeance will fall less heavily on
me than on the man to whom His command was given;" and lo! Reason
rose like a star on the waves of life, and shoulder to shoulder womanly
devotion and heroism that fears neither God nor death in defense of its
loved ones entered her soul, and she instructed Adam to say: "The
woman tempted me," and deception trembled on her lips when she
cried: "The serpent did tempt me," and the tears of regret and remorse
watered the seeds of deception and they grew so luxuriously that
women have always had that same way of getting out of scrapes ever
since.
Yet to Eve belongs the honor of never having obeyed any one--when it
interfered with progress, advancement and intelligence--neither God,
angels nor men.
The women of the nineteenth century make a profound salaam of

admiration and respect to Eve, in whom they recognize the first
courageous, undaunted pioneer woman of the world.
[Illustration: (The Serpent did tempt me.)]

THE ABRAHAM-HAGAR AFFAIR.

THE ABRAHAM-HAGAR AFFAIR.
"And there was a famine in the land; and Abraham went down to Egypt
to sojourn there."
You see Abraham was that charming kind of man--a man with his
pockets full of shekels, for "he was very rich in cattle, in silver and in
gold." So, as provisions grew short in Canaan, and as in those days
when men went on a pleasure trip they took their wives with them,
Sarah accompanied him to Egypt.
Up to this time husbands had only been obedient, but in this age they
began to be complimentary, and as Sarah and Abraham were about
entering Egypt, he said to her, "Behold now, I know that thou art a fair
woman to look upon," and even if it is the first compliment on record,
we must admit, even at this late day, that Abraham was far advanced in
the art of flattery.
Now Sarah was the pioneer, champion, incomparable coquette of the
ancient world, and as such deserves our earnest attention.
We gather from the following events that Abraham realized her
unequaled proclivities for getting in with kings, landlords and other
magnates of the countries through which she was pleasuring, and so he
told her to pass herself off as his sister; and because she believed it
would enhance her chances of having a good time, and as it was easy,
natural and agreeable, she did it, and not because she had any idea of
merely obeying her husband.

Abraham wanted their marriage kept secret because, in those days,
when a lover-king wished to get rid of an obnoxious husband, he
hypnotized him into eternal silence by having him used as a target for a
sling,