Guarding the Outposts by Hugh Fitzhugh

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 8, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 35.

Guarding the Outposts

By Hugh Fitzhugh

IN behalf of fruit venders who suffer loss through the handling of their stock by prospective purchasers, a recent newspaper prints a cartoon in which the Italian proprietor of a fruit stall is represented as saying, "If you mus' pincha da fruit, pincha da coconut."

A possession that I value more highly than fruit dealers value their stock in trade, is a group of young people — not really my own, but I am privileged to be brought into close association with them.

I think them all very likable young people; and evidently some other persons think similarly of them, though not, apparently, with the same impartiality. Occasionally I observe manifestation of a preference for some one of the group. This preference sometimes finds expression in the tendency to drop a hand easily on the shoulder of such a one, or in other greater or less acts of familiarity.

Happily, these young people of mine are all well-bred; and while none of the girls is ever heard protesting loudly that a man must keep "hands off" her, yet their bearing is such that any man, young or old, who may venture to treat them otherwise than with unquestioned decorum, is very sure not to repeat the experiment.

Of course some of those men would fain defend their attempted familiarity as being wholly fraternal or paternal, and we need not presume to judge their motives; but there is no consideration that obligates a girl to tolerate such familiarity, or justifies her in doing so, whatever the impulse that prompts it. Incidentally, it is remarkable that these pseudo-relatives manifest little disposition to lavish demonstrations of affection on persons of their own sex. In other words, they are not inclined to "pincha da coconut."

A tiny child, proposing to conduct me through the beautiful grounds of her grandparents' home, cautioned me that I might look at the magnolia blossoms, but I must keep my hands behind me — a precaution that had been found advisable for her.

As handling destroys the delicate bloom that covers the grape, and as even the lightest touch darkens the pure white magnolia blossom, so likewise — but surely you have already finished the comparison, without further words of mine.

It is well to guard the approaches to danger. The argument is often heard, that "there is nothing wrong" in some course which has been condemned. But the fact is significant that evil seldom comes except by way of acts that are declared by inexperienced or insincere persons to be wholly harmless.

HUGH FITZHUGH.