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day one of her girl friends displays on
her linger a diamond. It is large and
shiny, it may not be a diamond at all.
It may be paste. Nevertheless, so far
as the girl is concerned, to all intents
and purposes it is a diamond. Girls and
boys gather admiringly around the fortunate
possessor.
"Our little girl also craves attention
and admiration. She too wishes she
owned a diamond. She isn't making
very much money, perhaps eight dollars
a week. Still all her money is not spent
for necessities, for she lives with her
parents, who do not take all her money.
She knows that diamonds can he bought
on time. She can afford, perhaps, to pay
out one dollar a week. She goes to an
installment house and buys a diamond
on credit. Several weeks pass and so
far she has made her payments promptly.
"Then perhaps for a few days she is
ill and can't meet her next payment.
She goes to the diamond house with her
story. The credit man listens unsynipatheticallv.
That's his business. Ikhas
been chosen for the job because of
his lack of sympathy. Wry likely he
threatens the girl, telling her that unless
she pays he will demand the money from
her father. It being Saturday, the girl
knows that it is her father's pay day.
She knows her father is likely to he
drunk, that he will be in a had humor,
and that if the credit man does keep his
threat she is in danger of being beaten
and even thrown out of the house.
"She is desperate and ready to do
almost anything to get that dollar. She
is only an ignorant little girl. She can't
reason, and she has no friends, at least
none whom she feels she can ask for a
dollar, or who has the dollar even.
"Crime or sin requires three factors—
need, opportunity, and a weak moral
nature. Wherever these three factors
come together evil consequences are
pretty sure to follow.
"A night or two before, she has seen
the photo drama of the girl who went
wrong for her sister. That suggests to her
a similar opportunity. That play too has
helped to blunt her sense of right and
wrong. She could not but help observe
the sympathy of the audience for the
self-sacrificing sister. The terrible thing
she purposes doing isn't so terrible after
all. And the opportunity is easy. It
usually is easy for a girl on the crowded
streets of a large city. You can finish
the story for yourself.
"Every one knows that the purpose of
motion picture censorship is to conserve
public morals, to prevent there being
shown scenes that would suggest crime
to the weak-willed. That little storv of
is