1
The Crux
A Novel
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
CHARLTON COMPANY
NEW YORK
1911
Copyright 1911 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
THE CO-OPERATIVE PRESS, 15 SPRUCE STREET. NEW YORK
PREFACE
THIS story is, first, for young women to read; second, for young men to read; after that, for anybody who wants to. Anyone who doubts its facts and figures is referred to "Social Diseases and Marriage," by Dr. Prince Morrow, or to "Hygiene and Morality," by Miss Lavinia Dock, a trained nurse of long experience.
Some will hold that the painful facts disclosed are unfit for young girls to know. Young girls are precisely the ones who must know them, in order that they may protect themselves and their children to come. The time to know of danger is before it is too late to avoid it.
If some say "Innocence is the greatest charm of young girls," the answer is, "What good does it do them?"
CONTENTS
I. THE BACK WAY
II. BAINYILLE EFFECTS
III. THE OUTBREAK
IV. TRANSPLANTED
V. CONTRASTS
VI. NEW FRIENDS AND OLD
VII. SIDE LIGHTS
VIII. A MIXTURE
IX. CONSEQUENCES
X. DETERMINATION
XI. THEREAFTER
XII. ACHIEVEMENTS
Who should know but the woman? The young wife-to-be?
Whose whole life hangs on the choice;
To her the ruin, the misery;
To her, the deciding voice.
Who should know but the woman? The mother-to-be?
Guardian, Giver, and Guide;
If she may not foreknow, forejudge and foresee,
What safety has childhood beside?
Who should know but the woman? The girl in her youth?
The hour of the