Produced by RSPIII, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) [Illustration: Book Cover] THE CRUX BOOKS BY CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN Women and Economics $1.50 Concerning Children 1.25 In This Our World (verse) 1.25 The Yellow Wallpaper (story) 0.50 The Home 1.00 Human Work 1.00 What Diantha Did (novel) 1.00 The Man-Made World; or, Our Androcentric Culture 1.00 Moving the Mountain 1.00 The Crux 1.00 Suffrage Songs 0.10 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 CHAPTER PAGE I. THE BACK WAY 9 II. BAINVILLE EFFECTS 31 III. THE OUTBREAK 60 IV. TRANSPLANTED 81 V. CONTRASTS 101 VI. NEW FRIENDS AND OLD 126 VII. SIDE LIGHTS 149 VIII. A MIXTURE 174 IX. CONSEQUENCES 204 X. DETERMINATION 229 XI. THEREAFTER 256 XII. ACHIEVEMENTS 283 _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 warning is then, That, strong in her knowledge and free in her truth, She may build a new race of new men._ CHAPTER I THE BACK WAY