University of Virginia Library

8. THE SOCIAL EVIL.

Illicit intercourse has been a common vice of humanity from the earliest period of history. At the present moment, it is a loathsome ulcer, eating at the heart of civilization; a malignant leprosy, which shows its hideous deformities amidst the fairest results of modern culture. Our large cities abound with dens of vice whose habitués shamelessly promenade the most public streets, and flaunt their infamy in the face of every passer-by. In many large cities, especially in those of Continental Europe, these holds of vice are placed under the supervision of the law by the requirement that every keeper of a house of prostitution must pay a license; in other words, must buy the right to lead his fellow-men "down to the lowest depths of hell."

In small cities, as well as in large ones, in fact, from the great metropolis down to the country village, the haunts of vice are found. Every army is flanked by bands of courtesans. Wherever men go, loose women follow, penetrating even to the wildness of the miner's camp, far beyond the verge of civilization.

But brothels and traveling strumpets do not fully represent the vast extent of this monster evil. There is a class of immoral women — probably exceeding in numbers the grosser class just referred to — who consider themselves respectable, indeed, who are so considered by the public. Few are acquainted with their character. They live in elegant style, and mingle in genteel society. Privately, they prosecute the most unbounded licentiousness, for the purpose of gain, or merely to gratify their

lewdness. "Kept mistresses" are much more numerous than common prostitutes.

The numerous scandal and divorce suits which expose the infidelity of husbands and wives, are sufficient evidence that illicit commerce is not confined to the unmarried; but so many are the facilities for covering and preventing the results of sins of this description that it is impossible to form any just estimate of their frequency. The incontinence of husbands and the unchastity of wives will only appear in their enormity at that awful day when every one shall "stand before the judgment-seat," and receive the penalty of his guilty deeds.

Unchastity in Ancient Times. — We would fain believe the present to be the most licentious age the world has ever known; that in the nineteenth century the climax of evil has been reached; that the libidinous blood of all ages has culminated to produce a race of men more carnal than all their predecessors. It is a sickening thought that any previous epoch could have been more vile than this; but history presents facts which disclose in ancient times periods when lust was even more uncontrolled than now; when vice was universal; and when virtue was a thing unknown. A few references to historical facts will establish this point. We do not make these allusions in any way to justify the present immorality, but to show the part which vice has acted in the overthrow of nations.

From the Sacred Record we may judge that before the flood, a state of corruption prevailed which was even greater and more general than any that has ever since been reached; only eight persons were fit to survive the

calamity which swept into eternity that lustful generation with their filthy deeds.

But men soon fell into vice again; for we find among the early Assyrians a total disregard of chastity. Their kings reveled in the grossest sensuality.

No excess of vice could surpass the licentiousness of the Ptolemies, who made of Alexandria a bagnio, and all Egypt a hot-bed of vice. Herodotus relates that "the pyramid of Cheops was built by the lovers of the daughter of this king; and that she never would have raised this monument to such a hight except by multiplying her prostitutions." History also relates the adventures of that queenly courtesan, Cleopatra, who captivated and seduced by her charms two masters of the world, and whose lewdness surpassed even her beauty.

Tyre and Sidon, Media, Phœnicia, Syria, and all the Orient were sunk in sensuality. Fornication was made a part of their worship. Women carried through the streets of the cities the most obscene and revolting representations. Among all these nations a virtuous woman was not to be found; for, according to Herodotus, the young women were by the laws of the land "obliged, once in their lives, to give themselves up to the desires of strangers in the temple of Venus, and were not permitted to refuse any one."[11] [11] Bourgeois.

St. Augustine speaks of these religious debaucheries as still practiced in his day in Phœnicia. They were even continued until Constintine destroyed the temples in which they were prosecuted, in the fourth century.

Among the Greeks the same corruptions prevailed in the worship of Bacchus and Phallus, which was cele-

brated by processions of half-nude girls "performing lascivious dances with men disguised as satyrs." In fact, as X. Bourgeois says, "Prostitution was in repute in Greece." The most distinguished women were courtesans, and the wise Socrates would be justly called, in modern times, a libertine.

The abandonment to lust was, if possible, still more complete in the times of the Roman emperors. Rome astonished the universe "by the boldness of its turpitudes, after having astonished it by the splendor of its triumphs."

The great Cæsar was such a rake that he has been said to have "merited to be surnamed every woman's husband." Antony and Augustus were equally notorious. The same sensuality pervaded the masses as reigned in the courts, and was stimulated by the erotic poems of Ovid, Catullus, and other poets of the time.

Tiberius displayed such ingenuity in inventing refinements in impudicity that it was necessary to coin new words to designate them. Caligula committed the horrid crime of incest with all his sisters, even in public. His palace was a brothel. The Roman empress, Messalina, disguised herself as a prostitute, and excelled the most degraded courtesans in her monstrous debaucheries. The Roman emperor, Vitellius, was accustomed to take an emetic after having eaten to repletion, to enable him to renew his gluttony. With still grosser sensuality he stimulated his satiated passions with philters and various aphrodisiac mixtures.

Nero, the most infamous of the emperors, committed rapes on the stage of the public theaters of Rome, disguised as a wild beast.

If this degraded voluptuousness had been confined to royalty, some respect might yet be entertained for the virtue of the ancients; but the foul infection was not restrained within such narrow bounds. It invaded whole empires until they fell in pieces from very rottenness.

In the thirteenth century, virtue was almost as scarce in France as in ancient Greece. Nobles held as mistresses all the young girls of their domains. About every fifth person was a bastard. Just before the Revolution, chastity was such a rarity that, according to one writer, a woman was actually obliged to apologize for being virtuous!

In these disgusting facts we find one of the most potent agents in effecting the downfall of the nations. Licentiousness sapped their vitality and weakened their prowess. The men who conquered the world were led captive by their own beastly passions. Thus the Assyrians, the Medes, the Grecians, the Romans, successively fell victims to their lusts, and gave way to more virtuous successors. Even the Jews, the most enlightened people of their age, fell more than once through this same sin, coupled with idolatry, of which their seduction by the Midianites is an example.

Surely, modern times present no worse spectacles of carnality than these; and will it be claimed that anything so vile is seen among civilized nations at the present day? But though there may be less grossness in the sensuality of to-day, the moral turpitude of men may be even greater than that of ancient times. Enlightened Christianity has raised the standard of morality. Christ's commentary upon the seventh commandment requires

a more rigorous chastity than ancient standards demanded, even among the Jews; for had not David, Solomon, and even the pious Jacob more wives than one? Consequently, a slight breach of chastity now requires as great a fall from virtue as a greater lapse in ages past, and must be attended with as severe a moral penalty.

State of Modern Society. — But we are not quite certain that the condition of modern society as regards chastity is much superior to that of periods of the world to which reference has been made. While on a tour through Europe, a few years ago, the author took some pains to gather facts upon this point from various authentic sources, and was amazed at the enormous prevalence of sexual crimes in the great and oldest centers of modern civilization. In Paris, the places of amusement and public resort are thronged with brazen courtesans, watching for victims; and in the numerous picture shops which line the Rue de Rivoli, the most obscene pictures and photographs are exposed for sale, with almost no attempt at secrecy. In Stockholm, the government statistics show more than forty per cent of all the births to be illegitimate, and in Vienna the state of morals is no better, and venereal diseases are so nearly universal that a physician of wide acquaintance with the inhabitants of this great German metropolis, has declared that three-fourths of the entire population are syphilized.

In Naples, lasciviousness stalks abroad at all hours of the day and night. Women sell their souls for a few farthings, and the debauched people vie with one another in imitating the horrible obscenities

and sexual sins of the Roman Sodom and Gomorrah — Pompeii and Herculaneum — and that with the terrible judgment which fell upon these dens of iniquity daily before their eyes, while just above them still towers the stern old Vesuvius, from whose fiery bowels were in olden times poured out the vials of Almighty wrath, and in which are still heard the mutterings of a day of wrath sure to come.

The Pall Mall Gazette Exposures. — In London, the boasted "center of modern civilization," the number of women who are leading lives of shame and ignominy is sufficiently great to people a large city or a small province. In no city are the signs of vice and ignorance more plainly seen than in the metropolis of the world. Within a few weeks of the present writing, the whole of Christendom has been more than startled by the horrible revelations of the Pall Mall Gazette, a few extracts from which will give the reader an opportunity to form something of an idea of the ghastly exhibition of worse than beastly sensuality which stands at the very center of modern culture and civilization, and according to the reports referred to, is even fostered by princes and royal personages, as well as the professional libertine and wealthy debauchee. "THE MAIDEN TRIBUTE OF MODERN BABYLON.

"In ancient times, if we may believe the myths of Hellas, Athens, after a disastrous campaign, was compelled by her conqueror to send once every nine years a tribute to Crete of seven youths and seven maidens. The doomed fourteen, who were selected by lot amid the lamentations of the citizens, returned no

more. The vessel that bore them to Crete unfurled black sails as the symbol of despair, and on arrival, her passengers were flung into the famous Labyrinth of Dædalus, there to wander about blindly until such time as they were devoured by the Minotaur, a frightful monster, half man, half bull, the foul product of an unnatural lust. `The labyrinth was as large as a town, and had countless courts and galleries. Those who entered it could never find their way out again. If they hurried from one to another of the numberless rooms, looking for the entrance door, it was all in vain. They only became more hopelessly lost in the bewildering labyrinth, until at last they were devoured by the Minotaur.'

"Twice, at each ninth year, the Athenians paid the maiden tribute to King Minos, lamenting sorely the dire necessity of bowing to his iron law. When the third tribute came to be exacted, the distress of the city of the Violet Crown was insupportable. From the King's palace to the peasant's hamlet, everywhere were heard cries and groans and the choking sob of despair, until the whole air seemed to vibrate with the sorrow of an unutterable anguish. Then it was that the hero Theseus volunteered to be offered up among those who drew the black balls from the brazen urn of destiny, and the story of his self-sacrifice, his victory, and his triumphant return, is among the most familiar of the tales which, since the childhood of the world, have kindled the imagination and fired the heart of the human race. The labyrinth was cunningly wrought like a house, says Ovid, with many rooms and winding passages, that so the shameful creature of lust, whose abode it was to be,

should be far removed from sight. And what happened to the victims — the young men and maidens — who were there interned, no one could surely tell. Some say that they were done to death; others that they lived in servile employments to old age. But in this alone do all the stories agree, that those who were once caught in the coils, could never retrace their steps, so `inextricable' were the paths, so `blind' the footsteps, so `innumerable' the ways of wrong-doing.

"The fact that the Athenians should have taken so bitterly to heart the paltry maiden tribute that once in nine years they had to pay to the Minotaur, seems incredible, almost inconceivable. This very night in London, and every night, year in and year out, not seven maidens only, but many times seven, selected almost as much by chance as those who in the Athenian market-place drew lots as to which should be flung into the Cretan labyrinth, will be offered up as the Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. Maidens they were when this morning dawned, but to-night their ruin will be accomplished, and to-morrow they will find themselves within the portals of the maze of London brotheldom. Within that labyrinth wander, like lost souls, the vast host of London prostitutes, whose number no man can compute, but who are probably not much below 50,000 strong. Many, no doubt, who venture but a little way within the maze, make their escape. But multitudes are swept irresistibly on and on, to be destroyed in due season, to give place to others, who also will share their doom. The maw of the London Minotaur is insatiable, and none that go into the secret recesses of his lair return again. After some years of dolorous wandering in this palace of

despair, — for `hope of rest to solace there is none, nor e'en of milder pang,' save the poisonous anodyne of drink, — most of those insnared to-night will perish, some of them in horrible torture. Yet, so far from this great city's being convulsed with woe, London cares for none of these things, and the cultured man of the world, the heir of all the ages, the ultimate product of a long series of civilizations and religions, will shrug his shoulders in scorn at the folly of any one who ventures in public print to raise even the mildest protest against a horror a thousand times more horrible than that which in the youth of the world, haunted like a nightmare the imagination of mankind."

The writer in the Pall Mall Gazette classifies the crimes exposed by the investigation as follows: —

1. The sale and purchase and violation of children.

2. The procuration of virgins.

3. The entrapping and ruin of women.

4. The internal slave trade in girls.

5. Atrocities, brutalities, and unnatural crimes.

The writer details numerous cases in which girls varying in age from eleven to fifteen were purchased for immoral purposes at prices ranging from a sovereign to several pounds. In most of these cases, the children were wholly unaware of the nature of the transaction, and were procured for wealthy and worn-out debauchees, some of whom were willing to pay as high as £20 or £30 for a "good mark," which means, in the language of the London brothel, a good-looking little girl.

The revelations made by the Gazette, and confirmed by the investigation which followed the disclosure, indicate that this business is carried on in London on a very

large scale, thousands of little girls being annually enticed from home for immoral purposes, or purchased from drunken fathers and mothers, who never inquire concerning their whereabouts after they are out of their sight. The horrible fact was also elicited by investigation that there are persons in London who make a regular business of rearing girls for the brothel market. The atrocities practiced upon them are too horrible for description in a work like this, but it would be well for mothers to read carefully the following paragraph from the Gazette: —

"The Responsibility of Mothers. — The ignorance of these girls is almost incredible. It is one of the greatest scandals of Protestant training that parents are allowed to keep their children in total ignorance of the simplest truths of physiology, without even a rudimentary conception of the nature of sexual morality. Catholic children are much better trained; and whatever may be the case in other countries, the chastity of Catholic girls is much greater than that of Protestants in the same social strata. Owing to the soul-and-body-destroying taciturnity of Protestant mothers, girls often arrive at the age of legal womanhood in total ignorance, and are turned loose to contend with all the wiles of the procuress and the temptations of the seducer without the most elementary acquaintance with the laws of their own existence. Experientia docet; but in this case the first experience is too often that of violation. Even after the act has been consummated, all that they know is that they got badly hurt; but they think of it and speak of it exactly in the same way as if it meant no more for them than the pulling out of a tooth. Even more than the scandal-

ous state of the law, the culpable refusal of mothers to explain to their daughters the realities and the dangers of their existence, contributes to fill the brothels of London."

The committee appointed to investigate the charges of the Pall Mall Gazette, which included Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Canterbury, and other eminent gentlemen, reported as follows: —

"After carefully sifting the evidence of witnesses, and the material before us, and without guaranteeing the accuracy of every particular, we are satisfied that, taken as a whole, the statements in the Pall Mall Gazette on this question are substantially true."

Nor are these terrible practices confined to the Old World. Any one who is at all acquainted with the police records of our large cities, must be fully aware of the fact that crimes approximately as enormous in extent, if not fully as great, are perpetrated constantly in New York and other great American cities. In her address presented at the eleventh annual meeting of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, held at Philadelphia, Miss Frances E. Willard, the President of that great organization, in dwelling upon the need of an active department for the suppression of the social evil, remarked as follows: —

"The effect upon our minds of such unspeakable disclosures as those of the Pall Mall Gazette, and the horrible assurances given us by such authority as Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, that we should uncap perdition in the same direction were the hidden life of our own great cities known, has so stirred the heart of womanhood throughout this land? that we are, I trust, ready for an

advance. Had we to-day the right woman in this place of unequaled need and opportunity, we could be instrumental in the passage of such laws as would punish the outrage of defenseless girls and women by making the repetition of such outrage an impossibility. Women only can induce lawmakers to furnish this most availing of all possible methods of protection to the physically weak. Men alone will never gain the courage thus to legislate against other men. Crimes against women seem to be upon the increase everywhere. Three years ago the Chicago Inter Ocean gathered from the press in three weeks, forty cases of the direst outrage, sixteen of the victims being girls. In a majority of cases, where the gentler sex is thus hunted to its ruin, or lured to the same pit in a more gradual way, strong drink is the devil's kindling-wood of passion, as everybody knows. Hence the relation of this most sacred work to that of the W. C. T. U. is so close that the press, through some of its noblest representatives, has, in the last year, appealed to us to ignore the tempted and the fallen of our own sex no longer. It is not by the vain attempt to re-introduce the exploded harem method of secluding women that they are to be saved. It is rather by holding men to the same standard of morality which, happily for us, they long ago prescribed for the physically weaker, that society shall rise to higher levels, and by punishing with extreme penalties such men as inflict upon women atrocities compared with which death would be infinitely welcome. When we remember the unavenged murder of Jennie Cramer, of New Haven, and the acquittal of the ravishers of Emma Bond, a cultivated school-teacher of Illinois; when we reflect that the Pall

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Mall Gazette declares `the law is framed to enable dissolute men to outrage girls of thirteen with impunity;' that in Massachusetts and Vermont it is a greater crime to steal a cow than to abduct and ruin a girl; and that in Illinois; seduction is not recognized as a crime, it is a marvel not to be explained, that we go on the even tenor of our way, too delicate, too refined, too prudish to make any allusion to these awful facts, much less to take up arms against these awful crimes.

"We have been the victims of conventional cowardice too long. Let us signalize the second century of temperance reform by a fearless avowal of our purpose to take up the work of promoting social purity by the inculcation of right principles, and the serious demand for more equitable laws."

We have seen how universal is the social evil, that it is a vice almost as old as man himself, which shows how deeply rooted in his perverted nature it has become. The inquiry arises, What are the causes of so monstrous a vice, so gross an outrage upon nature's laws, so withering a blight upon the race?

Causes of the Social Evil. — A vice that has be come so great an evil, even in these enlightened times, as to defy the most skillful legislation, which openly displays its gaudy filthiness, and mocks at virtue with a lecherous stare, must have its origin in causes too powerful to be ignored.

Precocious Sexuality. — The causes of a too early development of sexual peculiarities, as manifested in infantile flirtations and early signs of sexual passion, were dwelt upon quite fully in a previous connection, and we need not repeat them here. Certain it is that

few things can be more dangerous to virtue than the premature development of those sentiments which belong only to puberty and later years. It is a most unnatural, but not uncommon, sight to see a girl of tender age evincing all those characteristics which mark the wanton of older years.

Man's Lewdness. — It cannot be denied that men are in the greatest degree responsible for the social evil. The general principle holds true here as elsewhere, that the supply is regulated by the demand. If the patrons of prostitution should withdraw their support by a sudden acquisition of virtue, how soon would this vilest of traffics cease! The inmates of brothels would themselves become continent, if not virtuous, as the result of such a spasm of chastity in men.

Again, the ranks of fallen women, which are rapidly thinned by loathsome diseases and horrid deaths, are largely recruited from that class of unfortunates for whose fall faithless lovers or cunning, heartless libertines are chiefly responsible. The weak girl who, through too much trust, has been deceived and robbed of her dearest treasure, is disowned by relatives, shunned by her acquaintances, and turned out upon a cold world without money, without friends, without a character. What can she do? Respectable employment she cannot find; for rumor follows her. There seems to be but one door open, the one which she herself so unintentionally opened. In despair, she enters the "open road to hell," and to her first sad error adds a life of shame. Meanwhile, the villain who betrayed her maintains his standing in society, and plies his arts to win other victims. Is there not an unfair discrimination here? Should not

the seducer be blackened with an infamy at least as deep as that which society casts upon the one betrayed?

Fashion. — The temptation of dress, fine clothing, costly jewelry, and all the extravagances in which rich ladies array themselves, is in many cases too powerful for the weakened virtue of poor seamstresses, operatives, and servant girls, who have seen so much of vice as to lose that instinctive loathing for it which they may have once experienced. Thinking to gain a life of ease, with means to gratify their love of show, they barter away their peace of mind for this world, all hope for the next, and only gain a little worthless tinsel, the scorn of their fellow-creatures, and a host of loathsome diseases.

Lack of Early Training. — It is needless to demonstrate a fact so well established as that the future character of an individual depends very largely upon his early training. If purity and modesty are taught from earliest infancy, the mind is fortified against the assaults of vice. If, instead, the child is allowed to grow up untrained, if the seeds of vice which are sure to fall sooner or later in the most carefully kept ground, are allowed to germinate, if the first buds of evil are allowed to grow and unfold, instead of being promptly nipped, it must not be considered remarkable that in later years rank weeds of sin should flourish in the soul, and bear their hideous fruit in shameless lives.

Neglect to guard the avenues by which evil may approach the young mind, and to erect barriers against vice by careful instruction and a chaste example, leaves many innocent souls open to the assaults of evil, and an easy prey to lust. If children are allowed to get their training in the street, at the corner grocery, or hovering

around saloons, they will be sure to develop a vigorous growth of the animal passions. The following extract is from the writings of one whose pen has been an inestimable blessing to American youth: —

"Among the first lessons which boys learn of their fellows are impurities of language; and these are soon followed by impurities of thought. . . . When this is the training of boyhood, it is not strange that the predominating ideas among young men, in relation to the other sex, are too often those of impurity and sensuality. . . . We cannot be surprised, then, that the history of most young men is, that they yield to temptation in a greater or less degree and in different ways. With many, no doubt, the indulgence is transient, accidental, and does not become habitual. It does not get to be regarded as venial. It is never yielded to without remorse. The wish and the purpose are to resist; but the animal nature bears down the moral. Still, transgression is always followed by grief and penitence.

"With too many, however, it is to be feared it is not so. The mind has become debauched by dwelling on licentious images, and by indulgence in licentious conversation. There is no wish to resist. They are not overtaken by temptation; for they seek it. With them the transgression becomes habitual, and the stain on the character is deep and lasting."[12] [12] Ware.

Poverty. — The pressing influence of poverty has been urged as one cause of prostitution. It cannot be denied that in many cases, in large cities, this may be the immediate occasion of the entrance of a young girl upon a life of shame; but it may still be insisted that

there must have been, in such cases, a deficiency in previous training; for a young woman, educated with a proper regard for purity, would sooner sacrifice life itself than virtue. Again, poverty can be no excuse; for in every city there are made provisions for the relief of the needy poor, and none who are really worthy need suffer.

Ignorance. — Perhaps nothing fosters vice more than ignorance. Prostitutes come almost entirely from the more ignorant classes, though there are, of course, many exceptions. Among the lowest classes, vice is seen in its grossest forms, and is carried to the greatest lengths. Intellectual culture is antagonistic to sensuality. As a general rule, in proportion as the intellect is developed, the animal passions are brought into subjection. It is true that some very intellectual men have been great libertines, and that the licentious Borgias and Medicis of Italy encouraged art and literature; but these are only apparent exceptions; for who knows to what greater depths of vice these individuals might have sunk had it not been for the restraining influence of mental culture.

Says Deslandes, "In proportion as the intellect becomes enfeebled, the generative sensibility is augmented." The animal passions seem to survive when all higher intelligence is lost. We once saw an illustration of this fact in an idiot who was brought before a medical class in a clinic at Bellevue Hospital, New York. The patient had been an idiot from birth: and presented the most revolting appearance, seemingly possessing scarcely the intelligence of the average dog; but his animal propensities were so great as to be almost uncontrollable. Indeed, he showed evidences of having

been a gross debauchee, having contracted venereal disease of the worst form. The general prevalence of extravagant sexual excitement among the insane is a well-known fact.

Disease. — Various diseases which cause local irritation and congestion of the reproductive organs are the causes of unchastity in both sexes, as previously explained. It not infrequently happens that by constantly dwelling upon unchaste subjects until a condition of habitual congestion of the sexual organs is produced, young women become seized with a furor for libidinous commerce, which nothing but the desired object will appease, unless active remedial measures are adopted under the direction of a skillful physician. This disease, known as nymphomania, has been the occasion of the fall of many young women of the better classes who had been bred in luxury and idleness, but were never taught even the first lesson of purity or self-control. Constipation, piles, worms, pruritis of the genitals; and some other less common diseases of the urinary and genital systems, have been causes of sexual excitement which has resulted in moral degradation.

Results of Licentiousness. — Apparently as a safeguard to virtue, nature has appended to the sin of illicit sexual indulgence, as penalties, the most loathsome, deadly, and incurable diseases known to man. Some of these, as gonorrhœa and chancroid, are purely local diseases; and though they occasion the transgressor a vast amount of suffering, they may be cured and leave no trace of their presence except in the conscience of the individual. Such a result, however, is by no means the usual one. Most frequently, the injury done is more or

less permanent; sometimes it amounts to loss of life or serious mutilation, as in cases we have seen. And one attack secures no immunity from subsequent ones, as a new disease may be contracted upon every exposure.

By far the worst form of venereal disease is syphilis, a malady which was formerly confounded with the two forms of disease mentioned, but from which it is essentially different. At first, a very slight local lesion, of no more consequence — except from its significance — than a small boil, it rapidly infects the general system, poisoning the whole body, and liable forever after to develop itself in any one or more of its protean forms. The most loathsome sight upon which a human eye can rest is a victim of this disease who presents it well developed in its later stages. In the large hospitals of this country and various European cities, we have seen scores of these unfortunates of both sexes, exhibiting the horrid disease in all phases. To describe them would be to place before our readers a picture too revolting for these pages. No pen can portray the woe-begone faces, the hopeless air, of these degraded sufferers whose repentance has come, alas! too late. No words can convey an adequate idea of their sufferings. What remorse and useless regrets add to the misery of their wretched existence as they daily watch the progress of a malignant ulceration which is destroying their organs of speech, or burrowing deep into the recesses of the skull, penetrating even to the brain itself! Even the bones become rotten; foul running sores appear on different portions of the body, and may even cover it entirely. Perhaps the nose, or the tongue, or the lips, or an eye, or some other prominent organ, is lost. Still the miser-

able sufferer lingers on, life serving only to prolong the torture. To many of them, death would be a grateful release, even with the fires of retributive justice before their eyes; for hell itself could scarcely be more awful punishment than that which they daily endure.

Thousands of Victims. — The venturesome youth need not attempt to calm his fears by thinking that these are only exceptional cases; for this is not the truth. In any city, one who has an experienced eye can scarcely walk a dozen blocks on busy streets without encountering the woeful effects of sexual transgression. Neither do these results come only from long-continued violations of the laws of chastity. The very first departure from virtue may occasion all the worst effects possible.

Effects of Vice Ineradicable. — Another fearful feature of this terrible disease is that when once it invades the system, its eradication is impossible. No drug, no chemical, can antidote its virulent poison, or drive it from the system. Various means may smother it, possibly for a lifetime; but yet it is not cured, and the patient is never safe from a new outbreak. Prof. Bumstead, an acknowledged authority on this subject, after observing the disease for many years, says that he "never, after treatment, however prolonged, promises immunity for the future."[13] Dr. Van Buren, professor of surgery at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, bears the same testimony. [13] "Venereal Disease."

Prof. Van Buren also says that he has often seen the disease occur upon the lips of young ladies who were entirely virtuous, but who were engaged to men who had contracted the disease, and had communicated it to

them in the act of kissing. Virtuous wives have not infrequently had their constitutions hopelessly ruined by contracting the disease from husbands who had themselves been inoculated either before or after marriage, by illicit intercourse. Several such unfortunate cases have fallen under our observation, and there is reason to believe that they are not infrequent.

The Only Hope. — The only hope for one who has contracted this disease is to lead a life of perfect continence ever after, and by a most careful life, by conforming strictly to the laws of health, by bathing and dieting, he may possibly avoid the horrid consequences of the later stages of the malady. Mercury will not cure it, nor will any other poison, as before remarked.

The following strong testimony on this subject we quote from an admirable pamphlet by Prof. Fred. H. Gerrish, M. D.: —

"The diseases dependent upon prostitution are appallingly frequent, a distinguished surgeon recently declaring that one person in twenty in the United States has syphilis, — a malady so ineradicable that a profound observer has remarked that `a man who is once thus poisoned, will die a syphilitic, and in the day of Judgment he will be a syphilitic ghost.' Prof. Gross says: `What is called scrofula, struma, or tuberculosis, is, I have long been satisfied from careful observation of the sick and a profound study of the literature of the subject, in a great majority of cases, if not invariably, merely syphilis in its more remote stages.' Though there are doubtless many of us who believe that a not inconsiderable proportion of scrofulous and phthisical cases are clearly due to other causes than syphilis, we must admit

that this statement contains a very large element of truth."

Hereditary Effects of Venereal Disease. — The transgressor is not the only sufferer. If he marries, his children, if they survive infancy, are likely, in later years, to show the effects of their father's sin, exhibiting the forms of the disease seen in its later stages. Scrofula, consumption, cancer, rickets, diseases of the brain and nerves, decay of the bones by caries or necrosis, and other diseases arise in this way.

But it generally happens that the child dies before birth, or lingers out a miserable existence of a few days or weeks thereafter. A most pitiable sight these little ones are. Their faces look as old as children of ten or twelve. Often their bodies become reduced before death to the most wretched skeletons. Their hollow, feeble cry sends a shudder of horror through the listener, and impresses indelibly the terrible consequences of sexual sin. Plenty of these scrawny infants may be seen in the lying-in hospitals.

No one can estimate how much of the excessive mortality of infants is owing to this cause.

In children who survive infancy, its blighting influence may be seen in the notched, deformed teeth, and other defects; and very often it will be found, upon looking into the mouth of the child, that the soft palate, and perhaps the hard palate as well, is in a state of ulceration. There is more than a suspicion that this disease may be transmitted for several generations, perhaps remaining latent during the lifetime of one, and appearing in all its virulence in the next.

Origin of the Foul Disease. — Where or when the

disease originated, is a mystery. It is said to have been introduced into France from Naples by French soldiers. That it originated spontaneously at some time can scarcely be doubted, and that it might originate under circumstances of excessive violation of the laws of chastity is rendered probable by the fact that gonorrhœa, or an infectious disease exactly resembling it, is often caused by excessive indulgence, from which cause it not infrequently occurs in the newly married, giving rise to unjust suspicion of infidelity on both sides.

Read the following from a noted French physician: —

"The father, as well as the mother, communicates the syphilitic virus to the children. These poor little beings are attacked sometimes at their birth; more often it is at the end of a month or two that these morbid symptoms appear.

"I recall the heart-rending anguish of a mother whom I assisted at her fifth confinement. She related to me her misfortune: `I have already brought into the world four children. Alas! they all died during the first months of their existence. A frightful eruption wasted them away, and killed them. Save me the one that is about to be born!' cried she, in tears. The child that I delivered was sickly and puny. A few days after its birth, it had purulent ophthalmia; then, crusted and ulcerated pustules, a few at first, numerous afterward, covered the entire surface of the skin. Soon this miserable little being became as meager as a skeleton, hideous to the sight, and died. Having questioned the husband, he acknowledged to me that he had had syphilis."[14] [14] Bourgeois.

Cure of the Social Evil. — With rare exceptions, the efforts of civil legislation have been directed toward controlling or modifying this vice, rather than extirpating it.

Among other devices adopted with a view to effect this, and to mitigate in some degree the resulting evils, the issuing of licenses for brothels has been practiced in several large cities. One of the conditions of the license makes it obligatory upon the keepers of houses of ill-repute and their inmates to submit to medical examination at stated intervals. By this means, it is expected to detect the cases of foul disease at the outset, and thus to protect others by placing the infected individuals under restraint and treatment. It will be seen that for many reasons such examinations could not be effective — but, even if they were, the propriety of this plan of dealing with the vice is exceedingly questionable, as will appear from the following considerations: —

1. The moment that prostitution is placed under the protection of law by means of a license, it at once loses half its disrepute, and becomes respectable, as do gambling and liquor-selling under the same circumstances.

2. Why should so vile a crime as fornication be taken under legal protection more than stealing or the lowest forms of gambling! Is it not a lesser crime against human nature to rob a man of his money by theft or by deceit and trickery, than to snatch from him at one fell swoop his health, his virtue, and his peace of mind? Why not as well have laws to regulate burglary and assassination, allowing the perpetrators of those crimes to ply their chosen avocations with impunity under certain prescribed restrictions, — if robbery, for instance, re-

quiring the thief to leave his victim money enough to make his escape to another country; or, if murder, directing the assassin to allow his intended victim time to repeat a sufficient number of Ave Marias to insure his safe transit through purgatory or to pay a priest for doing the same? Such a course would not be inconsistent with the policy which legalizes that infamous traffic in human souls, prostitution.

3. By the use of certain precautionary measures, the fears of many will be allayed, so that thousands whose fear of the consequences of sin would otherwise have kept them physically virtuous, at least, erroneously supposing that the cause for fear has been removed, will rush madly into a career of vice, and will learn only too late the folly of their course.

Prevention the Only Cure. — Those who have once entered upon a career of sensuality, are generally so completely lost to all sense of purity and right that there is little chance for reforming them. They have no principle to which to appeal{.} The gratification of lust so degrades the soul and benumbs the higher sensibilities that a votary of voluptuousness is a most unpromising subject for reformatory efforts. The old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is strikingly exemplified in this case. The remedy must be applied before the depths have been reached. It was well said by a celebrated physician to a young man beginning a life of vice, "You are entering upon a career from which you will never turn back."

Early Training. — The remedy, to be effective, must be applied early, the earlier the better. Lessons on chastity may be given in early infancy. The remedy

may be applied even farther back than this; children must be virtuously generated.

Children should be early taught to reverence virtue, to abhor lust; and boys should be so trained that they will associate with the name of woman only pure, chaste, and noble thoughts. Few things are more deeply injurious to the character of woman, and more conducive to the production of foul imaginations in children, than the free discussion of such subjects as the latest scandal and like topics. The inquisitive minds and lively imaginations of childhood penetrate the rotten mysteries of such foul subjects at a much earlier age than many persons imagine. The inquiring minds of children will be occupied in some way, and it is of the utmost importance that they should be early filled with thoughts that will lead them to noble and pure actions.

The White Cross Army. — This is the name of an association first organized in England in 1883 by the Bishop of Durham, Rt. Rev. J. B. Lightfoot, D. D., well known through his excellent commentaries on the New Testament. The Y. M. C. A. of New York has recently undertaken to effect an organization of the same sort in this country. The object of the association is thus stated in its constitution: "The object of this Army shall be the promotion of purity among young men, the elevation of public opinion regarding the question of personal purity, and the maintenance of the same standard for men and women."

All who join the organization are required to sign the following pledge: —

"I promise by the help of God —

"1. To treat all women with respect, and endeavor to protect them from wrong and degradation.

"2. To endeavor to put down all indecent language and coarse jests.

"3. To maintain the law of purity as equally binding upon men and women.

"4. To endeavor to spread these principles among my companions, and to try to help my younger brothers.

"5. To use every possible means to fulfill the command, `Keep THYSELF pure.' "

At a meeting held for the purpose of organizing this association in the city of New York, March, 1885, remarks were made by the Rev. Dr. B. F. DeCosta, elucidating the objects of the organization as follows: —

"If a woman sins, you know what becomes of her. Is there any place for her except the street? If a man sins, where does he find his place? Does he not find it in the highest society and the best and purest homes, while the miserable victim of his lust is trodden underfoot? What are you going to do about that, young men? Are you going to tolerate a double standard! If there be manhood among you, I call upon you to treat woman as you would be treated yourself. If a woman falls, she falls forever. Her own sex disown her, and reduce her to despair. Though she reform, and rise to a true and pure life, — become as pure as Mary Magdalene, aye, as chaste as the icicles upon the temple of Diana, her own sex refuse to receive her, and scarce allow her to come into their kitchens to scrub the floor. Now I say to you, young men, be pure on account of her. Whom do I mean? Mother? Sister? Yes, and another. Sometime there will be one whom you will regard with the tenderest love and affection as the personification of purity, beauty, and truth. You may not

have found her yet, but you will find her. What do you desire her to think of you? If she loves you truly, you know she will consider you the epitome of goodness, honor, and truth. Will you not so live that when the time comes, you may go to her with a clean and pure heart, so that she may know that you are all her fancy paints you? God forbid that you should go to her and tell her a lie under whose cloud you must live for a lifetime."

Branch associations of this organization should be formed in every town and city and village in the United States. Those who wish further information concerning it, should address the Young Men's Christian Association 23d St. & Fourth Ave., N. Y City.

Teach Self-Control. — One important part of early training is the cultivation of self-control, and a habit of self-denial, whenever right demands it. Another most essential part of a child's moral training is the cultivation of right motives. To present a child no higher motives for doing right than the hope of securing some pleasant reward, or the fear of suffering some terrible punishment, is the surest way to make of him a supremely selfish man, with no higher aim than to secure good to himself, no matter what may become of other people. And if he can convince himself that the pleasure he will secure by the commission of a certain act will more than counter-balance the probable risk of suffering, he will not hesitate to commit it, leaving wholly out of consideration the question, Is it right, or noble, or pure? A love of right for its own sake is the only solid basis upon which to build a moral character. Children should not be taught to do right in order to avoid a whipping, or

imprisonment in a dark closet, — a horrid kind of punishment sometimes resorted to, — or even to escape "the lake of fire and brimstone." Neither should they be constantly coaxed to right doing by promised rewards, — a new toy, a book, an excursion, or even the pleasures of a future life. All these incentives are selfish, and invariably narrow the character and belittle life when made the chief motives of action. But rather begin at the earliest possible moment to instill into the mind a love for right, and truth, and purity, and virtue, and an abhorrence for their contraries; then will he have a worthy principle by which to square his life; then will he be safe from the assaults of passion, of vice, of lust. A mind so trained stands upon an eminence from which all evil men and devils combined cannot displace it, so long as it adheres to its noble principles.

Mental Culture. — The cultivation of the physical organization must not be neglected. Healthful mental discipline should receive equal attention. By healthful mental discipline is not meant that kind of superficial "cramming" and memorizing which constitute the training of the average school, but sound culture; a directing of the mind from facts to underlying principles; a development of the reasoning powers so as to bring the emotions and passions into subjection; the acquirement of the power to concentrate the mind, one of the best methods of cultivating self-control, — these are some of the objects and results of sound culture of the mind.

To supply the mind with food for pure thoughts, the child should bc early inspired with a love for nature. The perceptives should be trained, the child taught to observe closely and accurately. The study of the natural sci-

ences is a most valuable means of elevating the mind above grossness and sensuality. To be successful in this direction, parents must cultivate a love for the same objects themselves. Take the little ones into the country, if they are not so fortunate as to live there, and in the midst of nature's glories, point their impressible minds upward to the Author of all the surrounding loveliness. Gather flowers and leaves, and call attention to the peculiarities and special beauties of each, and thus arouse curiosity and cultivate habits of close observation and attention.

Early Associations. — As children grow older, watch their associations. Warn them of evil influences and evil practices. Make home so attractive that they will enjoy it better than any other place. Cultivate music; its mellowing, harmonizing, refining influence is too great to be prudently withheld. Children naturally love music; and if they cannot hear it at home, they will go where they can hear it. Supply attractive books of natural history, travels, interesting and instructive biographies, and almost any other books but love-sick novels, and sentimental religious story-books. Guard against bad books and bad associates as carefully as though they were deadly serpents; for they are, indeed, the artful emissaries of the "old serpent" himself. A taste once formed for reading light literature destroys the relish for solid reading; and usually the taste, once lost, is never regained. The fascination of bad companionship once formed around a person, is broken with the greatest difficulty. Hence the necessity of watching for the very beginnings of evil, and promptly checking them.

The mind should be thus fortified against the triffles

and follies of fashionable life. It should be elevated into a sphere far above that occupied by those who pass their time in fashionable drawing-rooms in silly twaddle, with thrumming a piano, with listless day-dreaming, or in the gratification of perverted tastes and depraved instincts in any other of the ways common to fashionable life.