Philanthropic Suggestions.

A moment's reflection will convince you that if such amendments of the law as I have suggested are carried into effect, and if we establish the Woman's Protection Council, there will be a very material decrease of the burden thrown upon private philanthropy in connection with the sexual life. And so there ought to be. Law should first do what is in its power, then philanthropy and charity should step in and complete the good work. It cannot be the divine and proper order that some men should be at full liberty to seduce girls, to bring into existence illegitimate progeny and propagate disease, and that another set of persons should give means and labor to abate the misery produced by the vile children of lust. Let law do her duty, and then charity will easily overtake her part; but as things are, law shirks her share of the weight, and the back of Christian charity is nearly broken. When gentlemen go to gaol for seducing girls under seventeen, and masters go to gaol for seducing female employés under twenty one, when the man who brags of many female conquests will be at liberty to sing pœems of victory in Dry Creek; when the father of illegitimate children will have full parental responsibility, when all women who have been seduced by fraud and false pretence are enabled to sustain actions for substantial damages, by themselves or their guardians—seduction will be found too expensive a luxury for most; illegitimate babies will be costly to their papas, and some will decline to be papas under the circumstances. When men and women legally proved to have venereal go to prison hospitals till cured, diseased men and women will not show the cruel and brutal activity in spreading disease which they do at present.

But the glorious final earthly perfection of man is not yet for many a day, and, suppose the amended laws at work, there would still be seduced girls, and girls who cannot prove paternity, and there will be girls who will not wait to be seduced, but will seduce men. Philanthropy should so provide for these that they may not be driven to prostitution, on the other hand, nor so as to relieve from all stigma of shame and of expense. I believe that wise laws would so minimise this, that the cases which occurred could and would be dealt with chiefly by private and individual, as distinguished from public philanthropic effort.

I would have no reception of foundlings on the sly. I should be ready in certain cases to accept infants from the page 14 mothers, on condition of proving paternity. But I believe that the need of this would practically pass away with righteous laws, etc.

No. I.—Adequate Maintenance of Female Refuges.—There are some in some places—Homes or Asylums—to which a girl wearied with the life of the prostitute may go, where they are kindly cared for, and from which, after a time, they are restored to some useful position in society. But these homes are not adequately supported. I read lately of a young girl who wished to alter her life, who sat for 24 hours on the door step of a Magdalene Asylum, and could not gain admission, as they were already over-crowded. My reading shows me that much more money is required, and, also, that the great multitude of fornicating men have not enough manhood in them to subscribe sixpence to support these Christ-like institutions which rescue the victims of male lust. Philanthropy must support the Refuges better, so that whosoever of the frail sisterhood will may escape the streets; this, in conjunction with the laws suggested, and administered as suggested, would soon minimise the number of our lost women.

No. II.—Educate the public mind upon the whole question. Make it to be felt that without enormous improvement in our several relations as a whole, there cannot be any true progress of our race, and that by the purification and more wise and holy use of these relations on the part of the whole community, more health, wealth, and happiness may be obtained for all. Let it be understood that the sexual power is a public trust, and that it is the sum of wickedness to violate a trust so vital to the well-being of us all. Let us make the public realize the fact of hereditary transmission, as laid down in the Bible, and just beginning to be understood by modera scientists, and as it is to be hoped, it will some day be understood by the directors of our systems of education. Let the public learn to feel that it is shameful for confirmed consumpts to have children, and learn to feel, in the language of Burns, that he is

A wretch ! a villain ! lost to love and truth !
That can with studied, sly, ensnaring art
Betray sweet Jenny's unsuspecting youth !
Curse on his perjured arts.

This can only be done by books, by meetings, conferences, and sermons. I take this opportunity of recommending to all interested in this great subject a work written in the purest spirit, and which will do much to educate the mind aright. It is The Sentinel, a monthly journal devoted to the exposition and advancement of public morality and the suppression of vice. It is published by Dyer Brothers, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, England; price, one penny a month, to be had of all booksellers.

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Gentlemen let us influence opinion, let us drive home upon the hearts and consciences of the people, the shame, the sin, and suffering of the Social Evil, and seducers and frequenters of brothels will soon find themselves driven out of society and will have to consort with black-legs, whoso natural companions they are. Logan, in his work on Prostitution, well says, "Place the supporters and frequenters of brothels on the same level with the fallen women in society." Society should place the frequenters of brothels on the same footing in society with the prostitutes; why not shun the seducer as well as the seduced? why show less sympathy to the weaker than to the stronger vessel? The Sacred Record represents the strange woman's house as "the way to hell," but whoremongers shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. Conversing with a clergyman one day about lapsed woman, he said sharply, "If one of these girls was to accost me I would knock her down." I asked "Would you knock down a male supporter of such characters if one of them accosted you on the street?" The clergyman would give no satisfactory answer. Here is the base hypocrisy and the cruel injustice of society; it visits the woman with its atmost ban, and smiles a vile smile of toleration at her companion, and, generally, her inducer to sin.

But, gentlemen, the policy I have just put before you to night, if carried out, will administer a moral tonic to society and cause society to change its way to an enormous extent.

Society fears not God, nor does it regard the gravest and holiest interests of mankind. A ball, a race, an opera, are more to society than the shame that comes to the poor man's home, and the anguish and the broken heart through the seduction of his daughter. "What is it to society that the illegitimate children of the wealthy man grow up in public asylums with the stain o£ bastardy upon them!

But, my sweet friends, there is one thing society fears, more than a holy saint fears God—society in all its members fears Mrs. Grundy. This is the question of questions—What will Mrs. Grundy say? Put seducers of young girls under seventeen into gaol. Put the man who has seduced more than two girls of any age into gaol, if it is only for one little week. Send diseased men to prison hospitals to keep fit and proper company with the diseased women. Let law arise, let her do her duty, let her brand the dissolute rakes who curse the community, and then society will find male fornicators and seducers to be very vulgar, and the drawing and the ball-room doors will be shut in their faces. And so when law has educated society, society, with that tremendous authority which it exerts on the upper classes, will come to the help of law and justice, and forbid seduction and fornications and will forbid the Contagious Disease. Society now allows a man reeking with disease to dance in the close page 16 embrace of the waltz with the fair; flowers of the land. Send a man three months to a prison hospital, and, though he be cured of the disease, society will allow him no fair and pure companion for the waltz.

No. III.—Parents and guardians of youth should take means of a wise kind for instructing persons with respect to their sexual nature.

There is much grievous and wicked reticence by guardians of youth about this subject. If instruction on any matter is required, it is on this. Then there arises the question, how to do it? Now, the friends of the Social Purity movement have considered this, and there are works of pure tendency written so that at a suitable age a father may take one of them and give to his son, or a mother take another and give to her daughter, there being separate works for each sex. In these works, as I have read, all necessary knowledge is given, and youth are warned against all the forms of vice.

I think, too, that aged and wise ministers might now and then invite young men for a talk, and wise and intelligent matrons might do the same with girls.

Then, too, parents should show much more sense than they do in the diet they give young people. If you want to rouse the passions of young people give them plenty of pepper and hot condiments, accustom "them, also, to wine and beer; but if you want them to keep their bodies in subjection, and to possess their vessels in honor, avoid condiments, avoid stimulants in the diet of your young people. "When you choose amusements remember that the waltz, the polka, and all the dances of close embrace, when carried on in hot rooms, and under the stimulus of music and of wine, have wonderful power to arouse sexual desire, as all seducers of women—the miserable crew who boast of conquests—very well know. I knew a company of men, who had good positions in society, who instituted select dancing twice weekly for the express end of seducing as many girls as possible. They happened to think a friend of mine as vile as themselves, and asked him to join the company. He used a little deceit—which I do not excuse—but he warned a few girls, and they found that seduction was the thing meant, and they told the matter to their mothers, the mothers to the brothers. There was a row, and the demoniac game of the respectable men came to an end.