Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-11-29

ITS EXTENT, CAUSES, AND EFFECTS THROUGHOUT
TIE WORLD. By WILLIAM W. SAWYER, M.
u, Resident Physician Blackwell's Island,
DC. NeD York' Harper Dc Brothers, 1885,
PIP. 6s5.
Since we read ''Burton's Anatomy of MeIan-
choly," and that Is long ago, we have had no
book of SO intensely painful interest in our hands
as this one For while its details are dismal rs
the horrors of hell" the book attracts, if for
no other reason than that we know there is a
reaIity-a terribeness of truth in all these de-.
tails and hcll-horrors. We know that we are
meeting at every corner of the streets the actors
in this tragedy, which will this night be again
performed, and whose fifth act shall be as it has
been and shall continue for ever more to be,
Death and Destruction and the vengeance of
eternal hre. Why do we read of the battles of.
Austerlitz, or Wagram, or Waterloo Why go
to witness the panoramic carnage of Inkerman
and the Alma? 1t is blood-bIood-bl that
fascinates us Blood-shed almost always creates
an appetite and an interest among the public.
lhat blood is the life of man, and wheresoever
lt is shed 1T crieth to man, ifnot for vengeance
at least for sympathy and tears. The book be-
fore US gives the geography of "field of blood,n
which was purchased with tthe wages of inuui-
ty, and such a field as the bullets and bayonets
OF contending armies never left behind them.
We take the whole area of the United States,
which is 1885, 166 square miles, aud the adult
male population, which is reckoned at c, $40 OOO
/
every htty-two men, making an array of 81, ,29S
against the whole adult male population! 1t is
calculated that If these unfortunate women were
walking in continuous line, thirty-six inches
from each other, they would make column
nearly thirty-6ye miles longl
"Frailty, thy name is woman" said u poet
but there is more than poets dream in this
thlrty.hVe mile column. Every woman feels
herself as leading tho forlorn hope against the
interests of the community that has cast her out,
and, like desperado, she has nailed her colors
to the mast-knowing it is death in the end at
best The steps of every one of them take hold
ON death, and the way to their houses is the way
to He'll! What havoc this column is commit
ting IN revenge for broken promises, vile con-
spiracies, traps and gins by progresses, paid by
gentlemen of high estate-revenge for the drugs
and villainOus cOmpounds-revenge against
Gods Providence itself Who knows how
many fall under this impetuous, ever-sustained
passionate assault? There is no roll Of the dead
the worse than dead, and yet who are still
alive-who have fallen, and are falling now un-
der the tremendous assaults of this rank and
file of furies
'aeil ha:hno fuzzy Ike woman scoraed."
And here are thirty five miles long of furieg, ra-
glng and roaring night and day; every hair on
their head is scorpion; and every limb of their
body is n demon They have enlisted IN a SER
vice Of despair, and they marcu 10 t,le rnuso Of
damnatiOn, shrieking, as they stand by the
brink of perdition-"Hail, horrors, hail and
thou profoundeSt hell, receive thy new posses
sors!" We ask what death is being dealt
by such column, composed of such dread
fiends3 Alas! too many households could tell
Of some who fell victims to this vengeance and
despair. But silence rests fitly over their dis
honored tomb.
1t may we'll be asked is this state of carnage
to go on forever? Are there no means9 No,
it would seem none, so far as human wisdom
can foresee. Moneyson the one hand andI no
money on the other, are the main recruiters of
the ranks of prostitution. There are heartlesS
brutes who will traffic in young girls as they do
in favorfte dogs OF railway shares, and there are
vile pimps that supply the market, while, on the
other hand, there is beauty, youth and poverty
yea, even innocence and virtue-all to fall
before some Infamous combination-a combIna-
ton of such circumstances as filthy rags on the
one side, and gorgeous robes on the othe-utter,
absolute starvation here, and tables grooming
with venison and wine, there, and SO forth. No
insignificant corroboration of this is furnished
| by the appalling statement made by a compe-
tent authority at public meeting in New York,
during the continuance Of the financial crisis
the statement was that one thousand virtuous
girls were becoming prostitutes in that city ev-
cry week through fear of death by hunger l.
We cannot give extracts from this book. We
thought Il our duty to apprise the public of its
issue. We cannot join in the cenSurc of Messrs.
Harper & Brothers for publishing such volume.
We think they did right, and we are as much
bound up in the welfare of society as most of
the censors of the press. This prostitution is
an enormity. Let US look at it in all its naked
hideousness. Let us throw broader shield
than ever over helpless young women, and let
us go forth to seek and save the lost. If VIC
could, as sequel to these remarks, render our
appeal for the weaker sex more powerful than
ordinary, we would not cease to write for many
a page Let US think of the sentiment and sing
in soul and spirit-Hood's "sOng of the Shirt
and his "Bridge of Sighs'-and though We meet
zone more unfortunate after her rush to death
into the EAST flowing river'-tjtough dead, let
us "loop up her tresses" and
'Taie her uD tenIerly,
SLIT ner.W'th care.
| tPasnioued slenderly
4 NtYoung and SO fairn
Let us try the sympathy of the "son of Mary
on erring frailty-let US feel for those who have
past that minute when all the worst of sorrows
elements burst and broke over their soul, and
with one crash of Fate laid the whole hope of
their life desolate!
/ sob! grief beyond all other grief, when fate
F:rss leaves tue Young bearl, lone and desolate,
p jInth Cid With baEo on1v lie