The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-07-12

married Henriettc.
EEst Remarks OH a1 Important
Subject.
"Ihe remarks which from time to time we
have had occasion to make on the Social Evil
have elected from some Of our correspondents
a request that, while the softer sex are not
spared in ourexposure of this vice the other
parties to the crime should not 60 free from
the condemnation that belongs to them
"Our Sylnpathies,' they say, ARE appealed to
on behalf Of the unfortunate females who in.
fest our streets after dusk. They need it,
indeed; but this is only half the work. Let
society be so educated that it will scorn, de-
test, and exclude the wretch who has seduc-
ed, betrayed and abandoned weak woman
Happy indeed will the change be that shall
pass on society when it shall practically con-
cur in this view of the question But
this consideration is suggestive of some rehec-
tons
1T would appear to be vain expectation
that society in general will ever regard the
guilt ofwhich we speak as equally shared by
both sexes. Nor can it be denied that there
is at least some plausible foundation for thus
discriminating. Regarded in its purely alb
stract character, the sin must be considered
the same in the offending parties. But ob
ViOus as this fact may be, there is no myste-
ry in the other fact, that femlle dereliction
has always b 'en more severely condemned
And the reason appears to be this, that mo-
desty, though binding on each sex, is more
emphaticaly the beauty and glory of the
woman. Itis that il, which her whole char
acter more completely merges; so that the
loss oft, If not in itself more criminal, argues
alnore peryerse rebellion against those prin-
cples which nature sgave her as her orna-
ment and her brightest dowry Nothing
is more obvious than that certain license of
cOnversatiOn-He use the term in no bad
sense-universally allowed to the male,
would be deemed utterlyincompatible with
the sober graces Of the female character,
though in point ola rigid morality no more
offensive in the one place than the other
The very position, therefore, OF the female
seems to involve this consequence, that her
fall from virtue brings with 1t a heavier re-
! tribution.
But let all this be granted; does it follow
that society is guiltless in drawing so eoide
distinction between the two? Here is the
error of which we are reminded and it is an
error which, viewed under its mildest aspect
must he denounced as shame and worst of
all, we may look upon the higher classes of
! English society as most indulgent to this
wickedness. They seem to have lost. all
sense Of this moral turpitude. Imagine a
young gentleman proposing for the hand
of the daughter of some proud and
wealthy aristocrat. There is but too much
reason to say that, in the majority of cases,
where flaw in his pedigree, or deficiency
in his fortune, would at once be fatal to the
projected alliance, the knowledge that his L.
centous habits had blasted the peace of more
than one innocent family, would be no bar
rier whatever to his hopes. 1t is an
indisputabe fact that in no sense does per-
son lose caste in the higher circles; nay,
that with many he would positively stand
on better footing, as a smart fellow of the
world
"But what arevelation Of human depravi-
ty have we in such fact as this What a
calm and contemptuous ignoring Of every
essentially moral principle, every sound
and scriptural idea of good and evil, that
a man who has deliberately brought shame
and ruin toa heretofore respectable and hap
py house hold, should 60 at large without a
brand upon his forehead, or the suffering oi
any damage to his position in life ! The
victim OF his wickedness may hare become
an outcast from home, friends, and kindred,
may have plunged into systematic and
shameless vice as desperate refuge frcm
starvation, or gone in frenzied misery to the
grave OF suicide; while he, the cold blood,
ed author Of all this moral and social wreck,
is Just as honorable and respectable as ever
Such is the code ofSociety, as compared with
the code of Christianity - Record