Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1864-06-03
THE SOURCES OF CRHmR.

bic results Of licentiousncss.
"Gould relates the story Of "A fallen woman
whom he encountered in one of our pcniten-
tiary hospitals, which cast terrible light
upon the tendency Of Righteousness to pro-
duce crime. She had been a woman of cx-
qusite beauty and elegant culture Her "a
ther, wealthy merchant of New York, failed
in business, and gave up everything to his
creditors. She was reduced to the necessity
of learning the trade Of dressnaker, to
earn her daily bread. She became prof.
cient in the business, and her taste and skill
commanded liberal wages, which enabled her
to provide an ample wardrobe for herself
She Ind been intensely devoted to the glitter
and gaiety Of fashionable life, and hope,
which springs eternal in the human breast
whispered that fortunate marriage might
restore her to the charmed circles whose de-
lights she had once tasted, and which sho
lonsed to re.enter. She used every effort, by
the charms of person, dress, voice and man
ners, to attract the notice and win the love Of
eligible young men. At length she thought
she had succeeded in her object; but the
young man, whose affections she dreamed
she had won, proved TO be cold. hearted vii
lain, who was in pursuit only Of amusement
and qualification for the passing hour. One
evening he invited her to ride. Driving into
the country. he alighted at house Of re-.
freshmcnt in the neighborhood of that city.
He offered her a glass Of wine, which she
drank. The liquor had been drugged. A
profound stupor ensucd. and she awoke tho
following morning to find herself ruined
With returning consciousness, the magnitude
Of the injury burst upon her. She instantly
resolved on revenge, and the plan for lis &C.
compIishment flashed upon her mind with
the suddenness and rapdity of lightning.--
She betrayed no emotion. She uttered no
reproaches. She treated what had happened
as harmless jest, and blandly invited con.
tinuance of the intimacy. The young man
exulted in the ease and completeness Of his
victory; but from that moment she became
the evil genius OF his life. Pretending the
tendcrest and most unseliish affection, she
drew money from him continually, with
which she hired sharpcrs to furnish him with
provocatives to drinking, gambling and all
the forms Of vice aud debauchery. At every
rally of his better nature, by skillful altcrna.
ton of persuasion, banter and menace, sho
choked the rising impulse Of virtue, chained
him to the car of dissipation, and confirmed
him in his career OF vice. Full well did she
know whittier all this would lead him; nor
was she disappointed in her malignant ex-
pectaton. Drunkenness clouded his under
standing; debauchery ruined his health; and
gambling reduced him to poverty. Not until
this point--the goal of all her prayers and
eflorts-had been reached, when poverty and
disease had done their work, and he was un-
able to procure wrctched bed or scanty
meal, except through her charity, did she
wreak upon him the fun measure of her ven-
geance. Then il was her daily delight to
visit him, to lead him with reproaches, and
to reveal to him, in bitter exultation, tho
whole scheme so cunningly devised and so
steadily pursued, by which she had wrought
his ruin. And when the closing scene drew
near, she sat by his bedside, and mingled
her execratlons with the shrieks extorted by
mis- dying agonies. Nor was her vengeance
yet satisfied. Her warfare was against the
whole sex, whom she regarded as accursed
and her insntiate revenge cried out for stih
other victims. Whenever she could fastcn
her fangs on young man of gcnteel family,
whose uncloudcd prospects foretokenei
brilliant career, she never relaxed her hold.
She studied, with keenness sharpened by ex-
pcricnce, every point in his chaIacter-his
tastes, his passions, his hopes, his fears, and
whatever attracted and whatever repelled
MN ana lhen with an almost unerring sa-
gacity, adapting the means to the end, she
seldom failed in her dcmoniac purpose. She
claimed in this manner to have hunted down
thirty two young men, involved them in dis
grace, crime and rum. Some Of them ended
their days in prison, and others, hopelessly
fallen, were on the road to the drunkard's
and tel"n's grave. When asked whether oil
her sisters in infamy felt the same hatred to
mankind, she replied that she thought the
feeling to be general, if not universal among
them; adding that, when a woman had onco
fallen. she desired to revenge herself, not on
y on her scduccr, but on all his sex that
no game was followed with a greater relish
than that involving all who came within her
tolls in crime and its consequent punishment;
that the most Of them could ntmber at least
two or three victims whom they had ruined.
and that many of these victims went to tho
length Of the actual commission Of crime"