Clarksville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1865-1867, 1866-11-09
"rhc New Trade"

from the Pniladelphia Age. II relates to
subject which cannot be discussed withou
pain and repugnance, but which it would b
mawkish TO pass without. comment. Tn
statistics of the country show direct ant
remarkable ratio between Puritanism an,
prostitution. Hawthorue's powerful bu
morbid story Of the. 'Scarlet Letter. which
only New Englander could have written
Is not without its bearing upon this singular
fact; for it illustrates with the vividness Of
genius, the strange operation of false AMI
unnatural religious teachings and practice,
upon the moral constitution and the phys.
ical temperament. Thus it is that the New
England States, while crucifying the rest o
the land by the enforcement of their ''ideas,
and wearying the world with the perpetua
proclamation of their piety and virtue, /af.
ford practical demonstration of what it al
amounts to by contributing to the stews and
brothels, North aud South, larger proper.
ton Of their wretched inmates than any
other section. Not only that, but it is noto
rious that, under sort of Monroe doctrine
Of their own, they assert supremacy in
harlotry even in the West Indies and the
"Sister Republics of South America. The
recent tragedy to which the Age refers is,
therefore, full of dark moral, and the able
writer of the article below has pointed il
with pathos, severity and truth:
"The organs Of Northern loyalty have re.
Gently entertained their readers with narra-
tiees more or less in detail of the frightful
shipwreck of the Evening Star. 1t was tru.
iy narrowing tale, but there was one COM
ment which none of them, in their haste
to sympathize, made. What was the chief
freight which this Northern ship was carry.
ing tothe South? What the cargo which
New York was sending to New Orleans p
What sort of average would there have been
if some of the living load had been thrown
overheard to save the rest? Were the prof
its on the adventure insured by Yankee or
New York underwriters7 1t was literally
freight of infamy. A notorious bawd, with
forty or fifty prostitutes, was on board the
wretched ship, and they perished together.
This is the plain English of the story
Now, of these poor womanly creatures who,
in the hour of terror and agony, behaved
bravely, we have not word of unkindness
TO say. In truth, there is something touch
ing and picturesque in the farewells in New
York harbor to their companions, in the su-
perstiiious fantasies as to dreams and all
sorts Of omens, and their assimilation in the
course Of the voyage to those who were pu-
rer than themselves and who perished with
them. Still, it was freight of pollution,
shipped by the phlanthropic, triumphant
and vrtuous North, to the degraded, subju-
gated, unholy South. Now, let us suppose
for moment different course of this sort
of trade. That steamer should be dis.
patched from New Orleans to New York, or
Boston, or Philadelphia, loaded with quad
rooms or octoroons pulled from the pavements
or bals nldsques Of the Crescent City-what
would be said of it or them? Such are
the enormities of Southern society," Such
are the representative women of the South
Such are the fruits Of that wretched stae
of society which ripened and bore fruit in re
bellion against the best Government-as lat
terly, in its benefcence, il has proved itself
to be--the world has ever seen.' How
dare, would the cry have been from every
New England pulpit, echoed, too, mildly
from phia-'how dare those South
ern merchants send to us the refuse or the
choice of their stewsT what infamy it is
for Southern ships to carry, and Southern
sailors TO pilot, such cargoes Of crime r
And had the vessel, thus ireigh ted, perished
in some Northern surge of Sandy Hook or
with her prov turned to New
York or Boston, and had poor, wretched
strumpets gone to their last account
would not every Abolition sheet have been
filled and every Abolition church resounded
with invectives at the audacity which such
a commercial adventure illustratedA p 1t
seems, in its reality, an awful development
of the spirit of our times. There is but one
thing which accounts for il or makes II rat |
ura. New Orleans, to which market
this shipment was made, has since 1862 been
in the possession Of New England adyentu-
rers. Butler was there, first; and, in his
celebrated general orders, showed miliarity |
with the habits of the pare and the calling
which there was Piled Banks, another
Of Massachusetts, morality, |
succeeded--and every one knows what
reign Of low debauchery was inaugurated. !
John Covode was there, sitting in the dark |
shadow Of the st. Charles, listening to the
of Confederate gentlemen, and
the flow and refcw of shameless |
ness on the sidewalks. But, after time and
the return of what is called peace, the mar
ket or rather the supply of this sort of thing
was exhausted. Perhaps, TOO, there was
nTAIl0r tIaa arf Of tI...
men, however degraded, to Northern assoc |
alton which could not be evercome-and |
hence it became necessary TO have new |
importation. II is not the first feminine ex-
port the North and East have made. A few
years ago we read Of a cargo Of Yankee wo-
men being sent to California and Oregon
md a manageable market Fathers and
mothers, without pang, shipped off their
daughters, utterly careless of their doom, |
and restless maidens were ready to go and
exchange the dismal celibacy of factory
ite at home for the cratic chances a6road.-l
And they did go, and they arrived safely,
md are scattered somewhere on the fringes
VI the West. Not so, alas these poor un-
ortunates who were sent not from pure
ZONES and fires'des-but from haunts where
,urity never dwells-in the Northern Even
ng Star. The wild hurricane off Tybee
which swallowed them up in one vast and
grave was hardly wild enough
o drown the shrick which, in agony, went
Up TO Heaven and seemed to say: what
motive Of greed could have tempted this ex.
'eriment; why were we torn from our homes
uch as they were, to die at sea, and why
hould we poor wretched women be made
he victims of the mercenary spirit which
axes wages and makes profits out of any in
quity?"
DEATH oF MAJ. W. LowE,-It is our pain
ul duty to announce the death of Mai. L