Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1867-08-01
THE SOCIAL ETH.


The Plague SPOT Of Modern CIriliza-
tion-7hc Crimes and F0liies of
Womea-Yhe Slaughter Of the In
nOcents-FeD,ole Education, etc.,
etc
EDITOR NJ c. REPUBLICAN:
Whoever reads the daily papers cannot
but have noticed the discussion nsw goiEg
on under the head of THE SOCIAL EVIL"
Whether the world is any worse than for
merly, or whether this is an Indication of
coming reformation each reader can Judge
for himself. Certain it is that the press
overflows with the records OF libertinism
and prostitution, rsres and seductions, in
tsrspersed with murder and attempts on
human life arising from these causes. This
phase of crime has its statistics, and IL 10
somewhat startling to meet the cold, hard
facts that in all our cities the number of
women who follow life Of open prostiiu
ton, together with kept mistresses and
wives who meet male friends by appoint
ment at other places than their own homes,
must be computed by thousands. Indeed,
certain quarters ofour commercial centers
are tacitly set apart for the habtations of
those who ply this disgusting avocation
openly, where they carry on their business
with all safety. except when complaints
that cannot be overlooked are made to the
authorities. Chicago, perhaps, has ten
thousand of these creatures, who have
given to Wells and neighboring streets a
notoriety only equaled by the Five Points
of New York. The latter city has perhaps
larger proportion, and in both it is not
much out of the way to place majority of
the romcR one meets on the streets in the
category of vice.
The cure of this monstrous evil has here
tofore been confided to the Doctors of Di-
vinity and the Doctors of Medicine, and it
may be that it is better to leave it there.
But now that the matter has got into the
papers 1t can be no harm for us to present
some Of the different views of those who
have made it a subject OF thought.
THE BErRAYER AND BETRAYED, &c.
1t is natural feeling among the male
sex to give their sympathics to the female
whom We are prone to REGARD as having
beer deceived By the sophistties. overcome
by the opportunities, and finally seduced
under promise of speedy marriage Courts
and juries are ever ready to infict upon
the seducer the heaviest damages and pun
ishments, and yet society completely re
verses this state OF things in its treatment
of the Two. The woman steps out of the
Court room, where her tale of woe has ex
cited 50 much sympathy and even tears.
to meet the cold, stony gaze and Implying
scorn of her sisters. The companions Of
her innocent days avoid her As contsgion,
and the lewd glances of the other sex tell
her all too plain that there is no avaiing
repentance for her. On the other hand,
virtuous women open their best parlors to
receive the seducer and wake the midnight
echoes by clawing the ivory and bowling
for his amusement, and husbands and IA
theirs invite him to their homes and wei
come him at their fircsiles.
Under such treatment no wonder that
virtue is sickly plant, and vice the vigor
Gus tree that is overshadowing the land.
TIE SLAUGHTER OF TIE 1SNocRSTs.
Closely allied to tho social Evil and
differing only by being far the more helm
ious crime of the two, is practice fearful
ly prevalent among American women Of
destroying .feotdi life. 1t is hard to deal
with this subject with any degree of pa
tience Its atrocity is far greater than the
most barbarons practices of savages, and
It's universally makes us trem,le for the
future of our race and of our Protestant
religion. We send Bibles to the pagan
mother who through religious fanaticism
offers up her babe to the remorseless God
of tho Gauges, but greater stain is on our
own door posts, and crime which it is
impossible to conceive of any thing more
revolving. being totally without excuse or
palliation, is VIGOROUSLY practised by pro
iessing Christians who fondly suppose
themselves on the high road to Heaven.
We are 10th TO use such terms, and II is
only by degrees that we have been brought
to feel that longer silence in the presence
of this hideous wrong involves us in its
guilt. II is with burning check that we
confess that they are of our own people
and tongue to whom these words apply.
Something must be done and quickly to
avert an evil that is sapping the very fOun-
dat;ons OF society and religion; that is fill
ing Heaven with spirits who never saw the
light OF earth and populating he'll in an
enormous ratio. Virtuons Boston and
wicked New York, quiet Plymouth and
noisy Chicago, each and all are partici-
pants in this most shocking barbarity, for
which the tongue Of man has no term of
reproach sufficient to characterize.
Practised in the most virtuous homes,
the boast in fact of the most respectable
women, aided by the medical profession,
il is, notwithstanding. more horrible than
murder itself, while it il shielded by the
difficulty of proving 1t, from the punish
ment of the law. This practice places
such women in the forefront of criminals
and has made our land more deserving
of the wrath of Heaven than were the cit
les Of the plain.
FEMALE EDUCATION.