Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1867-08-01


We have admitted into our columns, from
time to time, series OF communications on
the Social Evil, as it is called. They have
been couched in decorous language, and have
been written with an undoubted good pur-
pose. Hence we have not deemed it neces-
sary to exclude them. If anybody has any
| remedy to provide for the Social Evil, he or
she will surely be welcome. AS it is evident
that considerable interest has been raised by
the discussion among the better class of the
community, we deem it not inappropriate to
add a few comments of our own.
1T is mistake to suppose that the Social
Evil is still increasing, and threatening to
overwhelm religion and public morals. 1t
is susceptible of proof-of mathematical and
statistical proof-that society is far purer to-
day than it was two hundred, or two thou
sand years ago. The history and literature
of the ancient world, to say nothing of the
inscriptions and designs found on their ruin
ed temples and public and private editices,
show state of morals that would appal the
Jurdin Mabille of Paris, and disgust dance
house in the Five Points Of New York. It
| is unnecessary and undeniable to specify
particular facts. The pages of Herodotus,
Aristophanes, Juvenal, and scores of hsto-
rians, poets, and dramatists, whose writings
have been preserved to us, are conclusive on
| this point. What was the mythology of the
| ancients but system of free love, held up
for public emulation? That it was emulated
by all classes, with the most disgusting ac-
cessories, and without any sense Of shame,
we are abundantly advised. Montaigne says
that Zeno, the Stole, allowed his chastity to
be compromised, so that he might not appear
rude and boorish in the polite society of
Athens.
much purer than any other record of ancient
times, we find that there were not five vir-
tuous men in Sodom.-and that is not all
that we find of the iniqulties of the cities of
the plain. We feel instinctively that fire
and birthstone, followed by the Dead Sea,
were none too harsh a punishment for them.
We find, also, that the Kings Of Israel set
an example to their subjects which would
| not be tolerated in any court or capital of
Christendom at the present time. When
vice takes refuge in darkness, we know that
society is growing better.
Coming down through the decline of the
| Roman and Byzantine empires, through the
dark ages as they are properly called,we are
ever in the midst of debauchery and proiliga-
| cy, save where it is relieved and mitigated
| by the Christian religion. Every reader of
| Gibbon knows this full well. With the re-
vival of letters in Western Europe, one of
| the first and most popular writers we en-
was written for the amusement of the aris-
| tocratic danes Of Florence If such book
were written now, it would be seized and
| destroyed by the police, and the author
would be prosecuted for obscenity. 1t Is
needless to point out the great landmarks of
vice in the history and literature of modern
| Europe. Every student knows that society
has improved, and the Social Evil has abated,
as Christianity has taken deeper root in the
conscience of mankind, ,and that part passu,
women have risen in the social scale, and
become more nearly the companions and
equals OF men.
| Thus it appears that the elevation of wo-
man from the condition of abject dependence
| and ignorance is simultaneous with the
abatement of the Social Evil. We think 1t
| is the principal cause of its abatement $50
far as it has been lesscned) and that all
healthful reform in the future must proceed
! from that idea. The number of absolutely
| virtuous men, in hundred taken at ran
| dom is not large. The number of absolutely
unchaste women in hundred is very small.
While this is true, it is true also that they
are not subject to the same passions-that
for social order that such difference exists.
There is nothing in the Divine economy
more wonderful, and when rightly consider.
ed more beautiful, than this relation of tht
sexes The instinct of ninety-nine womer
in every hundred, when approached with Al
impure purpose, is resistance and disgust
And of those who fall from virtue, nearly al
are constrained by poverty, dependence, o.
misplaced love-few by inherent viciousness
When married woman is seduced, tits gen
orally her husbands fault. 1fhe brings low,
and kindness to her, she will rarely seek o
accept them from another. Ifhe cannot o
will not furnish those Indispensable treas
, ures, and if she does accept them elsewhere
he has no right to shoot her paramour.
We believe that the world is growing bet
ter in many ways. We believe that the So
: cial Evil is diminishing. The abolition G
, slavery has cured vast deal of 1t. A mil
lion Of women have been removed from tn
auction block, and released from the terro
of the lash. Their national instincts for til
=; first time are brought into play-trammele
) by ignorance and impure associations, it
!, true; but nevertheless the change is an In
= = calculable boon to the society in which thei
d lot is cast Reform always begins wher
women car control their own action, and
~ will progress so fast as the sense OF depen
dence and inferiority is removed from them
When girls shall have equal education an
euual chance of remuncrativc employmeI
I with bows. the Social Evil will be as nearl
eradicated as it is possible through huma
arencies for, in addition to the direct n
I'd snlts of self-mastcry and selfcontrol, wha
ever tends to make women more truly Il
,e equals and companions of the other Sc,
tends to subdue the passions and refine Il