The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1868-12-10
From Packards MouthlyI
The Shady Side of Metropolitan Life
BIZ OLIVER DYER.
what sends Young People TO GhC
HkeNfl

GVh4NAR
DeNtk
At the moment the reader takes this
article in hand, there are ten thousand
girls in the UHitea States, from FIVE TO
eI ghteen, many Of 1iem now the light
and Joy of happy homes, who, within
ten years from date, will have become
outcasts, and be earning their bread by
the last shameful resort of degraded
womanhood.
How do you know that such will be
the fate of those girls7 the reader is
doubtless ready to ask. How, in fact,
do you know that such will be the fate
of even one girll This is the way we
know it:
In this city alone there are now seven
thousand such as we say those girls will
in ten years become; and in the entire
Union there are over twenty thousand
such.
1t is we'll known by those who have
knowledge in these matters, that, within
ten years, more than half of that twenty
thousand will pass away, and their
places be filed, and probably more than
filled, by fresh victims.
These facts are just as well known as
any statistics in regard to the phenom-
ena of population, or class Of pOpnla-
ton, ever were known.
There is no mistake, there can be no
mistake about this matter.
1t is a settled fact, then, that there
are now ten thousand innocent girls in
this land, beloved of parents and friends,
with seemingly bright and auspicious
future before most of them, whose
names, within ten years from this day,
will not be spoken by parents or friends,
except with emotions of sorrow and of
shame.
And furthermore, there are now liv-
ing in this land ten thousand boys, from
Ave to eighteen years Of age, who,
within ten years, will have become
forgers, and defauIters, and thieves, and
robbers and murderers, and in one way
and another be reckoned among the
felons aud vagabonds who infest the
earth.
Many father and every mother who
reads these lines will not fail to ask in
their secret souls, "Will any child Of
nline be one of these lost twenty thou
sand7 Is my daughter to become an
outcast? my son to become felon I"
We can only say to our personal
knowledge, the daughters and the sons
of parents Just as good, and just as
happy, and just as wise, and just as
fiourishing as any parents who will read
these lines, have become outcasts and
felons within the last ten years.
And thus it has come about that
many of the best parental hearts we
know are also the saddest and the sorest.
Is it improbable, then, that many q
son or daughter now sporting in limo
cence before parental eyes, or winning
honors at school, or promising to be
the prop and joy of fathers or q
mothers declining years, is not now AZ
certainly doomed as though the AngeI
of Destruction had actually picked out
the child, and placed it apart, and sci
the seal Of fate in visible signs upon Its
brow7
Whether we are to answer YES tC
this question, or whether we are tC
answer NO, depends to great extent
upon the parents and others to whom
the earthly destiny of the children anC
youth under their control has been il
large degree committed.
This brings us to the subject whiol
VIC are to discuss in this article:
What Sends Young People to thA.DeUil
We shall exclude outcast children ant
youth from the discussion, and confnt
it to families of intelligence and re
spectibility--to such as are supposed t,
know, and who believe that they d
know how to train up child in tn
way 1t should 60.
The DEVILS main hold on the youtI
of the land comes Of and is olinched b.
, the selGshRess, the ignorance, and tn
incapacity of parents and guardians
And when we say the selfshness, tn
, ignorance, and the incapacity of parent
! and guardians, we mean the selhshnes
. of the good as well as the selfshness {
! the bad, the ignorance Of the learne