The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1869-06-24
Impunitr I'm CrIme.

A villain recently lured a young girl
of respectable family from her home.in
this city by ardent professions of hon
orable love and solemn promise Of mar
riage. Having thus got her into his
clutches, he seduced and soon after de-
serted her at Chicago, having never in
tended to make her his wife. Finding
herselfalone in strange city (Chicago,) }
with no alternative but life of shame
or suicides death, she chose the latter,
and was corpse scarcely two weeks
after she was enticed away from her
paternal home. This is an old, old
story-a tragedy which, with some va
ration in the catastrophe, probably oc-
ours in this country many thousand
times per annum.
What shall be done about it? Can
we do better than sit down in stolid
apathy, and say, $50 it has been, is,
and will be, and there is no help for it7"
AS yet, but one partial mitigation has
established itself-that of homicide. 1t
has become part of the unwritten,
jury-made law Of our country (and we
note its recent extension to the Cana
das) that the woman who has been Sc
duced and betrayed may kill her sedu.
Ger if she will and can 1t is not yet
established that she can do this with
impunity if she is black, brown or yell
low, while her seducer is accounted
white; but there is a case pending in
Washington which will settle this point.
1t is settled, however, that the victims
brother, father or husband, may act as
her proxy, in case she is too tender or
too timid to do the deed herself.
The moral of this justification Of hom-
icide is not that libertiDism is forbidden
or condemned, but that it is only allow
ed within certain limits. If a man wiH
be lecherous, and has any serious OBJ
lection to serving ASA target for load
ed revolvers, he must choose his game
from that large class who are neither
homicidally inclined nor hedged about
by sanguinary male relatives. If his
lawless desires lead him into well
guarded preserves, he must abide the
serious consequences
lis that the last word of Christian
civilization on this grave theme? Has
the law no terrors for libertines who
make the timid and defenceless their
only prey2
We think it should have, and that it
should inaugurate a reform by pro-
claiming every keeper of house of in
fanny felon, and forfeit to the State
all property devoted to the base uses of
prostitution This would speedily strip
the horrible trade of the false glitter
which now surrounds its early stages
The haunts of infamy are the nurseries
of crime, the hiding-places of felons.
Forfeit all property devoted to the uses
or harlotry, and send the bawds (male
or femae) to prison, and lechery would
be fatally crippled. The young girl
who has been misled and betrayed is
generally hurried to and hidden in one
of the most sumptuous Of these haunts
of sin, where every art is exhausted to
reconcile her to a life of shame; and
thus-"once beguiled, and evermore
beguiling"-she, still victim, victim
izes many, and avenges her own fall by
transforming mere sensuslists into de-
faulters, bankrupts, embezzlers, felons
and suicides.
Every brothel is focus of perpetual
conspiracy against the virtue and peace
of the innocent and pure, melting pol
luton as the receiver of stolen goods in
cites theft. A true State would dimin-
ish crime by destroying the facilities
that incite to its preparation. But the
rulers of our city depend on the keepers
of every haunt of debauchery to swell
their fraudulent majorities, and thus in
iquity, in league with magistrates,
laughs at the terrors of law. Shall it
never be otherwise ?-7n5me.
We would suggest that every young
girl should be taught the use of firearms,
and always carry a small pistol for her
defence, Moreover, that she should be
accompanied by an immense Newfound-
land dog whenever she is in danger Of
meeting her natural protector. What
shame to teach our young girls to look
up to man as the source of light and
wisdom-"the head Of woman, as Christ
is the head of the Church !"
To 60 to the root of all these out
RACES It will be found in the idea that
woman was made for man, and every
man has feeling that he has right to
every pretty girl he can entrap.
If women could completely disguise
themselves in male attire that would be
a great protection in going about in
crowded cities. Something must be
done, that our girls may be free to roam
up and down the earth at pleasure.
There are many good reasons for laws
that forbid man to assume waman's at
tire, but there is no reason in the world
why woman should not seek safety and
independence in the costume that Sc
cures it. E. G, s,--Revolation
Vices of Genius.