Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-01-17

For the Sunday Appeal
The advancement Of science, art, liter
ature AID religion has marked the nine
teenth century but civilization morally
has made a retrograde movement.
Virtue and honor alone shield the
alfmotaa Of public morals and those
who fail TO paw court at their shrine can
aid only in blighting and destroying
what it should be the ambition Of every
right-feeling. right-thinking man and
woman to foster and TO elevate the
morals Of society. The saas soHci style
prevalent in all classes Is not without
the most frightful and appalling IN
auenee upon the minds Of the rising
Generation. Children Of to-day, are
not a. the children Of twenty years ago,
and the daily enaetments Of their supe-
riors add but the domes and minarets to
the false superstructures that are reared
upon the foundation Of their young
hearts. Who can count upon the ad-
yancement Of civilization while per
picious influences surround the youth
of our country? Virtue and the firm
basis of marriage which governs all
social relations, lie chiefly within the
jurisdiction Of woman Nan may be
the strong medium through which these
things are protected, but it is woman
only who holds the glorious archives Of
the State. And these archives once
DESTROYED. by her OWE hands, she will
find il q Tantalus task 20 recreate them
In an age like this Of the nineteenth
century. Yet the staid matrons of our
American homes. seem to have laid aside
the graces and the hOnOrs which their
mothers wore before them. and the
frivolities Of Paris-the polite inanities
the gilded aggregatiOns Of that trans
Atlantic Babylon-that pest-hole Of
eivilizatioa-ar introduced into the
sanctity Of our homes, with the same
superlatiye zest aud zeal that our ances-
tors felt. when by PuritaHical laws they
governed and protected society, when
we could count the heads Of the New
World colonists. The frivolous fash
ions. the exposition of natures physical
AnnOwments, the loose, easy tone Of
conversation. the sensational drama,
the uuyarn; shed glare Of painting, and
the bold passion Of sculpture, the glow
inc unnatural rehQitions OF literature,
,he Ro0rqat delicibs sgainst morals in
every branch and line Of art aud society
show that the world is a Sodom apple
beautiful 10 the eye-smOoth to the
toueh-but ashes-bitter ashes TO the
taste. .Saraas aver that the apples
that grow upon the asPhaltic shores 0l
the Arab Sea-so rare 10 behold, and
nsgght within are made so, not by any
mineral or chemical combination N
Earth. or sir, or water-but by the per
for,t;ons Of little ssinsect-the Isathe
1ro. which CONSUMES all the pulp SC
delicately favored, aud leaves only the
r;nd with the mockery Of crimson and
gold and the world-the social world
has its Ta,tkedro. and the bitter DeaC
sea fruit of life, is-the married Jttrt
And some Of the very women who re
gard flirting as "inohensiye, hold u
their hands and gather aside their sllkel
C,-aperies when social Pariahs pass then
in ths crowded thoroughfares, yet advo
eating such principles they 20 in thei
sbimmeri~x robes, and glimmerinl
rearls and under the cloak Of refine
ment and position stamp society wit
their pernieious influence the sam
bitter pill only coated with sugar-to tn
richt-thinking mind bitter and noxiou
as before. 1t is no doubt hard to tea
Of beautiful masks from what We be
Iieyed to be beautiful faces, but whe
We look upon the young girls about u