Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-02-06

faces of the delicate young girls who are
hurled past, as trader might the slaves
in the market.
French goes too far My little Nelly
is not in the market; she has her secret
innocent dream of true love and mar
riage some day, hid away in her heart.
There ia not one of French crew whom
she would marry When she unclothes
herself immodestly and surrenders her
person to their touch, she has no ulterior
purpose beyond the intoxicating pleas
ure of the moment. Custom has made
her eyes familiar with indecency-worn
, sway the defensive instinct of purity
with which every woman is born; but
that is the worst that can be said of hor.
Yet, if her own blood be such ice that
the exposure of her person has no power
to bring blush to her cheek, does it
matter nothing TO her thst pleased, unT
clean eyes rest on her, that half Of the
men who look oD her mistake her mo-
tives, and pity the degradation she un-
dorgoes in her effort to please them :?
use coarse language. The times are
coarse. The state of society which can
make Swinburne possible can btJar a
few plain words without detriment to its
modesty. 1t is true that the evil is i.s yet
confined to eur large cities. God forbid
that the fashionable fast girl of NewYoIk
or Chicago should be received as the
typical woman of America She bears
the same proportion to the women of the
States that the feverish outbreak on the
face does to the whole healthy, nweet-
blooded body. But this society assumes
to stand foremost in refinement ard cul.
ture, and cannot object to have its claims
tested. Besides, the feverish taint viii
spread.
Men, think, have some claim to be
heard in this matter. The most debased
among them will hold one thing sacred
the honor of his wife. He has right to
demand that it come to him untainted.
Dull and plain fellow as is John, he has
a right to claim from the woman whom
he marries, and from the mother who
rears her, that she shall not have been
put in the market to parade her shape
like an animal; that she shall not have
had her person handled by every ro,Sewho
frequents the ballroom; that he shall
not receive her hackneyed and brazen
from firtations, and that her mind shall
be clean as her body.
This is a return to old fashioned prude-
ry. Yes. If the aesthetic culture of to-
day demands the exploration of such
foul fields by our young girls, and if, on
the other hand, the necessity for wilder
careers for woman is to render mother
hood the rare luxury which it has become
in New England, let us, in the name of |
the good, pure God, 20 humbly back to
the stagnation of our grandmothers.
/ know quite we'll the answer ready for |
me. 1t is not women who have first |
tainted society and literature; it is not |
weak, starving, ill-paid women who are
to blame for this Gehenna Of prostitution
that underlies our social fabric.
l do not think that the guilt of man
has anything to do with the responsibility
of women. To our own master we stand
or fall. We have always claimed to be
the moral element in humanity. The |
claim was never made 80 loudly as it is 1
now by our spokes-women. "Her right"
says one of the most earnest, lis to be |
ministered unto in carnal thingsl; her |
province is to minister in spiritual
Ihings" Another portrays venality dis
appearing from the courts, bribery from
The halls of legislation, trickery from
trade, so soon as her pure foot shall be
admitted over the thresholds. Evil
,hrinks away abashed before the steps
1f the ideal wo man."
But the real2 Men have right, when
claims like these are made, TO demand
heir proof We who boast of white gar
nents must show them white. How can
We ask for the ten talents to be given to
is, when we grow less and less able to
,old that one talent of purity committed
o our keepingf Here is reform more
Urgent than any which will follow suf-
rage; yet women shut their eyes to the
'sre facts, and hurry by.