The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-09-25

forts for Its Suppression and Limitation.
The Washington papers speak with varied
comment on meeting which took place OH
last Friday evening under the auspices of the
Woman's Club. The object of the meeting
was the rescue Of the fallen women of the
national capital. A public mixed meeting
may offend the sensitive consciences of some
journalists when such asubject is to be broadly
discussed, but as none of the blushing Jour.
nails find fault with the sincerity of the effort.
we shall simply deal with its probable eff
cheney. When good, pure woman, under
takes to overstep the canting, dissembled igno-
rance to which society condemns women, aud
reach out helping hand to fallen womanhood,
all men should hesitate before branding such
conduct with any degree of obloquy We con-
denim indecency in print as in speech, and in
so far as any such was INDUCED in at the
meeting referred to, it is only point showing
that those in Washington who have taken the
work in hand have mistaken the direction in
which they should USE their reforming ener-
gies. All that they can say in public meet
ing condemnatory of the crying sin is already
an axiom in the moral law. The wretched
creatures and their horrid traffic -four
ish on publicity, and the only hope
of ameliorating their condition lies in with
drawing them as gently and as quietly as pos
sible from their exciting surroundings. The
work of respectable women in this direction
must ever be more effectual than that of men,
and where a woman feels the instincts of
humanity strong enough in her to set about
this charity let no man decry or denounce her,.
Public meetings give play to the worst enc
mics of reform, for no shame binders them
from turn ing into burlesque the brave effort Of
few women on SO delicate a matter. Their
true success will be achieved when, without
parade or trumpeting, they rescue woman
from shame and make her once more, in some
degree, a useful member of society. They have
chosen the task Of lifting those already fallen
blessed workout there are many points on
which holder minds must interfere to protect
society. These are to check the course of this
crime at its inception, and in its incurabs
phases to check its disastrous effect upon
society at large.
In counting the unfortllnates who from
the causes which lie in the evil passions
of our nature, come to form the saddea-
ing array Of fallen womanhood, we must cal
culate how much opportunity and encourage
ment are given to recruiting this ssterhood Of
sorrow by the elects of our police code. We
place this gu estion, for the nonce, outside oE
the religious and moral view, and regard it
from the co lder, harder side of law. Prosti-
tuition, or, as it has been euphuized, the $50
cial evil" has engaged the attention of many
patient philosophic minds in the Old World,
Of which the "register" system of France and
the ''certi fcate" system Of the English garri-
son towns have been the result. In all
its unchecked course 1t has existed among us
in the monstrosity which Hogarths pencil de-
pcted of Englands capital century ago. 1t
is with us, as there, the nursery ground Of all
crime and the parent of unutterable disease; 81
its homes are those where the criminal finds
retreat and new affiliations, and the time Of
Hogarth is reproduced in the fact that when a.,
detective wants" notorious criminal his
best sources Of information are among the
dens of The female outcasts of society. How
this deformity spreads out its hdeous arms
among all classes, snatching to its foul en-
brace sister or daughter, and planting the
felOns mark upon brother or son, is some
thing whose modes are well known to those ia
power, without scarce an effort having been
made to prevent the social destruction.
There is practically no guard against it
opposed by law. The process on which
police superintendent or captain makes tenn,
porary fame for vigilance by swooping down
on brothel at midnight ami dragging the.
painted hags to the police station is as painful
as it is Intellectual. In effect it Is farce &
because in every locality 80 raided on there,
are dozens Of houses of an equally vile charac-,
the vigilant officer
1t is adopted as the principle of the happy.
go-lucky thinkers that certain amount Of
evil must exist in the world, and that the pro-
cess of sinking from virtue to vice is simple
ques ton Of moral gravitation. We do not
accept this but if there is depravity Oh one
side and woman's weakness on the other,
should our criminal negligence allow the
downward process IS to be accelerated? The
halfway house from the virtuous home
to the filthy cavern of vice is what
Is known as the house of assignation." The
girl of tender years who is once decoyed
eneath the roof of one of these has taken her
first step downward When the first signs Of
a maternity accursed Of society appear there
seems to her but one refuge from life Of
shame to end in prostitution's worse than
death-that refuge is the malpractice MUIR
erer, of whose blasting ministrations we
b ave Of late had such melancholy proof.
casts existence there is probably not one
In ten but would retrace and blot out hec
blasted career for, no matter what the passions
of our nature, few there are go lost az not to-
E. L..