New-York tribune., 1872-01-29
CONCERT-S1LOON GIRLS.

on concert saloons, and tho amount Oh praise
reoIIv due IN him. comes the question OF what
became Of tbe horde of wretched girls whom
he captured The breaking up or saloons ana
their other haunts is necessary 10 pupic uc-
cency, but, for the poor wretches themselves
public decency asks no more than that they
be kept out of her sight. They were ad-
" monished,r we presume, as usual, and were'
os usual. turned adrift again, without tood OF
shelter to prey or be preycd upon by society.
If the concert saloons were not there for them
to return to, they had only to seek other ue'is
of debauchery. They cannot saive; anu
what way was open for them to i've Ierc'
surely, is q field wide enough on whlch lhoSo
decent and well-meaning women VINO "ahV
poltical rights because domestic life is 700
narrow for their energies may legisiate "h"
act. until they obtain suffrage II there Is any
wrong deeper, or disease more fatal ID the
body polite for them to cure, than the con-
dition of these girls and their unnnmDered
companions. we do not know It, wherever
we 90 il this namelcss sisterho0d OF vice
and misery. A worse hell than ever Dante
drew has left its inexOrable mark upon their
faces; ages ago, as now, their house inclihcd
grave; their hands are stretched out unceas-
ingly to drag all that they meet into that PAIN
with them. Yet the purest wife and mother ousnC
to feel no shame in making their cause her
own. since it was to the woman TAKEN Ill
adultery that her Master showed his tenderest
commission, and by her he Taught that the
same guilt lies dormant in us all. But fOr inc
grace of Cod Pharisees and priests would
have been as the Magdalene.
We have O few plain words to say TO orr
womanly readers on this branch OF the Woman
question. We would, we confess, by the way,
be glad to note any practical movement on
the subject by the leaders in reform on that
question in New-York. We believe there are
many who demand suffrage who are also
advocates OF the highest virtue and mOrality.
But it especially behoOves them to detno their
po3jtiOn when loose women and men hayo so
nearly succeeded in placing the advocates Oh
the cause on a lower level in the eyes OF the
country than even the girls of the concert
saloons, who, at least, neither defend nor boast
of their debauchcry. We hear continual com
plants of the want of success OF Rosine or
Magdalene Associations and Houses OF the
Good Shepherd. Good women, who have
striven long to help this class, declare that
the stain il ineradoable that the taint hes
in the blood. In nine cases out OF ten, they
assert, the confirmed. prostitute cannot be re-
claimed; size VIII not submit to the
routine of an asylum {; she wearie5
of the monotony of sewing, of confne-
mcnt, of religion, after the first SpasmOdc fer
vor of conversion is over. Mistresses of we'll
ordered households object, not unnaturally, to
admit her into contact with their children.
Her life has been one, in short, of feverish
thirst for false excitement, precisely on a par
acl with that of the drunkard. And the
quiet and decency Of Il reformed life do not
crafty this thirst. What is ID DO done with
herr
The great error lies in the total mis-
conception of the character of the reformed
by the reformers. Thee ideal Magdalene is an
innocent girl who has sinned from excess Of
love and been abandoned by her destroyer, or
else been driven to choice of ruin or starva-
ton The number of either class is, we ven
ture to say, infnitesimally small. Very few
American girls are cIedulOus or trusting
enough to be led blindfold to their own un-
doing, and no American girl in this city or
elsewhere need WANT meal il she
chooses to work for it. The evil lies deeper
than this. Any one who is familiar with
the present status of girls belonging to the
laboring class, and that Immediately below, Of
from twelve to eighteen years old, in cities,
needs no information as TO the source whence
concert saloons are replenished. Smith, in all
probability, is a decent mechanic or day
labOrer, his wife also decent and hardwOrk- |
ing; their daughter, idle bold, brazen-eyed,
tricked out in dirty dress, made in imitation
of the mode and draggled feather in her
hat. The truth must be told there is no class
more tainted and unsayOry than this. Nor are
they to blame. The rush and press of work
in a city hinder home influences which give
modesty and purity to a in the country.
These girls have never known "a hOme.p
They have always been huddled in tene-
ment-hOuse with a swarm of others. Religion
has come TO them in ill-comprehended snatches.
if at all; it never surrounded them in the quiet
atmosphere Of family life, or what Curran calls |
the irresistible morality of the parental board |
Shrcwd and wide awake they are from |
head to foot; their year or two at !
the public school has sharpcned their |
wits and opened their eyes they too are fired |
with the universal fever to get on i'll life; and |
getting on, to them, means to dress, to go to |
cheap shows, to enjoy life. In short. society |
wakens the natures of these incipient women |
to a relish for life which their mothers never
knew, and gives them nothing but n mean
vanity and vile passions to feed it on. The |
rest goes without saying.
What shall we do with them. having |
" cleaned them out of the concert saloons
Common sense would suggest that they be
taught at once some trade by which they can |