Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-12-10
THE AsPAsIA OF TO-DAY.

possessiOn, and even tread the sacred
pave OF the avenue as if-profane
thoughtl-it was their own. They
wedge between stately Mrs. Peter
Oleum and her tender Crinolina at the
Academy matinees; they sit next to the
Rev. Creamy Stilton, Of the Church OF
st. Anthony the Tempted, when he goes
TO the opera; they bow meek heads and
magnificent bOnnets before the fine
Sunday concert nj his up town church;
and-startlng revelation for the inevi-
table T. Totuml-they penetrate the
mysteries whence his Crinolina draws
her latest fashionsl
In the parlors and the corridors OF
the best hotels we meet many specimens
Of the social Bedouin; handsome women
who appear mysteriously, act not al.
WAYS mysterioUsly, then suddenly steal
away. None know whence they come,
nor precisely who they are. They may
be female adventurers, or lobby women
from Washington; they may be ennis
saries from that silently powerful lodge
over which the tawny- haired Anonyma
presides in all its many chapters.
1t is scarcely comforting reflection,
for those who look seriously at the mat
ter, that their wives and sisters and
"very particulars are thrown into close
contact with what comes in such a ques-
tiouable shape While proverb tells that
to the pure all things are pure, philoso-
ply might suggest that they will keep so
longer, for lacking contact with impu-
rity. Less grateful is the patent fact
that our purest and best do actually sit
next them at the restaurant and at
church, jostle them on the promenade,
ride with them in stage and car. More,
they buy dresses from the very silks cut
for them; and have them made upon the
very mold and form most affected by the
impure sisterhood 1t is not pleasing to
reflect that Prurience does jostle Purity
at every turn; that though not by any
means the rose, she has been very near
the rose indeed.
Society may cast down her eyes
As she paddles her fan
| Mid the perfumed lagoOns OF her robe OF
white muslin;
but it we're prurient prudery of the worst
to pretend not to see what is plain as
MONDAY. For the annals of the Quar-
tier Breda, the four-in-hand advertise
ments OF the Alice of the Lake, show
nothing more unblushing than the parks
and promenades of our new civilization.
We have at least come to rival, in its
own peculiar province, what we are wont
TO look down upon from our supposed
nights of morality as the Modern
Sodom. And Society may shrug her
bare shoulders; an angry sigh may agi,
tate her laces. as she lisps "Que faire?'
Bot that this evil is; but that it has ad-
vanced with frightlul strides OF late
years. and that it is gaining a power
which may soon defy remedy, is soci
ety's fault and hers alone.
| Leaving unmentloned that undercur'
rent of sin which is the sad heritage o.
every great city; letting the gaslighti
wink over those darker dyes of wretch
edness that woman's purity may take
ignoring the hyper-Hogarth scenes o
gin. mill and cigar-shop pitfall, the higher
and therefore the deadlier-eminencei
of badness with which we have to do
amount of feeble essays and of startling
estimates may be printed; Charity may
dole her pence and erect her missions
even woman's unerring tenderness may
90 forth for the lost ones gathering tc
its care the rare and doubtful convert
And still the slums of the great city will
and must create, as we'll as nourish, its
unsexed - de-humanized classl With
them. even we're the task not hopeless II
is not the province of this paper to in
terfere. De profundis, these will ever
cry out to Nature God against Man
nhumanity to man. But
THE AsPAsIA OF TO-DAY
has dared her way into far higher walks
She has opened her nude arms anC
drawn to her jeweled breast our better
classesp She has pressed her impure
Inns to those that should have Stunned
the public caress. In glaring and brazen
letters she has branded upon the very
frontlet of society the degrading legend
-Anonyma Victrixl
And thus it has become the duty o
society-of every man and sf every
woman who can yet distinguish purity
from prurience-to pluck down the
shameful symbol and raze its very last
letter. And it would seem that none
save they who love the shame for its owl
sake. might doubt the method. For the
time has come when every woman-ii
not for the general good, then for the
more selfish fear of her own safety
should raise her head to look this staring
shame straight in the face. She mus
shake from her eyes the opiate OF a ira
ditional security and wake into the real
life of a real and bad age. She mus
cease to simper at what 1t is her sole
duty to trown upon. Above all, she
must end that silly and degrading com
promise with the worst enemy OF her
purity and of her peace
Just so long as the women OF Ameri'
can cities shut their eyes to the insult
done them, just that long will they b'
dazzled by its meretricious glitter. While
they forget themselves in liberation
which is only one form Of recognition
and indorsement-they are writing theii
own degradation and sealing their owl
bondage. Leaving out of question tha
feeble few who aimlessly seek TO pro
initiate the enemy by halfway imitation
, of her mode, it is the duty every tru'
) woman owes herself to rise in her righte
ous wrath and grapple with the foe tina
! brazenly confronts herl For that foe II
no longer an unembodied idea-a nam
: only. 1t is a gross and evil substance
, daily growing more palpable. As such
4 it must be handled with the strong. grasl
! only; for the time has passed when
/ might have yielded to words and look
/. askant.
No one will deny that the men
Society have inspired this briilian
I. Frankenstein with the breath Of be
f vicious life. Their hands have made "a
4 monster they can so little control th.
: she now'invades that purity II IS thei