The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1878-06-13
Eme Da Costa.

One night not long ago, this young
girl in haunt of vice, in Philadelphia,
accidentally, while at supper, put her
foot on a parlor match, which set fire to
her clothing. Another girl, who ran to
her rescue, shared her fate; their dresses
were of thin material and blazed over
their heads while they fled shrieking to
the street, and there burned slowly to
death. The men, their companions, stood
by and offered no help. The significant
part of this horrible story is that both
women were young, attractive, OF good
birth and social position, both educated
Zone graduate of Vassar College,; both
had left homes Of comfort and ease, hus-
bands and children, voluntarily, to take
up this mode of life, which in their case
could boast of no attractive gliding. The
house in which they met their terrible
fate was one of the lowest of its class;
the men whom they chose as friends be-
longed to wrctchcd negro minstrel show
degraded, cowardly brutes who stood
off in safety watching them die.
The most frightiul fact in our social
life faces US in this story. It is that there
are women in this lowest deep who are
not driven there by want or cruelty, nor
led there by a betrayed affection; women
who have been gently reared, educated,
beloved, whose natures are so tainted
that they choose to 60 out, like the prodi-
gal of old, from the home God gave
them, to feed with the swine. How
many such are hidden in these dens God
only knows; how many remain in their
original position, the records OF our d.
vorce courts, the foul gossip with which
80 called fashionable society reeks, not
only in this country but England, give
US an appalling hint. 1t is useless to ig-
more this fact Neither the pulpit nor
the press, if it means to help at all IN the
work of lettering cur social life, ought
to ignore the fact that certain portion
of American and English society is rap
idly becoming as licentious as that of
Paris.
Who is to blame for it2 Not human
nature. Women and men are born as
pure as they were a generation ago. Not
Christ's religion. His hand is as strong
to save the Magdalen in the streets of
New York as Of Jerusalem. 1t is the
mothers who are to blame. Mothers in
fashionable society in the cities, and in
that society which feebly apes the fashion
in towns and villages and farm places
from Maine to Oregon, who set before
their daughters, from their birth, dress
and show and style as the sole gods they
are to follow. We venture to say that
Style" that most vulgar of words and
things has done as much to corrupt the
women of America as liquor has. Not
only was it the cause of our financial
downfall, but modesty, honesty, decency
are sacrificed to it. Fashion now pub
fishes even the rules for First commun-
ion dresses" and sets forth the pipings
and couture in which an innocent girl
may properly approach her God. There
is nothing so holy that it is not snbser-
Went to it. 1t is not the wealthy mother
alone who vitiates her child's mind by
this worship of folly, bu: the mechanics
wife, the poor seamstrcss whose aim Is TO
"push her daughter on in society," to
give her stylish dresses Instead of n mod
est heart clean mind and q God. fearing
soul. The moral training which such
mothers neglect is supplied by not
pressed sensational juvenile literature,
and the reports of toul scandals in the
daily newspapers. Listen 10 the prcco'
cious gossip of the Haunting over dressed
school girls who parade the streets on a
holiday, and the tragedy il Philadelphia
Will not seem strange sequel 10 such
training.
Iii, but to certain portion Of our So
cicty that these truths apply, and that the
smallest. The great obscure mass Of
American women are honorable, chaste
aud modest. In the majority Of our
homes there are common sense and picty
enough to give tawdcy display its proper
place in life, aud to curb aud direct the
appctites which God has gwen to men
and women. 1t rests with mothers to
make that majority larger or smaller
Nclo FORK Tri6uHe.