The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-08-08
MOTHERS. READ
Recent Tragedies = Downward
Tendencies Of Social Life.
from the New 70 k Tribune

tfrOm the New 70 k Tribune
One night not long 9 this young
girl. in "a haunt of vice in Philadelphia.
accidentally, while at supper. put her
DOT on d 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 We're
young, attractive, of good birth and
social position, both educated zone a
graduate of Nassar 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 not boast OF no at
tractive 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 belonged to a
wre ched negro minstrel Show-de-
graded, cowardly brutes who stood off
in safety, watching them die. Only
two or three days ago the police re-
cords of our W city told an even
more pitiful tale. A father found his
daughter in an infamous place, and
strove by legal mean to take her out.
She defied him, the courts sustained
her, and she went out gajly from the
court room with her vile companions,
giggling at the discontinue Of the
broken-hearted father and brother,
who stood with heads bowed III shame
as they passed by.
Tho most frIUhtfnl fact in nnr social
life faces us in these stories. 1t is that
there are women in this lowest deep
who are not driven there by want or
cruelty, not led there by a betrayed
affection: women who have ben
gently reared, educated, beloved. hut
whose natures are SO tainted hat they
choose to go out, like the prodigal 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 III their
original position, the records of our
divorce courts, the foul gossip with
which so-called fashionable society
reeks, not only in this country, but
England, gives us an appalling hint.
1t is useless to ignore this fact. Neither
the pulpit 0 the press, if it means to
help at all in the work of lettering
our social life, ought to ignore the
fact that a certain portion of American
and English society IS rapidly becom-
ing as licentiOus as that of Paris.
Who is to blame for it: Not human
nature. Women and men are BORN as
pure as they were a generation ago.
Not Cbrist's religion. His hand is as
strong to save the Magdalen in the
streets Of New Yors as of Jerusalem.
T. =, %Io x.0%l@., -,ln $50 - lIo.-o
Mothers in fashionable society. in the
cities, and in that society which feebly
apes the fashion in towns and villa
ges and farm places from Maine to
Oregon, who set before their daugh-
tiers, from their birth, dress, show and
try as the sole gods they are to follow.
We venture to say that '.Style,' the
most vulgar of words and things. has
done as much to corrupt The ONE of
America as liquor has. Not only was
it the cause of our downfall, but mod
esty. homes y. and decency are sacri-
feed to it. Fashion now publishes
even the rules for first communion
dresses and sets forth the plplngS
and couture in which al innocent girl
may properly approach her God.
There is nothing SO holy that 1t is not
made Subservient to it. 1t is not the
wealthy mother alone who ~vitiates her
child's mind by this worship of folly,
but the mechanics wife, the poor
Seamstress, whose aim Is to push her
daughter on in society" to give her
stylish dresses instead of a modest
heart, a clean mind and a God-fearing
soul. The moral traing which such
mothers neglect is supplied by hot
pressed. sensational Juvenile literature
and the reports of foul scandals in the
newspapers. Listen to the ~precocious
gossip of the Haunting, overdresscd
school girls tho parade the streets on
"a holiday, and the tragedies in Phila-
dslphia and New York, which we have
mentione ed. will not seem a strange Sc
Quel to such training.
1t Is but to a certain portion of our
society that these truths apply. and
that the smallest. The great obscure
mass of American women are hOnOra-
bic, chaSte and modest. In the majority
of our homes there are common sense
and piety enough to give tawdry dis
play its proper place in life, and to curb
and direct the appetites which God has
given to men and women 1t rests
with mothers to make that majority
larger or smaller.