Connecticut western news., 1878-07-04
A STARTLING PICTURE.
And One that Mothers Can Draw a Moral tHs& From. EE

And One that Mothers Can Draw a Moral |EH5R From. EE
 | One night not long ago, says the New
 York 7rs6uae, 2 young girl in haunt of vice, in Philadelphia, accidentally, while at supper, put her foot on par Tor 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 lone 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 inawhich they met their ter rible fate was one of the lowest of it's class i; the men whom they chose as friends belonged to wretched negro minstrel show - degraded, cowardly brutes who stood off in safety watching them die. Only a few days ago the po- lice records of our own city told an even more pitiable tale. A father found his daughter in an infamous place, and strove by legal means to take her out. She, ,dehed him, and the courts sustained her, and she went out gayly from the court fOom with her vile companions, gigging at the discontinue of the brok- en-heafted father and brother, who stood with heads bowed in shame as they passed by. 1' '@ '.''!. :. 'f2 lEh8 - :
 The most frightfuf fact in our social life faces us in these stories. {, It is that there are women in this lowest deep who are not driven there by want or cruelty, nor led there by betrayed affection : women who have been gently reared, educated, beloved, whose natures are so tainted that 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 in their original position, the records of our di- vorce courts, the foul gossip with which so-called fashionable Asociety reeks. not only in this country but England. give us an appalling hint. It is useless to ignore this fact. Neither the pulpit nor the press, if it means to help at all in the work of@9 bettering our social life, ought to ignore the fact that . certain portion of American and English society iH rapidly becoming as hcentious as that of Paris.
 Who is to blame for it I? Not human nature. Women and men are born as pure as they were 8 generation ago. Not Christs religion. His hand is as strong to save the Magdalen in the streets of New York as of Jerusalem It is the. mothers who are to blame, Mothers in fashionable society m the cities, and in that society that feebly apes the fashion in towns and villages and farm places from Maine to Oregon. who bet 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 mod esty, honesty, decency are sacrificed to it. Fashion now publishes even the rules for First communion dresses" :" and sets forth the pipings and ooifure in which an innocent girl may approach her God. There is nothing so holy that it is not made subserv1ent to it. It is not the wealthy mother alone who viti- ates 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 modest heart. clean mind and God-fearing soul. The moral training which mothers ne- glect is, supplied by hot-pressed sensa-I tional juvenile literature, and the reports of foul scandals in the daily newspapers. Listen to the precocious gossip of the Haunting over-dressed school girls who parade the streets on holiday, and the tragedies in Philadelphia and New York which we have mentioned will not seem strange sequel to such training.
 It is but to certain portion of our soclety that these truths apply, and that the smallest. The great obscure mass of American women are honorable, chaste and modest. In the majority of our homes there are common sense and piety enough to give tawdry display it's proper place in life, and to curb and direct the appetites which God has gwen to men and women. It rests with mothers to make that majority larger or smaller.
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