The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1878-09-11


One night. not long ago. young girl in
haunt of vice in Philadelphia, accidentally,
while at supper put her foot on parlor
match, which set fire to her clothing Anoth-
er girl who ran to the rescue. shared her fate :;
their dresses were of thin material, and blaz-
ed 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 aud ease, husbands and
children, voluntarily, to take up this mode of
life, which in their case could boast no at
tractive gliding. The house in which they
met their fate was one of the lowest of it's
class 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 two or three days ago the police re-
cords of our city told an even more ptiable
tale. A father found his daughter in an ille-
climate place, and strove by illegal means to
take her out. She defied him, the courts sus-
tanned her, and she went out gaily from the
court room with her vile companions, giggling
at the discontinue of the broken-hearted
father and brother, who stood with heads
bowed in shame as they passed by.
The most frightful fact in our social life
faces us in these stories. 1t is that there are
women in the lowest deep who are not driven
there by want or cruelty, nor led there by q
betrayed affection women who have been
gently reared educated, beloved, whose ma
lures are so tainted that they choose to go out,
like the prodigal of old, from the home God
gave them to feed with the swins How many
knows how many remain in their original
position the records of our divorce courts,
the foul gossip with which o-called fashion
able society reeks, not only in this country
but Engla nd, give us an appalling hint. 1t is
useless to ignore this fact. Neither the pulpit
nor the press, if it means to help at all in the
work of bettering our social life, ought to ig-
more the fact that certain portion of Ameri-
can and English society is rapidly becoming
as licentious as that of Paris.
Who is to blame for il Not human ma
ture. Women and men are born as pure as
they were generation ago Not Ghrist's re-
ligon f; His hand is as strong to save the Mag
dalen in the streets of New York as of .Ieru-
salem. 1t is the mothers who are to blame
Mothers in the fashionable society in the cit
les, 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 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 csuse of our hnan-
cial downfall, but modesty, honesty, decency
are sacrificed to IL Fashion even now pub
fishes the rules for first communion dress
es, and sets forth the ppings and couture in
which an innocent girl may properly approach
her God. There is nothing SO holy that it is
not made subservient to it, 1t is not the
wealthy HOlHtI ulOHc WHO NlJldtth licI culiu
MUD by this worship of folly, but the me-
chanics wife, the poor seamstress whose aim
it is to push her daughter into society,"" to
give her stylish dresses instead of modest
heart, clear mind and God fearing SOUL
The moral training which such mothers neg
lect, is supplied by hot pressed sensational iu-
venile literature, and the reports of foul scan
dals in tile daily newspapers. Listen to the
precocous gossip of the Haunting over-dress
ed 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.
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 honorable, chaste and modest. In the
majority of our homes there are common
sense and piety enough to give tawdry display
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 oil smaller.--New York. Tri-
6une