New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-06-27
EFFJE DA COSTA.

One night not long ago, this young grl ID
haunt Of vice, in Philadelphia, accidentally,
while at supper, put her foot on paIlor
match, which set fire to her clothing. An
other girl, VINO ran to her rescue, shared her
fate their dresses were OF thin material and
blazed over their heads while they fled Shrek
ing TO the street, and there burned slowly to
death. The men, their companions, stood by
and offered no help. The significant part OF thlS
horrible story is that both women wero young.
attractive, of good birth and social position,
both educated Zone graduate of Vassar Col
lege) both had left homes of comfort and
case. husbands 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 belonged TO a
wretched negro minstrel shOw-degraded,
cowardly brutes who stood of in safety
watching them die Only two or three days
ago the police records of our own city told
an even more pitiable tale. A father found
his daughter in an infamous place, and stroYe
by legal means TO take her out. She
defed him, the courts sustained her,
and she went out gayly from the court
room with her vile companions, gig
Cling at the discontinue of the broken
hearted father and brother, who stood with
heads bowed in shame as they passed by.
The most fnghtful fact in our social life
faces us in these stories. 1t is that there are
women i'm 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 ma
lures are so tainted that thoY choose to 90
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 divorce courts,
the foul gossip with which So-caled fashiona-
be society reeks, not only in this country but
England, give us an appalling hint 1t Is USE
less 20 ignore this fact. Neither the pulpit nor
the press, If it means TO help at ali IN the
work of lettering our social life, ought to
ignore the fact that certain portion of Amer
lean and English society is rapidly becoming
as hcentious as that of Paris.
Who is to blame for it'll Not human nature.
Women and men are born as pure as they
were a generation ago. Not Christs religion.
His hand is AS strong to save the Magdalen in
the streets of New-YOrk as of Jerusalem. Ii
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 il the cause Of our financial downfall,
but modosty honesty, decency are sacrificed
TO il. Fashion now publishes even the rules
for First communion 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 made subseryient
TO It. II is not the wealthy mother alone
who vitiates her child's mind by this wor-
ship of folly, but the mechanics wife, the
poor seamstress whose aim is to "push
cher daughter on in society," TO give her stylish
dresses. instead of a modest heart, clean
mind and a God-fearing soul. The moral
training which such mothers neglect is sup
piled by hot-pressed sensational Juvenile lit
erature, and the reports of foul scandals in
the daily newspapers. Listen to the preco-
cious gossip of the Haunting Over-drossed
school girls who parade the streets on holt
day, and the tragedies in Philadelphia and
New-YOrk which we have mentioned will
not seem a strange sequel to such training.
It is but to a certain portion of our society
that these truths apply, and that the
smallest The great obscure mass of Amer
lean women are honorable, chaste and mod
est. 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 or
smaller.