Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-07-11
EFFIE DA COSTA.
The Ruin OF Young Girls Of the Middle Class
The Crime OF Fashionable Life.


New York Tribune. ssdt hA A9aE
One night not long ago, this young
girl, in haunt of vice in Phlladel-
phia, accidentally, while at supper,
put her foot on parlor match, which
set fire to her clothing Another girl,
who ran to the rescue, shared her
fate their dresses were of thin ma
terial, and blazod over their heads
while they fled shricking 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, at
tractive, of good birth and social po-
sition; both Educated Gone a gradu-
ate Of Vassar college,; both had left
homes of comfort and ease, 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
fate was one of the lowest of its class;
the men whom they chose as friends
belonged to a wretched minstrel
show-degraded, cowardly brutes
who stood off in safety watching them
die. Only two or three weeks ago
the police records of our own city
told an even more pitiable tale. A
father found his daughter in an ille-
climate place, and strove by illegal
means to take her. out. She deiied
him, the courts sustained her, and she
went out gailys 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. aall aal sa3 10 yaiia0 i,aa msr
8 The most frightful fact in our so.
cial life faces US in these stories. It
is that there are W omen in this low
est deep who are not driven there by
want or cruelty, nor led there by. a
betrayed affection; women who have
been gently reared, educated, be-
loved, whose natures are so tainted
that they choose to 60 ont, like the
prodigal of old, from the homo 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
the records Of our divorce courts, the
foul gossip with which so.called
fashionable society reeks. not only in
this country, but England, give us an
appalling hint. 1t is useless to ignore
this fact. Neither the pulpit nor the
press, if they mean to help at all in
the work of lettering our social life,
ought to ignore the fact that certain
portion of American and English SO.
ciety is rapidly becoming as licentious
as that of Paris.
i Who is to blame for it? Not hu.
man nature. Women and men are
| born as pure as they We're genera
ton ago Not Christ's religion. His
hand is as strong to save the Magda
| len in the streets of New York as il
Jerusalem. 1t is the mothers who
are to blame. Mothers in the fash.
ionable society in the cities, and If
that society which feebly apes tn,
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," tina
most vulgar of words and things, ha.
done as much to corrupt the womer
of America as liquor has. Not onl,
was it the cause Of our fnancia
downfall, but modesty, honesty, ant
decency are sacrificed to it. Fashion
now publishes even the rules fol
"tirst communion dresses," and set.
forth the pipings and couture in which
an innocent girl may properly ap
proach her God. There is nothing
so holy that it is not made subservi
ent to it. 1t is not the wealthy moth
er alone who vitiates her child'
mind by this worship of folly, but tn,
mechanics wife, the poor seam stress
whose aim is to "push her daughter
into society,"" to. give her stylish
dresses instead of a modest heart,
clean mind and a God-fearing soul
The moral training which such moth
ers neglect is supplied by hot-presset
sensational Juvenile. literature, ant
the reports of foul scandals in tn,
daily newspapers. Listen to th,
precious gossip of the Haunting over
dressed schoolgirls who parade tn,
streets on a holiday. and the trag
edies in Philadelphia and New Yorl
which we have mentioned will no
seem strange sequel to such train
ing. a
1t is but to a certain portion of oul
society that these truths apply, ani
that the smallest. The great obscur,
mass of American women are honor
able, chaste and modest. In the ma
Ijority of our homes there are common