The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-07-18

tHelr IaIe was one OF the lowest OF It's
class; the men whom they chose as
friends belonged to a wretched negro
minstrel 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 illegitimate
place, and strove by illegal means to
take her out. She defied him. the
courts sustained her, and she went
out gaily from the court room with
vile companions, giggling at the dis
comfiture of the broken-heartal father
and brother, who stood with heads
bowed as they passed by.
The most frightful fact in our so.
clal 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, nor led there by be-
trayed affection; women who have
been gently reared, educated, beloved,
whose natures are so tainted that
they chose 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
courts, the foul gossip with which So
called Fashionable society 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 they mean to help at
all in the work of lettering our So
cial life, ought to ignore the fact that
a certain portion of American and
English society is rapidly becoming
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 Il generation ago.
Not Christ's religion. His hand is as
strong to save the Magdalen in the
streets of New York as of Jerusalem.
1t is the mothers who are to blame.
Mothers in the 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 daugh-
ters, from their birth. dress and show
and style as the sole gods they are to
follow. We venture TO say that
''style. the most vulgar of words
and Things, has done rs much to cor
/ rupt the women of America. as liquor
has. Not only WAS 1t the cause of
financial downfall. hit mOdeStV. hon
esty. and tieccncy are sacrificed to it..
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 is not made subservient
to it. 1t is not the wealthy mother
alone who vitiates her child 5 mind
by this worship of folly, but the me-
chanic's wife. the poor seamstress
whose aim is to push her daughter
in society, to give her stylish dresses
instead Of Il modest heart,a clear mind
and a God-fearlng soul. The moral
training which such mothers neglect
is supplied by hot-pressed juvenile lit
erature. and the reports of foul scan
dals in the daily newspapers. Listen
to the precious gossip of the Haunting
over-dressed schoolgirls who parade
the streets on holiday, and he trag-
edies in Philadelphia and New York
which we have mentioned will not
seem IA strange sequel to such train.
ing.
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 honor
able. chaste and modest. In the ma
jority of our homes there are common
sense and piety enough to give tawdry
display to 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 ma
jority larger or smaller YORK,
T'ribuHe.