The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-02-20
The Social Evil.

This hideous social leprosy is diff
cult to discuss, yet impossible to ignore;
unfit for publicity, tits yet so constantly
forced upon the attention of all, by the
fearful riot il runs in the blood OF hu-
manity, that to remain silent upon it is
to be recreant to duty. When we re-
fleet that the guilty are not the only
sufferers, and that the judgment against
this offense may be transmitted to the
third aud fourth generation, often baf-
fling the most careful medical treat
ment, we can realize family the magui-
tude Of the evil. The Woman's Journal,
always ready to speak for the right, how
ever disagreeable the task, few weeks
since urged the attention Of its readers
to the subject, in the following Ian
guage:
The fact that thousands Of women
are, in our cities and towns, ''aban-
doned" think what that word implies J
by all but theirown accomplices in vice,
to a brief and unnatural life of shame,
ending in a horrible death, is a stigma
upon our religion and blot upon our
civilization. No class Of men are in so
degraded and hopeless a situation.
While theOlogians are discussing the
reality aud permanence of future hell,
we have "A hell on earth, at our very
doors, in which lost spirits are in prison
without hope Of redemption. What
ever may be the misfortune or guilt Of a
male criminal, the door Of reform ever
stands open, but for these poor victims
of masculine lust there is no door Of es-
cape, and, when once within the fatal
enclosure, il is, with them, literally
starvation or the downward road 10 ruin.
Indeed, even this alternative is hardly
given them, for they are immured in
houses Of infamy, where they are
watched and confined by their Keepers
-plied with liquor, drUgged with OPT
ates. and in terror of their lives-thence
only TO be transferred TO the hospital on
their way TO the Potter's Field. No
tongue can tell, no pen record the shock
ing outrages, the nameless brutalities,
10 which these degraded women are sub
iected; for them law has no protection
and public opinion no pity. The police
are not the protectors of these Outcasts;
too often they are task masters or ac-
completes, levying blackmail upon the
wretches who make merchandise of
woman's misery.
In this uprisingof wOmauhOOd against
the injustice Of our institution to women,
should not one phrase of 1t be to devise
some plan whereby to save these most
pitiable Of slaves? At time when it
is proposed by men 10 ''license" prosti-
tuition. il is not sufficient that women
should oppose such infamous legislation
they should take measures 70 put an
end to q state OF things which makes
such legislation possible. The existence
of such class of women in society is a
standing insult to wOmanhOOdi per-
mapeut menace to domestic peace; q
pitfall OF danger to our sons and daugh-
tiers.
This is a work which men cannot do.
Charitable and devoted women now
spend much time, labor aud money in
reforming male inebriates; why should
not women give as much TO redeem
their sister women from a fate far worse
than drunkard's grave? There ought
to be in every city a refuge for fallen
women provided by good women, to
which every such unfortunate will be
welcomed, and by which she may have
the opportunity Of earning an honorable
self-support. But, while doing this
mueh-needed work, let women never
forget that suffrage, with the recognized
| equaity Of rights which IL alone can
cohier' Is the only radical cure for the
poor pay imperfect education and lin
/ iteG opportunities whice reduce women
10 degradation aud misery.