The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-06-15
A Grave Question.

A Grave Question.
A good deal of attention has been be-
slowed by &oralists upon the Cramer
girl, but there is another party whose
moral ruin is involved, the Malley boy
or boys. Their moral delinquency
seems to be skipped or accepted as a
matter of course. But in fact, licentious-
ness is just as immoral for boys and men
as for girls and women, and burns in the
same brand. Society may not punish
them with equal severity. though it is
not yet true in New England that young
men of known prohigacy retain social
favor, unless it be III Boston. The
Malleys themselves illustrate this. They
were no part of respectable social life in
New Haven, Notwithstanding their
wealth: they were disqualified not by
race, but by the general low tone of
their lives. But profigacy is not con-
fined to young men of their type; it
takes hold of the well-bred, the we'll
educated, the young men Of promise in
every walk in life. 1t blossoms out
years after in the Howgates and Mus
graves who have betrayed great trusts in
order to get the wherewithal to feed
pampered lusts. Retribution may not
be so swift and so terrible for man as
for woman, but it is no less certain in
the end.
In discussing the case of the girl, we
drew the moral that mothers and daugh-
ters should have more lively compre-
hension of the liability of the average
man to give<way to temptation and OPP
portunity. So as to boys, no duty is
more incumbent upon parents than to
bring them up to the restraints of chas.
tity. Chief among the influences to that
end, we reckon a full knowledge of the
mystery of being, reverently communi-
Gated from the parents own lips, before
others have had chance to communi-
cate it filthy. Such knowledge re-
moves all prurient curiosity early, and
impresses upon the young mind the seal
of sanctity touching such matters, which
| it will not allow to be broken in wanton-
ness. A clergyman who drew the atten-
ton of parents to this matter in a SER
mon was met in the aisle by good
mother who upbraided him with the
trouble she should now have in answer
ing little Johnny's questions. "Well,"
said he, "Mrs. =, you ought to con-
gratulate yourself that they will lie an
swered from the pure lips of his
mother, and not by the boys in
the street." They will soon be
answered, depend upon it, and
the question is whether we shall make
our children's first impression of the sex
ual relations clear, correct and moral ,ex-
planning and justifying that profound
love of parent and child which is the
child's first emotion-or whether we
shall let it be garbled, mystical and, ig-
norant and foul-the first step in cor
rupti0n.
We observe that at mothers meet
ing" at the Mortified gathering, the
subiectwas discussed whether children
could understand the plan of salvation, y
and some told about the little boys they
had left at home, while they sang hymns
over the country. Do the mothers them
selves understand the plan of saliva
tion?' Do they understand, to begin
with, the plan of damnation? And is it
an entire defense against it, to bring up
child in Mr.. Moody's style of religion,
and expect him to go through life I'M
scathed, at the same time keeping him in
ignorance of the charge of dynamite
passions which have also been entrusted
to his care? We think it incumbent up
pom parents to teach children early the
dangerous side of their being. so that
they may pass the common school and
the high school in self-respecting and
other-respecting propriety of walk and
conversation. It is to boys the best
foundation of that chivalrous and de-
voted attitude toward women, which is
due to the mothers of the race, who i'm
peril their own lives that others may
live, and which Is one of the best ways
of insnring honorable relations with the
other sex Springfield Republican.