The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1883-01-11
Take Care Of Your DAUGHTERS.


There are certain crimes which
at times startle society and call
forth univer n condemnation,
which are but The outgrowth, the
fruitage of certain pernicious habits
of social life. These social habits
command but little attention until
they eliminate in their final issue.
And even then the popular mind is
not quick to see the relation of
cause and effect. Some one is
needed to point the moral and ap-
ply The lesson. A trial for murder
has just terminated in Virginia,
and terminated in the acquittal of
the murderer-many will think an
unjust acquittal-which properly
directs attention not only to crime,
but 20 the proximate and more re-
NOR causes of the crime. The sec
ular press is not Indifferent to the
morals Of such cases, which are
phenomenal. A young girl is en-
gagged to a young man, whose wife
she had consented to become. But
though engaged, so little sense of
-propriety-we may say of delicacy
and decency--had she, so little
sense Of what is. becoming in female
department, that she carried on a
correspondence with another man,
whom she confessed she believed to
be Of VIGOROUSLY bad character,
exchanging locks of hair and pho
tographs with him. This most
censurable and unwomanly conduct
on the girls part, led to the fool
hardy resort of a duel in which one
life was lost and another stained
with the crime of murder. True it
is, that no man should be willing
to risk his own life, or peril that of
another, for any woman so destitute
of true womanhood. But they all
evidently belonged to a class which
have no just sense of either manly
or womanly honor.
We know nothing of the ante ce-
dents Of the young sfools;., what
homes they may have had, what IA
theirs and mothers were theirs, and
whether they had been at all in
structed in the moral proprieties of
life. But there is, in many circles,
dangerous freedom allowed to
young girls in social intercour Sc
alike dangerous to the finer sensi-
bilities of the female heart, and the
respect which they ought to be
able to command. Many parents
allow their girls almost unrestricted
freedom Of intercourse, without
check and without instruction as to
the perils which surround them or
the proprieties they should main
tain. They may sometimes blame
them after indiscretion, but they
seldom counsel or caution them.
How is it possible that parent, a
mother especially, who is supposed
to know something of the perils of
girlhood can allow her young
daughter to be out at night any
where she may choose to fall, and
that mother knowing nothing of
where or with whom she may be.
All mothers are not of this kind.
But so many daughters are allowed
to run unmatched and unguarded,
that it is not strange abductions
and seductions and murders, injured
regulations and stained honors,
brokenhearts and dishonored homes
are the sad fruitage of these mis-
takes and blunders, both OF pa
rents and Of children. And even
if this class of daughters escape the
snares and pitfalls in their way,
they have by such free socis habits
of intercourse with men, so blunted
the delicate senses off propriety
which beautifiies the high minded
woman, that men of pure minds
and high honor do not wish to make
them their wives. The coquetries
of giTlhood work misfortune to wo-
On-parents, and more especially
on mothers, rest the responsibilities
Of the case. They can have no
more important work in life than
10 take care of their daughters.
Take care of them--not simply to
see that they have proper food and
,aiment, and education, but that
heir sentiments are rightly educa-
cd, their principles rightly formed,
md their characters so moulded as
o develop pure and noble woman
lOed.- Watch Tower.