River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-02-22
SIN STRICKEN WOMEN.


Lack of Proper Mental Education
And Character Making.
From the Chicago Herald.
There are few citizens of Chicago who
have not pondered very seriously of late
over the strangely frequent disap-
pearances of young girls from their
homes. Men ask themselves what it
means. Isthere anything, can there be
anything, in the theory sometimes put
| forward that horrors take an epidemic
form? A Herald man had been trying
| for DAYS to find some solution of the
mystery. He could arrive at none.
Think oft as intensely as he would he
was baffled everywhere. and finally
abandoning all idea of being able to
come to any definite conclusion, he re-
solved to call in help. 1.-TWO heads are
better than one, was the original re-
| Fiction and he would take an older and
wiser one than his own into his counsels.
But who could throw light on this subject?
He remembered something said to him
| about a cognate matter not long
ago by philanthropic and rejecting
| lady. 1t was: "When woman makesu up
| her mind to be bad, she will be, and
| nothing will stop her." Doubtless this
was true, but it did not explain much,
and if the lady were asked for an opin-
| ion again, it was ten to one that she
] would not say anything more explicit.
| Women rarely help one to analyZe;
| Their perceptions are keen, their SYM
pathes are tender, and they go plump
| to a conclusion that in nine cases out of
| ten will be found correct; but they
seldom can explain how they reach it.
| Partly for this reason, and partly forthe
extremely delicate nature of tn sub
iect, the reporter decided to apply to
one of his own sex. Here. he found
himselfconfronted with anotha ar difficult
ty, for was he not himself an example Of
| the ignorance of his sex? However,
he had made up his mind to do some
thing, and as it occurred to him that the
police might help him, he decided that
| he would talk to some experienced de-
| tective.
| 1t was easy to carry out this determin-
alton, and so but short time elapsed
| before he found himself in the company
| of one of the best posted men in the
| city, oil who.n he asked:
"What is the meaning Of all these
| scandals in every walk of life? Why
have so MANY girls gone wrong lately?"
The detective looked at him closely,
/ and then he answered, much as the lady
alluded to have done, but decidedly
| more forcibly, 'CussednessW
tNo that won't do. HCussedness' is all
very well, but why is there so much of it
| Just now?"
Don't know, unless it's the comet"
"But isn't it singular that there should
! be so much voluntary wrong-d ping by
| girls whose training would lead one to
expect nothing but good from them?'
| cit is, but how can | explain it? 1t is
| not like the smallpox or the typhoid fe-
| yer. You can find out their causes and
| remove them, bnt this is case of human
nature, and don't profess to be able TO
| explain why a man or woman does this
or that thing"
| 81 thought that your experience might
have enabled you TO come to some gen.
eral conclusions"
| "No. l deal with what l end, and
| have no time to trace motives. / will
| tell you something, though. There was
| a case reported in your paper few days
| ago One of your men found a girl up
| in Wisconsin who said she was seduced
| and taken there. and she talked very
nicely to him about her grief and her
| desire to come back home. Well, some
one worked up the case here-hunted
| up the girls parents, and wrote up the
| story-and then there was an end to it.
| Now, do you know what the end of that
| case WASP"
Eyes; her father brought her home,
| and she was sent to the House of Good
| Shepherd"
''That's right; now will go on. That
| girl, young as she was, couldn't be con
| trolled. She has given her folks no end
| of trouble-no end of it. There was
something about her. / don't remem-
Der just what, but something of the same
sort, quite while ago. Do you suppose
her father would have her sent to the
House of the Good Shepherd if there
had been any chance to reclaim her at
home? No sir. How that's what mean
by cussedness."
Evidently there was no help to be had
in that quarter, and so the reporter felt
constrained to abandon the inquiry. Still
the question haunted him. Like Ban,
duo's ghost, sit would not down." 1t
was not that before now young women
had gone wrong, nor was 1t difficult to
| fall back on the solution that linen were
deceivers ever" but something moro
was desired. Why should there be an
epidemic of that particular sort just now!
| When, but a short time ago, the sand
| Dagger pursued his calling in our streets
without let or hindrance, Chicago's best
mavor settled the question with the shrug
of the shoulders and the stententious as
sertion, ''workmen out of JOB" No
such solution is at hand in the present
case. 1t scarcely complexities the inquiry
but it undoubtedly does add to its interest
to know that among the frequent cases
are to be found those ofgirls born at the
| top of the social ladder, as well as others
of humble percentage.
Now, setting out with the assumption
| that human nature has not undergone a
change, and that men are no more vici-
Gus nor women any more weak, than
| they were in days gone by, there re-
mains the fact, attested by the dispatches
In every morning paper, and by the
| published stories of what takes places
| in the city itself, that our girls do go
| astray more often than of old. Now
and then a daily paper comments on
| this fact, and not infrequently the read
| err finds a leading idea reproduced by
| the several writer's. 1t is thus: That
our systems of home training and of
education are responsible't to a very large
| degree for calamities OF this kind. is
| this true? The Questlonis one ofinflnlte
Importance, for it affects the peace OF
| hearth and home, to secure and MAIN
tain which every form of government
| from national to municipal, and every
1 law enacted since the settlement Of the
| country, was devised. Tt is the home
around which everything else revolyes.
| II will hardly be disputed that the
youth of both sexes are freed from pa
rental restraint too soon. Girls and
| boys take on the manners of men and
| women at time when they should be
| under the watchful care of thoughtful
parents Undoubtedly this tends to the
| encouragement of ideas to which they
| should be strangers; and when an idea
| is formed, desire created, in the UNI
trained mind, who is to predict the con-
sequence? Let it be supposed that the
| desire is sinful--in short, not to lnince
matters, that it is the very one under
| consideration The young GIRL, accus-
| toned to think and to act for herself,
| too much at liberty to chose her own as
sociates, too often goes astray. Some
! one has said i'll discussing the various
| phases of our social life, that we are ir-
retrievably committed to this freedoms
| which it is claimed is responsible for
| such deplorable results. But is this
really the case? If the charge that he
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