Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-12-22
OUR LONDON LETTER.
LAWS FOR SUPPRESSION OF IMMo-
RALITY NOT ENFORCED
The Female Reformation Society and Other
Efforts-Mission Work for Saving
the Fallen, and the Results.
LONDON, November "a, 1888.

LONDON, November "a, 1883.
Previous illusions in my letters to the
enormous proportions assumed by the social
evil in this metropolis will no doubt have
whetted the appetite of your readers for
little information in regard to what is be-
ing done for the suppression of this evil.
The authorities are, apparently, doing
nothing. Wholesome laws exist, but no
attempt seems to be made to enforce them.
There are penalties prescribed for enticing
girls to an immoral life, yet this abomi-
nable traffic goes on unmolested, and thou
sands annually fall victims to it. 1t is a
misdemeanor for women to importune
men on the streets, but there are no prose-
cutions, though this is done openly by
vast army of depraved females, both at
night and in the glare of day. Publicans,
too, are liable to heavy fine for allowing
such women to remain any longer than is
necessary for them to obtain reasonable re.
freshments on premises licensed for the
sale of liquor; but few close their doors
against them, or restrict them as to the
time they shall stay or the quantity of
drink they may have, while in very many
cases such women, and the following they
bring, make up the bulk of the trade, the
police looking on, meanwhile, as though
they had DO interest in the matter. So
in regard to houses of prostitu-
ton. There are laws sufficient
to close every one of these,
but if there have been as many as half
dozen trials under these laws in the pres
ent year, a careful scutiny of the daily
press has failed to reveal this fact, and |
have the best grounds for saying that the
policy of the authorities, at this point as
at every other, appears to be to let this
evil alone.
But is nothing being done? Are there
none to protest against the fearful havoc
that ia being wrought upon seciety-none
to do battle for the purity OF youth
none to stretch out merciful hands for the
rescue of the perishing? Does the wall
that is going up from 10000 wretched
outcasts, most of whom continue bad be-
cause they see no chance to do better,
elicit no response? Does Christian Lon.
don, the capital of the foremost Christian
nation, turn a deaf ear to this cry OF
anguish, and leave her strsying children
with no place of refuge and no hope of
redemption but in the grave? 1t would
be awful indeed if she did, but the stu
alton is not quite that bad. Not all,
happily, are as Indifferent as the authori-
ties. The law is silent. but moral
suasion raises her pleading voice
-l,l,.+bro,1I 70
work. Quite out OF proportion to the
needs of the field are the efforts that are
being put forth, but it is pleasing to
know that if all is not being done that
might be- or that demands doing, at least
something is being done, and the hope OF
the writer is that the diffusion of informs-
ton on this subject may act as stimulus
to similar and even larger efforts in other
communities where the social evil, though
existing on a much smaller scale, is equally
blighting in its effects and just as difficult
to grapple with
The principal institutions in this me-
tropolis whose object is to lesson the cause
of prostitution and lift its victims into a
better life are the Female Preventive and
Reformatory Society, the Female Mission
to the Fallen, and the Midnight Meeting
Movement. All three have an identical
aim, though the first, as its title indicates,
makes a speciality of cases in which the
evil course has not been fully adopted,
but seems imminent owing to the poor
girls destitute condition or vicious sur
roundings. The large number of girls
who come from the country to seek work
in London and fail to find it, makes the
efforts of such society as this peculiarly
necessary and benefcent. Far removed
from friends, out of employment, without
food or shelter, and meeting at every turn
those who appear to have made
the sale of their virtue profitable, the
temptation that comes to the forlorn crea'
lures is very strong. Moreover, there are
always at hand those who are ready to put
the temptors suggestion into words and to
paint before the susceptible minds of this
class of girls hattering and deceitful
pictures of the pleasure of life of sin.
For these, Just ready to fall, so strongly
urged, almost driven, to take the fatal
leap, this society, whose motto Is that pre-
vention is better than cure, puts forth It's
best efforts, and some, through It's agency,
are saved. Another class which it seeks to
reach are those who have been betrayed
and deserted, and whose delicate needs
drive them for time into inhrmaries and
hospitals. Their illness over, these victims
of mans perfdy must go out again into the
world. Too weak to do hard work, and If
they could do it, too much disgraced IN the
ewes of society to obtain it, what is left for
such creatures but to seek to maintain
themselves and their offspring by minister
ing to the passions that have ruined them.
Often in such cases that most sacred of all
earthly affections, a mothers love for her
babe, is the strongest incentive to such
course. Bat the agents OF this society step
in, and few, though only few, are cared
for and given a new start in life. In all
twenty thousand young women and girls of
tender years have been helped by this in
stitution, and demands for aid come in at
the present time at the rate Of 400 annu-
ally.
The Female Mission to the Fallen is an
organization whose object Is to reclaim
women by the agency of women. Con-
sidering how cold and hard ladies Of re-
spectability usually are toward their less
fortunate sisters, such an organization
cannot be too highly commended, and,
possibly, the growing power of this soci-
ETY. may mark the dawning of a new and
better era As regards the past, if mans
baseness has been the most potent factor
in bringing young girls to shame, surely
womau's cruelty in Withholding sym.
pathy and refusing help has quite as
much to answer for In keeping them in
that condition. Woman's responsibility
is greater than that of the opposite sex by
reason Of her greater influence in shaping
the rules of society and in view, also, of
the peculiar advantages she has over man
in approaching this class aud entering into
their feelings and wants. Happily, the
Female Mission to the Fallen recognizes
this fact, and makes women its chosen
agents IN carrying on a great work Of re-
form. Ladies OF the noblest character and
highest station in life are devoting them
selves to this cause, though the active
work is mostly done by female mission.
aries. The latter are each allotted to diff.
fereut districts, and the work Of each is
superintendent by committee. Thus the