The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1885-07-18

There are sad mysteries under the sur
face of this gay world, lives over which
the very shadow of death continuously
throws itself. The day is short for US
all, but for some it will be a pleasant
thought when we turn our last look upon
our own that we have eased few aching
hearts and brought peace and new hope
to the dark lives of some whom men had
forgotten or cast out.
CRIME AND vAGRANCY.
Experience shows that often numbers
of these poor children are sv i'll clothed,
SO destitute that they are ashamed to
peep in the door of church even, still
more to attend a school. Those who rec
ognize the authority of mother are
either compelled to beg or to live on the
street. From the ranks of these chill
dren our low dance houses are recruited.
The more attractive of them are led with
out much temptation to the higher planes
of degrading existence. The life of a
rag picker, a garbage seeker in the streets
soon weals off girls modesty and pre-
pares her for worse occupation.
Men who 60 from cabin to cabin, who
seek out every cellar and take in tene-
ment houses, who stand at sickbeds and
deathbeds administering consolation and
advice, are discouraged by features they
encounter at every turn. and they know
not what to do. They become accustom-
ed to scenes of misery, and houses of
mourning are more natural to them than
houses of feasting. What are we to ex-
pect OF children born in paternal
piggeries, who live in damp, dark base
ments, half starved, wretchedly poor
Our authorities have done something, our
industrial schools have done much, but
the rock upon which they all run, around
which they can find no path. over which
they can't climb, is the solid, unques-
toned fact that of these vagrant girls, a
large majority, sooner or later, find them
selves in the sink of physical disaster
and moral death.
WHAT THE LAW CAN DO.
The merely philosophical inquirer, OF
even the physician regarding humanity
in worldly way, comes naturally to the
conclusion that this offense is one of the
inevitable evils which always have fol.
lowed, and always will follow, the track
of civilization; that it is to be looked
upon, like smallpox or scarlet fever, as
disease of civilized man, and is to be
treated accordingly, by:physical and sci
entific means, aud must be controlled, a.
it cannot be uprooted, by legislation. o.
| they regard it as they do intox ication, a!
the effect of a INSTRUCTED natural desire
which is everywhere thought to be
legitimate object both of permission o.
recognition by government, as we'll as O
check by rigid laws. If medical men
t ttiics n minds are almost exclusively direct
ed toward the frightful effects 1 a: So society
and upon the innocent of disease. They
see that legislation would at once check
the ravages from these terrible maladies,
and that a system of licenses such as is
practiced in continental cities would pre-
vent them from spreading through socie-
ty and furnishing those who had never
sinned.
AS scientific healers of human maladles,
they feel that anything is gain which
lessons human suffering, controls disease
and keeps up the general health of the
community. Their position, too, has
been strengthened by the foolish and
superstitious Arguments of their oppo-
nents. 1t has Been claimed that some
| disorders are peculiar and supernatural
punishment for sin and wrong doing;
that by intel fering with their Legitimate
action on the guilty we presume to de-
minish the punishments inflicted by the
| Almighty; and in so far as we cure OF
restrain these diseases, we lessen one
great law which nature and Providence
have placed before the infraction of the
law VI FHIue. uc IueulCdl HAL, now
ever, replies very pertinently that he has
nothing to do with the Divine law; that
his business is to cure human diseases
and lessen human suffering wherever he
finds them; and that govt, or rheumatism,
or diphtheria, or scarlet fever are as much
"punishments' as the diseases of vice.
THE MEDICAL MANS VIEWS.
If he refused to visit the patient when.
ever he thought that his sins had brought
upon him his disease he would have very
little occupation, and mankind would re.
ceive very little alienation from the med.
ical art. Nor is he even called upon to
refuse to cure a patient who he knows
will Immediately begin again his evei
courses. The physician is not judge OF
an executioner. He has nothing to dc
but to cure and alleviate. Influenced by