Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-03-27
For The HERALD.
A PLEA FOR MORALITY.

Ut HE HERALD.
APLEA FOR MORALITY.
While we beg for those with plenty,
and for those we know not WHO, we
will not forget our little barefoot !;
there are heather nearer home
Messrs. Editors, the above lines very
aptly fit the situation in this county,
especially in this locality. 1t may be
that it is useless to call on the good
people of this county to take into con-
sideration the loose state of society
existing here. Do they realize that
right here in their very homes they
are permitting and encouraging the
growth of a vice which must if not
checked carry all to ruin? Nothing
but the public good calls forth this
letter, and is there no way to counter
act this evil. We can not call on the
law, because it has grown up under
the law shall we call on the church !;
the crime is too revolving for the sa-
cred desk, and to whom then shall we
go. Shall we appeal to the good peo-
pie at large they will shrug their
shoulders, suiile and pass on. Posi-
bly, we might ask the Women's Chris
tian Association, but their object
seems to be to reform the men, save
them from intemperance, while hum
dreds of their sisters are leading lives
of open shame, and are running our
boys before they are halfgrown. Will
you visit some ofthese people in their
homes At different houses we find
young women raising families of
children and no two of them having
the same father; and unblushingly
they will say that one is such ones
child, don't he or she look like
him. In strip of country not two
miles wide nor five long, 80 illegiti-
mate children are now living, and God
above only knows how many more
there might have been. Whole fami-
lies in this community who openly
boast of their shame. In some of them
the daughter and the mother both
nursing at the same time and nei-
Their married. Let no one here cry
out against Utah and its vices; and
can they exist without dragging us all
down into its fearful depth. Now and
then somebody's daughter is unfOrtu-
nate /; she is pitied or laughed at as
the case may be, and the pious peo-
pie when they meet her, draw their
cloaks around them and thank the
Lord they are not like her. And how
do they treat him who accomplished
her ruin =; is he stunned as the leper
All no; your doors are ever open to
him. Whose crime is the greatest,
that of some insane brute like Burns,
who let his passions drive him
where they would, or the fiend who
puts on the garb of an Angel, who
spends months and even years in
warming his way into the affections
and love of some young and trusting
heart; safes his base passions and de-
serts her to the worlds frown; for
her living death; for him the hero
of the hour.
When his victim is of the better
class. for like death it goes into the
palaces of the rich as we'll as the hoy
els of the poor, then the story is quick
ly hushed, forced marriage or leav-
ing till the storm is over. These are
facts and ! dare any one to gain say
them. Who is responsible? / know
not. How to remedy it, know not ;
but can we permit this state of things
to exist and call ourselves by the name
ofChristians; is there no remedy can
we permit the almshouse to be used as
lying in hospital for this class of
Outcasts has the County Court the
right to levy taxes on us to support
this class of people. Could not some
means be devised by which the virtu.
Gus poor could be helped and the vi
cious punished. How would it do to
publish list every month, of those
who receive county support. How
would it do to require every single
woman with child who applies for
aid or room at the almshouse to swear
who is the father of her child. How
would it do to apply the boycott sys-
tenn, to all who continue to live in vice.
What must be the feelings of an in
telligent man, who is the father of
some of thes unfortunate waits, to see
their own sons and daughters flor are
they not as much their own flesh and
blood as fthey had been born in mat
rimony,) growing up to follow in the
foot steps of their parents. Can q
human being plan out worse pun
ishment for one of these men than to
see his own daughters, whom he dare
not claim, growing upsurely to follow
in the footsteps OF her mother. These
children of shame should be taken by
law from out of the :ustful homes and
removed to where they would at least
have chance to grow up and become
useful men and women. At some
other time may detail these state
ments in more plain way to-day
my object is to call the attention of
the Courts to these crimes; to ask the
mothers of this country to keep strict
watch of those who are entrusted to
their care to see that they are not
allowed to even walk in the tempter's
way to call on the clergy to walk out
and mingle with the world and see if
there are no heather here; to call on
the press to open its columns to those
who can provide a remedy. To one
and all we say, dare to have the cou-
rage to look around in your neighbour
hood and see whether this vice does
not ruin more than liquor; if there is
a remedy, let it be applied If none,
provide one. HoME FIRsT.