New-York tribune., 1888-03-25
A DEMURRER,

Society has been busily asking itself during
the last week whether it is open to the grave
indictment lately preferred against it by one
of its favorite preachers. Is it true that mod
ern society in general, and especially that OF
this rich, luxurious capital. is degenerating
Is it true that this is to be seen in the most
odiOus Of all tendencics-that personal purity
is less common than it was that lack of virtue
is tolerated in women and in men, that young
girls are in the habit of listening TO broad
stories and unelean gossip that modesty and
chastity are openly ridiculed? This is a mild
version of the charges made, and it is not SUR
prising that the preacher who uttered them
finds he has made sensation which the most
sensational preacher might have sighed for in
vain.
1t seems to us that the mere statement Of
these things is their best refutation. Every
practical man and woman. whether believer or
sceptic must know that this picture Of our
society is exaggerated and misleading-thc
product of Imagination rather than Obscrva-
ton. II is, we venture to believe, not one Of
society as the preacher has seen it, but as he
thinks it must be. Ii is like huge skeleton
reconstructed in the closet from few bones
but unlike such work when done by skilled
hand it varies grotesquely from the original.
Persons who have seen many phases Of the So
ciety Of New York will wonder why they have
never happened TO find this strange region
where men have no respect for women, where
women expect and encourage the familiarity
that breeds worse things than contempt, where
license in word and act makes an atmosphere
in which the undue consciousness of sex and
the lack of mOdesty and purity arc so marked
that even the slumbers of g the silly girl" who
is dreaming of her admirers are mchaste."
This must long remain to many OF us an un-
discovered country, for, in Our opinion, it does
not exist.
There arc evils enough TO keep the preacher
busy, and the satirist, too, whose sermons are
by no means the least useful. Many of these
are no doubt the product of the time-the
natural outgrowth OF our crude civilization
The passion to be rich is one of the chief and
the parent of scores of them. There are vices
and weaknesses in plenty. But the reader of
the "Potiphar Papers, not to go so far back
as "Vanity Fair" will be apt to conclude that
the principal change in society IS, that it is not
so vulgar as il was once. The story of its fail
ings promises to be pitched In much the same
key, so long as poor human nature continues
fallible. Many Of us, however, thought we
saw signs of higher tone in the very field
touched upon The movement for personal
purity among men with direct reference to dis
couraging profanity and loose jesting certain
" does not indicate lowering of the stand
ards of society, but rather quickening Of
conscience upon minor offences which, though
always deprecated. would not have been made
The subjects Of organized effort in the past gen.
Grafton. This movement has attained enough
strength, both in England and America, to be
counted as one of the signs of the times. So,
too, with drunkenness. When this abounds
ether personal vices flourish But by common
consent intemperance has declined greatly.
Manners have changed somewhat, and, the
gentlemen of the old school think, for tho
worse. Women live broader life than for
merly, are thrown moro with men, join in their
sports, and even initiate their dress. From
this has resulted q freedom Of manners. which