San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-07-07
WHO MAY THROW STONES.

i
Springs, on last Wednesday, makes a
savage attack upon the police, upon
the proprietor of the Springs, and
upon those that are denounced as
"public women of the town" by the
reporter. These women, we are told,
Glanced in the inner circle and
shared the pleasure equally with the
innocent maiden whom she Jared
against in the waltz" For permitting
this the Springs proprietor and the
police are denounced. The LIGHT has
no defence to offer for immortality or
indecency, now nor ever. No excuse
to plead for those who forgetting their
womanhood are beyond the pale of re-
spectacle society, so called. 1t does
insist, however, that even these
women have some rights, and cannot
consider it either necessary or manly
to write these women out of practical
existence and consign them to a life
absolutely sequestered from all hui
man association outside of their own
sisterhood and the men of vicious
tastes by whom that sisterhood is sup
ported. If these women were, as the
reporter says, "flaunting their vile
VOCATION" it was manifestly the duty
of the police to put stop to such
work and remove the guilty parties.
But the animus of the offence seems
to have been in their presence in the
dancing pavilion. That it is unpleas-
ant to come into contact with disagree
able people and things is true
enough, but how is this thing to be
avoided in a public place. Grant that
there are restrictions by ordinances,
and that such restrictions would drive
these women from the light of day, is
there any justice in this thing, so long
as the men who make this fallen sis
terhood and support it are not also
ostracised from society. How much
more will these innocent maidens and
respectable married women, in whose
behalf the reporter writes, be con-
taminated by brushing against dis
reputable woman in waltz, than by
whirling through that waltz in the
arms of man who is secretly the as
sociate of the woman thus despised.
1t is too much the fashion to despise
and damn the woman who suffers and
court the man through whom she has
lost her hold on womanly purity. So
long as people behave themselves in
public places, so long should they be
permitted to assemble in public places
and any offences against decency and
propriety should be promptly and Sc
verely punished. 1t is not the busi-
ness of the police to make inquisition
into the secret things of life. If so,
many respectables would be branded
as disreputables. The public officers
have only to do with public conduct,
and so long as that public conduct
does not offend it gives no offence and
should not be subjected to punishment.
The LIGHT deprecates the evils of So
ciety. 1t does not believe that de-
nouncing women for that which is
condoned in men is just, fair, manly
or humane. 1t would not punish a
man or woman for appearing in public
if their public conduct was without Of
fence, simply because the private life
of that man or that woman was a sin
against social regulations.
THE Times declared Harrison a
clean man when it thought there was
no chance of his nomination. Now,
that it is scared out of years growth
by the prospect of democratic defeat
it speaks of the "gallOws of his ances-
tors" The devil must have smiled
with derision when that column edi-
torial of the Times was scanned in
hafieS