San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-04-20
FEMALE PURITY AND ITS IMPOR-
LANCE TO SOCIETY.


sermon against personal impurity In
women, was as seasonsble as 1t was
necessary, and should be Zealously
pushed forward and supported by every
lover Of the welfare and glory OF the
country. While the number OF avOwed
prostitutes Ia becoming portentous, the
fact is past doubt thar they do not con-
stitute even the half of the unchaste
women in any city In the union. God
knows. the avowed and unblushing
prostitutes do inoalculable harm to 80
ciety, and annually ruin thousands OF
men, but they do not come into contact
with respectable women and for that
reesOn, are debarred from eXerting q
corrupting influence on them. They
exert q corrupting and debasing in
fiuence on every woman with whom they
come in contact. They are fast in their
manners and loose in their con versation.
The flavor OF Woe Is about their man
ners and their conversation, their dress
and their motions are lascivious, and
they are insidi0usly corrupting to the
women who associate with them.
Every unchsste woman is inclined to
pursue the course OF the fox In the fable,
that had the misfortune to have his tall
shipped of by trap he endeavored to
persuade all the other foxes, that tails
were neither ornamental nor useful, but
actually nuisances, and that they ought
to get rid of their tails, and unchasre
women want all women to be like they
are. a. then, they would have none to
the avowed prostitute and the unchaste
into assignation houses, the former
"a
really the more respectable OF the two,
since she does not sail under false oOlors
and play the hypoorite. The prostitute
would reform, II she could only have .
reasonable chance to do so; never will
believe that any woman can be so total
ly brutalized and stepped In vice and
immortality az to be in love with degra-
dalton and infamy and to prefer them to
q decent life. The unchaste woman.
wearing the garb OF respectfully, il
usually a wife and q mother, and ruins
the lives of both husband and children
as we'll as consigns herself to the abyss
of personal, social and moral degrade
ton. 1t Ia only short step from the as
signation house TO the brOthel, from the
lover to prOmiscuous prostitution, and
ninety-nine unchaste women out OF
every hundred take this fatal step, and
strip of humanity, and descend 10 the
level of brutes. nay, sink lower than the
beasts Of the field.
1t behoOves society to maintain the
standard Of respectability, unimpaired,
by causing 1t to be fully understood that
the women, passing current in its circle,
must be, like Caesar said his wife must
be, not only chaste, but above suspicion
of being impure. Fast manners must be
made contrabsnd of respectable society,
for fast manners invite and challenge
dishOnorable advances from libertines.
Then, respectable society must demand,
that married women depOrt themselves
as virtuous married women always do
with decorum and prOpriety, stunning
the very appearance of evil and avoiding
everything likely to cast doubt upon
her character for chastity. or course,
it looks suspicious to see married wo-
man In the vicinity of an assignation
house, or to see her taking frequent
buggy rides with man who is not her
husband. or meeting a particular man,
almost daily, on the streets, and having
him walk home with her, or receiving
the visits Of men at her home in the alb
sence of her husband, is conduct so in
discreet and equivocal as to demand the
Of society.
The married woman who listens to
of love from the lips of
any man, single or married, is q Own
right fool-a 7fool positive" inasmuch
az she is bound to know two facts:
FIRST, that she herself Is not at liberty 70
listen to such vows Of love, and second
ly, that such vows are made upon the
that she is unchaste and
ready to yield to solicitations suppo-
sition that should fill her with humilia-
ton and shame. No man in his right
senses will make love to a married wo-
man uuieos she has by her fast manners,
equivocal hints or lasCiVious looks, or
indiscreet conduct, invited him to treat
her as faithless wife and an unohaste
woman. The same rule applies to
vows Of love from the lips OF u
married man to single woman. Sin
cere love means readiness to marry
the object of it, and for that reason,
declaration OF love is invariably accom-
panied by an offer Of marriage. What
then is the purport and meaning Of vows
of love breathed into the ears of mar
ried woman? Not marriage; since she Ia
not free to contract marriage. 1t means
then, that she Ia unohaste. and the man
making love to her, is libertine, will
ing to ruin and degr sde her, socially and
to crafty his caprice; and the
utterance Of such VOWS to her, says to
her: Pause, you are on the brink of
frightful precipice, II you 60 forward,
you will be ruined and degraded too
deeply ever to be reached by the hand Of
The purity of woman gives sap and
vigor to society. 1t Ia the bed rock Of
good morals and of private and public
welfare. If is the nursery Of truthful