The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1893-11-17

mover refused admittance to my house
to any band of alleged reiormers who
have expressed desire to talk to and
plead with the girls. But such raids, ii
well intended, are misdirscled. Ii they
emanate from idle curiositY-and this
think IS usually the case-they are re-
prehensible and disgrace to the men
and women who undertake such expe.
ditions. People who could not appre.
Ciate the beauties OF the art exhibit at
Jackson park find certain enjoyment
in viewing the freaks at dime museum.
In the same way society women and
alleged reiormers visit the Dagnio9.
They come primarily TO see freaks,
monsters in depFayity, and they so
away witn-well, their abnormal Curl
osity gratitied.
Are such enterprises laudabIe?
Would it not be better Tor the men and
women TO direct their work, ii such
efforts could be digniied with the word
work, on the line OF prevention But
they won't do that. The woman who
would 90 out oil her way to make slum-
ming tour would never seek those likely
to err>ond safeguard them from cor
ruption. The minister who makes per-
iodic trips under police protection
through the levee would never think OF
making Investigations nearer at home
without police protection. where he
could do some good. That would be
shorn OF the element OF notoriety and
novelty.
ROOT OUT THE EVIL
believing houses OF iit.iame neees-
sary evil YOU would then"
"License them and restrict prostitu-
ton as much as possible. Put the
houses in certain districts and break up
all the honscs running without author
ity. As vas pointed out in the Nal
yesterday, asslglation houses, disrepu-.
table hotels ana stroet.walklng are
evils in comparison with which the
out.and-out bagnios in the leyees are
OF small moment. 1t il in these places
that courtesans are made. Let Mr..
Stead keep out OF the slums and hunt
out the worse places on the high
WAYS. Then the interests OF So
cial purity would be advanced, Tor
it is undeniably true that every
gIrl who eventually ends her way TO
houses OF ill-fame begins her career oil
shame under cover OF night in places
on respectable streets that to the world
are not off color. The whole battery OF
the reiormers should be directed against
these places. Destroy them and church
and state could well afford to let tue
proiessed inmates OF the house OF Ill.
fame live out to the end their lives of
shame and die in their degradation.
Let philanthropists waste no time in
trying to straighten crooked limbs that
are set in their defornity, or applying
caustic to an uCered leaf. Let them
rather get NJ the cause OF the evil.
"And right here want 10 say 4
word that perhaps is not new to re-
formers but that certainly is little re-
garded by them The people TO enlist
Sin the work OF reform are the fathers,
the husbands. the sons. especially the
fathers and husbands. While there are
girls IN penury and under careless sur
yeiiance they are subject to temptation.
Thousands OF women in Chicago are
yearly forced to choose between want
and dishonOr; others between Il life
shorn OF amusement, pleasure, and Il
life stained with dishonor but graced
with the pleasures that wealth III the
direction OF lust can furnish. 1t is 4
fact that 4 large majority OF girls tNl!
through the vaccinations al married
men. Its further fact that in very
large measure the houses oil i'll fame are
supported by married men. This
points to the impossibiliiy OF crushing
out the social evil by attacking the re-
sorts to which tho lost finally
DRIFT. Ii the church can not, after
ages OF effort, curb the passions OF men,
il seems to me futile for one, two or
dozen lay reformers to in0ugurate new
regime by raising Il hue and cry about
social degradation, pointing ont the
scarlet women as an object OF disgrace
and pity, making sporadic rnids in the
sums, and gaining thereby column or
two OF space in the daily newspapers |
repeat that behind every effect there
il cause. In the case Of prostitution
the real cause lies not in the gtrIl who
fall, but in the social conditions that
make the fall easy and the men VINO
tempt to the step and furnish the
money to support degradation after the
step has been taken. Before reform in
the levee is possible there must be re.
form in the home, on the mart. The
church has failed in j Is work there and
in consequence the reclaimers OF the
fallen in the house OF i'll lame must OF
necessity fail"
is THERE no HOPE?
"Is there then no hope for the girls?
Can they not be reached in some way
under existing circumstances aud con.
ditions?"
ut seems harsh statement that one
clip or dozen slips IN youth should OF
necessity entail life OF shame, but
facts in the main seem to warrant the
assertion. do not mean to say that
every woman who loses her virtue must
Of NECESSITY eventually land in house
ofill-iame. That would be contrary to
fact. So long as the cloak OF secrecy
can be used to cover up open shame
there seems to be little in the way OF re-
form ii the woman SO chooses. When
woman once prostitutes herself for hire,
however, there is temptation to follow
up the traffic on the slightest provoca.
ton. There is an old saying that there
are only two women in the world--the
virtuous woman and the courtesan,
The one will not swerve from honor and
purity for any consideration; the other,
having once swerved from the straight
path, and having nothing more to lose
in the way OF womanly dignity, needs
little solicitation 10 swerve again.
AZ. 4 ,,.N