The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-11-10


measures as too frequently result in
spreading the very evil they are de-
signed to destroy.
To BEGIN with. think vice in its
most Objectionable form is being sue
cessfully warred upon in the United
States. The evil is confined within
narrower limits and the wretched
creatures whose worldly gain is in the
moral degradation Of humanity are
not able to ply their trade, whatever it
be, in the open light of day-that is,
speaking generally. Men who work
actively for the suppression OF vice can
remember when the traffic in vicious
literature, in the tools of infamy and
raphcrnalia of wicl1edness was as
unrestrained as the apostle of evil him
self could wish. To-day all that is
changed. Since the organizations,
now established in all our large COM
munities to battle against every form
of human turpitude. began their work
a tremendous alteration in the sense of
communities themselves with refer
ence to social evils has been effected.
To-day men are not proud of being sim
ners. Literature that never was any
thing but the catechism of Satan is not
purveyed in public. Resorts in which
youth became old in sin. and whore
virtue was a synonym for contempt
IDLE weakness are not recognized Off
cially. Of course. we have not all be-
come saints in this republic. But we
have come to see that, merely from
the selfish point of view, it pays to
stamp out sin.
To say that youth of both sexes are
the easiest victims of Satan's propa-
gandists is merely a repetition Of
what all fathers and mothers ought to
know, although many of them act as
if they did not. have had occasion to
act in a case which is typical of the
interest every parent has in the sup
preston of vice One morning, hav-
ing boarded Summit train, L OBJ
served several young lads standing on
the platform of one of the cars A boy
il the group handed to another some
thing he had been reading-something
which it required no very experienced
eye to see was not Fit to be read.
Now look at that" said number two
to number one, fishing another pub
ication from his pocket and handing
it to his companion.
asked to see the occasion of this
byplay and was shown, Us antici-
pated. a most pernicions and filthy
specimen of English composition in
ho ch ~ taI
varieties of the same evil type were
handed me by the rest of the boys.
One of these youths was student in
New York lawyers Office, two others
went to school in Newark. made it my
business to visit that school and have a
private talk with every boy there,
whereupcn I discovered that all of
reading this pernicious matter. l fur
Their ascertained girls in that same in
stitution, whose ages ranged from
sixteen to nineteen years. were the
possessOrs of more of the stuff, two,
indeed, having made copies of it and
distributed the same among their COM
panions- These copies had been made
Ala tAAo oohooiAOOG udA ALS SCiAO0l hOulSt
In tracing up this matter it trans
pircd that young fellow of nineteen
had been supplying the school chill
dren with these polluting wares, and
from him it was learned that a girl
living in An elegant house had for
some time been acting as chief distrib-
utter. She in turn had got the things
fn1I<~xrv \,
manufacturing concern.
1t required one days active work in
Newark to get to the source of this
stream of evil The incident is typical
of too many cases. In the majority of
such incidents parents seem entirely
oblivious of the dangers to which their
offspring are exposed. and any work
done for the suppression of vice might
as well be accomplished in African
wilds for all interest they manifest.
Fortunately all fathers aad mothers
are not SO ueglectful.
Nor is the evil confined to one 1ocali-
ty. In New YORK; city young men in
booksellers shops have facilities for
propagating the germs of e-il, and in
III tOulOcT ft cases nave
taken advantage of the fact. Repro
auctions of ancient nastiness have
proved highly dangerous in this way.
What magic property there is in age
that renders an, article wicked centu-
ries ago virtuous, though classic. in
this nineteenth century is not easily
ascertainable to an ordinary mind. So
70. II a
that genius can render even sin desir-
able. 1t is Il curious commentary upon
this theory that the virtuous literature
which has descended to us through the
centuries is not nearly so much in de-
mand as the other variety.
Questionable advertisements are BY
no means the least OF the demoralizing
influences which suppressors of vice
have to contend with. The labor en-
tailed in ferreting out the gentry
whose revenue is derived thcrefrom is
always great. Chicago and the west
seem the places wherein this noxious
poison thrivcs. AN industry in degrad-
ing publications recently took root
there which foa a time threatened our
people with al inundasion OF immoral
ity more fearful than the black pest
itself With reference to such books /
have already had occasion to saw pub
licly that each edition of a question
able book stands by itself Because
one edition may he in violation OF law
there IS 10 reason for supposiug that
any other edition Is OF sliIle character
In other worUs we cauaot assume any
such condition 10 exisr5n the enforce
mcnt cs the law. This requires that
each eGi.Scu must be examined.