The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1895-02-21
ARE OUR DAUGHTERS SAFE?
A Communication From Kenosha Lady,
Giving Her views Upon the Subject.

A Communication From Kenosha Lady,
Giving Her Views Upon the Subject.
Mr.. EDITOR:-Are our daughters
safe? We have been shown very clear
ly that they are not; and why not. 1t
is said that if they would take the
stand they should in regard to the
young men with whom they meet, not
receiving attentions from, nor thinking
of marriage with any whose lives have
not been white lives, the moral world
would be Immediately revolutionized.
But plainly ninety in a hundred must
remain single in that case. Still the
sacrifice is not too great if the results
could be assured. It seems then that
these endangered daughters hold in
their feeble grasp, the highest and
chief things Of life, and are responsible
for all human failure. That is the
view Adam took Of it, and that the
succeeding Adams, most of them, all
down the ages have held. The Wo-
man whom Thou gavest to be with me;
she did not withhold her favor from
me; even when | smirched my gar
ments III the pit. She even admired me
for my manly spirit, which | attested
by going down before the powers of
evil. And she is the woman whom
Thou gayest Lord, and of course when
she smiles, though canst not froWn,
Lord?"
Why does she smile? | believe there
is something to be said under this
head She is young usually and she is
vague in these matters. She has been
shielded, ~ kept innocent through ig
norance, by her loving parents;
through mistaken kindness (0, shall
we say ? She is slow, maybe, to be-
lleve the truth. The instruction which
she has received, if any, has been to
the effect lin majority Of the cases),
that, in the very nature Of things, boys
men will go q little wrong. Let
them SOW their wild oats; they will
come out all right | have evidence
that there are mothers in town, who
say in their hearts, and give voice to
the same, that sit isn't reasonable to
expect the same chastity of a man as Of
a woman" And why not, forsooth |?
These mothers are Christian and read
their bibles, et.wlth magnifying glass
es they cannot find that the moral law
was one iot modified for the man, be-
cause of his peculiar necessities. Has
God then asked too much of his lords
of creation? Is this belief, which even
the doctors can be bribed to wink at, a
relic of the barbarous days of nature
worship? when more than Five per
cent" of the men were i'll attendance.
The father. Il man old enough to
have q grown daughter, comprehends
some of her dangers. Presumably he
loves her, and Glove must manifest
ITSELF" but how in this case? Practi
cally by letting her take her chances,
as her mother did before her. Or, if
he protests, it is generally against an
individual, when his slow moving OBJ
servation has scented danger, but all
too late.
But am not too hasty? Has he not
protected her by law ? Yes, noble,
manly laws. There are sharpers in the
world. consequently girls are not com
petent to take charge Of their doWry OF
lands and moneyed interests not until
they are eighteen or twenty-one years
of age. But they may legally barter
their souls, that which is more precious
than houses or lands, yea, than life it
self, in some states at ten, in Wisconsin
at t0ilUe years of age. Where the age
of consent is higher, as in New York,
frequent attempts have been made to
lower it by our loving protectors, our
fathers, husbands, brothers. An at
tempt was made in the New York leg
islature as recently as 1892, this time
in the assembly, to lower the age OF
consent from sixteen to fourteen years.
A motion made to amend thus the
penal code was adopted by viva vOce
vote, and was about to be declared car
ried. when the chairman Of the iudic-
larry committee, realizing it's serious
import, called for the yeas and nays,
declaring that on such measure the
constituents of every member should
know how his vote was cast, and that
all should therefore go on record. By
this means the unworthy amendment
was effectually killed. How often the
heavenly record is lost sight of? If it
were not so, would not our daughters
be safe
1t is a suggestive fact that the tw0
states in which the age Of legal pro-
lection for girlhood has been raised to
eighteen years, are states in which
women vote. X.
Getting at the Profits.