The evening times., 1895-10-17
EVILS OF LEGALIzED VICE.
Mrs. Livermore Tells the Purity
Congress Of Its Effect in Europe.
Interesting aud Thoughtful Address
on Methods of RemedyiDg Them
in the New World.

Baltimore, Oct. 17.-Mrs. Mary a. Liver
more, of Boston, who gained Il national
reputation during the civil war as an
active worker in the sanitary Commissions,
and has since lectured all over America
on woman suffrage and other questions.
made an address TO the National Purity
Congress last evening, in which she drew
some interesting comparisons between the
morality of the old and the new worlds.
ANY one who has passed much time in
Europe" she said, ''cannot help having
noticed the baneful effects OF the state
regulation of vice. have seen So much OF
IL and its effects that Ii seems to me there
is nothing more horrible, more to be
dreaded than its Introduction in America.
III woman walks uloB.: the streets Of
Paris, even Ii accompanied by her husband,
she is insulted by Il majority Of the eyes
Of the men that pass her. @
Their expression is unmistakablc, and
many time my husband has clinchcd his
fist and said that il would give him
exquisite pleasure to punch an offending
mans head.
The reason for such a state OF affairs is
simply that women are put below par by
the universal regulation Of prostitution.
Dealing in this vice is put on level with
the sale of dry goods cereals or other mar
ketablc commodities. The law is made
in such way that man, and not woman,
gets the advantage. Its aim is to make life
safe for man only. And they feel that, too.
They look upon women as their prey.
do We want that SORT OF thing in Amer
lea, where the women are free and the
young girls 60 in and out unattended, and
yetin perfect safety? They are safe because
they are under the protection of the Ameri-
can man. And there is no other man like the
Afftn . "i.lfA
to in the future, her best protection must
always he i'll the heart of man.
''Do we want vice regulated here? can
not think OF anything more dcplOrabl6 for
America, and I would rather die than see
it brought here
THUS far We have been saved, but this
congress for purity was not called n whittoo
soon. We have heard the claims of certain
class OF men that their morals shall he just
where they choose TO put them, while they
put the standard of women up so high that
angels can scarcely live up to it. That is
why say this congress is needed. Let the
decent, chaste, highly moral, God-fearing.
law-abiding people speak out their dcnuncia-
iion Of this horrible immortality that is
;tlring 20 plant its colors on our shore.
II have had an experience of many years
in rcsciing fallen women, and 1t is my be-
lief that even if ther' is reformation in these
cases it is not possible to forget the past.
Those who have fallen ca never regain their
pure, white souls, You know what n glor-
ious work John Il. Cough did for temperance
after he had given up drink. Well, he told
me that often when he was speaking from
the plat n ribald Jest, au oath, n bad
story which he had heard in some saloon
years before would come TO his lips and he
would almost cry it out to the crowd listen
ing to him.
what we need most Of all to establish is
one standard of morality for both sexes. L
think women are much to blame for the
erection OF this double standa rd which now
prevails. Sweet women have said 10 me,
: You can't expect young men To be lis care
ful as young girls do expect it. / more
than expect 1t: demand it. / don't believe
boys would De impure II they were properly
traiued at home by their mothers.
II marvel at the way mothers let their
young girls 'scoot' about in large cities
after dark. Ihave often seen two or three
Of them Oh the street, gaily dressed, laugh
ing, and making fun among themselves, but
theattentiono fthc hunters
Of human souls. / wonder If the mothers !
are not fools to think that their daughters |
AN run loose without coming TO ruin. This |
subject used TO worry Wendall Phillips so |
that he wanted a Ia W passed forbidding boys |
and girls below certain age from being on |
the streets after a certain hour"