The Monitor-register., 1896-04-24
Whose Daughter?

BY v. A. LEWIS, IN UNION SIGNAL.
Great aud awful truths of human life
and experience are set forth in mytholo-
gical form with increase not loss of power.
The legend of the Minotaur, half human
and half beast, the creation and product
of uu bridled passion which lives but to
destroy and devour. teaches plainly that
indulgence in gross passion always leads
to the production of savage, british aud
insatible appetite for more evil. The
periodic demand for the seven sous and
the seven daughters, as the price of the
deliverance Of the city of Athens from
destruction, emphasizes the truth that
the evil of this world is ever demanding
as it's tribute the son aud the daughters
of the land; while the voluntary offer of
Theseus to go as one of the victims with
the set purpose on his part to accomplish
the destruction of the destroyer, and his
grand success, declare the truth that
redemption is to be found in inspired and
self-sacrificing effort. Oar souls are
stirred within US as we imagine the agony
endured by the Athenians as they were
compelled to make selection from their
children and send a certain number from
time to time to a cruel death, and our
hearts do not cease to culver until the
sorrow of Athens is turned into joy as
they learn in the safe return Of Theseus
that the destroyer has been destroyed.
There exists in this land at the present
time a d~enonsten thousand times more
cruel and destructive thar the Mirotaur;
it is the demon of lic~entiousness. The
roll of lost ones in the land contains the
names Of daughters that have been
sacrificed by the ems of thousands. Nor
do they perish alone, for by the nature of
this evil the sons of the land perish with
them in the moral death. AS in the
Greek legend, the sons and the daugters
alike are demanded by the demon. This
fact is ignored by the multitude, as shown
in a discussion by a party of men. They
had been thrown together in the fellow.
ship Of several days travel, and after
talking of many other subjects began to
discuss the social evil. They laid down
as the foundation principle the necessity
of the evil arising from the physical
nature of man, and claimed that If
opportunity were not affoi ded men in
houses of ill fame for the qualification of
their passions, there would be no safety
for our daughters, as Inst and rape would,
as demons, ravage the land. They therefore
assumed that the only points to be con-
sidered in such a discussion were the
questions of SO regulating the evil that
it should be confined to one quarter of
the city and be prevented from thrusting
it's degrading presence and influence
among our homes. and that by efficient,
medical supervision and periodic exami-
nation and certificate and license, men
should be protected in the indulgence of
their passions and sin. Some of the party
quoted from their observation and ex-
perience Ia The cities of the Old World,
continental cities that as they claimed
had grown wise in experience with the
evil. They eulogizad the licensed quarters
Of those cities as being 50 safe under the
police Surveillance, thai a mar could enter
and lodge IN those places Of sin free from
danger of violence Or robbery as in the
most fashionable hotels, and farthers