The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-06

| ieduerS lllaL IL WOulQ wash US Hdllub ol
 the scandalous Horos case. This also
 was the report of trial, the testimony | going to show that a man whose repu-
 tation was invilved had been seen in
 the wee small hours in the supper room
 of hotel, and later in certain West
 End club. The latter has since been | closed, but this particular hotel still ca | ters to this trade unmolested as many
 others do also, and the point of the tes- | timony was that in both places the
 crowd of women present were all of the
 demi-mundane class,
 | The prevalence of the social evil in | London, it's unblushing obtrusiveness,
 the attractive form it presents to those
 who see it on the streets, and the tol- erance with which it is treated by those
 in authority-who can doubt that these things are demoralizing not only to London life, but to the national life. In
 country no bigger than England what
 the capital is the provincial cities are likely to be, and the hamlets and vil-
 lages as well, to large extent There
 Is such thing as wickedness getting into the air, and it is the sad judg-
 meht of many high-minded Englishmen
 that this social vice, by it's infection of
 the moral atmosphere, is a greater
 menace to England than even the drink
 habit.
 There is no doubt that some of the
 peculiar social conditions of English
 life contribute to social evil. Amongst
 these is the caste spirit which makes 1t
 so easy for girls to be 1attered to the
 point of moral danger by the attentions
 of men who may be socially above
 them This influence is far greater
 here than in the United States, and 1t
 undoubte edly brings many poor Eng
 fish girl to shame. Another contribu-
 ting cause is the barmaid system, the
 evil Of which consists in the fact that
 girls who regularly serve men with li-
 quor and whose employment depends largely upon their popularity with men, are very liable, in spite of their best purposes, to become too familiar with the opposite sex for their own good And still another factor in this wide spread social demoralization is that such multitudes of English shop girls work on inadequate pay and in condi- tions which yield so little social com fort. Speaking, toe, of shops (stores we call them), it is theory of my own that the tempting window, displays of female finery have their influence for evil upon girls who are barely making a living. In American stores the lavish display is inside. Here it is chiefly in the windows, To all classes of women this show is ravishingly tempting, and ona aitya bot tn ryir VI In lowly stations, with no money for fine feathers, it may become tempting in a very sad way.
 Undoubtingly, though, the chief feed CT of social vice in London is the shameless and attractive obtrusiveness | of it's votaries and the tolerance with | which they are treated by the authori- | ties. What is big and strongly in | trenched Is likely, if left alone, to draw | recruits by the mere force of it's posi- | ton. Upon the magnitude of this vice | as 1t exists to-day some Illuminating | deliverances were made recently at a great congress of the Church of Eng land. Before distinguished audience which included the leading dignitaries of that church, Canon Jeff dealt with this delicate topic in a manner that was both frank and temperate. His calculation was that in the British Isles there were two hundred and forty thousand fallen women In London alone there were sixty thousand, he said, and the estimate was that there must be at least five times as many abandoned men in this city-some maintained ten times ac many-which would run up the male supporters of 1 -his evil in London to the astounding .otal of six hundred thousand. When )ne considers these figures, remember ng at the same time the assiduity with which these devotees of vice-the fe- nale portion of them at any rate--keep themselves in evidence daily and night y in all the great public centers, and low little they are interfered with by he police, one cannot help wondering what the end will be. There are alas many Englishmen who think and open y predict that the end cannot be other han utter social demoralization, issu- ng in national decay.
 All this is going forward in defiance if laws which, one would think, ought 0 prevent it. We extol England as aw-enforcing country, and in many re- poets she is worthy of our plaudits | The laws against crime she certainly nforces with enough vigor when the criminals are caught. But upon vice nd its votaries she looks with peculiar whether it be the social vice r drunkenness or gambling. She has
 peculiar sensitiveness toward the lib- rty of the subject, especially the fe- 1ale subject. Even in England the , aw to be properly enforced must have
 solid weight of public opinion behind , :, and this is precisely the point at mich the English law against street 1 yalking and disorderly houses is weak.
 To the already existing code, amend l lents were made some years ago giv- l lg the police increased power to arrest 6 'omen who piled their calling on the treets and to enter suspected houses { nd these new powers were at once rought into play. The prospect looked I opeful for time but several notori r us mist akes were made. Those ar V ested were able to prove their inno- J ence, and supposedly improper houses, a ,rcibly entered by officers of the law, h Irned out to be not that sort of place 1 all Somebody had monstrously n undered. Public sentiment was out a lged at the thought of pure women 1 Il