The Topeka state journal., 1906-02-17
q sATTRDAY sERNfON.

ulist principles after a while but
didn't expect them to come so quickly. -
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A SATURDAY SERMON.
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked--Jeremiah 15:9.
Topeka has been greatly shocked
this week by the information that
seven school girls-hve from the high
school and two from the grades
have become mothers in Crittenton
home within recent months. The
Identity OF these unfortunate girls is
properly withheld from the public, but
those who have knowle edge of them
give assurance that they are not girls
who come from the lower strata of
society. These girls are from respec-
table Topeka homes, some of them
Christian homes. At least five Of them
were girls Of good intelligence and am
bilious for an education, else they
would not have been in the Topeka
high school. All seven are Of tender
years, inasmuch as they are mere
school girls.
These statements are did1cult for
most Topeka parents to believe, but
the conviction that they are true
strikes nameless terror to the hearts
Of many fathers and mothers. If
these seven school girls were betrayed
/ and compelled to seek the shelter of a
rescue home, how many others are
| there whose sin has been hidden in
other ways? And if such a calamity
can overtake five high school girls
from five respectable Topeka homes,
whose girls are safe? For ''the heart
is deceitfuI above all things, and
desperately wicked"
In some instances the parents are
/ doubtless blamable to a great degree
for the disgrace that has come upon
their daughters. They have allowed
their girls to have questionable COM
panions, or companions of whom they
knew nothing, at an age when those
! daughters have been susceptible and
easily Influenced
/ But this is not the whole trouble.
Too much restraint is as bad as none
at all. The girl who is surrounded
with too tender care becomes like a
! hot-house plant, with no strength or
knowledge TO resist when temptation
assails her-as it is likely to do some
time when least expected. Many a
young girl. compelled to meet the
world and all its temptations in earn
| ing a livelihood, with nothing to pro-
I
sufficient strength in her own woman
hood to put to fight every would-be
despoiler of her virtue. Every girl
with a home has a right not only to
! proper protection from those who
should protect her from vicious and
/ designing young men, but also to such
training as win develop strength of
character and wisdom of mind to re-
sist temptation.
But how about Topeka's boys? For
every girl who falls there is a young
man who IS worse than the girl whom
he betrays. If a girls sin is great, still
more so is that of the author # her
| disgrace. There is too great dis
| position to condemn the girl and treat
her as an outcast. while the young cow
ard who is responsible for her trouble,
I even if he is found out. is frequently
/ still received into good society and his
acquaintances say he is "0nly sowing
his wild oats" But Notwithstanding
this the boy who does wrong IS just as
great a sinner as the girl, and his wrong
should be just as much regretted by his
friends He needs saving from Vice
just as much as the girl whom he be-
trays. If no boy ever became vicious
there would be no fallen girls. In nine
cases out of ten the young man is more
to blame than the girl There are, of
course, some vicious girls, but they are
extreme exceptions. Few girls are so
vicious that they will lead young men
astray unless they have first themselves
been betrayed.
The great pity of it is that the vic
Tins of vicious and unprincipled men
are made to bear the shame and dis
grace, while too often the authors of
their trouble are even unknown to the
public. Nature DEGREES that the girl
must bear the pain and agony brought
| on by her sin, and in addition society
makes an outcast of her, while the
cause of her shame suffers not. She
cannot escape the responsibilities of
maternity to the nameless babe whom
she brings into the world, but the young
man who is jointly responsible with her
for that little ones being, is frequently
too cowardly to even acknowledge its
paternity and aid in its support.
/ The young man who deliberately plots
/ to debauch an innocent young girl is
worse than the man who is a habitue
/ of a brothel The latter sins chiefly
against his own soul and undermines
his own health. The former starts an
/ innocent soul on the road to perdition
and not only brings ruin to her but
broken hearts to her parents and sor-
row to her friends. Many man whom
society regards as an outcast would
seorn to despoiI virtue and betray in
nocence. At heart he is not nearly so
bad as the young lotEario who is able to
move in good society and thus gain the
love of some innocent girl, and by that
means and by fair promises accom-
plish her ruin il. Z. moment Of great
| temptation.
The pity of ii is that such betrayers
of virtue cannot be held up to public
seorn without also exposing the dis
grace Of their victims!