Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-01-15
3oooooooooooo ooooooooooo
5 'In1purity:: or 4 Plea
5 for the White Life


church was filed to the front seats
to hear the third of the series of Rev.
Charles Harris sermons on Present
Day Evils and Their Remedies. The
text was: Keep thyeslf pure" and
the subject was most ably treated
Mr. Harris spoke as follows:
We have come to the third of our
evening subjects on Present Day
Evils and Their Remedies, tImpuri-
I ty; or a Plea for the White Life =
/ shall handle the topic frankly, and
yet considerably. / am not unmind-
full of the fact that l speak to both
sexes and to youth as well as to those
of maturer years. i have promised
myself to say nothing that would
not be willing for another to say
in the presence of my mother, sister,
or daughter. l believe with others
that frank wholesome talk on the
subject of the social evil is winning
/ half the battle.
Our great battleships are equipped
with powerful search lights, which
render most important service, as in
our late war with Spain, when by
their aid the sharpest outlook could
: be maintained by night, as well as
day. Under the glazing rays no sus-
picious craft, no torpedo boat of the
enemy could escape discovery.
We need a searchlight today to be
thrown on our cities. revealing every
enemy of our commonwealth, a
search light to be thrown on our
Z homes. revealing to us what our boys
and girls are doing and search light
to be thrown on our individual lives
revealing every mean, every loath-
some, every impure thought.
First of all let the search light be
thrown upon our cities. The inn
perative need of the hour is the pub
lication of facts. What does the
light reveal? Concerning our daugh-
tiers it reveals startling state of at
fairs. John Balcolm Shaw of the
Second Presbyterian church of Chi
cage recently stated that. hundreds
OF shop girls in that city were paid
wages so low that they could with
the greatest difficulty gain liVeli-
hood, SO that they were under con-
stant temptation to sell their virtue.
There are some things that are dear
at any price. and if the cheap goods
stores are due to the low wages paid
to the girl clerks, if the merchant
and the customer are benefited at
the expense Of their virtue great is
the cost! The Consumers League
tells us that there are women in our
cities who sew pants for seven cents
a pair, shirts for thirty-fiVe cents a
dozen, furnishing their own machines
and finding their own thread. II do
NOT see 3 said Jacob Riis to a corps
of these workers, how you keep soul
and body together" Bless you! we
& don't one answered. got rid of
\ my soul long ago. faint souls that
count here, but goods.
90 men with sisters dear,
@ men with brothers and wives,
i It's not the linen your wearing out,
But human creatures lives.
i Stitch, stitch. stitch,
In poverty, hunger and dirt,
-
Sewing at once with a double thread
As shroud as well as a shirt.
What does the light reveal con-
sernlng our sons 5.s.
a few years ago in the place where
y was living petition was circulated
and signed by many good people.
praying that the United States sen
4 ate unseat the senator from Utah
whom the petition alleged was en-
gagged in unlawful po1ygamous re-
j Iations.
And vet in that very city we had
4 houses that were dens of vice, pol
Iuting our atmosphere, seducing and
leading our sons astray. From the
B nefarious proceeds of those houses
the city derived a revenue that was
used in paving the streets.
1T was SO much easier to look away
to Utah than to open ones eyes to
4 the evil light at home. There are IN
this town and have been for years /
am told houses of the same descrip-
ton. whose income is derived from
the bodies and souls Of our. young
men. Could / choose such sources Of
moral pollution and contamination
6 would. But + can warn you, young
men, in the words of one who knew,
6a.Iid who, thirty centuries ago, said,
Her house is the way to hell going
down to the chambers Of death &
As much as love my brother rather
than that he should enter such a
place ! would follow him to his
freshly made grave, and. while they
lowered his coffin, IN the midst Of
my tears 4 could thank God that he