The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1913-07-10
The AUCTION OF A BOY
The Lack Of Proper knowledge Of
Sex Hygiene Handicap to Most
Youths.

l
from the sermon preached by Reverend w.
II. Farrell at the Asbury Methodist church,
Duluth, on Sunday evening, we could not
help but think that while most of the things
ne said with regard to the wicked forces
that are bidding for the boys of Duluth
were true, his suggestions for the method
of fighting those evils forces lacked the
most important detail.
The saloon, the pool hall, the obscene
picture and book do bid for the boy and
his morality, but the establishment of play
grounds and gymnasiums, while they can
do their part, and the share is large, will
never be enough to come within the shadow
OF the bid made by these forces of evil.
Before the Fairgrounds or gymnasiums
can do their work, it is necessary to train
the minds of youth to see and choose the
best in life; to abhor the offensive or OBJ
scene; to have desire for only the good
and clean; to let them have full knowledge
of the bad, but -only that they may choose
the good because it appeals to them the
more, and to look not for the evil.
Instead of trying to guard them against
the wickedness of the world, show it to
them in all its awfulness and with all its
horrible results.
Educators, parents and the clergy until
recently didn't believe in telling the grow
ing youth the inner secrets of sex hygiene,
but to-day comes the announcement that it
will be taught in the public schools at Chi
cago next year. They have seen that where
young people are left to learn these secrets
as they can, they often learn them in the
wrong light, and with evil results. 1t has
been proven that the boy or girl who has
grown up in full knowledge of sex problems
was less apt to turn to the evil paths than
those who have not, and that is why the
broad minds of today advocate fuller edu-
cation of the young along these lines.
Such being the facts in this case, then
forewarning the youth against the evil re-
suits of cultivating liking for that which
is evil, as obscene pictures and books, the
in manner that will count. The boy or
girl that has been trained to look for the
good in everything and to desire the good,
will not answer to the call of the evil if
their training has been thorough. In the
picture or book that some would call OBJ
scene, those that have been trained properly
will see no wrong, unless the pictures or
books are positively "rotten.'
Anthony Comstock, although credited
with being an enlightened and educated
man, shows narrowness of mind when he
says that September Morn the picture
of woman in the nude taking her morn
ing bath, is obscene. Had he been trained
to look for the good, he would have seen
in that picture, or any other of the same
nature, the reproduction of part of Gods
best work-the human form devine. He
looked for bad and saw it.
Evil can be made of almost anything
that is good-it depends on our individual
viewpoint. We must teach the youth TO
look for the good side and see it in the
place of evil. But when we attempt to
make him see the better side through keep
ing him in ignorance, we are simply back
ing with one oar and pulling with the
other. In him will then be created desire
to know the evil which he is being guarded
from, just as the lad who is "thrashed'
because he smokes, sneaks out behind the
barn and digs up the 'makings' he has
hidden.
The morality of our boys and girls is not
a question that Fairgrounds and gymna-
stun alone can settle. They can help only
after education has done its share.