The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-08-06
THE LIE OF THE WILD OATS
''Wild

DRINKS, criminals ana DumS. Who
oats" again.
picture 5. A jail. Here are wild
oats" of the striped, short-haired va
riety in abundance.
Picture 6. doctors office, full or
anxious men and still more anxious
women, who do not gossip much about
their ailments, even among their IN
timates, save where the women are
told by the doctor pretty, little
fairy tale for home use. wild oats
growing in the dark.
Picture 7. A brothel. Around the
reception" room sits collection OF
poor female creatures, many Of whom
were originally sacrificed in aiding
youth to SOW its wild oats" These
women are now getting poetic re-
venge. as the doctor knows.
picture 8. A beautiful girl is found
dead in the river one fine morning.
What is she doing there? Washing
the wild OATS out Of her lifa.
Picture 9. A pistol shot rings out
in a gambling heIl--a man falls dead.
The gun was loaded with wild oats"
Picture 10. defaulting bank cash
Ter fees to Canada; he Is looking for
market for his wild oats"
Picture H. series Of deserted
babies are found In the snow. Who
planted them there? Sewers Of wild
oats"
Picture H. A wife. surrounded by
her cold and hungry children is sit
ting weeping-eating her heart out.
The husband and father is on a
drunk; he has whipped her is in jail,
or has deserted her. wild oats make
broken hearts; they are poor food for
babies; they do not buy coal, nor COW
er nakedness.
We doctors know the wild oats
crop under numerous terms. Crime,
inebriety, syphilis, paresis, 1ocomotor
ataxia and gonorrhea are chief among
them. What the consultation room
does not tell us the operating table
does. Youths would better look at
the specimens Of disease taken by the
surgeon from innocent wives, and see
how they tally with the wild oats"
of some husbands youth before they
begin sowing their own.
There are thousands of syphilitics
in every large city in the world. Add
to these the other wild oats" prod
ucts, crime, pauperism. prostitution,
inebrity and insanity-all the condi-
tons Of degeneracy-and we can new
er Offset the frightful record with an
occasional brand plucked from the
burning or with the burnt child who
breads the fire.
The Lie of the Wild Oats is based
upon the misaRplication Of the theory
Of a separate standard Cor men and
women. The young man may sow
his wild oats, but the young woman
must not. The sowing Of the wild
oats by the one, however, necessitates
the cooperation Of the other. What
made the thousands of prostitutes in
every great city? What supports
them? What keeps the supply equal
to the demand? Largely wild oats"
Wherever immortality, vice. disease,
crime, drunkenness and insanity most
thrive, there, if we dig down to the
very root Of these evils, we find
wild oats the thickest
The MANNED gray-beards who learn
ed the wild oats lie from society's
primer are usually willing to confess
that the wild oats" of yesterday are
watered with the tears of today. The
vicious roots Of the wild oats OF
youth often lie deep in the ashes of
manhood's and womanhood's despair
The crop is garnered with the sickle
Of regret and threshed with the fail
of disease and pain.