Newsgroup: it.scienza.ambiente
Titolo: Re: ^*^*^^*^*^* Barely Legal Babes! ^*^^*^*^*^^

registered societies of that
    town and boasts of 297 members. The brothel-keepers of Singapore
    are probably banded together in the same way, and in proportion to
    the number of brothels should be more than twice as numerous as
    those in Penang. These brothel-keepers have their confederates in
    China, who search for girls and young women in the same way that
    the coolie-brokers search for the men, and these unfortunate young
    persons are brought to Singapore in batches under escort in the
    same way as the men, but are taken from the ships in closed
    carriages instead of being driven through the town like sheep, as
    the men are. All these young women and girls, who are brought
    to Singapore for immoral purposes, with the full knowledge and
    consent of the Government, are taken direct from the ships to the
    office of the Protector of Chinese, to be questioned as to their
    willingness to lead a life of shame; but the value of this
    interrogation may be inferred from the fact that the subordinate
    officer to whom this duty is generally assigned is not acquainted
    with the language spoken by the women. As a further precaution
    against the illegal detention of women and girls in brothels, a
    Government notice is posted in each of these houses, to the effect
    that the inmates are perfectly at liberty to leave whenever they
    like, but this is of little use, as hardly any of them can read,
    and it would be more to the purpose if the Government ordered the
    removal of the bars from the doors and windows of the brothels.
    The fact is that these precautions against illegal detention are
    practically useless, and this is admitted even by the editor of
    such a paper as the _Hong Kong Daily Press_, who some time ago
    discussed the question _apropos_ of the suicide of a Hong Kong
    prostitute who was desirous of being married. The 

is not optional. You are embarked. Which will
you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see which
interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and
two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your
happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your
reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you
must of necessity choose. This is one point settled. But your happiness? Let
us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate
these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.
Wager, then, without hesitation that He is. "That is very fine. Yes, I must
wager; but I may perhaps wager too much." Let us see. Since there is an
equal risk of gain and of loss, if you had only to gain two lives, instead
of one, you might still wager. But if there were three lives to gain, you
would have to play (since you are under the necessity of playing), and you
would be imprudent, when you are forced to play, not to chance your life to
gain three at a game where there is an equal risk of loss and gain. But
there is an eternity of life and happiness. And this being so, if there were
an infinity of chances, of which one only would be for you, you would still
be right in wagering one to win two, and you would act stupidly, being
obliged to play, by refusing to stake one life against three at a game in
which out of an infinity of chances there is one for you, if there were an
infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain. But there is here an infinity
of an infinitely ha