Year: 1879

Early this spring horrible discovery
was made in the Saugus River near
Lynn in Massachusetts,. Within trunk
found floating in the river, was the dead
and mutilated body of a young woman.
1t had been evidently placed there to
conceal series of crimes. Many in
quiries were made to identify it, and for
a long time without the slightest sue
cess, but it appeared certain that the un-
fortunate girl had been led astray from
the path of virtue and duty. Naturally
all persons whose sisters or daughters
had disappeared from home or from
friends, visited Lynn with anxious fear
lest they might there learn the sad fate
of one who was dear to them.


But the most serious lesson OF the
case is the remarkable fact that there
were SO many missing young women
about whom anxiety is felt. 1t is said
that more than 80 attempts were made
thus to identify the dead person. What
does this mean? That more than 30
young women had strangely disappear
ed from their homes, probably all OF
them within few months. Some had
gone to the city for work, perhaps, and
had there fallen into bad ways, and all
at once had left the place where they
had been working or boarding without
leaving trace behind. Others had felt
no social restraint, or had broken
through it, and had left their homes sud-
denly, perhaps in bad company, to live
shameful lives in the city. However it
had happened, here was the evidence
that many girls, who might and should
have been the delight of their friends,
had given reason recently for the be-
lief that they had disappeared for the
purpose of leading lives of sinful indul-
gence.


The fact is not sad revelation SIM
ply-it is a very alarming one. 1t ought
to make all men and women who have
the care of young girls feel new sense
of responsibility. It,is rarely well for
such young persons to be allowed to go
away from home to seek work beyond
the watchful eyes of their natural guard
ians. Danger turks everywhere for
them, bat it is especially present in cit
les, and wherever home influences are
lacking. The temptations come, as
most temptations dO,. when they are
least expected, and when it is hardest
to resist them. Then is the time when
good principles are pat to the test, and
when all the help that friends can rem
der is none too much to give the strength
to resist.


But it is absolutely necessary for some
girls to leave home to earn a living.
They ought to go armed with strong
Christian principle and sound morals.
This equipment must be given to them
during their childhood and youth, and
whoever neglects an opportunity to i'm
plant not alone the principles of right,
but religious principles, in the hearts OF
the young, or who fails to set good ex-
ample before them, may be mourning
the risk of a souls ruin.


1t is above all duty to make home
place of Joy and content, where there
are none but pure thoughts and pure
words, where the atmosphere is full OF
innocence. Hundreds and thousands OF
men and women who have led lives OF
shame and crime have done so because
they learned evil there, or because home
was not made pleasant to them:


So the grand lesson Is that home is
the place for the young, and that it
should be made so sweet and dear that
there should be really no place like it:
Bad lives do sometimes come from good
homes; but they are exceptional, and
certainly the more pleasant homes there
are, the less of evil will there be IN the
world.