abortionist, and he attempted to effect the desired end by violence.
With a pointed instrument the attempt was again and again made, but
without the looked-for result. So vigorously was the effort made, that,
astonished at no result being obtained, the individual stated that
there must be some mistake, that the lady could not be pregnant, and
refused to perform any further operations. Partially from doubt and
partially from fear, nothing further was attempted; and in due process
of time the woman was delivered of an infant, shockingly mutilated,
with one eye entirely put out, and the brain so injured that this
otherwise robust child was entirely wanting in ordinary sense. This
poor mother, it would seem, needs no future punishment for her sin.
Ten years face to face with this poor idiot, whose imbecility was her
direct work--has it not punished her sufficiently?"
The Remedy.--Whether this gigantic evil can ever be eradicated, is
exceedingly doubtful. To effect its cure would be to make refined
Christians out of brutal sensualists; to emancipate woman from the
enticing, alluring slavery of fashion; to uproot false ideas of life
and its duties,--in short, to revolutionize society. The crime is
perpetrated in secret. Many times no one but the criminal herself is
cognizant of the evil deed. Only occasionally do cases come near enough
to the surface to be dimly discernible; hence the evident inefficiency
of any civil legislation. But the evil is a desperate one, and is
increasing; shall no attempt be made to check the tide of crime and
save the sufferers from both physical and spiritual perdition? An
effort should be made, at least. Let every Christian raise the note
of warning. From every Christian pulpit let the truth be spoken in terms
too plain for misapprehension. Let those who are known to be guilty
of this most revolting crime be looked upon as murderers, as they are;
and let their real moral status be distinctly shown.
All of these means will do something to effect a reform; but the radical
cure of the evil will only be found in the principles suggested in the
section devoted to the consideration of "Marital Excesses." The
adoption of those principles and strict adherence to them would
effectually prevent the occurrence of circumstances which are the
occasion of abortions and infanticides.
Murder by Proxy.--"There is, at the present time, a kind of infanticide,
which, although it is not so well known, is even more dangerous, because
done with impunity. There are parents who recoil with horror at the
idea of destroying their offspring, although they would greatly desire
to be disembarrassed of them, who yet place them without remorse with
nurses who enjoy the sinister reputation of never returning the
children to those who have intrusted them to their care. These
unfortunate little beings are condemned to perish from inanition and
bad treatment.
"The number of these innocent victims is greater than would be imagined,
and very certainly exceeds that of the marked infanticides sent by the
public prosecutor to the Court of the Assizes."
THE SOCIAL EVIL.
Illicit intercourse has been a foul blot upon humanity from the earliest
periods of history. At the present moment, it is a loathsome ulcer
eating at the heart of civilization, a malignant leprosy which shows
its hideous deformities among the fairest results of modern culture.
Our large cities abound with dens of vice whose _habitues_ shamelessly
promenade the most public streets and flaunt their infamy in the face
of every passer-by. In many large cities, especially in those of
Continental Europe, these holds of vice are placed under the
supervision of the law by the requirement that every keeper of a house
of prostitution must pay for a license; in other words, must buy the
right to lead his fellow-men "down to the depths of hell."
In smaller cities, as well as in large ones, in fact, from the great
metropolis down to the country village, the haunts of vice are found.
Every army is flanked by bands of courtesans. Wherever men go, loose
women follow, penetrating even to the wildness of the miner's camp,
far beyond the verge of civilization.
But brothels and traveling strumpets do not fully represent the vast
extent of this monster evil. There is a class of immoral women--probably
exceeding in numbers the grosser class just referred to--who consider
themselves respectable; indeed, who are considered very respectable.
Few are acquainted with their character. They live in elegant style
and mingle in genteel society. Privately, they prosecute the most
unbounded licentiousness, for the purpose of gain, or merely to gratify
their lewdness. "Kept mistresses" are much more numerous than common
prostitutes.
The numerous scandal and divorce suits which expose the infidelity of
husbands and wives, are sufficient evidence that illicit commerce is
not confined to the unmarried; but so many are the facilities for
covering and preventing the results of sins of this description it is
impossible to form any just estimate of their frequency. The
incontinence of husbands and the unchastity of wives will only appear
in their enormity at that awful day when every one shall "stand before
the judgment-seat" and hear the penalty of his guilty deeds.
Unchastity of the Ancients.--We are prone to believe that the present
is the most licentious age the world has ever known; that in the
nineteenth century the climax of evil has been reached; that the
libidinous blood of all the ages has culminated to produce a race of
men more carnal than all predecessors. It is a sickening thought that
any previous epoch could have been more vile than this; but history
presents facts which disclose in ancient times periods when lust was
even more uncontrolled than now; when vice was universal; and when
virtue was a thing unknown. A few references to historical facts will
establish this point. We do not make these allusions in any way to
justify the present immorality, but to show the part which vice has
acted in the overthrow of nations.
From the sacred record we may judge that before the flood a state of
corruption prevailed which was even greater and more general than any
that has ever since been reached; only eight persons were fit to survive
the calamity which swept into eternity that lustful generation with
their filthy deeds.
But men soon fell into vice again, for we find among the early Assyrians
a total disregard of chastity. Her kings reveled in the grossest
sensuality.
No excess of vice could surpass the licentiousness of the Ptolemies,
who made of Alexandria a bagnio, and all Egypt a hot-bed of vice.
Herodotus relates that "the pyramid of Cheops was built by the lovers
of the daughter of this king; and that she never would have raised this
monument to such a height except by multiplying her prostitutions."
History also relates the adventures of that queenly courtesan,
Cleopatra, who captivated and seduced by her charms two masters of the
world, and whose lewdness surpassed even her beauty.
Tyre and Sidon, Media, Phoenicia, Syria, and all the Orient, were sunk
in sensuality. Fornication was made a part of their worship. Women
carried through the streets of the cities the most obscene and revolting
representations. Among all these nations a virtuous woman was not to
be found; for, according to Herodotus, the young women were by the laws
of the land "obliged, once in their lives, to give themselves up to
the desires of strangers in the temple of Venus, and were not permitted
to refuse anyone."[41]
[Footnote 41: Bourgeois.]
St. Augustine speaks of these religious debaucheries as still practiced
in his day in Phoenicia. They were even continued until Constantine
destroyed the temples in which they were prosecuted, in the fourth
century.
Among the Greeks the same corruptions prevailed in the worship of
Bacchus and Phallus, which was celebrated by processions of half-nude
girls "performing lascivious dances with men disguised as satyrs." In
fact, as X. Bourgeois says, "Prostitution was in repute in Greece."
The most distinguished women were courtesans, and the wise Socrates
would be justly called, in modern times, a libertine.
The abandonment to lust was, if possible, still more complete in the
times of the Roman emperors. Rome astonished the universe "by the
boldness of its turpitudes, after having astonished it by the splendor
of its triumphs."
The great Caesar was such a rake that he has been said to have "merited
to be surnamed every woman's husband." Antony and Augustus were equally
notorious. The same sensuality pervaded the masses as reigned in the
courts, and was stimulated by the erotic poems of Ovid, Catullus, and
other poets of the time.
Tiberius displayed such ingenuity in inventing refinements in
impudicity that it was necessary to coin new words to designate them.
Caligula committed the horrid crime of incest with all his sisters,
even in public. His palace was a brothel. The Roman empress, Messalina,
disguised herself as a prostitute and excelled the most degraded
courtesans in her monstrous debaucheries. The Roman emperor Vitellius
was accustomed to take an emetic after having eaten to repletion, to
enable him to renew his gluttony. With still grosser sensuality he
stimulated his satiated passions with philters and various aphrodisiac
mixtures.
Nero, the most infamous of the emperors, committed rapes on the stage
of the public theaters of Rome, disguised as a wild beast.
If this degraded voluptuousness had been confined to royalty, some
respect might yet be entertained for the virtue of the ancients; but
the foul infection was not restrained within such narrow bounds. It
invaded whole empires until they fell in pieces from very rottenness.
What must have been the condition of a nation that could tolerate such
a spectacle as its monarch riding through the streets of its metropolis
in a state of nudity, drawn by women in the same condition? Such a deed
did Heliogabalus in Rome.
In the thirteenth century, virtue was almost as scarce in France as
in ancient Greece. Nobles held as mistresses all the young girls of
their domains. About every fifth person was a bastard. Just before the
Revolution, chastity was such a rarity that a woman was actually obliged
to apologize for being virtuous!
In these disgusting facts we find one of the most potent agents in
effecting the downfall of the nations. Licentiousness sapped their
vitality and weakened their prowess. The men who conquered the world
were led captive by their own beastly passions. Thus the Assyrians,
the Medes, the Grecians, the Romans, successively fell victims to their
lusts, and gave way to more virtuous successors. Even the Jews, the
most enlightened people of their age, fell more than once through this
same sin, which was coupled with idolatry, of which their seduction
by the Midianites is an example.
Surely, modern times present no worse spectacles of carnality than
these; and will it be claimed that anything so vile is seen among
civilized nations at the present day? But though there may be less
grossness in the sensuality of to-day, the moral turpitude of men may
be even greater than that of ancient times. Enlightened Christianity
has raised the standard of morality. Christ's commentary upon the
seventh commandment requires a more rigorous chastity than ancient
standards demanded, even among the Jews; for had not David, Solomon,
and even the pious Jacob more wives than one? Consequently, a slight
breach of chastity now requires as great a fall from virtue as a greater
lapse in ages past, and must be attended with as severe a moral penalty.
We have seen how universal is the "social evil," that it is a vice almost
as old as man himself, which shows how deeply rooted in his perverted
nature it has become. The inquiry arises, What are the causes of so
monstrous a vice? so gross an outrage upon nature's laws? so withering
a blight upon the race?
Causes of the "Social Evil."--A vice that has become so great an evil,
even in these enlightened times, as to defy the most skillful
legislation, which openly displays its gaudy filthiness and mocks at
virtue with a lecherous stare, must have its origin in causes too
powerful to be ignored.
Libidinous Blood.--In no other direction are the effects of heredity
to be more distinctly traced than in the transmission of sensual
propensities. The children of libertines are almost certain to be rakes
and prostitutes. History affords numerous examples in illustration of
this fact. The daughter of Augustus was as unchaste as her father, and
her daughter was as immoral as herself. The sons of David showed evident
traces of their father's failing. Witness the incest of Amnon, and the
voluptuousness of Solomon, who had seven hundred wives and three
hundred concubines. Solomon's son was, likewise, a noted polygamist,
of whom the record says, "He desired many wives." His son's son
manifested the same propensity in taking as many wives as the
debilitated state of his kingdom enabled him to support. But perhaps
we may be allowed to trace the origin of this libidinous propensity
still further back. A glance at the genealogy of David will show that
he was descended from Judah through Pharez, who was the result of an
incestuous union between Judah and his daughter-in-law.
Is it unreasonable to suppose that the abnormal passion which led David
to commit the most heinous sin of his life in his adultery with
Bath-sheba and subsequently procuring the death of her husband, was
really an hereditary propensity which had come down to him through his
ancestors, and which, under more favorable circumstances, was more
fully developed in his sons? The trait may have been kept dormant by
the active and simple habits of his early years, but asserted itself
in full force under the fostering influence of royal idleness and luxury.
In accordance with the known laws of heredity, such a tendency would
be the legitimate result of such a combination of circumstances.
The influence of marital excesses, and especially sexual indulgence
during pregnancy, in producing vicious tendencies in offspring, has
been fully dwelt upon elsewhere in this work, and will not be
reconsidered here, it being only necessary to call attention to the
subject. Physiology shows conclusively that thousands of parents whose
sons have become libertines and their daughters courtesans, have
themselves implanted in their characters the propensity which led to
their unchastity.
Gluttony.--As a predisposing cause, the influence of dietetic habits
should rank next to heredity. It is an observed fact that "all
libertines are great eaters or famous gastronomists." The exciting
influence upon the genital organs of such articles as pepper, mustard,
ginger, spices, truffles, wine, and all alcoholic drinks, is well known.
Tea and coffee directly excite the animal passions through their
influence upon the nerve centers controlling the sexual organs. When
children are raised upon such articles, or upon food with which they
are thoroughly mingled, what wonder that they occasionally "turn out
bad"? How many mothers, while teaching their children the principles
of virtue in the nursery, unwittingly stimulate their passions at the
dinner table until vice becomes almost a physical necessity!
Nothing tends so powerfully to keep the passions in abeyance as a simple
diet, free from condiments, especially when coupled with a generous
amount of exercise.
The influence of tobacco in leading to unchastity has been referred
to in another connection. This is assuredly a not uncommon cause. When
a boy places the first cigar or quid of tobacco to his lips, he takes--if
he has not previously done so--the first step in the road to infamy;
and if he adds wine or beer, he takes a short cut to the degradation
of his manhood by the loss of virtue.
Precocious Sexuality.--The causes of a too early development of sexual
peculiarities, as manifested in infantile flirtations and early signs
of sexual passion, were dwelt upon quite fully in a previous connection,
and we need not repeat them here. Certain it is that few things can
be more dangerous to virtue than the premature development of those
sentiments which belong only to puberty and later years. It is a most
unnatural, but not uncommon, sight to see a girl of tender age evincing
all those characters which mark the wanton of older years.
Man's Lewdness.--It cannot be denied that men are in the greatest degree
responsible for the "social evil." The general principle holds true
here as elsewhere that the supply is regulated by the demand. If the
patrons of prostitution should withdraw their support by a sudden
acquisition of virtue, how soon would this vilest of traffics cease!
The inmates of brothels would themselves become continent, if not
virtuous, as the result of such a spasm of chastity in men.
Again, the ranks of fallen women, which are rapidly thinned by loathsome
diseases and horrid deaths, are largely recruited from that class of
unfortunates for whose fall faithless lovers or cunning, heartless
libertines are chiefly responsible. The weak girl who, through too much
trust, has been deceived and robbed of her dearest treasure, is disowned
by relatives, shunned by her acquaintances, and turned out upon a cold
world without money, without friends, without a character. What can
she do? Respectable employment she cannot find, for rumor follows her.
There seems to be but one door open, the one which she herself so
unintentionally opened. In despair, she enters the "open road to hell,"
and to her first sad error adds a life of shame. Meanwhile, the villain
who betrayed her still maintains his standing in society, and plies
his arts to win another victim. Is there not an unfair discrimination
here? Should not the seducer be blackened with an infamy at least as
deep as that which society casts on the one betrayed?
Fashion.--The temptation of dress, fine clothing, costly jewelry, and
all the extravagances with which rich ladies array themselves, is in
many cases too powerful for the weakened virtue of poor seamstresses,
operatives, and servant girls, who have seen so much of vice as to have
lost that instinctive loathing for it which they may have once
experienced. Thinking to gain a life of ease, with means to gratify
their love of show, they barter away their peace of mind for this world,
all hope for the next, and only gain a little worthless tinsel, the
scorn of their fellow-creatures, and a host of loathsome diseases.
Lack of Early Training.--It is needless to demonstrate a fact so well
established as that the future character of an individual depends very
largely upon his early training. If purity and modesty are taught from
earliest infancy, the mind is fortified against the assaults of vice.
If, instead, the child is allowed to grow up untrained, if the seeds
of vice which are sure to fall sooner or later in the most carefully
kept ground are allowed to germinate, if the first buds of evil are
allowed to grow and unfold instead of being promptly nipped, it must
not be considered remarkable that in later years rank weeds of sin
should flourish in the soul and bear their hideous fruit in shameless
lives.
Neglect to guard the avenues by which evil may approach the young mind,
and to erect barriers against vice by careful instruction and a chaste
example, leaves many innocent souls open to the assaults of evil, and
an easy prey to lust. If children are allowed to get their training
in the street, at the corner grocery, or hovering around saloons, they
will be sure to develop a vigorous growth of the animal passions. The
following extract is from the writings of one whose pen has been an
inestimable blessing to American youth:--
"Among the first lessons which boys learn of their fellows are
impurities of language; and these are soon followed by impurities of
thought.... When this is the training of boyhood, it is not strange
that the predominating ideas among young men, in relation to the other
sex, are too often those of impurity and sensuality.... We cannot be
surprised, then, that the history of most young men is, that they yield
to temptation in a greater or less degree and in different ways. With
many, no doubt, the indulgence is transient, accidental, and does not
become habitual. It does not get to be regarded as venial. It is never
yielded to without remorse. The wish and the purpose are to resist;
but the animal nature bears down the moral. Still, transgression is
always followed by grief and penitence.
"With too many, however, it is to be feared, it is not so. The mind
has become debauched by dwelling on licentious images, and by
indulgence in licentious conversation. There is no wish to resist. They
are not overtaken by temptation, for they seek it. With them the
transgression becomes habitual, and the stain on the character is deep
and lasting."[42]
[Footnote 42: Ware.]
Sentimental Literature.--In another connection, we have referred
particularly to the bawdy, obscene books and pictures which are
secretly circulated among the youth of both sexes, and to their
corrupting influence. The hope is not entirely a vain one that this
evil may be controlled; but there seems no possible practicable remedy
for another evil which ultimately leads to the same result, though by
less gross and obscene methods. We refer to the sentimental literature
which floods the land. City and school libraries, circulating libraries,
and even Sunday-school libraries, are full of books which, though they
may contain good moral teaching, contain, as well, an element as
incompatible with purity of morals as is light with midnight darkness.
Writers for children and youth seem to think a tale of "courtship, love,
and matrimony" entirely indispensable as a medium for conveying their
moral instruction. Some of these "religious novels" are actually more
pernicious than the fictions of well-known novelists who make no
pretense to having religious instruction a particular object in view.
Sunday-school libraries are not often wholly composed of this class
of works, but any one who takes the trouble to examine the books of
such a library will be able to select the most pernicious ones by the
external appearance. The covers will be well worn and the edges begrimed
with dirt from much handling. Children soon tire of the shallow sameness
which characterizes the "moral" parts of most of these books, and skim
lightly over them, selecting and devouring with eagerness those
portions which relate the silly narrative of some love adventure. This
kind of literature arouses in children premature fancies and queries,
and fosters a sentimentalism which too often occasions most unhappy
results. Through their influence, young girls are often led to begin
a life of shame long before their parents are aware that a thought of
evil has ever entered their minds.
The following words from the pen of a forcible writer[43] present this
matter in none too strong a light:--
"You may tear your coat or break a vase, and repair them again; but
the point where the rip or fracture took place will always be evident.
It takes less than an hour to do your heart a damage which no time can
entirely repair. Look carefully over your child's library; see what
book it is that he reads after he has gone to bed, with the gas turned
upon the pillow. Do not always take it for granted that a book is good
because it is a Sunday-school book. As far as possible, know _who_ wrote
it, who illustrated it, who published it, who sold it.
"It seems that in the literature of the day the ten plagues of Egypt
have returned, and the frogs and lice have hopped and skipped over our
parlor tables.
"Parents are delighted to have their children read, but they should
be sure as to what they read. You do not have to walk a day or two in
an infested district to get the cholera or typhoid fever; and one wave
of moral unhealth will fever and blast the soul forever. Perhaps,
knowing not what you did, you read a bad book. Do you not remember it
altogether? Yes! and perhaps you will never get over it. However strong
and exalted your character, never read a bad book. By the time you get
through the first chapter you will see the drift. If you find the marks
of the hoofs of the devil in the pictures, or in the style, or in the
plot, away with it.