May I give you a single illustration of the wrecking of two lives,
through the ignorance of a boy touching these grave questions?
This sad story was told me by a medical friend, who was personally
acquainted with these young people, and while an interne in a hospital,
in one of our eastern cities, assisted in the operation referred to.
A young boy of sixteen, of one of the refined and cultured families of
the city, had grown up in ignorance as to sex relations and instincts.
He was invited to a week-end party, at the home of friends, and while
there, with a houseful of guests, fell in with a woman older than
himself, who enticed him into improper relations with her. Whether she
knew it or not, she was afflicted with the leprosy of lewdness and
she passed it on to this boy. As soon as he discovered his condition
he went to his father and told him about this incident and was taken
to one of the best physicians in this country, who lived in the city.
This physician treated the young man till he was twenty-four years
old and assured him, so far as medical science could determine, he
seemed to be entirely cured. The young man had become awakened by
this sad experience and through this awakening learned of the awful
fatality which attaches itself to this leprosy, so to be sure he went
to another specialist and was examined and treated by him for a year.
During these years, between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five, he had
fallen in love with a beautiful young woman of one of the refined homes
of the city; but so much of dread had he that he deferred his marriage
for a year to make sure that the last vestige of the plague was gone.
At last they were married with all the joys and delights of that hour.
Vain hope was his, for in less than a year after their marriage the
physicians were compelled to perform an operation to save the young
woman’s life, which forever left that home childless and the young
husband carrying in his heart an awful shadow which would never lift
till the grave received him.
This is not an isolated case, for such tragedies are multiplied by
thousands all over this fair land of ours. And the appalling facts are
that a large majority of them can be charged to a lack of education by
the parents. Thousands of dollars are spent to educate the children in
books and music, but not a moment of time given to teach them the truth
about this one most important subject.