The following illustrates the fearful consequences of sexual indulgence
during pregnancy:
“Charlotte and I were school-mates and dear friends ever since I can
remember anything,” said the young woman. “Our parents had been friends
before us. I think we were equals in every sense, except that Lotty was
handsomer than I. We became engaged and were married on the same day,
when I was twenty-one and she twenty-two years of age. Our husbands
are both honorable and kind men, and so far as our married lives are
concerned, we have both been well situated.
“In about the usual time after marriage we found ourselves pregnant,
and as we lived not far distant from each other, we made our babies’
wardrobes in company, anticipating, with much pleasure, the already
dear children.
“We had passed the fifth month, when Lotty, for the first time, alluded
to her most private life with her husband, saying she was so glad that
she could respond so fully to his demands. It had not been so at first,
but now the relation occurred almost every night, and she experienced
quite as much emotion as he did, to his very great satisfaction.
“I made an exclamation of surprise, and then was silent. My own
experience had been entirely opposed to hers, but I knew nothing of
right or wrong in such matters; I had nothing to reply.
“In due time, to our great delight, we each held a daughter in our
arms. Other children followed pretty close on their track, and our
meetings, though no less cordial, became less frequent. The years
flew past on swift wing. Our eldest children were thirteen years old;
mine a refined, conscientious, reliable girl; hers too mature bodily,
and with a rather handsome, but positive, sensual face. In order--as
they intended--to check the forwardness of her manners, she was sent
to boarding-school. Here she climbed out of the window at night, and
having had an intrigue with a boy belonging to an academy near by,
was expelled from the institution. The parents entreated, bribed,
threatened, with no signs of improvement on her part. Finally, when
this poor child wanted two months of reaching her fifteenth year,
she left her home, and of her own free will became the inmate of
a brothel. Once or twice, through the help of a detective, she was
recovered; but only to escape again to follow the life that suited her
organization.
“Her father’s head was bowed with grief. The mother became hard and
irritable, growing to hate the child who had brought on them so much
sorrow and shame. I grieved for them, but I never understood the case
till I heard you speak of the mother’s power over her unborn child. Now
I see that Maria was the victim of her parents’ ignorance.”[2]
[2] Dr. Sanger, who is authority on the subject of prostitution,
says that the observation of years among the abandoned class,
has led him to the conclusion that only one woman in a thousand
is brought to adopt the life of a prostitute from the same
sensual proclivities that make a man consort with the
abandoned. Seduction by a lover, followed by the rejection
of society, poverty, inability to labor, desire for elegant
clothing, and various other causes, have brought the other
nine hundred and ninety-nine into this bitter degradation.
The young girl alluded to above was one of the exceptions.
Since while pregnant--women, sad to say, have been constantly
forced to yield their persons to the lusts of the husband,
they have in spirit rebelled against the unnatural demand,
instead of heartily assenting.