[Illustration: YOUNG GARFIELD DRIVING TEAM ON THE CANAL.]
1. With a shy look, approaching his mother when she was alone, the boy of
fifteen said, "There are some things I want to ask you. I hear the boys
speak of them at school, and I don't understand, and a fellow doesn't like
to ask any one but his mother."
2. Drawing him down to her, in the darkness that was closing about them,
the mother spoke to her son and the son to his mother freely of things
which everybody must know sooner or later, and which no boy should learn
from "anyone but his mother" or father.
3. If you do not answer such a natural question, your boy will turn for
answer to others, and learn things, perhaps, which your cheeks may well
blush to have him know.
4. Our boys and girls are growing faster than we think. The world moves; we
can no longer put off our children {391} with the old nurses' tales; even
MacDonald's beautiful statement,
"Out of the everywhere into the there",
does not satisfy them when they reverse his question and ask, "Where did I
come from?"
5. They must be answered. If we put them off, they may be tempted to go
elsewhere for information, and hear half-truths, or whole truths so
distorted, so mingled with what is low and impure that, struggle against it
as they may in later years, their minds will always retain these early
impressions.
6. It is not so hard if you begin early. The very flowers are object
lessons. The wonderful mystery of life is wrapped in one flower, with its
stamens, pistils and ovaries. Every child knows how an egg came in the
nest, and takes it as a matter of course; why not go one step farther with
them and teach the wonder, the beauty, the holiness that surrounds
maternity anywhere? Why, centuries ago the Romans honored, and taught their
boys to honor, the women in whose safety was bound up the future of their
existence as a nation! Why should we do less?
7. Your sons and mine, your daughters and mine, need to be wisely taught
and guarded just along these lines, if your sons and mine, your daughters
and mine, are to grow up into a pure, healthy, Christian manhood and
womanhood.
[Illustration]
{392} 8. [4]"How grand is the boy who has kept himself undefiled! His
complexion clear, his muscles firm, his movements vigorous, his manner
frank, his courage undaunted, his brain active, his will firm, his
self-control perfect, his body and mind unfolding day by day. His life
should be one song of praise and thanksgiving. If you want your boy to be
such a one, train him, my dear woman, _to-day_, and his _to-morrow_ will
take care of itself.
9. "Think you that good seed sown will bring forth bitter fruit? A thousand
times, No! As we sow, so shall we reap. Train your boys in morality,
temperance and virtue. Teach them to embrace good and shun evil. Teach them
the true from the false; the light from the dark. Teach them that when they
take a thing that is not their own, they commit a sin. Teach them that _sin
means disobedience of God's laws of every kind_.
10. "God made every organ of our body with the intention that it should
perform a certain work. If we wish to see, we use our eyes; if we want to
hear, our ears are called into use. In fact, nature teaches us the proper
use of _all our organs_. I say to you, mother, and oh, so earnestly: 'Go
teach your boy that which you may never be ashamed to do, about these
organs that make him _specially a boy_.'
11. "Teach him they are called _sexual organs_; that they are not impure,
but of special importance, and made by God for a definite purpose. Teach
him that there are impurities taken from the system in fluid form called
urine, and that it passes through the sexual organs, but that nature takes
care of that. Teach him that these organs are given as a sacred trust, that
in maturer years he may be the means of giving life to those who shall live
forever.
12. "Impress upon him that if these organs are abused, or if they are put
to any use besides that for which God made them--and He did not intend they
should be used at all until man is fully grown--they will bring disease and
ruin upon those who abuse and disobey the laws which God has made to govern
them. If he has ever learned to handle his _sexual organs_, or to touch
them in any way except to keep them clean, not to do it again. If he does
he will not grow up happy, healthy and strong.
13. "Teach him that when he handles or excites the {393} sexual organs all
parts of the body suffer, because they are connected by nerves that run
throughout the system; this is why it is called 'self-abuse.' The whole
body is abused when this part of the body is handled or excited in any
manner whatever. Teach them to shun all children who indulge in this
loathsome habit, or all children who talk about these things. The sin is
terrible, and is, in fact, worse than lying or stealing. For, although
these are wicked and will ruin their souls, yet this habit of self-abuse
will ruin both soul and body.
14. "If the sexual organs are handled, it brings too much blood to these
parts, and this produces a diseased condition; it also causes disease in
other organs of the body, because they are left with a less amount of blood
than they ought to have. The sexual organs, too, are very closely connected
with the spine and the brain by means of the nerves, and if they are
handled, or if you keep thinking about them, these nerves get excited and
become exhausted, and this makes the back ache, the brain heavy and the
whole body weak.
15. "It lays the foundation for consumption, paralysis and heart disease.
It weakens the memory, makes a boy careless, negligent and listless. It
even makes many lose their minds; others, when grown, commit suicide. How
often mothers see their little boys handling themselves, and let it pass,
because they think the boy will outgrow the habit, and do not realize the
strong hold it has upon them. I say to you who love your boys--'Watch!'
16. "Don't think it does no harm to your boy because he does not suffer
now, for the effects of this vice come on so slowly that the victim is
often very near death before you realize that he has done himself harm. The
boy with no knowledge of the consequences, and with no one to warn him,
finds momentary pleasure in its practice, and so contracts a habit which
grows upon him, undermining his health, poisoning his mind, arresting his
development, and laying the foundation for future misery.
17. "Do not read this book and forget it, for it contains earnest and
living truths. Do not let false modesty stand in your way, but from this
time on keep this thought in mind--'the saving of your boy.' Follow its
teachings and you will bless God as long as you live. Read it to your
neighbors, who, like yourself, have growing boys, and urge them for the
sake of humanity to heed its advice. {394}
18. "Right here we want to emphasize the importance of _cleanliness_. We
verily believe that oftentimes these habits originate in a burning and
irritating sensation about the organs, caused by a want of thorough
washing.
19. "It is worthy of note that many eminent physicians now advocate the
custom of circumcision, claiming that the removal of a little of the
foreskin induces cleanliness, thus preventing the irritation and excitement
which come from the gathering of the whiteish matter under the foreskin at
the beginning of the glands. This irritation being removed, the boy is less
apt to tamper with his sexual organs. The argument seems a good one,
especially when we call to mind the high physical state of those people who
have practiced the custom.
20. "Happy is the mother who can feel she has done her duty, in this
direction, while her boy is still a child. For those mothers, though, whose
little boys have now grown to boyhood with the evil still upon them, and
_you_, through ignorance, permitted it, we would say, 'Begin at once; it is
never too late.' If he has not lost all will power, he can be saved. Let
him go in confidence to a reputable physician and follow his advice. Simple
diet, plentiful exercise in open air and congenial employment will do much.
Do not let the mind dwell upon evil thoughts, shun evil companions, avoid
vulgar stories, sensational novels, and keep the thoughts pure.
21. "Let him interest himself in social and benevolent affairs, participate
in Sunday-school work, farmers' clubs, or any organizations which tend to
elevate and inspire noble sentiment. Let us remember that 'a perfect man is
the noblest work of God.' God has given us a life which is to last forever,
and the little time we spend on earth is as nothing to the ages which we
are to spend in the world beyond; so our earthly life is a very important
part of our existence, for it is here that the foundation is laid for
either happiness or misery in the future. It is here that we decide our
destiny, and our efforts to know and obey God's laws in our bodies as well
as in our souls will not only bring blessings to us in this life, but
never-ending happiness throughout eternity."
22. A QUESTION.--How can a father chew and smoke tobacco, drink and swear,
use vulgar language, tell obscene stories, and raise a family of pure,
clean-minded children? LET THE ECHO ANSWER.
* * * * *
{396}
The Inhumanities of Parents.
[Illustration: AN OLD ADAGE: "HE WHO LOVES CHILDREN WILL DO YOU NO HARM."]
1. Not long ago a Presbyterian minister in Western New York whipped his
three-year-old boy to death for refusing to say his prayers. The little
fingers were broken; the tender flesh was bruised and actually mangled;
strong men wept when they looked on the lifeless body. Think of a strong
man from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds in weight, pouncing
upon a little child, like a Tiger upon a Lamb, and with his strong arm
inflicting physical blows on the delicate tissues of a child's body. See
its frail and trembling flesh quiver and its tender nervous organization
shaking with terror and fear.
2. How often is this the case in the punishment of children all over this
broad land! Death is not often the immediate consequence of this brutality
as in the above stated case, but the punishment is often as unjust, and the
physical constitution of children is often ruined and the mind by fright
seriously injured.
3. Everyone knows the sudden sense of pain, and sometimes dizziness and
nausea follow, as the results of an accidental hitting of the ankle, knee
or elbow against a hard substance, and involuntary tears are brought to the
eyes; but what is such a pain as this compared with the pains of a dozen or
more quick blows on the body of a little helpless child from the strong arm
of a parent in a passion? Add to this overwhelming terror of fright, the
strangulating effects of sighing and shrieking, and you have a complete
picture of child-torture.
4. Who has not often seen a child receive, within an hour or two of the
first whipping, a second one, for some small ebullition of nervous
irritability, which was simply inevitable from its spent and worn
condition?
5. Would not all mankind cry out at the inhumanity of one who, as things
are to-day, should propose the substitution of pricking or cutting or
burning for whipping? It would, however, be easy to show that small jabs or
pricks or cuts are more human than the blows many children receive. Why may
not lying be as legitimately cured by blisters made with hot coals as by
black and blue spots made with a ruler or whip? The principle is the same;
and if the principle is right, why not multiply methods?
6. How many loving mothers will, without any thought of cruelty, inflict
half a dozen quick blows on the little hand of her child, and when she
could no more take a pin and make {397} the same number of thrusts into the
tender flesh, than she could bind the baby on a rack. Yet the pin-thrust
would hurt far less, and would probably make a deeper impression on the
child's mind.
[Illustration]
7. We do not intend to be understood that a child must have everything that
it desires and every whim and wish to receive special recognition by the
parents. Children can soon be made to understand the necessity of
obedience, and punishment can easily be brought about by teaching them
self-denial. Deny them the use of a certain plaything, deny {398} them the
privilege of visiting certain of their little friends, deny them the
privilege of the table, etc., and these self-denials can be applied
according to the age and condition of the child, with firmness and without
any yielding. Children will soon learn obedience if they see the parents
are sincere. Lessons of home government can be learned by the children at
home as well as they can learn lessons at school.
8. The trouble is, many parents need more government, more training and
more discipline than the little ones under their control.
9. Scores of times during the day a child is told in a short, authoritative
way to do or not to do certain little things, which we ask at the hands of
elder persons as favors. When we speak to an elder person, we say, would
you be so kind as to close the door, when the same person making the
request of a child will say, "_Shut the door._" "_Bring me the chair._"
"_Stop that noise._" "_Sit down there._" Whereas, if the same kindness was
used towards the child it would soon learn to imitate the example.
10. On the other hand, let a child ask for anything without saying
"please," receive anything without saying "thank you," it suffers a rebuke
and a look of scorn at once. Often a child insists on having a book, chair
or apple to the inconveniencing of an elder, and what an outcry is raised:
"Such rudeness;" "Such an ill-mannered child;" "His parents must have
neglected him strangely." Not at all: The parents may have been steadily
telling him a great many times every day not to do these precise things
which you dislike. But they themselves have been all the time doing those
very things before him, and there is no proverb that strikes a truer
balance between two things than the old one which weighs example over
against precept.
11. It is a bad policy to be rude to children. A child will win and be won,
and in a long run the chances are that the child will have better manners
than its parents. Give them a good example and take pains in teaching them
lessons of obedience and propriety, and there will be little difficulty in
raising a family of beautiful and well-behaved children.
12. Never correct a child in the presence of others; it is a rudeness to
the child that will soon destroy its self-respect. It is the way criminals
are made and should always and everywhere be condemned.
13. But there are no words to say what we are or what we deserve, if we do
this to the little children whom we {399} have dared for our own pleasure
to bring into the perils of this life, and whose whole future may be
blighted by the mistakes of our careless hands. There are thousands of
young men and women to-day groaning under the penalties and burdens of
life, who owe their misfortunes, their shipwreck and ruin to the ignorance
or indifference of parents.
14. Parents of course love their children, but with that love there is a
responsibility that cannot be shirked. The government and training of
children is a study that demands a parent's time and attention often much
more than the claims of business.
15. Parents, study the problems that come up every day in your home.
Remember, your future happiness, and the future welfare of your children,
depend upon it.
16. CRIMINALS AND HEREDITY.--Wm. M. F. Round was for many years in charge
of the House of Refuge on Randall's Island, New York, and his opportunities
for observation in the work among criminals surely make him a competent
judge, and he says in his letter to the New York Observer: "Among this
large number of young offenders I can state with entire confidence that not
one per cent. were children born of criminal parents; and with equal
confidence I am able to say that the common cause of their delinquency was
found in bad parental training, in bad companionship, and in lack of
wholesome restraint from evil associations and influences. It was this
knowledge that led to the establishing of the House of Refuge nearly
three-quarters of a century ago."
17. BAD TRAINING.--Thus it is seen from one of the best authorities in the
United States that criminals are made either by the indifference or the
neglect of parents, or both, or by too much training without proper
judgment and knowledge. Give your children a good example, and never tell a
child to do something and then become indifferent as to whether they do it
or not. A child should never be told twice to do the same thing. Teach the
child in childhood obedience and never vary from that rule. Do it kindly
but firmly.
18. IF YOUR CHILDREN DO NOT OBEY OR RESPECT YOU in their childhood and
youth, how can you expect to govern them when older and shape their
character for future usefulness and good citizenship?
19. THE FUNDAMENTAL RULE.--Never tell a child twice to do the same thing.
Command the respect of your children, and there will be no question as to
obedience.
* * * * *
{400}
Chastity and Purity of Character.
1. CHASTITY is the purest and brightest jewel in human character. Dr.
Pierce in his widely known _Medical Adviser_ says: For the full and perfect
development of mankind, both mental and physical, chastity is necessary.
The health demands abstinence from unlawful intercourse. Therefore children
should be instructed to avoid all impure works of fiction, which tend to
inflame the mind and excite the passions. Only in total abstinence from
illicit pleasures is there safety, morals, and health, while integrity,
peace and happiness are the conscious rewards of virtue. Impurity travels
downward with intemperance, obscenity and corrupting diseases, to
degradation and death. A dissolute, licentious, free-and-easy life is
filled with the dregs of human suffering, iniquity and despair. The
penalties which follow a violation of the law of chastity are found to be
severe and swiftly retributive.
[Illustration]
2. THE UNION of the sexes in holy Matrimony is a law of nature, finding
sanction in both morals and legislation. Even some of the lower animals
unite in this union for life and instinctively observe the law of conjugal
fidelity with a consistency which might put to blush other animals more
highly endowed. It seems important to discuss this subject and understand
our social evils, as well as the intense passional desires of the sexes,
which must be controlled, or they lead to ruin.
3. SEXUAL PROPENSITIES are possessed by all, and these must be held in
abeyance, until they are needed for legitimate purposes. Hence parents
ought to understand the value to their children of mental and physical
labor, to elevate and strengthen the intellectual and moral faculties, to
develop the muscular system and direct the energies of the blood into
healthful channels. Vigorous employment of mind and body engrosses the
vital energies and diverts them from undue excitement of the sexual
desires.
_Give your young people plenty of outdoor amusement; less of dancing and
more of croquet and lawn tennis. Stimulate the methods of pure thoughts in
innocent amusement, and your sons and daughters will mature to manhood and
womanhood pure and chaste in character._ {401}
4. IGNORANCE DOES NOT MEAN INNOCENCE.--It is a current idea, especially
among our good common people, that the child should be kept in ignorance
regarding the mystery of his own body and how he was created or came into
the world. This is a great mistake. Parents must know that the sources of
social impurity are great, and the child is a hundred times more liable to
have his young mind poisoned if entirely ignorant of the functions of his
nature than if judiciously enlightened on these important truths by the
parent. The parent must give him weapons of defense against the putrid
corruption he is sure to meet outside the parental roof. The child cannot
get through the A, B, C period of school without it.
5. CONFLICTING VIEWS.--There is a great difference of opinion regarding the
age at which the child should be taught the mysteries of nature: some
maintain that he cannot comprehend the subject before the age of puberty;
others say "they will find it out soon enough, it is not best to have them
over-wise while they are so young. Wait a while." That is just the point
(_they will find it out_), and we ask in all candor, is it not better that
they learn it from the pure loving mother, untarnished from any insinuating
remark, than that they should learn it from some foul-mouthed libertine on
the street, or some giddy girl at school? Mothers! fathers! which think you
is the most sensible and fraught with the least danger to your darling boy
or girl?
6. DELAY IS FRAUGHT WITH DANGER.--Knowledge on a subject so vitally
connected with moral health must not be deferred. It is safe to say that no
child, no boy at least in these days of excitement and unrest, reaches the
age of ten years without getting some idea of nature's laws regarding
parenthood. And ninety-nine chances to one, those ideas will be vile and
pernicious unless they come from a wise, loving and pure parent. Now, we
entreat you, parents, mothers! do not wait; begin before a false notion has
had chance to find lodgment in the childish mind. But remember this is a
lesson of life, it cannot be told in one chapter; it is as important as the
lessons of love and duty.
7. THE FIRST LESSONS.--Should you be asked by your four or five-year old,
"Mamma, where did you get me?" Instead of saying, "The doctor brought you,"
or "God made you and a stork brought you from Babyland on his back," tell
him the truth as you would about any ordinary question. One mother's
explanation was something like this: "My dear, you were not made any more
than apples are made, or the little chickens are made. Your dolly was {402}
made, but it has no life like you have. God has provided that all living
things such as plants, trees, little chickens, little kittens, little
babies, etc., should grow from seeds or little tiny eggs. Apples grow,
little chickens grow, little babies grow. Apple and peach trees grow from
seeds that are planted in the ground, and the apples and peaches grow on
the trees. Baby chickens grow inside the eggs that are kept warm by the
mother hen for a certain time. Baby boys and girls do not grow inside an
egg, but they start to grow inside of a snug warm nest, from an egg that is
so small you cannot see it with just your eye." This was not given at once,
but from time to time as the child asked questions and in the simplest
language, with many illustrations from plant and animal life. It may have
occupied months, but in time the lesson was fully understood.
8. THE SECOND LESSON.--The second lesson came with the question, "But
_where_ is the nest?" The ice is now broken, as it were; it was an easy
matter for the mother to say, "The nest in which you grew, dear, was close
to your mother's heart inside her body. All things that do not grow inside
the egg itself, and which are kept warm by the mother's body, begin to grow
from the egg in a nest inside the mother's body." It may be that this
mother had access to illustrations of the babe in the womb which were shown
and explained to the child, a boy. He was pleased and satisfied with the
explanations. It meant nothing out of the ordinary any more than a primary
lesson on the circulatory system did, it was knowledge on nature in its
purity and simplicity taught by mother, and hence caused no surprise. The
subject of the male and female generative organs came later; the greatest
pains and care was taken to make it clear, the little boy was taught that
the _sexual organs_ were made for a high and holy purpose, that their
office at present is only to carry off impurities from the system in the
fluid form called urine, and that he must never handle his _sexual organs_
nor touch them in any way except to keep them clean, and if he does this,
he will grow up a bright, happy and healthy boy. But if he excites or
_abuses_ them, he will become puny, sickly and unhappy. All this was
explained in language pure and simple. There is now in the boy a sturdy
base of character building along the line of virtue and purity through
knowledge.
9. SILLY DIRTY TRASH.--But I hear some mother say "Such silly dirty trash
to tell a child!" It is not dirty nor silly; it is nature's untarnished
truth. God has ordained that children should thus be brought into the
world, do you call the works of God silly? Remember, kind mother, and {403}
don't forget it, if you fail to teach your children, boys or girls, these
important lessons early in life, they will learn them from other sources,
perhaps long ere you dream of it, and ninety-nine times out of one hundred
they will get improper, perverted, impure and vile ideas of these important
truths; besides you have lost their confidence and you will never regain it
in these matters. They will never come to mamma for information on these
subjects. And, think you, that your son and daughter, later in life will
make you their confidant as they ought? Will your beautiful daughter hand
the first letters she receives from her lover to mamma to read, and seek
her counsel and advice when she replies to them? Will she ask mamma whether
it is ever proper to sit in her lover's lap? I think not; you have blighted
her confidence and alienated her affections. You have kept knowledge from
her that she had a right to know; you even failed to teach her the
important truths of menstruation. Troubled and excited at the first
menstrual flow, she dashed her feet in cold water hoping to stop the flow.
You know the results--she is now twenty-five but is suffering from it to
this day. You, her mother, over fastidious, _so very nice_ you would never
mention "_such silly trash_," but by your consummate foolishness and mock
modesty you have ruined your daughter's health, and though in later years
she may forgive you, yet she can never love and respect you as she ought.
10. "KNOWLEDGE THE PRESERVER OF PURITY."--Laura E. Scammon, writing on this
subject, in the _Arena_ of November, 1893, says: "When questions arise that
can not be answered by observation, reply to each as simply and directly as
you answer questions upon other subjects, giving scientific names and
facts, and such explanations as are suited to the comprehension of the
child. Treat nature and her laws always with serious, respectful attention.
Treat the holy mysteries of parenthood reverently, never losing sight of
the great law upon which are founded all others--the law of love. Say it
and sing it, play it and pray it into the soul of your child, that _love is
lord of all_."
11. CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER.--Observation and common sense should
teach every parent that lack of knowledge on these subjects and proper
counsel and advice in later years is the main cause of so many charming
girls being seduced and led astray, and so many bright promising boys
wrecked by _self-abuse_ or _social impurity_. Make your children your
confidants early in life, especially in these things, have frequent talks
with them on nature, and you will never, other things being equal, mourn
over a ruined daughter or a wreckless, debased son.
* * * * *
{404}
Exciting the Passions in Children.
1. CONVERSATION BEFORE CHILDREN.--The conduct and conversation of adults
before children and youth, how often have I blushed with shame, and kindled
with indignation at the conversation of parents, and especially of mothers,
to their children: "John, go and kiss Harriet, for she is your
sweet-heart." Well may shame make him hesitate and hang his head. "Why,
John, I did not think you so great a coward. Afraid of the girls, are you?
That will never do. Come, go along, and hug and kiss her. There, that's a
man. I guess you will love the girls yet." Continually is he teased about
the girls and being in love, till he really selects a sweet-heart.
2. THE LOSS OF MAIDEN PURITY AND NATURAL DELICACY.--I will not lift the
veil, nor expose the conduct of children among themselves. And all this
because adults have filled their heads with those impurities which surfeit
their own. What could more effectually wear off that natural delicacy, that
maiden purity and bashfulness, which form the main barriers against the
influx of vitiated Amativeness? How often do those whose modesty has been
worn smooth, even take pleasure in thus saying and doing things to raise
the blush on the cheek of youth and innocence, merely to witness the effect
of this improper illusion upon them; little realizing that they are thereby
breaking down the barriers of their virtue, and prematurely kindling the
fires of animal passion!
3. BALLS, PARTIES AND AMUSEMENTS.--The entire machinery of balls and
parties, of dances and other amusements of young people, tend to excite and
inflame this passion. Thinking it a fine thing to get in love, they court
and form attachments long before either their mental or physical powers are
matured. Of course, these young loves, these green-house exotics, must be
broken off, and their miserable subjects left burning up with the fierce
fires of a flaming passion, which, if left alone, would have slumbered on
for years, till they were prepared for its proper management and exercise.
4. SOWING THE SEEDS FOR FUTURE RUIN.--Nor is it merely the conversation of
adults that does all this mischief; their manners also increase it. Young
men take the hands of girls from six to thirteen years old, kiss them,
press them, and play with them so as, in a great variety of ways, to excite
their innocent passions, combined, I grant, with friendship and
refinement--for all this is genteely done. They {405} intend no harm, and
parents dream of none: and yet their embryo love is awakened, to be again
still more easily excited. Maiden ladies, and even married women, often
express similar feelings towards lads, not perhaps positively improper in
themselves, yet injurious in their ultimate effects.
5. READING NOVELS.--How often have I seen girls not twelve years old, as
hungry for a story or novel as they should be for their dinners! A sickly
sentimentalism is thus formed, and their minds are sullied with impure
desires. Every fashionable young lady must of course read every new novel,
though nearly all of them contain exceptionable allusions, perhaps
delicately covered over with a thin gauze of fashionable refinement; yet,
on that very account, the more objectionable. If this work contained one
improper allusion to their ten, many of those fastidious ladies who now
eagerly devour the vulgarities of Dumas, and the double-entendres of
Bulwer, and even converse with gentlemen about their contents, would
discountenance or condemn it as improper. _Shame on novel-reading women_;
for they cannot have pure minds or unsullied feelings but Cupid and the
beaux, and waking of dreams of love, are fast consuming their health and
virtue.
6. THEATER-GOING.--Theaters and theatrical dancing, also inflame the
passions, and are "the wide gate" of "the broad road" of moral impurity.
Fashionable music is another, especially the verses set to it, being mostly
love-sick ditties, or sentimental odes, breathing this tender passion in
its most melting and bewitching strains. Improper prints often do immense
injury in this respect, as do also balls, parties, annuals, newspaper
articles, exceptional works, etc.
7. THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER.--Stop for one moment and think for
yourself and you will be convinced that the sentiment herein announced is
for your good and the benefit of all mankind.
[Illustration]
{406}
Puberty, Virility and Hygienic Laws.
[Illustration]
1. WHAT IS PUBERTY?--The definition is explained in another portion of this
book, but it should be understood that it is not a prompt or immediate
change; it is a slow extending growth and may extend for many years. The
ripening of physical powers do not take place when the first signs of
puberty appear.
2. PROPER AGE.--The proper age for puberty should vary from twelve to
eighteen years. As a general rule, in the more vigorous and the more
addicted to athletic exercise or out-door life, this change is slower in
making its approach.
3. HYGIENIC ATTENTION.--Youths at this period should receive special
private attention. They should be taught the purpose of the sexual organs
and the proper hygienic laws that govern them, and they should also be
taught to rise in the morning and not to lie in bed after waking up,
because it is largely owing to this habit that the secret vice is
contracted. One of the common causes of premature excitement in many boys
is a tight foreskin. It may cause much evil and ought always to be
remedied. Ill-fitting garments often cause much irritation in children and
produce unnatural passions. It is best to have boys sleep in separate beds
and not have them sleep together if it can be avoided. {407}
4. PROPER INFLUENCE.--Every boy and girl should be carefully trained to
look with disgust on everything that is indecent in word or action. Let
them be taught a sense of shame in doing shameful things, and teach them
that modesty is honorable, and that immodesty is indecent and dishonorable.
Careful training at the proper age may save many a boy or girl from ruin.
5. SEXUAL PASSIONS.--The sexual passions may be a fire from heaven, or a
subtle flame from hell. It depends upon the government and proper control.
The noblest and most unselfish emotions take their arise in the passion of
sex. Its sweet influence, its elevating ties, its vibrations and harmony,
all combine to make up the noble and courageous traits of man.
6. WHEN PASSIONS BEGIN.--It is thought by some that passions begin at the
age of puberty, but the passions may be produced as early as five or ten
years. All depends upon the training or the want of it. Self-abuse is not
an uncommon evil at the age of eight or ten. A company of bad boys often
teach an innocent child that which will develop his ruin. A boy may feel a
sense of pleasure at eight and produce a slight discharge, but not of
semen. Thus it is seen that parents may by neglect do their child the
greatest injury.
7. FALSE MODESTY.--Let there be no false modesty on part of the parents.
Give the child the necessary advice and instructions as soon as necessary.
8. THE MAN UNSEXED, by Mutilation or Masturbation. Eunuchs are proverbial
for their cruelty and crafty and unsympathizing dispositions. Their mental
powers are feeble and their physical strength is inferior. They lack
courage and physical endurance. When a child is operated upon before the
age of puberty, the voice retains its childish treble, the limbs their soft
and rounded outlines, and the neck acquires a feminine fulness; no beard
makes its appearance. In ancient times and up to this time in Oriental
nations eunuchs are found. They are generally slaves who have suffered
mutilation at a tender age. It is a scientific fact that where boys have
been taught the practice of masturbation in their early years, say from
eight to fourteen years of age, if they survive at all they often have
their powers reduced to a similar condition of a eunuch. They generally
however suffer a greater disadvantage. Their health will be more or less
injured. In the eunuch the power of sexual intercourse is not entirely lost
but of course there is sterility and little if any satisfaction, and the
same thing may be true of the victim of self-abuse. {408}
9. SIGNS OF VIRILITY.--As the young man develops in strength and years the
sexual appetite will manifest itself. The secretion of the male known as
the seed or semen depends for the life-transmitting power upon little
minute bodies called spermatozoa. These are very active and numerous in a
healthy secretion, being many hundreds in a single drop and a single one of
them is capable to bring about conception in a female. Dr. Napheys in his
"Transmission of Life," says: "The secreted fluid has been frozen and kept
at a temperature of zero for four days, yet when it was thawed these
animalcules, as they are supposed to be, were as active as ever. They are
not, however, always present, and when present may be of variable activity.
In young men, just past puberty, and in aged men, they are often scarce and
languid in motion." At the proper age the secretion is supposed to be the
most active, generally at the age of twenty-five, and decreases as age
increases.
10. HYGIENIC RULE.--The man at mid-life should guard carefully his passions
and the husband his virile powers, and as the years progress, steadily wean
himself more from his desire, for his passions will become weaker with age
and any excitement in middle life may soon debilitate and destroy his
virile powers.
11. FOLLIES OF YOUTH.--Dr. Napheys says: "Not many men can fritter away a
decade or two of years in dissipation and excess, and ever hope to make up
their losses by rigid surveillance in later years." "The sins of youth are
expiated in age," is a proverb which daily examples illustrate. In
proportion as puberty is precocious, will decadence be premature; the
excesses of middle life draw heavily on the fortune of later years. "The
mill of the gods grinds slow, but it grinds exceedingly fine," and though
nature may be a tardy creditor, she is found at last to be an inexorable
one.
* * * * *
{409}
Our Secret Sins.
1. PASSIONS.--Every healthful man has sexual desires, and he might as well
refuse to satisfy his hunger as to deny their existence. The Creator has
given us various appetites, intended they should be indulged, and has
provided the means.
2. REASON.--While it is true that a healthy man has strongly developed
sexual passions, yet, God has crowned man with reason, and with a proper
exercise of this wonderful faculty of the human mind no lascivious thoughts
need to control the passions. A pure heart will develop pure thoughts and
bring out a good life.
3. RIOTING IN VISIONS.--Dr. Lewis says: "Rioting in visions of nude women
may exhaust one as much as an excess in actual intercourse. There are
multitudes who would never spend the night with an abandoned female, but
who rarely meet a young girl that their imaginations are not busy with her
person. This species of indulgence is well-nigh universal; and it is the
source of all other forms--the fountain from which the external vices
spring, and the nursery of masturbation."
4. COMMITTING ADULTERY IN THE HEART.--A young man who allows his mind to
dwell upon the vision of nude women will soon become a victim of ruinous
passion, and either fall under the influence of lewd women or resort to
self-abuse. The man who has no control over his mind and allows impure
thoughts to be associated with the name of every female that may be
suggested to his mind, is but committing adultery in his heart, just as
guilty at heart as though he had committed the deed.
5. UNCHASTITY.--So far as the record is preserved, unchastity has
contributed above all other causes, more to the ruin and exhaustion and
demoralization of the race than all other wickedness. And we shall not be
likely to vanquish the monster, even in ourselves, unless we make the
thoughts our point of attack. So long as they are sensual we are indulging
in sexual abuse, and are almost sure, when temptation is presented, to
commit the overt acts of sin. If we cannot succeed within, we may pray in
vain for help to resist the tempter outwardly. A young man who will indulge
in obscene language will be guilty of a worse deed if opportunity is
offered.
6. BAD DRESSING.--If women knew how much mischief they do men they would
change some of their habits of {410} dress. The dress of their busts, the
padding in different parts, are so contrived as to call away attention from
the soul and fix it on the bosom and hips. And then, many, even educated
women, are careful to avoid serious subjects in our presence--one minute
before a gentleman enters the room they may be engaged in thoughtful
discussion, but the moment he appears their whole style changes; they
assume light fascinating ways, laugh sweet little bits of laughs, and turn
their heads this way and that, all which forbids serious thinking and gives
men over to imagination.
7. THE LUSTFUL EYE.--How many men there are who lecherously stare at every
woman in whose presence they happen to be. These monsters stare at women as
though they were naked in a cage on exhibition. A man whose whole manner is
full of animal passion is not worthy of the respect of refined women. They
have no thoughts, no ideas, no sentiments, nothing to interest them but the
bodies of women whom they behold. The moral character of young women has no
significance or weight in their eyes. This kind of men are a curse to
society and a danger to the community. No young lady is safe in their
company.
8. REBUKING SENSUALISM.--If the young women would exercise an honorable
independence and heap contempt upon the young men that allow their
imagination to take such liberties, a different state of things would soon
follow. Men of that type of character should have no recognition in the
presence of ladies.
9. EARLY MARRIAGES.--There can be no doubt that early marriages are bad for
both parties. For children of such a marriage always lack vitality. The
ancient Germans did not marry until the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth year,
previous to which they observed the most rigid chastity, and in consequence
they acquired a size and strength that excited the astonishment of Europe.
The present incomparable vigor of that race, both physically and mentally,
is due in a great measure to their long established aversion to marrying
young. The results of too early marriages are in brief, stunted growth and
impaired strength on the part of the male; delicate if not utterly bad
health in the female; the premature old age or death of one or both, and a
puny, sickly offspring.
10. SIGNS OF EXCESSES.--Dr. Dio Lewis says: "Some of the most common
effects of sexual excess are backache, lassitude, giddiness, dimness of
sight, noises in the ears, numbness of the fingers, and paralysis. The
drain is universal, but the more sensitive organs and tissues suffer {411}
most. So the nervous system gives way and continues the principal sufferer
throughout. A large part of the premature loss of sight and hearing,
dizziness, numbness and pricking in the hands and feet, and other kindred
developments, are justly chargeable to unbridled venery. Not unfrequently
you see men whose head or back or nerve testifies of such reckless
expenditure."
11. NON-COMPLETED INTERCOURSE.--Withdrawal before the emission occurs is
injurious to both parties. The soiling of the conjugal bed by the shameful
manoeuvres is to be deplored.
12. THE EXTENT OF THE PRACTICE.--One cannot tell to what extent this vice
is practiced, except by observing its consequences, even among people who
fear to commit the slightest sin, to such a degree is the public conscience
perverted upon this point. Still, many husbands know that nature often
renders nugatory the most subtle calculations, and reconquers the rights
which they have striven to frustrate. No matter; they persevere none the
less, and by the force of habit they poison the most blissful moments of
life, with no surety of averting the result that they fear. So who knows if
the too often feeble and weakened infants are not the fruit of these in
themselves incomplete procreations, and disturbed by preoccupations foreign
to the natural act.
13. HEALTH OF WOMEN.--Furthermore, the moral relations existing between the
married couple undergo unfortunate changes; this affection, founded upon
reciprocal esteem, is little by little effaced by the repetition of an act
which pollutes the marriage bed. If the good harmony of families and the
reciprocal relations are seriously menaced by the invasion of these
detestable practices, the health of women, as we have already intimated, is
fearfully injured.
14. THE PRACTICE OF ABORTION.--Then we have the practice of abortion
reduced in modern times to a science, and almost to a distinct profession.
A large part of the business is carried on by the means of medicines
advertised in obscure but intelligible terms as embryo-destroyers or
preventives of conception. Every large city has its professional
abortionist. Many ordinary physicians destroy embryos to order, and the
skill to do this terrible deed has even descended among the common people.
15. SEXUAL EXHAUSTION.--Every sexual excitement is exhaustive in proportion
to its intensity and continuance. If a man sits by the side of a woman,
fondles and kisses her three or four hours, and allows his imagination to
run riot with sexual visions, he will be five times as much exhausted {412}
as he would by the act culminating in emission. It is the sexual excitement
more than the emission which exhausts. As shown in another part of this
work, thoughts of sexual intimacies, long continued, lead to the worst
effects. To a man, whose imagination is filled with erotic fancies the
emission comes as a merciful interruption to the burning, harassing and
wearing excitement which so constantly goads him.
16. THE DESIRE OF GOOD.--The desire of good for its own sake--this is Love.
The desire of good for bodily pleasure--this is Lust. Man is a moral being,
and as such should always act in the animal sphere according to the
spiritual law. Hence, to break the law of the highest creative action for
the mere gratification of animal instinct is to perform the act of sin and
to produce the corruption of nature.
17. CAUSE OF PROSTITUTION.--Dr. Dio Lewis says: "Occasionally we meet a
diseased female with excessive animal passion, but such a case is very
rare. The average woman has so little sexual desire that if licentiousness
depended upon her, uninfluenced by her desire to please man or secure his
support, there would be very little sexual excess. Man is strong--he has
all the money and all the facilities for business and pleasure; and woman
is not long in learning the road to his favor. Many prostitutes who take no
pleasure in their unclean intimacies not only endure a disgusting life for
the favor and means thus gained, but affect intense passion in their sexual
contacts because they have learned that such exhibitions gratify men."
18. HUSBAND'S BRUTALITY.--Husbands! It is your licentiousness that drives
your wives to a deed so abhorrent to their every wifely, womanly and
maternal instinct--a deed which ruins the health of their bodies,
prostitutes their souls, and makes marriage, maternity and womanhood itself
degrading and loathsome. No terms can sufficiently characterize the
cruelty, meanness and disgusting selfishness of your conduct when you
impose on them a maternity so detested as to drive them to the desperation
of killing their unborn children and often themselves.
19. WHAT DRUNKARDS BEQUEATH TO THEIR OFFSPRING.--Organic imperfections
unfit the brain for sane action, and habit confirms the insane condition;
the man's brain has become unsound. Then comes in the law of hereditary
descent, by which the brain of a man's children is fashioned after his
own--not as it was originally, but as it has become, in consequence of
frequent functional disturbance. Hence, of all appetites, the inherited
appetite for drunkenness is {413} the most direful. Natural laws
contemplate no exceptions, and sins against them are never pardoned.
20. THE REPORTS OF HOSPITALS.--The reports of hospitals for lunatics almost
universally assign intemperance as one of the causes which predispose a
man's offspring to insanity. This is even more strikingly manifested in the
case of congenital idiocy. They come generally from a class of families
which seem to have degenerated physically to a low degree. They are puny
and sickly.
21. SECRET DISEASES.--See the weakly, sickly and diseased children who are
born only to suffer and die, all because of the private disease of the
father before his marriage. Oh, let the truth be told that the young men of
our land may learn the lessons of purity of life. Let them learn that in
morality there is perfect protection and happiness.
[Illustration: GETTING A DIVORCE]
{414}
Physical and Moral Degeneracy.
[Illustration: THE DEGENERATE TURK.]
1. MORAL PRINCIPLE.--"Edgar Allen Poe, Lord Byron, and Robert Burns," says
Dr. Geo. F. Hall, "were men of marvelous strength intellectually. But
measured by the true rule of high moral principle, they were very weak.
Superior endowment in a single direction--physical, mental, or
spiritual--is not of itself sufficient to make one strong in all that that
heroic word means.
2. INSANE ASYLUM.--Many a good man spiritually has gone to an untimely
grave because of impaired physical powers. Many a good man spiritually has
gone to the insane asylum because of bodily and mental weaknesses. Many a
good man spiritually has fallen from virtue in an evil moment because of a
weakened will, or, a too demanding fleshly passion, or, worse than either,
too lax views on the subject of personal chastity."
3. BOYS LEARNING VICES.--Some ignorant and timid people argue that boys and
young men in reading a work of this character will learn vices concerning
which they had {415} never so much as dreamed of before. This is, however,
certain, that vices cannot be condemned unless they are mentioned; and if
the condemnation is strong enough it surely will be a source of strength
and of security. If light and education, on these important subjects, does
injury, then all knowledge likewise must do more wrong than good. Knowledge
is power, and the only hope of the race is enlightenment on all subjects
pertaining to their being.
4. MORAL MANHOOD.--It is clearly visible that the American manhood is
rotting down--decaying at the center. The present generation shows many men
of a small body and weak principles, and men and women of this kind are
becoming more and more prevalent. Dissipation and indiscretions of all kind
are working ruin. Purity of life and temperate habits are being too
generally disregarded.
5. YOUNG WOMEN.--The vast majority of graduates from the schools and
colleges of our land to-day, and two-thirds of the membership of our
churches, and three-fourths of the charitable workers, are females.
Everywhere girls are carrying off most of the prizes in competitive
examinations, because women, as a sex, naturally maintain a better
character, take better care of their bodies, and are less addicted to bad
and injurious habits. While all this is true in reference to females, you
will find that the male sex furnishes almost the entire number of
criminals. The saloons, gambling dens, the brothels, and bad literature are
drawing down all that the public schools can build up. Seventy per cent. of
the young men of this land do not darken the church door. They are not
interested in moral improvement or moral education. Eighty-five per cent.
leave school under 15 years of age; prefer the loafer's honors to the
benefit of school.
6. PROMOTION.--The world is full of good places for good young men, and all
the positions of trust now occupied by the present generation will soon be
filled by the competent young men of the coming generation; and he that
keeps his record clean, lives a pure life, and avoids excesses or
dissipations of all kinds, and fortifies his life with good habits, is the
young man who will be heard from, and a thousand places will be open for
his services.
7. PERSONAL PURITY.--Dr. George F. Hall says: "Why not pay careful
attention to man in all his elements of strength, physical, mental, and
moral? Why not make personal purity a fixed principle in the manhood of the
present and coming generations, and thus insure the best men the world has
ever seen? It can be done. Let every reader of these lines resolve that he
will be one to help do it."
* * * * *
{416}
Immorality, Disease and Death.
[Illustration: Charles Dickens' Chair and Desk.]
1. THE POLICY OF SILENCE.--There is no greater delusion than to suppose
that vast number of boys know nothing about practices of sin. Some parents
are afraid that unclean thoughts may be suggested by these very defences.
The danger is slight. Such cases are barely possible, but when the untold
thousands are thought of on the other side, who have been demoralized from
childhood through ignorance, and who are to-day suffering the result of
these vicious practices, the policy of silence stands condemned, and
intelligent knowledge abundantly justified. The emphatic words of Scripture
are true in this respect also, "The people are destroyed for lack of
knowledge."
2. LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS.--Without fear of truthful contradiction we affirm
that the homes, public assemblies, and streets of all our large cities
abound to-day with living illustrations and proofs of the widespread
existence of this physical and moral scourge. An enervated and stunted
manhood, a badly developed physique, a marked absence of manly and womanly
strength and beauty, are painfully common everywhere. Boys and girls, young
men and women, exist by thousands, of whom it may be said, they were badly
born and ill-developed. Many of these are, to some extent, bearing the
penalty of the sins and excesses of their parents, especially their
fathers, whilst the great majority are reaping the fruits of their own
immorality in a dwarfed and ill-formed body, and effeminate appearance,
weak and enervated mind. {417}
3. EFFEMINATE AND SICKLY YOUNG MEN.--The purposeless and aimless life of
any number of effeminate and sickly young men, is to be distinctly
attributed to these sins. The large class of mentally impotent
"ne'er-do-wells" are being constantly recruited and added to by those who
practice what the celebrated Erichson calls "that hideous sin engendered by
vice, and practiced in solitude"--the sin, be it observed, which is the
common cause of physical and mental weakness, and of the fearfully
impoverishing night-emissions, or as they are commonly called,
"wet-dreams."
4. WEAKNESS, DISEASE, DEFORMITY, AND DEATH.--Through self-pollution and
fornication the land is being corrupted with weakness, disease, deformity,
and death. We regret to say that we cannot speak with confidence concerning
the moral character of the Jew; but we have people amongst us who have
deservedly a high character for the tone of their moral life--we refer to
the members of the Society of Friends. The average of life amongst these
reaches no less than fifty-six years; and, whilst some allowance must be
made for the fact that amongst the Friends the poor have not a large
representation, these figures show conclusively the soundness of this
position,
5. SOWING THEIR WILD OATS.--It is monstrous to suppose that healthy
children should die just as they are coming to manhood. The fact that
thousands of young people do reach the age of sixteen or eighteen, and then
decline and die, should arouse parents to ask the question: Why? Certainly
it would not be difficult to tell the reason in thousands of instances, and
yet the habit and practice of the deadly sin of self-pollution is actually
ignored; it is even spoken of as a boyish folly not to be mentioned, and
young men literally burning up with lust are mildly spoken of as "sowing
their wild oats." Thus the cemetery is being filled with masses of the
youth of America who, as in Egypt of old, fill up the graves of uncleanness
and lust. Some time since a prominent Christian man was taking exception to
my addressing men on this subject; observe this! one of his own sons was at
that very time near the lunatic asylum through these disgusting sins. What
folly and madness this is!
6. DEATH TO TRUE MANHOOD.--The question for each one is, "In what way are
you going to divert the courses of the streams of energy which pertain to
youthful vigor and manhood?" To be destitute of that which may be described
as raw material in the human frame, means that no really vigorous manhood
can have place; to burn up the juices of the system in the fires of lust is
madness and wanton folly, {418} but it can be done. To divert the currents
of life and energy from blood and brain, from memory and muscle, in order
to secrete it for the shambles of prostitution, is death to true manhood;
but remember, it can be done! The generous liquid life may inspire the
brain and blood with noble impulse and vital force, or it may be sinned
away and drained out of the system until the jaded brain, the faded cheek,
the enervated young manhood, the gray hair, narrow chest, weak voice, and
the enfeebled mind show another victim in the long catalogue of the
degraded through lust.
7. THE SISTERHOOD OF SHAME AND DEATH.--Whenever we pass the sisterhood of
death, and hear the undertone of song, which is one of the harlot's methods
of advertising, let us recall the words, that these represent the
"pestilence which walketh in darkness, the destruction that wasteth at
noonday." The allusion, of course, is to the fact that the great majority
of these harlots are full of loathsome physical and moral disease; with the
face and form of an angel, these women "bite like a serpent and sting like
an adder;" their traffic is not for life, but inevitably for shame,
disease, and death. Betrayed and seduced themselves, they in their turn
betray and curse others.
8. WARNING OTHERS.--Have you never been struck with the argument of the
Apostle, who, warning others from the corrupt example of the fleshy Esau,
said, "Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one
mess of meat sold his own birthright. For ye know that even afterward, when
he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, he found no place for
repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears." Terrible and
striking words are these. His birthright sold for a mess of meat. The
fearful costs of sin--yes, that is the thought, particularly the sin of
fornication! Engrave that word upon your memories and hearts--"One mess of
meat."
9. THE HARLOT'S MESS OF MEAT.--Remember it, young men, when you are tempted
to this sin. For a few minutes' sensual pleasure, for a mess of harlot's
meat, young men are paying out the love of the son and brother; they are
deceiving, lying, and cheating for a mess of meat; for a mess, not seldom
of putrid flesh, men have paid down purity and prayer, manliness and
godliness; for a mess of meat some perhaps have donned their best attire,
and assumed the manners of the gentleman, and then, like an infernal
hypocrite, dogged the steps of maiden or harlot to satisfy their degrading
lust; for a mess of meat young men have deceived father and mother, and
shrunk from the embrace of {419} love of the pure-minded sister. For the
harlot's mess of meat some listening to me have spent scores of hours of
invaluable time. They have wearied the body, diseased and demoralized the
mind. The pocket has been emptied, theft committed, lies unnumbered told,
to play the part of the harlot's mate--perchance a six-foot fool, dragged
into the filth and mire of the harlot's house. You called her your friend,
when, but for her mess of meat, you would have passed her like dirt in the
street.
10. SEEING LIFE.--You consorted with her for your mutual shame and death,
and then called it "seeing life." Had your mother met you, you would have
shrunk away like a craven cur. Had your sister interviewed you, she had
blushed to bear your name; or had she been seen by you in company with some
other whoremaster, for similar commerce, you would have wished that she had
been dead. Now what think you of this "seeing life?" And it is for this
that tens of thousands of strong men in our large cities are selling their
birthright.
11. THE DEVIL'S DECOYS.--Some may be ready to affirm that physical and
moral penalties do not appear to overtake all men; that many men known to
be given to intemperance and sensuality are strong, well, and live to a
good age. Let us not make any mistake concerning these; they are exceptions
to the rule; the appearance of health in them is but the grossness of
sensuality. You have only carefully to look into the faces of these men to
see that their countenances, eyes, and speech betray them. They are simply
the devil's decoys.
12. GROSSNESS OF SENSUALITY.--The poor degraded harlot draws in the victims
like a heavily charged lodestone; these men are found in large numbers
throughout the entire community; they would make fine men were they not
weighted with the grossness of sensuality; as it is, they frequent the
race-course, the card-table, the drinking-saloon, the music-hall, and the
low theaters, which abound in our cities and towns; the great majority of
these are men of means and leisure. Idleness is their curse, their
opportunity for sin; you may know them as the loungers over
refreshment-bars, as the retailers of the latest filthy joke, or as the
vendors of some disgusting scandal; indeed, it is appalling the number of
these lepers found both in our business and social circles.
* * * * *
{421}
Poisonous Literature and Bad Pictures.
[Illustration: PALESTINE WATER CARRIERS.]
1. OBSCENE LITERATURE.--No other source contributes so much to sexual
immorality as obscene literature. The mass of stories published in the
great weeklies and the cheap novels are mischievous. When the devil
determines to take charge of a young soul, he often employs a very
ingenious method. He slyly hands a little novel filled with "voluptuous
forms," "reclining on bosoms," "languishing eyes," etc.
2. MORAL FORCES.--The world is full of such literature. It is easily
accessible, for it is cheap, and the young will procure it, and therefore
become easy prey to its baneful influence and effects. It weakens the moral
forces of the young, and they thereby fall an easy prey before the subtle
schemes of the libertine.
3. BAD BOOKS.--Bad books play not a small part in the corruption of the
youth. A bad book is as bad as an evil companion. In some respects it is
even worse than a living teacher of vice, since it may cling to an
individual at all times. It will follow him and poison his mind with the
venom of evil. The influence of bad books in making bad boys and men is
little appreciated. Few are aware how much evil seed is being sown among
the young everywhere through the medium of vile books.
4. SENSATIONAL STORY BOOKS.--Much of the evil literature which is sold in
nickel and dime novels, and which constitutes the principal part of the
contents of such papers as the "Police Gazette," the "Police News," and a
large proportion of the sensational story books which flood the land. You
might better place a coal of fire or a live viper in your bosom, than allow
yourself to read such a book. The thoughts that are implanted in the mind
in youth will often stick there through life, in spite of all efforts to
dislodge them.
5. PAPERS AND MAGAZINES.--Many of the papers and magazines sold at our news
stands, and eagerly sought after by young men and boys, are better suited
for the parlors of a house of ill-fame than for the eyes of pure-minded
youth. A newsdealer who will distribute such vile sheets ought to be dealt
with as an educator in vice and crime, an agent of evil, and a recruiting
officer of hell and perdition.
6. SENTIMENTAL LITERATURE OF LOW FICTION.--Sentimental literature, whether
impure in its subject matter or not, has {422} a direct tendency in the
direction of impurity. The stimulation of the emotional nature, the
instilling of sentimental ideas into the minds of the young, has a tendency
to turn the thoughts into a channel which leads in the direction of the
formation of vicious habits.
7. IMPRESSIONS LEFT BY READING QUESTIONABLE LITERATURE.--It is painful to
see strong intelligent men and youths reading bad books, or feasting their
eyes on filthy pictures, for the practice is sure to affect their personal
purity. Impressions will be left which cannot fail to breed a legion of
impure thoughts, and in many instances criminal deeds. Thousands of
elevator boys, clerks, students, traveling men, and others, patronize the
questionable literature counter to an alarming extent.
8. THE NUDE IN ART.--For years there has been a great craze after the nude
in art, and the realistic in literature. Many art galleries abound in
pictures and statuary which cannot fail to fan the fires of sensualism,
unless the thoughts of the visitor are trained to the strictest purity. Why
should artists and sculptors persist in shocking the finer sensibilities of
old and young of both sexes by crowding upon their view representations of
naked human forms in attitudes of luxurious abandon? Public taste may
demand it. But let those who have the power endeavor to reform public
taste.
9. WIDELY DIFFUSED.--Good men have ever lamented the pernicious influence
of a depraved and perverted literature. But such literature has never been
so systematically and widely diffused as at the present time. This is owing
to two causes, its cheapness and the facility of conveyance.
10. INFLAME THE PASSIONS.--A very large proportion of the works thus put in
circulation are of the worst character, tending to corrupt the principles,
to inflame the passions, to excite impure desire, and spread a blight over
all the powers of the soul. Brothels are recruited from this more than any
other source. Those who search the trunks of convicted criminals are almost
sure to find in them one or more of these works; and few prisoners who can
read at all fail to enumerate among the causes which led them into crime
the unhealthy stimulus of this depraved and poisonous literature.
[Illustration]
{423}
Startling Sins.
[Illustration]
1. NAMELESS CRIMES.--The nameless crimes identified with the hushed-up
Sodomite cases; the revolting condition of the school of Sodomy; the
revelations of the Divorce Court concerning the condition of what is called
national nobility, and upper classes, as well as the unclean spirit which
attaches to "society papers," has revealed a condition which is perfectly
disgusting.
2. UNFAITHFULNESS.--Unfaithfulness amongst husbands and wives in the upper
classes is common and adultery rife everywhere; mistresses are kept in all
directions; thousands of these rich men have at least two, and not seldom
three establishments.
3. A FRIGHTFUL INCREASE.--Facts which have come to light during the past
ten years show a frightful increase in every form of licentiousness; the
widely extended area over which whoredom and degrading lust have thrown the
glamor of their fascinating toils is simply appalling. {424}
4. MORAL CARNAGE.--We speak against the fearful moral carnage; would to God
that some unmistakable manifestation of the wrath of God should come in and
put a stop to this huge seed-plot of national demoralization! We are
reaping in this disgusting centre the harvest of corruption which has come
from the toleration and encouragements given by the legislature, the
police, and the magistrates to immorality, vice, and sin; the awful fact
is, that we are in the midst of the foul and foetid harvest of lust. Aided
by some of the most exalted personages in the land, assisted by thousands
of educated and wealthy whoremongers and adulterers, we are reaping also,
in individual physical ugliness and deformity, that which has been sown;
the puny, ill-formed and mentally weak youths and maidens, men and women,
to be seen in large numbers in our principal towns and cities, represent
the widespread nature of the curse which has, in a marked manner, impaired
the physique, the morality, and the intelligence of the nation.
5. DAILY PRESS.--The daily press has not had the moral courage to say one
word; the quality of demoralizing novels such as have been produced from
the impure brain and unclean imaginations; the subtle, clever, and
fascinating undermining of the white-winged angel of purity by modern
sophists, whose prurient and vicious volumes were written to throw a halo
of charm and beauty about the brilliant courtesan and the splendid
adulteress; the mixing up of lust and love; the making of corrupt passion
to stand in the garb of a deep, lasting, and holy affection--these are some
of the hideous seedlings which, hidden amid the glamor and fascination of
the seeming "angel of light," have to so large an extent corrupted the
morality of the country.
6. NIGHTLY EXHIBITIONS.--Some of you know what the nightly exhibitions in
these garlanded temples of whorish incentive are. There is the variety
theatre, with its disgusting ballet dancing, and its shamelessly indecent
photographs exhibited in every direction. What a clear gain to morality it
would be if the accursed houses were burnt down, and forbidden by law ever
to be re-built or re-opened; the whole scene is designed to act upon and
stimulate the lusts and evil passions of corrupt men and women.
7. CONFIDENCE AND EXPOSURE.--I hear some of you say, cannot some influence
be brought to bear upon this plague-spot? Will the legislature or congress
do nothing? Is the law and moral right to continue to be trodden under
foot? Are the magistrates and the police powerless? The truth is the
harlots and whoremongers are master of the situation; the moral sense of
the legislators, the magistrates, and the {425} police is so low that
anything like confidence is at present out of the question.
8. THE SISTERHOOD OF SHAME AND DEATH.--It is enough to make angels weep to
see a great mass of America's wealthy and better-class sons full of zeal
and on fire with interest in the surging hundreds of the sisterhood of
shame and death. Many of these men act as if they were--if they do not
believe they are--dogs. No poor hunted dog in the streets was ever tracked
by a yelping crowd of curs more than is the fresh girl or chance of a maid
in the accursed streets of our large cities. Price is no object, nor
parentage, nor home; it is the truth to affirm that hundreds and thousands
of well-dressed and educated men come in order to the gratification of
their lusts, and to this end they frequent this whole district; they have
reached this stage, they are being burned up in this fire of lust; men of
whom God says, "Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease sin."
9. LAW MAKERS.--Now should any member of the legislature rise up and
testify against this "earthly hell," and speak in defence of the moral
manhood and womanhood of the nation, he would be greeted as a fanatic, and
laughed down amid derisive cheers; such has been the experience again and
again. Therefore attack this great stronghold which for the past thirty
years has warred and is warring against our social manhood and womanhood,
and constantly undermining the moral life of the nation; against this
citadel of licentiousness, this metropolitan centre of crime, and vice, and
sin, direct your full blast of righteous and manly indignation.
[Illustration]
10. TEMPLES OF LUST.--Here stand the foul and splendid temples of lust,
intemperance, and passion, into whose vortex tens of thousands of our sons
and daughters are constantly being drawn. Let it be remembered that this
whole area represents the most costly conditions, and proves beyond
question that an enormous proportion of the wealthy manhood of the nation,
and we as citizens sustain, partake, and share in this carnival of death.
Is it any wonder that the robust type of godly manhood which used to be
found in the legislature, is sadly wanting now, or that the wretched
caricatures of manhood which find form and place in such papers as "Truth"
and the "World" are accepted as representing "modern society?"
11. PURITANIC MANHOOD.--It is a melancholy fact that by reason of
uncleanness, we have almost lost regard for the type of puritanic manhood
which in the past held aloft the standard of a chaste and holy life; such
men in this day are spoken of as "too slow" as "weak-kneed," and {426}
"goody-goody" men. Let me recall that word, the fast and indecently-dressed
"things," the animals of easy virtue, the "respectable" courtesans that
flirt, chaff, gamble, and waltz with well-known high-class licentious
lepers--such is the ideal of womanhood which a large proportion of our
large city society accepts, fawns upon, and favors.
12. SHAMEFUL CONDITIONS.--Perhaps one of the most inhuman and shameful
conditions of modern fashionable society, both in England and America, is
that which wealthy men and women who are married destroy their own children
in the embryo stage of being, and become murderers thereby. This is done to
prevent what should be one of our chief glories, viz., large and
well-developed home and family life.
* * * * *
{427}
The Prostitution of Men.