CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THIS BOOK IS ONE OF A 
 COLLECTION MADE BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
 
 1854-1919 
 
 AND BEQUEATHED TO 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
^''^i.!!lf,teLfi,Hrily..conaress. Its papers 
 
 3 1924 021 845 072 
 
M Cornell University 
 S Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021845072 
 
THE 
 
 National Purity Congress, 
 
 ITS PAPERS, ADDRESSES, PORTRAITS. 
 
 AN ILLUSTRATED RECORD OF THE PAPERS AND ADDRESSES OF 
 THE FIRST NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, HELD UNDER 
 THE AUSPICES OF THE AMERICAN PURITY ALLI- 
 ANCE, IN THE PARK AVENUE FRIENDS' 
 MEETING HOUSE, BALTIMORE, OCTO- 
 BER 14, 15 AND 16, 1895. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 AARON M. POWELL, 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN PURITY ALLIANCE. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 THE AMERICAN PURITY ALLIANCE 
 
 UNITED CHARITIES BUILDING, 
 
 1896. 
 
 ■p. 
 
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 4(^.2^^^; 
 
 Copyright by Aaron M. Powell, 1896. 
 
 Caulon Press, 20 Vesey Street, New Yokk. 
 
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 To OUR BELOVED 
 
 §aug^t£r, 
 
 IN THE MFE BEYOND, THE MEMORY OF WHOSE LOVELY 
 CHILDHOOD HAS BEEN A CONTINUAL INSPIRATION DURING 
 YEARS OF EFFORT TO SECURE IMPROVED SOCIAL CONDITIONS 
 AND MORK ADEQUATE PROTECTION FOR EXPOSED YOUNG 
 GIRLS, THE DAUGHTERS OF OTHERS, AND TO PROMOTE AN 
 EQUAL STANDARD OF MORALITY FOR BOTH MEN AND 
 WOMEN, THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 josf;phine e. butler. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Purity movement, vital in importance as in- 
 volving the welfare of the individual, of the home and 
 of the nation, has hitherto received but a minimum of 
 consideration. In the old world the cruel and unjust 
 system of State Regulation of Vice has long existed. 
 The International Federation for the Abolition of 
 State Regulation of Vice, of which Josephine E. 
 Butler is the gifted pioneer and leader, is laboring 
 effectively for its destruction. It has advocates in 
 America. It was to oppose the introduction of that 
 odious system of legalized vice that the New York 
 Committee for the Prevention of State Regulation 
 OF Vice was organized in 1876. Its first president was 
 the honored and beloved Abby Hopper Gibbons. Last 
 year the organization was enlarged, and incorporated, 
 under the name of the American Purity Alliance. 
 The National Purity Congress, held under its auspices, 
 was its first appeal to the general public. The response, 
 both on the part of writers and speakers, and in the 
 great audiences in attendance throughout the seven ses- 
 sions of the Congress, was most encouraging and 
 grateful. 
 
 This volume is a record of the papers and addresses 
 of the Congress, which, it is believed, will do much to 
 extend and perpetuate its usefulness, and to interpret 
 and emphasize to the larger public the urgent need and 
 the fundamental importance, in its various aspects, of 
 the Purity Reform. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 The papers and addresses are presented by the 
 editor essentially as contributed by their authors. The 
 general aim and purpose of all is the same. It 
 is, however, to be distinctly understood that each 
 writer and speaker is responsible only for his or her own 
 paper or address. 
 
 The volume includes a rare galaxy of portraits of 
 representative, philanthropic men and women, of Amer- 
 ica and of Europe, which will be of exceptional interest 
 to its readers in any and every clime. 
 
 The book is sent forth upon its humane mission in 
 the confident hope and faith that it will do much to 
 awaken public sympathy with, and interest in, the work 
 of rescuing the perishing; of the better protection of the 
 young of both sexes ; the repression of vice, the abolition 
 and prevention of its regulation by the State, and to 
 promote a high, equal standad of morals for both men 
 and women. 
 
 Aaron M. Powell. 
 
 Vll 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface '^ 
 
 Table of Contents viii 
 
 List of Portraits x 
 
 Call of Congress ^'H 
 
 FIRST SESSION. page 
 
 The President's Opening Address 1 
 
 Letter from Rev. Dr. W. N. McVickar 8 
 
 Addresses of Welcome — Hon, Joshua Levering & 
 
 — Mrs. Alice C. Robinson 10 
 
 Responses— Rev. Dr. W. T. Sabine 14 
 
 — Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell 17 
 
 Letter from Hon. C. C. Bonney 20 
 
 Paper — " Immorality of the Regulation System" — Rev. An- 
 toinette Brown Blackwell 21 
 
 Paper — " The Religious Aspects of the Purity Movement" — 
 
 Rev. S. H. Virgin, D. D 30 
 
 SECOND SESSION. 
 
 Paper— " Social Vice and National Decay" — Rev. Wm. T. 
 
 Sabine, D. D 42 
 
 Paper—" The Great Need of the Moral Crusade" — Laura H. 
 
 Satterth waite, M . D 58 
 
 Paper— "Moral Equality Between the Sexes" — Julia Ward 
 
 Howe 66 
 
 Paper — ' 'The Responsibility of Women in R egard to Questions 
 
 Concerning Public Morality "—Emily Blackwell, M. D. . . 72 
 
 Paper-" Young Men and Morality " — J. W. Walton 82 
 
 Paper—" The Social Purity Alliance of Great Britain '—Miss 
 
 C. M. Whitehead 90 
 
 THIRD SESSION. 
 
 Paper — " Heredity and Ethics" — Helen H. Gaidener 90 
 
 Address — "The Laws of Parentage and Heredity" — Rev. 
 
 Mary T. Whitney 106 
 
 Paper — "The Municipality in Its Relation to Vice ''—Samuel 
 
 C. Blackwell wfy 
 
 Paper— " Organized Prostitution. How to Deal With It" 
 
 Mrs. Dora Webb.' Hg 
 
 Address — Frances E. Willard 124 
 
 Letter from Josephine E. Butler 12g 
 
 Paper— • ' The American Purity Alliance and Its Work "—Anna 
 
 Rice Powell -jgn 
 
 Paper— "The Deserted City; Legalized Vice "—Rev. Joseph 
 
 F-l^lint 138 
 
 viii 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITV CONGRESS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Paper—" The Traffic in Girls and Florence Crittenton Mis- 
 sions " — Mrs. Charlton Edholm 150 
 
 Letter from Hon. Theodore Roosevelt 158 
 
 FOURTH SESSION. 
 Paper— " The Medical Profession and Morals" — O. Edward 
 
 Janney, M. D 160 
 
 Paper — " Temperance and Purity" — Mary Clement Leavitt. . 166 
 Paper — " Slavery's Legacy of Impurity" — Martha Schofield. 174 
 Address — -'The Saoredness of Fatherhood" — Rev. A. H. 
 
 Lewis, D. D 180 
 
 Paper — Address to the National Purity Congress, Baltimore 
 
 Yearly Meeting Committee — Pauline W. Holme 186 
 
 FIFTH SESSION. 
 
 Paper — "English Experience and Purity Worli ''—Dr. Eliza- 
 beth Blackwell 193 
 
 Paper — " Purity; How Preserved Among the Young" — Rev. 
 S. S. Seward 203 
 
 Paper — "Purity and Parental Responsibility" — Mrs. J. H. 
 
 Kellogg 214 
 
 Paper — " Moral Education of the Young " — Mary Wood- A lien, 
 
 M. D 324 
 
 Paper— "The Need of White Cross Work"— Rev. J. B. Welty 240 
 
 Paper — " Chastity and Health "—J. H. Kellogg, M..V) 250 '^ 
 
 Remarks — John J. Cornell 270 
 
 SIXTH SESSION. 
 Paper—" Social Purity Work in Canada "—Rev. C. W. Watch 272 
 Paper— " Alcohol and Chastity"— M. L. Holbrook, M. D.... 280-^ 
 Paper— "The Pure in Heart"— Hannah Hallowell Clothier. . 286 
 
 Address—' ' Our Divine Possibilities " — Mary Travilla 294 
 
 Paper — " Graded Homes " — Isabel Wing Lake 300 
 
 Paper — "Some Causes of Present Day Immorality and Sug- 
 gestions as to Practical Remedies" — B. O. Flower 806 
 
 Paper — "The Relation of the Press and the Stage to Purity " 
 
 Josiah W. Leeds 320 
 
 Address — "Social Purity : Its Relation to the Dependent 
 
 Classes'' — Mrs. Frances E. W. Harper 328 
 
 Paper — "Plan of Work Along Social Purity Lines"- Miss 
 Jessie A. Ackerman. . . „ 333 
 
 SEVENTH SESSION. 
 Paper — " Child Saving and Prostitution " — Hon. Elbridge T. 
 
 Gerry 836 
 
 Paper—" Equal Suffrage as Related to the Purity Movement" 
 
 — Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman 350 
 
 ix 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Address— Mrs . Mary T . Burt 360 
 
 Letter from Mrs . C . T . Cole 365 
 
 Address— "Rescue Work "—Mrs. A. L. Prindle, Florence 
 
 Crittenton Mission 370 
 
 Ad,dress — Mrs. Mary A. Livermore 378 
 
 Resolutions 384 
 
 S UPPL EM EN TARY. 
 
 Sermon— " Personal and Public Purity "—Rev. Joseph May 386 
 Paper— " Relation of Poverty to Purity "—William Lloyd 
 
 Garrison 398 
 
 Paper — " Public Baths and Public Comfort Stations, and their 
 
 Relation to Public Morals "—Wm. H. Tolman, Ph. D. . . 407 
 Address — " DemoraHzing Literature "- Anthony Comstock.. 418 
 Paper — " Equal Suffrage vs. Purity" — Henry B. Blackwell. . 424 
 Paper — "Protection for Young Women in Stores, Factories, 
 
 and other Places of Business" — Isaac H. Clothier 427 
 
 Letter from Mrs . Laura Ormiston Chant 436 
 
 Paper — ' ' The Canadian Law for the Protection of Women and 
 
 Girls, with Suggestions for Its Amendment and for a 
 
 General Code "- D. A. Watt 437 
 
 Regulation of Vice — Questions :ind Answers— Miss Harriet A. 
 
 Shinn 452 
 
 LIST OF PORTRAITS. 
 
 Park Avenue Friends' Meeting House Frontispiece iii 
 
 Josephine E. Butler v 
 
 Abby Hopper Gibbons xii 
 
 Aaron M. Powell xvi 
 
 J . Birkbeck Nevins, M . D 8 
 
 Hon. Joshua Levering 11 
 
 Mrs. Alice C. Robinson 13 
 
 Hon. C. C. Bonney 19 
 
 Rev. Antoinette Brown Black well 23 
 
 Rev. S. H. Virgin, D. D 31 
 
 Rev. W. T. Sabine, D. D 41 
 
 Laura H. Satterthwaite, M. D 57 
 
 Julia Ward Howe 65 
 
 Mrs. Rebecca J. Broomel! 71 
 
 J. W. Walton 81 
 
 Miss C. M. Whitehead 91 
 
 Helen H . Gardener gg 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Rev. Mary T. Whitney 105 
 
 Samuel C. Blackwell 109 
 
 Mrs. Dora Webb ^.-..,". .. 119 
 
 Frances E. Willard 1^5 
 
 Anna Rice Powell 131 
 
 Henry J. Wilson, M. P 133 
 
 Rev. J. P. Gledstone 135 
 
 Rev. Joseph F. Flint 139 
 
 Mrs. Charlton Edholm 149 
 
 Dr. O. Edward Janney 159 
 
 Mary Clement Leavitt 167 
 
 Martha Schofield 173 
 
 Rev. A H. Lewis, D. D 179 
 
 Pauline W. Holme 187 
 
 Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell 191 
 
 Rev. S. S. Seward 201 
 
 Mrs. J. H. Kellogg 213 
 
 Mary Wood- Allen, M . D 225 
 
 Hev. J. B. Welty 239 
 
 J. H. Kellogg, M. D 251 
 
 John J. Cornell 269 
 
 Rev. C. W. Watch 271 
 
 M. L. Holbrook, M. D 279 
 
 Mary Travilla 293 
 
 Mrs. Isabel Wing Lake 299 
 
 B. O. Flower 305 
 
 Deborah C. Leeds 827 
 
 Miss Jesse A. Ackerman 331 
 
 Hon. Elbridge T. Gerry 337 
 
 Prof. Eli M . Lamb 349 
 
 Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman 851 
 
 Dr. Emily Blackwell 359 
 
 Mrs. Mary T. Burt 361 
 
 Mrs. F. E. W. Harper 364 
 
 Mrs. C. T. Cole 867 
 
 Professor James Stuart, M . P 369 
 
 Mrs. A. L. Prindle 871 
 
 Charles N. Crittenton 375 
 
 Mrs. Mary A . Livermore 879 
 
 Rev. Joseph May 387 
 
 William Lloyd Garrison 897 
 
 Rev. Wm. N. MacVickar, D. D 406 
 
 Wm. H . Tolman, Ph. D 409 
 
 Anthony Comstock 419 
 
 Henry B . Blackwell 423 
 
 Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant 485 
 
 xi 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 MRS. ABBY HOPPER GIBBONS. 
 
 EIGHTEEN YEARS PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YCiRK 
 
 COMMITTEE FOR THE PREVENTION OF 
 
 STATE REGULATION OF VICE. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 CALL FOR THE CONGRESS. 
 
 NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 A National Purity Congress, under the auspices 
 of the American Purity Alliance, will be held in the 
 city of Baltimore, Md., on Monday, Tuesday and Wed- 
 nesday, October 14, 15 and 16, 1895. The spacious 
 Park Avenue Friends' Meeting House has been kindly 
 offered, and accepted, for the sessions of the Congress. 
 The opening session will be held on Monday evening, 
 October 14, with morning, afternoon and evening 
 sessions on the following two days. The definite pro- 
 gramme of papers and addresses will be completed and 
 announced later. It will include some of the most 
 gifted and eminent writers and speakers of our own, 
 and of other countries. 
 
 This National Purity Congress is invited, by the 
 American Purity Alliance, because the time seems fully 
 to have arrived to give more thoughtful, intelligent and 
 general consideration to the profoundly important social 
 problems involved in the Purity movement. The 
 continued existence of licensed and State regulated 
 vice in European countries, — a system of practical 
 slavery for a victim class of women, and of untold deg- 
 radation for men — is, with the increased volume of 
 foreign travel, a standing menace to Purity in America. 
 In the city of New York an incorporated organization, 
 created for the purpose, prepared a bill for introduction 
 in the New York Legislature, during its late session, to 
 license and legalize vice in certain districts of the city. 
 A kindred unsuccessful effort to license vice in Boston 
 was made in the late session of the Massachusetts 
 Legislature. The Legislature of Missouri, during its 
 
 xiii 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 late session passed an act, subsequently vetoed by the 
 Governor, delegating to the police and municipal 
 officials of St. Louis and other cities of that State, 
 authority to designate districts within which houses of 
 ill-repute might be permitted legally to exist. There 
 obtains also in many American cities municipal taxation 
 and toleration, in effect, amounting to municipal and 
 police regulation of vice. Prostitution thus organized, 
 )based upon the sensual demands of immoral men, 
 gives rise to a cruel traffic in dependent women and 
 exposed young girls, and gross outrages upon women, 
 and mysterious disappearances of young girls have 
 become ominously frequent. The need is urgent for 
 increased restraint for the evil disposed of both sexes ; 
 for a more effective inculcation of the obligation of 
 chastity, and the maintenance of an equal standard of 
 morality for both men and women. The papers and 
 addresses of the Congress will cover various phases of 
 the question, — rescue, prevention, educational, legal and 
 religious. 
 
 All Social Purity, White Cross, Moral Education, 
 and Woman's Christian Temperance Union organiza 
 tion; all churches and other religious bodies, and 
 philanthropic associations, in sympathy with the objects 
 of the Congress, are invited to send five, or more, repre- 
 sentatives, and to forward the names and addresses of 
 such representatives to the Recording Secretary of the 
 American Purity Alliance, Mrs. Naomi Lawton Davis, 
 United Charities Building, New York, by or before 
 October 1st. Special railway and hotel rates, for all 
 who may attend the Congress as representatives or fra- 
 ternal visitors, it is expected will be arranged in due 
 season and announced in a later circular. Sundry 
 local arrangements in behalf of the Congress, which 
 will be announced later, are being made by the Balti- 
 more Committee. 
 
 Under the direction of the Baltimore Committee, 
 October i:! will be observed as " Purity Sunday," with 
 
 xiv 
 
 f: 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 addresses and sermons by a considerable number of the 
 Congress speakers, and pastors, on the subject of social 
 purity, in various churches of Baltimore. 
 
 Address all communications pertaining to the Con- 
 gress, except those relating to representatives, to the 
 President of the American Purity Alliance, United 
 Charities Building, Fourth Ave. and Twenty-Second 
 street. New York. 
 
 AARON M. POWELL, President. 
 NAOMI LAWTON DAVIS, Recording Secretary. 
 
 BALTIMORE HONORARY COMMITTEE. 
 
 Rev. F. W. CLAMPETT, Mr. SUMMERFIELD BALDWIN, Mr. W. H. 
 MORRIS, Mr. JOSHUA LEVERING, Mr. P. C. WILLIAMS, Mr. ELI M. 
 LAMB, Mr. JNO. B. GARY, Mrs. ALICE C. ROBINSON, Mrs. PAULINE 
 W. HOLME, Mrs. M. GREEN, Rev. WM. E. BARTLETT, Dr. BERNARD 
 C. STEINER, Prof. H. B. ADAMS, Mr. W. H. G. BELT, Mr. EDWIN 
 HIGGINS, Dr. HOWARD A. KELLY, Dk. O. EDWARD JANNEY, Mr. 
 G. W. CORNER, Jr., Rev. C. C. CLEVER. 
 
 XV 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 AARON M. POWELL. 
 
 XVI 
 
Ube IKlattonal purity Congress* 
 
 THE FIRST SESSION. 
 
 THE PRESIDENT'S OPENING ADDRESS. 
 
 By Aaron M. Powell, of New York, President 
 American Purity Alliance. 
 
 We meet on this occasion in the First National 
 Purity Congress held under the auspices of the Ameri- 
 can Purity Alliance. Our objects in convening this 
 Congress are, the repression of vice, the prevention of 
 its regulation by the State, the better protection of the 
 young, the rescue of the fallen, to extend the White 
 Cross work among men, and to proclaim the law of 
 Purity as equally binding upon men and women. 
 
 Purity is fundamental in its importance to the 
 individual, to the home and to the nation. There can 
 be no true manhood, no true womanhood except as 
 based upon the law of Purity. There can be no 
 security for the home, there can be no home-life in its 
 best sense, except as it is based upon the law of Purity. I 
 There can be no true prosperity, there can be no per- 
 petuation of a nation except as its life is based upon the; 
 law of Purity. Impurity is destructive alike to the{ 
 individual character, of the home, and of the nation. Of 
 the need of such a Congress as is now assembled the 
 prevalence and propagandism of impurity, at the 
 present time, everywhere so conspicuous in our large 
 centers of population, abundantly testifies. 
 
 In the Old World vice, in many countries, is regu- 
 lated by the State ; it is legalized as a trade ; it is a 
 shocking system of practical slavery for dependent 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 women and girls who are made its victims. It gives 
 rise to an unholy traffic in girlhood ; it occasions untold 
 degradation on the part of women ; it is a standing 
 menace to the home; it abridges the liberty of all 
 women in those countries. The relations between our 
 own country and the Old World are now so intimate, the 
 the steamers passing to and fro so quickly and constantly 
 as an international ferriage, make it impossible for us 
 in America to be indifferent to the social conditions 
 which obtain in Europe. It is on this account of vital 
 importance that we recognize the struggle which is now 
 going forward under the auspices of the International 
 Federation for the Abolition of State Regulation of 
 Vice, that we do what we can to aid and encourage its 
 work. Law itself is a great educator for good or for 
 ill. When the State assumes to license and legalize 
 vice it educates downward and debases the moral senti- 
 ments of its people by such legalization. 
 
 In America we do not have, nominally, State regu- 
 lation of vice. We do have, most unfortunately, in all 
 our larger cities, a great deal of tolerated vice. Here 
 as in Europe dependent women and girls are greatly 
 exposed to vicious influences. With extremely low, in 
 many cases almost starvation wages, the woman's 
 extremity becomes the vicious man's opportunity. In 
 Omaha for a considerable period there has been a sys- 
 tem of municipal regulation of vice in vogue tolerating 
 houses of evil repute, imposing a fine ostensibly, 
 amounting really to a tax, upon the proprietor, to be 
 paid once a month with immunity from arrest. Accord- 
 ing to a statement some months ago made by the Mayor 
 of Omaha in one of the journals of New York City, that 
 tax, which has aggregated about 124,000 a year, has 
 been appropriated to the support of the public schools, 
 as though any use of such a fund, however good, could 
 justify the municipality in entering thus into practical 
 complicity and co-partnership with vice and crime. It 
 is gratifying to note that efforts are in progress in 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 J. BIRKBECK NEVINS, M. D. 
 
 PRESIDENT INTERNATIONAL FKDERATION FOR THE ABOLITION 
 OF STATE REGULATION OF VICE. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Omaha which promise some degree of municipal reform, 
 among other things that this vice regulation is likely to 
 be abolished. In Cleveland, Ohio, a year or two ago, a 
 system of municipal regulation and practical license for 
 vice was inaugurated without the clear warrant of Law, 
 by the Chief of Police of that city, but when the facts 
 became known they awakened a storm of righteous 
 indignation and the scheme was abolished. In the city 
 of St. Louis, in 1870, was inaugurated the only avowedly 
 license experiment America has ever had. It continued 
 for a period of four years. 
 
 It is enough to say in this connection that, as might 
 have been expected, it made bad matters worse, and 
 when it finally was abolished by the Legislature of 
 Missouri the last condition of the city was worse than 
 the first. From time to time sundry efforts have been 
 made to renew the license experiment there. Only last 
 year a measure was adopted by the Legislature which, 
 if it had not been vetoed, would again have made it 
 possible, within certain specified districts, which the 
 municipal authorities were by this measure authorized 
 to fix, to again have in those, limited districts legalized 
 houses of ill-repute. The measure was recommended 
 by ministers of St. Louis, with the approval of the 
 police officials, in the hope that it might prove of a 
 repressive and restrictive character, but fortunately for 
 the good name of the State and the best welfare of its 
 citizens, it was vetoed by the Governor, and though 
 vice may continue to be tolerated it at least is without 
 the warrant and sanction of Law. In New York City 
 last year there was formed an organization, which was 
 duly incorporated and which still exists, with the avowed 
 purpose of securing the localization and license of houses 
 of ill-repute within certain districts in that city. The 
 bill was carefully drawn for this purpose and published 
 in one of the daily journals, but with the protests which 
 it called forth from the American Purity Alliance and 
 other kindred organizations, it is said that no member 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 of the Legislature could be found willing to take the 
 responsibility of introducing it in that body, and it 
 therefore failed to become a law. Even in the Massa- 
 chusetts Legislature last year a licensing measure for 
 the Puritan City of Boston was introduced and the 
 Legislature urged to pass it, but it also failed to become 
 a law. With these and other kindred illustrations which 
 might be cited of the prevalence in this country of a 
 regulation propagandism, it may be seen that we have 
 here a vital interest for our own protection in the speedy 
 abolition in all countries of the odious system of State 
 sanctioned vice. 
 
 In another direction also may be seen an urgent 
 need for the Purity movement which this Congress 
 represents. It is in the so called Age of Consent Laws 
 in the different States. The age at which young girls / 
 are deemed capable of controlling property is the age of 
 majority : prior to that time the State intervenes for their 
 legal protection in connection with their property in- 
 terests. Not so with reference to their persons. In 
 four States, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina 
 and Alabama the Age of Consent is fixed at the shock- 
 ing low age of ten years. In four States, Kentucky, 
 Virginia, Nevada and West Virginia, the age is fixed at 
 twelve years. In three States, New Hampshire, Utah 
 and Iowa, at thirteen years. In the State of Maryland, 
 in Maine, in Vermont, in Indiana, in North Dakota, in 
 Georgia, in Illinois and in California at fourteen years. 
 In Nebraska and Texas the age limit is fifteen years. 
 In New Jersey, in Massachusetts, in Michigan, Montana, 
 South Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and 
 the District of Columbia the age is sixteen years. In 
 Tennessee sixteen years and one day. In Florida seven- 
 teen years. In New York, Kansas, Wyoming and 
 Colorado eighteen years. In Delaware the original 
 statute pertaining to the crime of rape is still unrepealed 
 fixing the age at seven years, but the last Legislature 
 passed an amended act which, practically, is designed to 
 
( 
 
 THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 extend legal protection in that State to young girls to 
 the limit of eighteen years. These so called Age of 
 Consent statutes discriminate against girlhood and in 
 favor of immoral men. They are, for the most part, a 
 disgrace to the several States of this Union. Public 
 attention has been directed widely to the subject through 
 the combined efforts of the American Purity Alliance 
 and other Purity and White Cross organizations, and 
 especially by the Woman's Christian Temperance 
 Unions, and the movement has latterly been power- 
 fully reinforced by the Arena magazine, conducted by 
 Mr. Flower, with the special aid in this direction of Mrs. 
 Helen H. Gardener. But it should be made much more 
 a matter of concern in those States wherein the age is 
 still ten, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen 
 years. The figures which I quote are such as have 
 been recently furnished me, officially, by the vSecretaries 
 of State in the several States. They may not be, as in 
 some cases I have found they were not, strictly accurate, 
 but for the most part they undoubtedly represent the 
 present actual condition of the Age of Consent Laws of 
 our country. It is a matter which women and high- 
 minded men everywhere should take to heart and do all 
 possible to secure a speedy reformation and amendment 
 of these laws. 
 
 Another object which this Congress it is hoped will 
 do much to promote is greatly needed rescue work among 
 rthe victims of vice. Rescue work , f or wome n, rescue 
 ^work among fallen men as well as fallen women. Some 
 of the speakers wbo^wilf address the Congress during 
 its sessions are experts in this sphere of service, from 
 whose experience it is hoped, shared here by others, a 
 a new impetus will be given in this sphere of greatly 
 needed Christian activity. 
 
 But even moi^importantji^j)reve^^ 
 purity work among th^oung,~and the older, which shall, 
 ultimately, make rescue work no loTiger_a_Becessity. 
 The White Cross'movemefit, wHicinses^dally for men, 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 "will therefore it is hoped also receive an especial impetus 
 from this Congress, and that the interest in it may be- 
 come still more extended. Its object, as defined by its 
 pledge, is to teach its adherents first, to treat all women "^ 
 "with respect and endeavor to protect them from wrong j 
 and degradation ; second, to endeavor to put down all 
 indecent language and coarse jests ; third, to maintain 
 the law of Purity as equally binding upon men and 
 women; fourth, to endeavor to spread these principles 
 among younger companions ; fifth, to use every possible 
 
 TTK^anq tn fulfil tVi>^ pn^TTrnQTirl ""TCeep t hySClf pUf5. " 
 
 In the higher education of men is the best possible safe- 
 guard for womanhood and girlhood. 
 
 It is to be hoped that one outcome of this Congress 
 will be an increased emphasis upon the necessity for 
 one moral standard for both sexes. It is in the double 
 standard, one for men and another for women which 
 has so long obtained in the public mind, that the schemes 
 for State and Municipal regulation and the licensing of 
 vice, and the unjust and immoral Age of Consent Laws, 
 have their chief root and strength. The message, 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God," 
 is addressed alike to men and to women. It is hoped 
 and expected that this Congress will do much to awaken 
 interest ou the part of the now l argel y_andifferent 
 public to the importance of these fundamental truths. 
 
THE NATIONAL. PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 LETTER FROM REV. DR. W. N. McVICKAR. 
 
 Rev. Dr. W. N. McVickar, President of the Phila- 
 delphia Social Purity Alliance, who had hoped to be 
 present and give an address at the opening session, sent 
 the following letter, which was read by the President : 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn., October 12th, 1895. 
 
 My Dear Mr. Powell: 
 
 It is a matter of great regret to me that my duties, 
 at the General Convention of our Church, to which I am 
 a delegate, prevent my being present at the National 
 Purity Congress in Baltimore. I had hoped to have 
 been at it and to have been privileged with a part in its 
 deliberations. As it is, I can only send it my sincerest 
 wishes for its success in the great work in which it is, 
 engaged. May God prosper it. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 W N. McVlCKAR, 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ADDRESSES OF WELCOME. 
 
 By Hon. Joshua Levering, President Baltimore Y.M.C.A. 
 
 It affords me great pleasure on behalf of my fellow- 
 citizens to welcome you to our City, our homes and our 
 hearts. Baltimore, famed the world over as the " City 
 of Monuments," is none the less famous for its hospi- 
 tality and its doors are ever opened wide to all who are 
 worthy of being its guests. Here you will find educa- 
 tional, charitable, reformatory and religious institutions 
 standing with open doors bidding you welcome and 
 inviting an inspection of the great work being done 
 along lines similar to that which has called you together, 
 namely, the effort to uplift and bless humanity. 
 
 I consider it, however, a special privilege as the 
 representative of Baltimore's sturdy citizenship to wel- 
 come you to our City as those who are engaged in a 
 heroic effort for the suppression of an evil which is the 
 source of so much misery and suffering to a common 
 humanity, and which, like its twin-evil, intemperance, 
 will, if not soon suppressed, lead to the degeneracy and 
 final destruction of very many of our fellow beings. 
 
 The purity question is one of great absorbing in- 
 terest, equalled only by the legalized liquor traffic, and 
 like it, occupying at the present time the mind and 
 attention of humanitarians all over our country and in 
 all lands. Impurity and intemperance go hand in hand 
 in producing so many of the evils which are cursing 
 mankind in general. One is greatly dependent upon 
 the other, and without the one the other would be 
 largely shorn of its power of evil. They are both 
 equally the enemy of^the home, and the fact that one 
 has been legalized is leading to the plausible, though 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 erroneous, conclusion on the part of many, that restric- 
 tion of the evils of the other can only be secured through 
 some form of legalization. I therefore the more heartily 
 welcome you as those who entertain no such pernicious 
 views ; but, on the contrary, believe that where an evil 
 exists the only proper treatment for it is its complete 
 overthrow. Furthermore, if I understand the purposes 
 of your organization, you have already learned the truth 
 that an evil can only be overcome by attacking it at its 
 root or source of lite, and as the source ot this evil is 
 
 very generally believed to be found in ignorance, you 
 make bold to advocate the necessity of laying asid e that 
 false modesty which has been to a large extent the 
 "prolThc cau.se of much of the evil, of educating the 
 public mind and especially parents an d guardians of the 
 young, that, if they will have their children grow up 
 with pure minds and healthy bodies, they must instruct 
 them in those divine principles which underlie this 
 whole matter so that if they would perpetuate the nation, 
 and have it consist of a pure and noble humanity, they 
 thems elves mus t be pure. "~~" 
 
 To accomplisBrthis such an organization as yours is 
 absolutely necessary, so that through its efforts the 
 minds and hearts of the people can be reached by the 
 printed page, by lectures, by conferences, etc. 
 
 I therefore assure you of a hearty welcome on the 
 part of every true Baltimorean and in their behalf bid 
 you an earnest and sincere " God speed " in your noble 
 mission and labor of love. 
 
 By Mrs. Alice C. Robinson. 
 
 Mrs. Alice C. Robinson, President of the Baltimore 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union, followed Mr. 
 Levering. She said in part : 
 
 "I feel proud that I live in the city that first sees 
 this Congress. It is an honor conferred upon Baltimore, 
 which I know those who live here can truly appreciate. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITV CONGRESS. 
 
 HON. JOSHUA LEVERING. 
 PRESIDENT BALTIMORE Y. M. C A. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 There are many dark caves and many lives that have to- 
 be touched and many avenues that have to be opened. 
 Rescue seems to be the first work, many of us know, 
 and we now are going forward with glorious results 
 The purity of the cradle is our first thought. The 
 father and mother, too, must receive our attention. 
 Neither parent must be overlooked in our work of 
 education. 
 
 ' ' There is a great work that has been done in the 
 many Christian societies in our midst, but now we must 
 seek special means to carry through the cause of purity. 
 We must go into legislative halls, and secure the services 
 of great men and women and carry God's work on. 
 Those who have come from a distance we welcome to 
 Baltimore especially, and may the work be blessed as 
 our earnestness is shown." 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 MRS. ALICE C. ROBINSON. 
 PRESIDENT BALTIMORE W. C. T. U. 
 
 13 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 RESPONSIVE ADDRESSES. 
 
 By Rev. W. T. Sabini , D. D. 
 
 It is a pleasant duty which has been put upon me 
 Mr. President by the Committee in Charge, of respond- 
 ing to these kindly addresses in behalf of this great body 
 of friends and delegates gathered here from all parts, 
 the North, the South, the East, the West, of our broad 
 land. 
 
 It augurs well for the generosity and heartiness of 
 our reception that we are assembled in this great hall 
 and under the hospitable roof of a body famed for 
 simplicity and kindliness, the Society of Friends. 
 
 The tone of the invitation, the place and this 
 crowded assembly make it impossible for us to doubt 
 the cordiality of our welcome. 
 
 We are already assured that what has been said of 
 the hospitality of Baltimore and the interest now felt in 
 our meeting is every word of it true. 
 
 We already see that every thing has been done that 
 could be done to secure our comfort and give effective- 
 ness to our gathering. It was my good fortune, Mr. 
 President, to arrive in this city some forty-eight hours 
 ago — and so I am qualified to speak from a personal 
 experience of the generous provisions and attentions of 
 Baltimore hospitality which many of my fellow delegates 
 do not yet possess, and I can assure them that judging 
 by my own taste of it they will not be disappointed. 
 
 The story is told of some visitors to the Isle of 
 Shoals, that arriving upon the beach tired, hungry, and 
 in need of refreshments they made their way to the rude 
 hut of a fisherman which they saw at no great distance. 
 Knocking at the door it was opened by a stalwart man 
 dressed in his rough fisherman's garb — 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 "Walk in " he said " Walk in and make yourselves 
 to hum, I aint got no manners ! The gal's got the 
 manners and she aint to hum ! " 
 
 Well, as far as Baltimore is concerned, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, from what we now see and hear we are satisfied, 
 the gal has got the manners and she is to hum. 
 
 But pleasantry aside, we are here not to be enter- 
 tained and have a good time ; we are here for downright 
 earnest sober work. We are here trying to right a great 
 wrong, meaning to fight a terrible evil which is threat- 
 ening our country, our churches and our homes. Like 
 the Apostle to the Gentiles we magnify our office, Mr. 
 President, we are here in a great cause. There are 
 other wrongs we are well aware bitter, terrible, deep- 
 seated, and with every wise effort to redress them we 
 we are in fullest sympathy. 
 
 The wail of thousands crushed and oppressed, — 
 many of them widows and orphans, — beneath the cruel 
 heel of avarice and greed breaks on the air and enters 
 into our hearts. 
 
 The cry of the Red-man, for long years, the victim 
 of the grossest injustice and robbery on the part of his 
 white brother and even of government officials, his sworn 
 protectors ; awakens a burning indignation in our souls. 
 
 The unspeakable woes of the drunkard's home and 
 the curse of the drink traffic bring a pang to our hearts 
 and sometimes tears to our eyes. 
 
 Fain would we sweep all these curses from our land. 
 
 But the evil this Congress gathers to consider is in 
 some respects more vital, widespread and terrible in its 
 devastations than any of these, certainly it is more 
 insidious, more secretive, harder to get at, and more 
 difficult for many reasons to drag out of its dark lurking 
 places and hold up in its hideousness before the eyes 
 of men. 
 
 Lieutenant Herndon in his Report on Explorations 
 in the Valley of the Amazon presented to the Congress 
 of the United States some forty years ago, tells of a 
 
 ^5 
 
-THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 estrange w.eird cry which now and again breaks upon the 
 ears of the traveller as he voyages up or down the waters 
 of that mighty stream. It comes up from the depths of the 
 dense dark forests which skirt the river shores. It 
 sounds like a wail of agony, so plaintive, so penetrating, 
 so full of an unspoken anguish that it thrills the listener 
 with dread. 
 
 The Indians of the Amazon call it ' ' the cry of a 
 lost soul ! " 
 
 It is the weird wild note of a bird in the forest 
 depths. 
 
 Mr. President, we seem to hear to-night a far more 
 bitter cry coming up from the depths of a lost sister- 
 hood and brotherhood. A brotherhood and sisterhood 
 lost to shame, lost to decency, lost to happiness, lost to 
 morality, lost to itself, lost to every thing but God and 
 Charity ! 
 
 It is a kind of suppressed stifled moan, a horrible 
 choking cry. 
 
 Those other cries are exceedingly great and bitter. 
 They force themselves upon the ears of men. 
 
 But this cry even the best of men and women with 
 the keenest ears for the wrongs of the oppressed and 
 fallen seem hardly to have heard. Till now this most 
 needed of reforms has been kept back and in the rear 
 and out of sight. 
 
 Mr. President, it is time this cause came to the front 
 and we are here to bring it to the front, and God help- 
 ing us to the front it shall come. 
 
 We mean to speak in tones from this place which 
 the nation shall hear and which we trust those charged 
 with its highest physical, moral and spiritual interests 
 shall be compelled to heed. 
 
 And now Sir it only remains for me concluding to 
 reiterate our thanks to the Baltimore Committee. Some- 
 times I receive a letter asking a favor; the writer con- 
 cluding with the words " Thanking you in advance. I 
 remain very truly yours." 
 
 i6 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 For all that we have in prospect and shall surely 
 enjoy in the next two days of stimulus, encouragement, 
 opportunity, information, "thanking you in advance, dear 
 Baltimore friends, we beg to sign ourselves. Very truly 
 ■and gratefully yours." 
 
 By Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell. 
 
 It is a pleasure to respond to the cordial welcome 
 of our Baltimore friends, to feel that we are no longer 
 strangers in this large assembly, your citizens and 
 delegates from all parts of the country. Ten or eleven 
 years ago, as a member of the Association for the 
 Advancement of Women, I was among those to whom 
 a Baltimore audience, sometimes as large as this one, 
 gave a kindly hearing for several successive days upon 
 subjects some of them hardly less unpopular than this 
 we are now assembled to consider. I am glad to add 
 my testimony to the abundant hospitality which has 
 given me charming drives around your beautiful city 
 with its extensive parks. I have even been taken over 
 the Chesapeake, into the country, outside of the town 
 limits, to the beautiful country which they say is one of 
 the important feeders of your great city. So all parts 
 of the world are in mutual dependence. As human 
 beings we need not only physical, but mental and moral 
 aid, support and co-operation. 
 
 Scientific men say that the common honey bee has 
 between three and four thousand distinct fascets or little 
 semi-independent sections for each of its marvelous com- 
 pound eyes standing out on either side of its head in 
 shining small hemispheres. Each fascet is a special 
 mirror of an external object; thus an image of a single 
 thing is repeated about seven thousand times at the 
 same instant ; yet no two of these images are exactly 
 alike since the reflection falls upon each one from a 
 -slightly different angle. We know little about how 
 ■these minute photographs, no two alike, can all be cor- 
 
 17 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 related into a single clear perception by the bee. The 
 wonderful insect has some powers greater than our own; 
 at least they belong to a class beyond our present 
 comprehension. 
 
 But these combination eyes are a suggestive type of 
 despondent humanity. The somewhat different outlook 
 of many and various minds brought to bear upon any 
 great question vastly broadens the comprehensive scope 
 of the inquiry. In the multitudes of counselors there is 
 wisdom ; and we all see further in the light of another's, 
 vision than we could ever hope to do by ourselves alone. 
 Co-operation is especially helpful in all practical work. 
 This most difficult of all social problems has need of 
 many friends in council. 
 
 A bee line is a straight line from the bee to the 
 desired object ; but I fear we shall find it impossible to 
 closely copy our insect example. After flying spirally 
 upward the bee flies almost unerringly, guided it is 
 supposed by its associated eyesight. But the busy bee 
 has also three simple eyes on the top of its head, and 
 when some curious experimenter on insect nature paint- 
 ed over these single eyes and set the insect free, away 
 from its hive, the poor thing circled round and round 
 aimlessly instead of taking a direct line home. Many 
 single eyes to every great purpose is indispensable ta 
 great achievement. 
 
 We all need united wisdom and earnestness ; but if 
 the public can begin to educate in the right direction, 
 instruction and legislation by the better class will greatly 
 check all forms of immorality. 
 
 Once more remembering the graceful hospitality 
 with which we have been received here and elsewhere, 
 I can only add my sincere hope and expectation that 
 this first National Purity Congress may be eminently 
 successful in awakening the public to the nature of the 
 perils by which we are surrounded 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 HON. C. C. RONNEY. 
 
 19 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 LETTER FROM Hon. C. C. BONNEY. 
 
 Hon. C. C. BoNNEY, of Chicago, President of the 
 World's Congress Auxiliary, who had hoped to be 
 present and give an address at the opening session sent 
 the following letter: 
 
 Chicago, September 28th, 1895. 
 Dear Mr. Powell: 
 
 I very much regret to say that I find my engage- 
 ments will not allow me to attend the National Purity 
 Congress to be opened in Baltimore on the 14th of next 
 month. * * * I can only say, in a word, that Social 
 I Purity is indispensable to Political Purity ; and that free 
 institutions cannot endure without a high standard of 
 Social Purity among the people. The lofty Puritan 
 spirit to which we in America owe so much, was perhaps 
 the most important factor in the formation of that free 
 government on which the hopes, not only of America, 
 but of the whole world so largely rest. 
 
 With renewed regrets, and as always with high 
 respect and kind regards. Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Charles C. Bonney. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 IMMORALITY OP THE REGULATION 
 SYSTEM. 
 
 By Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell. 
 
 1. Regulation accepts and condones admitted 
 wrong-doing-. No one attempts to justify modern 
 forms of vice on moral gronds. If law should not 
 Regulate murder, arson or perjury, it has no justification 
 for attempting to establish accepted limits and degrees 
 of social degradation. No valid excuse can be framed 
 for fostering gross wrong ; for aiming to shield criminals 
 or to whitewash their conduct by legal devices. The 
 alcoholic traffic is licensed in most communities on the 
 plea that moderate drinking is justifiable and should be 
 protected ; but no one attempts to plead the desirability 
 of promiscuous vice. No ennobling social relation 
 needs a graded protection. Every form of legal sanction 
 to the grossest of all crimes against humanity is an un- 
 paralleled infamy. 
 
 2. Regulation has proved inadequate to do what it 
 professed to attempt. Investigation shows that it has 
 nowhere lessened, that it has often increased the 
 spread of disease. Carefully prepared statements made 
 by eminent authorities after canvassing wide districts 
 under the aegis of protection, prove that no amelioration 
 results, but that demoralization rapidly widens its 
 domain. So much might be expected. The futile 
 dream of being saved from the immediate worst results 
 of vice is not likely to prove a repressive influence. 
 So obvious have such facts become, that regulation has 
 been abolished where once established, as worse than 
 useless ; and wherever it is still maintained it is upheld 
 both by immoral men and by the shameful greed of 
 moneyed interests ready either to urge on the guilty or 
 to betray the innocent for the thirty pieces of silver. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITV CONGRESS. 
 
 3. There is abundant evidence that attempted 
 regulation tends directly to increase the depravity of 
 the depraved. With the interposing great shield lifted 
 to hide his sins from the Vi'orld and to shelter his good 
 name as in the hollow of the protective legal hand, the 
 man is tempted into deeper dishonor. His easy 
 conscience is quieted by the smooth devices of respect- 
 ability high in authority ; and while the system treats the 
 woman with no slightest grain of personal consideration, 
 it steadily tends to destroy the last remnants of her self- 
 respect. What matter though it pares away all traces 
 of a lost innocence ! The womanhood which has bar- 
 tered its standing at the family fireside and forfeited 
 tenderness within the sanctities of the home, will receive 
 but little more harm from the extra throwing of mud. 
 The favored among them maintain their places only 
 through the sufferance of capricious irresponsible in- 
 dividual favor. The common law knows nothing of 
 their relations or their rights, it provides no legislation 
 in their behalf ; their safety depends on the opaqueness 
 of their surroundings. Legal recognition of any kind 
 should be gratefully accepted ! Feet that have slipped yet 
 a little lower down the dark incline can hardly be worse 
 off in their hapless estate if shoved on and planted still 
 more deeply in the surrounding slime! How can any 
 added indignity greatly harm those whom respectability 
 already forgets? 
 
 No wonder this most forlorn class in so called 
 Christendom learns to manifest some almost diabolical 
 traits. Legislation has no other recipe half so effective 
 for the manufacture of all the crimes which arise from 
 indignant despair and hopeless debasement. 
 
 4. Regulation deludes and deceives the weak of 
 both sexes. Like Tetzell of old, professing to sell in- 
 dulgencies and grant absolution for sin and shame, it 
 plucks down unthought of condemnation on the heads 
 of feeble folk too weak to stand alone. Legislation 
 leads either upward or downward; it is everywhere an 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 REV. ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 education in the direction either of good or of evil, and 
 regulation is but the digging of new and deeper pitfalls 
 which it covers over with the green boughs of acceptance 
 and apparent respectability. The unwary and the mis- 
 guided become its more abundant victims. 
 
 5. By making it easier to lure the young to dishonor, 
 the regulation system lays cruel snares and traps for 
 their inexperienced feet. To district vice to special but 
 open localities, means to stimulate juvenile curiosity and 
 bravado. With the joint sanction of the law and the 
 law makers, boyhood becomes the more readily demor- 
 alized often before it has yet learned right from wrong ; 
 and girlhood is the staple from which the down march- 
 ing ranks are steadily recruited. Yet regulation takes 
 no'heed that the abhorrent profession is forever renew- 
 ing itself from among the innocent children to whom 
 life might offer some of the highest prizes of usefulness 
 and happiness. It cares not that its deceiving half 
 measures are but leaves and blossoms thrown into a 
 devouring maelstrom with only the effect of covering 
 up and partially disguising its deadliest aspects. 
 
 Authorized legalization has scarcely dared yet to lift 
 its head in our own country ; yet the police service has 
 often pandered to vice and its claims, unrebuked, — if 
 not liberally rewarded. Often they virtually execute 
 an unwritten law which favors social depravity. Hypoc- 
 risy is a hateful word, but if regulation advocates are 
 not self condemned for their perfidy, the bats and eye- 
 less fishes of our great Mammoth Cave are no blinder 
 than they. Their night-lanterns illumine only their own 
 personal interests. The sHppery places where the 
 crowding young feet jostle each other along life's paths 
 are thrown into a half shadow which becomes a per- 
 petual allurement. 
 
 6. The whole system is based upon evident in- 
 sincerity. The welfare of the commonwealth, the avail- 
 able plea for the hateful regulation which is claimed to 
 be needful in order to check the spread of a wholly 
 
 24 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 needless leprosy! But sincerity would be compelled to 
 establish an equitable all round law ! It would plant a 
 medical police at all tbe doors of all the licensed halls of 
 vice, and would let neither man nor woman enter there 
 until certified to be in conditions of sound health. Such 
 measures, and such alone, would show some evidence of 
 acting in good faith. But to single out the younger, 
 smaller, poorer, fewer in numbers, who are calmly dis- 
 franchised and thus placed entirely at the mercy of 
 legislation not for but against them, though they are at 
 least not greater criminals than the richer, more pros- 
 perous, respectable men for whose benefit all regulation 
 is made and provided — this is the sword of protection 
 with its sharp edge turned the wrong way. 
 
 On the plea of the general good, official sanction 
 invoked to send the already despoiled ones into the cruel 
 wilderness of yet deeper social opprobrium ! — compelling 
 them to suffer for the sins of others as well as for their 
 own. This is a paternalism to which heathendom never 
 attained. Barbarism had no double standard either of 
 morals or of remedies. Sheer savagery never laid one ' 
 brutal hand heavily upon the woman, beating her into 
 the dust while the other arm uplifted and upheld the 
 man, seeking, despite his fall, to clothe him in honor and 
 dignity. 
 
 7. Regulation is medieval legislation. So long as 
 children inherited solely from the mother, vice was not 
 held more blameworthy in one sex than in the other. 
 The morals of the primitive people were little to boast 
 of, yet their scales of justice were at least more evenly 
 balanced ; polyandry was not held in more disgrace than 
 polygamy. It was only after it was decided to divide 
 womankind into the sheep and the goats, and give men 
 the privilege of associating with both, that the double 
 standard of morals was erected and the device of seeking 
 to protect fallen men at the sole expense of fallen women 
 was invented. The earlier world was too simple hearted 
 to have dreamed of a scheme so utterly unjust. 
 
 2.S 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 8. The regulation scheme is a shield manufactured 
 and uplifted exclusively for men. It recognizes only 
 their perils, needs, and wishes to be protected along a 
 line of admitted debasement. It ignores the interests 
 and rights of their women associates as completely as 
 some vivisectionists ignore the sentient claims of the 
 lower animals. If it were in earnest in its claim to 
 furnish safeguards for innocent wives and children, it 
 would deal directly with the men rather than with the 
 women ; it would require both men and women to take 
 out licenses for prostitution and be able to show a clean 
 bill of health or be placed in an hospital. Is it honest to 
 forget that the evils to be stamped out in family life do 
 not commonly originate in the female line? And if there 
 were any intended provision made for the young, the 
 needy, and the easily influenced for evil, the districted 
 fallen women would be quarantined so conscientiously 
 that these more helpless innocent classes would find them 
 difficult if not impossible of access. Every form of 
 evidence leads to the conclusion that the system re- 
 members the interests of one class only — and that is the 
 class of fallen men. 
 
 9. Regulatian is__Qrg.aniz£iLJagraiit_4njustice to 
 
 fallen women, and its one sided sanitary law-making is 
 inexpressibly ignoble. They are assumed to have no 
 remnant of modesty remaining; the}' are placed abso- 
 lutely in the hands of men, often of most unscrupulous 
 character — from whose decisions they have no appeal 
 and against whose conduct they have no redress ; they 
 are practically enslaved and robbed of all personal rights, 
 social or civil. A freeman's vote is needed by all 
 women, but it is imperative first and foremost for the 
 decent protection of this most wronged and pitiable 
 class. The state of things as existing, whether author- 
 ized by law or only by custom, does not merely forget 
 the just claims of womanhood, it has not yet risen to the 
 conception that such rights have any existence or need 
 be taken into account. Such women have no rights 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 which either law or custom feel bound to respect. 
 They have no claims except those of a money bought 
 acceptance of the worst humiliation which is possible to 
 even a degraded, weak humanity. 
 
 Suffrage to be withheld from all women for fear 
 these outcasts will become voters, and may have some 
 voice in the formulation and administration of justice ! 
 There is need to fear. In the face of the actual facts, 
 one sided sanitary regnlations become inexpressibly 
 ignoble. They are grounded in the assumption that for 
 a common sin, the woman shall forfeit everything; but, 
 so far as law or manufactured opinion can help him, the 
 man shall forfeit nothing. Manhood by no other legal 
 act, has ever so fully proclaimed and illustrated its 
 possible abjectness. It has never otherwise so stereo- 
 typed its possible unmitigated selfishness, or so openly 
 confessed to its own lingering brutality and unscra- 
 pulousness. 
 
 The woman's point of view is so totally outside of 
 all existing regulative systems, legal or illegal, that if 
 the best women remained silent, and the stones did not cry 
 out, the leaves on the trees would bleed with compassion 
 over the dumb helplessness of fallen womanhood. Every 
 silent green thing would droop and blacken because of 
 unuttered sympathy. It is said that these women know 
 nothing of their greatest wrongs? So much the more 
 pitiable is their estate ! Woe to all of us if we preach not 
 the gospel of a whole humanity from the woman's stand- 
 point ! Woe to us if we remember not these bond-women 
 as though we ourselves were bound with them. 
 
 10. Regulation menaces physical, mental and moral 
 decay to the entire community. Unchecked, it will 
 undermine and subvert any civilization which harbors it 
 either openly or secretly. The only remedy is repression. ) 
 The aroused conscience of both men and women must! 
 give the world an enlightened, just, and upright code of 
 equal and unselfish morality. There is a befogged and 
 near sighted moral vision as there is imperfect physical 
 
 27 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 eye-sight. Nothing but the blunted moral sense of a 
 community could for a day tolerate the existence of a 
 class set apart from all others to a special opprobrium 
 from which no escape is provided or allowed. Think of 
 perpetuating a veritable caste of pitiable women rarely 
 spoken of among other women except in whispers and 
 associated with by men only when they drop their 
 identity to become anonymous. Could there exist social 
 obloquy more unworthy, more humiliating, more dis- 
 torted and inhuman? 
 
 Think that the daily bread and the social shame are 
 the two values made to balance each other on the scales 
 of modem justice ! Is it any wonder that women at last 
 are learning that work is honorable for them also? Is it 
 strange that self-help, self-reliance, are taking the high- 
 est rank among feminine virtues? Is it incredible that 
 women should assert that maternal functions are the 
 full equivalent of paternal bread winning. The theory 
 that the divinest tie which binds husband and wife is 
 chiefly a moneyed bond must be consigned to the dark 
 ages where it originated. Marriage no longer regarded 
 as a masculine patronage and a feminine dependence, the 
 only a little more detestable, irresponsible and miscel- 
 laneous patronage will become a hideous disgrace alike 
 to male and female. Moral vice will become more dis- 
 reputable than drunkenness. Considered as a disregard 
 of anothers interests, it will seem baser and more craven 
 than even murder itself. The time must come when 
 the bribery of female virtue will be thought more vile 
 than any other suborning of the human conscience. The 
 time will come when money can no more be tolerated as 
 the purchase of improper favor than it is now accepted 
 as a bribe for the favor of Heaven. Then regulation, 
 authorizing a money bought acceptance of debasing 
 humiliation, will be scorned alike by regenerated man- 
 hood and womanhood. All legislation grounded upon a 
 blended brutality, injustice and servility, is foredoomed 
 as alien to the honor and dignity of rational beings. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 The more helpless any class, especially if it be an 
 enforced or an entailed helplessness, the more must every 
 member of it become the special ward of every upright 
 conscience. Plural marriage has been condemned in all 
 civilized countries. It must continue under the legal 
 ban of all civilizations. The modern intellect and the 
 modern sentiment and conscience are not likely per- 
 manently to reestablish any form of outgrown barbarity; 
 
 Humanity is sure in time to regard the single mar- 
 riage as an honorable equal, partnership. True affec- 
 tion, mutual respect and self-respect, alone can sanctify 
 this life-long relation. Doubtless we shall not reach the 
 perfectly ideal union until we have first evolved the 
 ideal units; but while heredity transmits traits and 
 tendencies from parents to children, the best units, the 
 noblest individuals, are likely to originate through the 
 most promising unions. Hence all legislation which 
 tends even j.ndirectly_tQ_d£tract frorrrTHft"pp.T;sQaal or theN 
 socia l dignity of either me ii or women, or to tole rate / 
 anything in the morals_ of ejtherwhich^ can wrong an 
 exalted human nature, must be totally condemned and 
 speedily aniended. 
 
 The life-long union of marriage, alone can conse- 
 crate the fitting home for the reception of loving and 
 beloved childhood. It is only in the unbroken home 
 that the training of infancy and youth can be happily 
 consummated and unstable character rounded into sym- 
 metrical maturity. Marriage alone can complete in'" 
 husband and wife that unity in duality which leads on to 
 the highest evolution of both. And marriage must be 
 exclusive and permanent, because so only, in the most 
 intimate, the most self-forgetting affections, at this 
 noblest elevation, can the sensibility and the intellect 
 broaden most worthily together through mutual stimu- 
 lation. So only can all of the lawful impulses of a 
 complex human nature best find a fitting nurture and 
 adequate moral justification. 
 
 29 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF THE PURITY 
 MOVEMENT. 
 
 By Rev. S. H. Virgin, D. D. 
 
 There is an evident infelicity in the statement of 
 the topic upon which I am asked to speak during the 
 closing moments of the first'session of this most import- 
 ant Congress. The words that have already been 
 spoken, the work that has been accomplished of which 
 we have heard, the influences that have been generated 
 and that are ceaselessly operative in regtilating conduct 
 as well as in controlling thought and forming purposes, 
 emphatically declare that this Purity Movement is 
 Religion itself , and that the topic might more accurately 
 be formulated as the Purity Movement Aspects of 
 Religion. 
 
 It is » truism to say that there is no religion where 
 there is not purity of thought and life. Impurity is the 
 death of religion. It shuts the eyes from seeing God, 
 and seals the heart against any holy affections and 
 buries out of reach all desires for spiritual associations. 
 The so-called worship of heathen countries involving 
 dissolute relations is a mockery of religion. You may 
 as well seek water without hydrogen gas, diamonds 
 without brilliance, snow without whiteness as religion 
 without purity. 
 
 It is strange that in a so-called religious community 
 there should be need of such efforts as we are constantly 
 putting forth. When religion is enthroned this Alliance 
 may dissolve, for the need of its existence will have 
 passed away. Heaven permits the entry of "nothing 
 that defileth." 
 
 It is a significant sign of the times that a man or 
 woman may be thought to te religious and still be like 
 
 3° 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 REV. S. H. VIRGIN, D. D. 
 
 31 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 mottled marble. Pious associations may for a time 
 cover evil intentions and wicked practices. But the 
 unmistakable evidences of corruption are more con- 
 vincing than voluminous vs^ords of profession and the 
 testimony of the ages, concerning the final issue of 
 hidden sin, relieves us from the fear lest hypocrisy shall 
 triumph. 
 
 If I speak of the aspects of this Purity Movement 
 from the stand-point of Religion, that clear mountain 
 top giving wide range to vision and a crystalline 
 atmosphere in which to detect hidden things, I find : 
 1st. An Aspect or Encouragement. 
 
 There is every ground of good cheer for what has 
 been accomplished as well as for the forces enlisted in 
 the work. This is seen 
 
 (a) In the rebuke of impurity in public men. There 
 was a time when intellectual greatness, superb accom- 
 plishments in literature or art, grand service rendered 
 to the State furnished an antidote to an immoral 
 character. Evil was overlooked in the gratitude for 
 contributions to the public good. But it is now well 
 understood that no amount of good service can over- 
 come the deleterious influence upon the rising gener- 
 ation of a low standard of personal life. A corrupt man 
 sends the streams of his corruption through books and 
 art studies, and his vile companionship is undesired by 
 the decent world whether he be an Oscar Wilde in 
 England or a Breckenridge in the United States. The 
 public revolt is an evidence of progress in public 
 sentiment. Genius is no longer synonymous with 
 license. 
 
 (d) In the state of the public conscience respecting 
 city corruption. The disclosure of the magnitude of tlie 
 social evil, though a sad comment upon our habits 
 hitherto and not without its injury to those who for the 
 first time become aware of it, contains an element of 
 encouragement in the bold and determined utterances 
 that demand its suppression and its removal. The 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 scattering of this evil by an aggressive warfare upon it 
 by societies or the police under the spur of vigilant men 
 and women, stirs the indignation of homes of purity 
 against landlords and property owners and all who are 
 in any wise involved in the wrong. There was an hour 
 when conscience slept and the most importunate cries of 
 this and other societies were considered but the hootings 
 of night owls that ought to be suppressed. 
 
 (c) In the intelligent revolt from any system of 
 State Regulation. Here and there one uninformed, 
 now and then local bodies of people under some shrewd 
 leadership are unwarily entrapped into endorsement of 
 such a system. But a little information dispels the 
 cloud. The mere reading of the text of any such pro- 
 posed laws is sufficient to turn the stomach and rouse 
 the ire of any right-minded person, and bring mind and 
 heart into sympathy of opposition to it. And so there 
 is wide spread resistance as soon as there is knowledge 
 of the facts involved in this scheme and this is encourag- 
 ing. Success when obtained is by secrecy and intrigue. 
 
 (d) In the uniform approval of this and similar 
 organizations wherever they are known. The sphere of 
 their operation is too limited and the circulation of The 
 Philanthropist and similar papers and leaflets is too 
 small, but a constituency is created wherever the work 
 is heralded. There never was an hour when so many 
 people wanted purity everywhere as now, and the efforts 
 organized and the noble names of workers that shine like 
 a spiritual galaxy radiant with heaven's own light 
 betokening the massing of an army for victory carry 
 gladness to those who are praying for the dawn and the 
 midday of social and individual purity in the earth. 
 I find: 
 
 2d. An Aspect of Warning. 
 
 (a) Against all who love or profit by the corrup- 
 tions of society. This evil is secretive and wary. It 
 seeks to cover itself from sight and make the worse 
 appear the better cause. It hides behind the permitted 
 
 33 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 customs of society which the good do not condemn and 
 which the church tacitly permits. Vice can never be 
 trusted. It always was and still is a liar. It breaks 
 promises and deceives its closest friend. Those who 
 publish books and make the way easy to sinful desires 
 are roused by the growing opposition and are on the 
 alert to evade the law and the detection of reputable 
 vigilance. The disappearance here and there does not 
 mean that the end has come but that there is a begin- 
 ing elsewhere. The sentence of the judge, the sermon 
 of the preacher, the strong editorial, and the congress 
 of workers will only make enemies more watchfiil and 
 call for equal alertness of activity on the part of the 
 friends of this cause in watching and combating the 
 social bandits of the world. 
 
 b i Against underrating the evil which we oppose. 
 The fires have been burning in a debased humanity too 
 long to be easily extinguished. The conflict is to be 
 long and arduous but crowned with victory. Impurity 
 is in league with all the diabolical forces of the universe. 
 If the wicked spirits in high places aid anybody they 
 bring their help to those who seek the corruption of 
 youth for there they gain a masterly advantage. The 
 hot blood that courses in the veins, the subtlety and 
 fiendishness of spirits bent on the destruction of their 
 fellow men, the greed of gain that counts nothing too 
 good or holy to be bartered, the bulk of capital already 
 invested in criminal pursuits, the stuff that Mr. Corn- 
 stock constantly finds and the persistency with which 
 opposition to good is pursued utter a solemn warning 
 against any under estimate of the present evil. The 
 surrender of Satan is only at the end of absolute defeat, 
 (c) Against over-confidence in mea.sures already 
 adopted. For they are the objects of constant attack 
 and this wary and alert enemy must be approached from 
 ever new and tmsuspected points. Not an advantage 
 is gained in any community that is not instantly battled 
 by all the combined forces of wickedness. The legis- 
 
 34 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 lature is approached, the lobby is active with money and 
 promises of political preferment, the physicians are 
 importuned, the statistics are manipulated, the timid 
 toilers are threatened with unpleasant notoriety, the 
 high officials are urged to say that the common safety 
 requires these vent holes for pent up bestiality. 
 
 That self complacency that counts victory already 
 won receives earnest warning from the clear-eyed 
 watcher on the heights of holiness. Hostility is organ- 
 ized, commands money for those who can be bought, 
 reinforces itself steadily from the self indulgent classes 
 of foreign nations coming to our shores, scoffs at 
 "Puritanism," and allows no opportunity to pass to 
 gain a point for its unhallowed ends. 
 
 Religion, the Christian Religion has unfailing 
 relations to this whole effort in which we are engaged 
 and its voice is without any nervous tremulousness when 
 it speaks of impurity in life and thought and the proper 
 attitude of the good towards it. 
 
 This Purity Movement represents and embodies 
 the true aspects of religion towards all the corruption of 
 the world. It assumes four distinct attitudes. 
 
 I. It is Minatory. 
 
 There is no latent sympathy between religion and 
 corruption. The one will not grow into the other if let 
 alone. The two will not flow together if undisturbed 
 But there is everlasting repulsion between them. Th- 
 one has an eternal abhorrence of the other. They arc, 
 mutually expulsive. Ferment instantly arises when 
 they touch. Christ and Anti-Christ will clasp hands in 
 peace when these two are found together. 
 
 Not only is there this natural antagonism but there 
 is declared war. Religion calls for the extermination 
 of the spirit of impurity and utters its solemn threats 
 against it everywhere. No guilty head is spared. In 
 the person of royalty it is as offensive as in the life of 
 the obscure. In man it is as revolting as in woman. 
 The threat covers the whole being. Religion threatens 
 
 35 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 the demolition of the sacred temple of the human body 
 in which impurity riots. No cosmetics can hide, no 
 medicine can cure, no physician can avert the spread of 
 destructive forces in the body. Beauty vanishes, form 
 and features change, the eye loses its lustre and the 
 stamp of the beast appears. It takes the skill from the 
 hand and the beautiful vision from the mind. It threat- 
 ens the overthrow of the mental powers in the victim of 
 this sin. The noblest endowments shall not be able to 
 resist it nor the greatest genius escape its punishments. 
 It threatens to fling the defiled from reputable society 
 and reveal the hideous deformity of corrupting vices. 
 Courteous manners, rare conversational gifts will only 
 become the contortions of deformity in effort to hide 
 what hastens to disclosure. It threatens the utter ruin of 
 the spirit. Aspirations for lofty fellowship will give 
 place to low and debasing companionship and the 
 image of the divine will become the repulsive outline of 
 the beast. Sweet affections will die and only cruel 
 longings remain. 
 
 It threatens all alike. Man has often laughed at the 
 fall of his weaker companion and bolstered himself up 
 with the assurance that he could walk unharmed into 
 the society of the good and pure while she was trodden 
 under foot. Religion threatens a change when the im- 
 pure man shall be as much an object of revulsion as the 
 impure woman, when he shall be as publicly marked as 
 she. 
 
 It threatens the rejection of the impui-e at the 
 gates of the Heavenly City and bars out forever the 
 corrupt from the fellowship of the good. 
 
 It threatens the overthrow of the nation where lust 
 reigns unchecked and debauchery is tolerated and 
 flashes " Mene— Mene-Tekel— Upharsin " in fiery 
 capitals before every eye. 
 
 II. It is Mandatory. 
 
 It not simply advises, coaxes and pursuades. It 
 not only invites with promise of blessing and assurance 
 
 36 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 of abundant good. It not only threatens. But it is as 
 stem as Sinai and speaks with unflinching command. It 
 counts the corrupt person its subject and meets him 
 with individual command. It thunders the law above 
 his head and exacts the utmost penalty for disobedience. 
 No one escapes. The law extends to words, thoughts, 
 purposes and motives as well as to acts. It relates to the 
 individual in private, in the home, in society, in contact 
 with any and every living thing. It is as plain as when 
 it speaks of idolatry or theft or murder. It allows no 
 possibility of mistake or doubt. A "Thus Saith The 
 Lord" attends each word as it comes like peal of 
 thunder along the mountain crags. Law giver, 
 prophet, psalmist. Redeemer, apostle speak by in- 
 spiration and every messenger of God through the ages 
 has but repeated the sacred and unchanging counsels 
 and commands for purity in body, soul and spirit and in 
 every relation which each through the whole period of 
 life sustains to all the world. It embeds its inflexible 
 command in the decalogue and re-utters it in the Ser- 
 mon on the Mount. It singles out the transgressor with 
 a specific Thou Art The Man. The great Law Giver 
 of the universe has not failed to make clear human duty 
 in reference to purity of life and thought. Only the 
 pure in heart shall see God. It is mandatory in respect 
 to any plan of legal protection for sin and smites with 
 withering blow all suggestions for a State Regulation of 
 vice — When law becomes lawless, anarchy will follow 
 
 III. It Is Merciful. 
 
 It takes cognizance of the weakness of humanity, has 
 tender words of forgiveness and provides a way of 
 cleansing from defilement. The severity of the com- 
 mand is matched by the gentleness with which the 
 penitent is received. But there is discrimination in the 
 heavenly mercy. The lawless and hypocrites and incor- 
 rigible must meet their deserts. Mercy is not per- 
 petual toleration. Religion is not softhearted, easily 
 imposed upon, blind to faults but rather keen visioned. 
 
 37 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 penetrating to the recesses of the life and quickly noting 
 real sorrow for sin, and detecting the first pulse of real 
 desire for purity. It extends the hand instantly to 
 honest penitence and has no stone to throw at the hum- 
 ble suppliant for forgiving grace. It has clean water 
 for the defiled and is ever ready to use it. The Master 
 calls in loving tones and every true disciple longs for the 
 recovery of all who have gone astray. The bitter de- 
 nunciation, the fierce unwillingness to recognize the 
 fallen sister, the heartless shrinking from any contact 
 with the child of infirm purpose and feeble morality is 
 all unlike Christ. The Purity Movement embodies the es- 
 sence of Christianity in its mercy for the defiled that want 
 to recover manhood and womanhood. It bleeds in 
 its sympathy with those who are the unwilling slaves of 
 masculine brutality and goes with hasty step into the 
 abodes of crime and the low sections of cities and the 
 far camps of the lumbermen and everywhere that the 
 low cry of suffering and enslaved girlhood is heard with 
 that tread of authority and that scourge of small cords 
 that made the Master resistless in the temple court. It 
 provides the home, the hospital, the farm, the retreat, 
 the mother's arm, the father's embrace for the prodigal. 
 It smites with withering blow the harshness that shuts 
 the door against any child because fallen and seeks to 
 restore to the beautiful paths of virtue those who have 
 been torn and bruised in the highways of sin. 
 
 While we are unflinching in our attitude towards 
 the enemies of virtue and have only blows of indignant 
 wrath for all who seek to legislate into the nation's life 
 cursed theories of protection to crime that decency and 
 divinity alike condemn, and while we hate with increas- 
 ing feeling the fashions of society that make cruel dis- 
 criminations of sex, that flatter and fawn upon the 
 impure man, while loathing the impure woman, 
 and while we denounce the destruction of woman's 
 imperial modesty in the adoption of any custom of dress 
 or amusement that dethrones her from her regal place 
 
 38 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 as head of the home and leader in the sweet civilities of 
 life and companion in every noble relation, we still have 
 compassion for all who will return and bathe in the 
 fountain of innocence and abandon all wicked courses of 
 conduct. 
 
 IV. The Purity Movement, Like Religion, is 
 Magnanimous. 
 
 It has not that austere, inflexible spirit of sinless, 
 almost untempted, maidenhood in some parts of the 
 country that has been enshrined in story and repeated 
 again and again in actual life. For it recognizes the 
 snares of wicked men, the terrible temptations of 
 poverty, the horrible education of the crowded tenement 
 house, the loose morality of many homes of luxury, the 
 stimulus of wine and opium administered in hours of 
 weakness by careless or lawless physicians, the fierce 
 brutality of roused and ungratified lusts and with a 
 divine pity for the erring, it like the Master has a place 
 on its shoulder for the rescued. It will not only speak 
 words of mercy, offer prayers for wanderers, build 
 houses of refuge, secure farms in distant places, but it 
 will restore to sweet and saving influences and build 
 into the life again the regnant forces of righteousness 
 and open the doors of christian homes with their re- 
 fining atmosphere for the welcome entrance of purified 
 spirits. 
 
 The Purity Movement is not iconoclastic alone, 
 leveling to the dust all that it opposes ; it is constructive. 
 It gathers to itself the forces of the sunshine that fall- 
 ing upon the heap of compost stirs it to loathsome 
 putrefaction till it is removed, shining upon the ice 
 •cliffs melts them to rivers that fertilize adjacent fields, 
 penetrating to rootlets awakens their latent life and 
 brings them to flower and fruit, pouring its riches into 
 the summer air and upon the still waters draws from 
 muddy ooze the beautiful lily, causes it to lay its white 
 petals on the silent surface and open its heart of gold to 
 the sight of all. 
 
 39 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 So this great Movement makes impurity detestable, 
 melts streams of thought and affection into human 
 society, fertilizes ihe germs of justice in human legisla- 
 tion and brings to beauty the hidden possibilities of 
 sunken and unfortunate humanity. 
 
 Minatory, mandatory, merciful and magnanimous, 
 it cannot fail of the ceaseless blessing of the loving God 
 of heaven till its sacred purpose is fully and triumphantly 
 accomplished. 
 
 40 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 REV. W. T. SABINE, D. D. 
 
 41 
 
THE SECOND SESSION. 
 
 SOCIAL VICE AND NATIONAL DECAY. 
 
 By William T. Sabine, D.D., New York City. 
 
 Social Vice and National Decay stand to each other 
 as parent to child, cause to consequence, fountain to 
 stream, the one begetting, the other begotten. 
 
 That Social Vice, by which we broadly mean 
 fornication, prostitution, a defiance of the Divine law 
 of continence, is the only or even the primary cause of 
 National Decay would be too much to assume; but to 
 affirm that the prevalence and increase of the Social 
 Evil among a people is a sure sign and symptom of 
 national degeneracy which it greatly promotes and 
 accelerates, is only to utter an obvious and terrible 
 truth ; which history, reason, and experience alike set 
 beyond dispute. 
 
 Vicious courses involve physical, moral, and mental 
 degeneration for the individual transgressor. 
 
 Who — alas! can deny it, in view of the wreckage of 
 humanity drifting by us and around i-.s on the surface 
 ■of life's sea? 
 
 Who so happy as not to have in sight among his 
 acquaintance some terrible illustration of the truth that 
 sensuality, to say nothing of the soul ; destroys the 
 vigor of the body, clouds the intellect, and allowed to 
 run its course, ends in the utter ruin of the man as a 
 whole? 
 
 Any physician of experience and repute will admit 
 that so far as he is cognizant of them a large part of the 
 ills, imbecility and disabilities ; and among them the 
 
 42 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 most obstinate and disgusting, with which he has to 
 deal; originate here. 
 
 Here is the fruitful parent of epilepsies, tabes, 
 syphilis ; and as it is now asserted of leprosy itself. 
 
 Even persons comparatively ignorant of pathology 
 do not need to be told of the dreadful ravages which 
 those disgusting forms of disease ; which are the pro- 
 duct of incontinence and immorality: make upon the 
 mental and physical powers. 
 
 A nation is an aggregate of individuals. An 
 injury to the individual, is in its relation and degree an 
 injury to the Nation of which he is a constituent part. 
 
 " If one member suffer all the members suffer with 
 it;" is a law of life everywhere, from whose dominion 
 there is no escape. 
 
 If the individual is anyhow incapacitated physically, 
 morally, spiritually, to discharge_hiaftmctioiLS_as-ar-man 
 and a ^itizen : the family and the State suffer in the 
 degree in which his ability to render them has become 
 impaired. 
 
 It follows, and there is no getting away from the 
 conclusion, that where large sections of a population c 
 become physically and morally deteriorated through ( 
 vicious and immoral practices, the strength and capacity 
 of the State must be weakened in exact proportion. 
 
 If the evil, unarrested, continues to spread in ever- 
 widening circles ; with every passing decade involving 
 hitherto untainted thousands in its curse ; it is plain 
 that the Nation itself must enter upon a period of 
 decline, which allowed to proceed to its ultimate results 
 can only issue in national ruin and ex tjnetion. 
 
 Such is the hypothesis to which a simple and direct 
 line of reasoning infallibly conducts us. 
 
 It is the purpose of this paper to show that this 
 conclusion is sound, as sound in history as it is in logic ; 
 that it is so proved by the facts, and that the ex- 
 perience of mankind in the past establishes it as a law 
 of national life that vicious and immoral practices in a 
 
 43 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 people surely and proportionately engender national 
 decay. 
 
 The subject is one of the highest importance. It 
 offers a fine field for the patriot, the philanthropist, and 
 the Christian. We may be permitted to express sur- 
 prise that it has been scarcely at all explored. 
 
 A great and authoritative treatise upon it is needed, 
 which should be within reach of all legislators and 
 students of political economy : a volume or volumes to 
 the preparation of which one might worthily and use- 
 fully consecrate a lifetime. 
 
 I. In vindication of the statement that social vice 
 involves National decay, our first appeal is to the 
 history of the past. 
 
 This appeal will necessarily be largely a matter of 
 quotation. 
 
 It is not too much to say that wide-spread social 
 impurity hurried the great Empires of Antiquity into 
 their graves. 
 
 Their decline and ruin is found to be coincident 
 with their abandonment to vice. 
 
 Read the records of Babylon. The Greek his- 
 torian Herodotus, in describing the social life of that 
 great empire, details customs of such infamous 
 bestiality, that for the credit of human nature we would 
 gladly deny them. 
 
 Every woman in Babylon; we have the highest 
 authorities for the statement; was compelled once in 
 her life to prostitute herself and that at the choice of 
 her seducer. 
 
 The annual festival at the temple of Bel terminated 
 in the wildest orgies, and when the shades of evening 
 fell upon the scene, the sanctions of religion were in- 
 voked for the indulgence of the basest sensual appetites. 
 
 This horrible national immorality was coincident 
 with national decline. Too infamous to live, the 
 Nation sank into extinction, leaving behind it a loath- 
 some memory! 
 
 44 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Under the caption "Sodomite " — speaking of those 
 who practiced as a religious rite the abominable and un- 
 natural vice, from which the inhabitants of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah derived their lasting infamy as they derived 
 their woeful doom, McClintoch and Strong's Cyclo- 
 pedia says : ' ' This dreadful consecration, or rather 
 desecration, was spread in different forms over Phoenecia, 
 Syria, Phrygia, Assyria, Babylonia: Ashtaroth, the 
 Greek Astarte, being its chief object." 
 
 These nations are all dead ; and it can hardly be 
 ■disputed that these vices hurried on their doom. 
 
 Of Greece, which stood in the very forefront of the 
 ancient civilizations, Dr. Tholuck writes : ' ' We find no 
 people on earth among whom immodest boldness was 
 so united with mental refinement as the Greeks. " 
 
 The great festivals, the Thesmaphoria, the 
 Dionysia, the feasts of Cybele, were full of 
 pollution. 
 
 The wealth of Corinth largely proceeded from the 
 hire of vice. 
 
 Pythonice, who was notoriously an utterly aban- 
 doned woman, was a public character. At her death a 
 great number of artists accompanied the bier to mourn- 
 ful music, while Harpalus, Alexander's lieutenant in 
 Babylon, erected to her memory a princely Cenotaph on 
 the way from Athens to Eleusis. 
 
 While the education of woman generally was 
 entirely neglected among the Greeks, women of this 
 class pursued every kind of science and art. 
 
 They were authoresses. They frequented the 
 lecture rooms of the philosophers. They prepared 
 books of laws for the conduct of their lovers. 
 
 They actually kept schools in which young girls 
 were trained in the art of vice as systematically as the 
 young men were trained in eloquence. 
 
 When these creatures died, such men as Aristo- 
 phanes and Apollodorus made haste to write their 
 histories. 
 
 45 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 A distinct connection, is traceable between this 
 state of public morals and the national decline. 
 
 These were coincident. Wide-spread immorality 
 and public ruin went hand and hand down the decline. 
 
 Aristotle charges upon female licentiousness the 
 disorders which issued in the destruction of the Spartan 
 State ; and when Thrasybulus delivered Athens from 
 the Thirty Tyrants, her liberty came too late. The man- 
 ners of her citizens were irretrievably corrupt, and 
 honeycombed by avarice debauchery and licentious- 
 ness, that renowned city was diseased beyond recovery. 
 
 Thus Greece, for Art and Culture the most eminent 
 nation of the ancient world ; the manhood and woman- 
 hood of her people, sapped by immorality, sank into a 
 ruin, from which she has never risen. Her history to 
 this day offers awful warning of the perils of national 
 vice. 
 
 We turn to a yet greater Empire. 
 
 Rome in her downfall repeats the same sad lesson. 
 Mistress of the nations, without being mistress of her- 
 self, she conquered the world only to be conquered by 
 her own licentiousness. 
 
 With advancing age and luxury the simple and au- 
 stere morality of earlier times were discarded and even 
 the death of Caesar could not restore that liberty of 
 Rome, which had fled forever with her virtuous 
 manners. "The last days of the Republic," says 
 Ortolan, ' ' were marked by an astonishing depravity of 
 morals. The marriage of citizens had been aband- 
 oned or transformed into libertinism through annual 
 divorces. " 
 
 Sallust, who cannot be charged with any too 
 prudish or nice regard for moral distinctions, writes of 
 the last years of the Republic: — 
 
 " The lust of licentiousness, of low debauchery, of 
 every sort of luxury did not less spread abroad; men 
 offered themselves for the basest purposes, women 
 publicly announced their virtue for sale." 
 
 46 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITV CONGRESS. 
 
 Seneca, writing of the days of the Empire in its 
 early decline, gives a terrific testimony: 
 
 "Women," he says, "reckoned the years by the 
 number of their husbands, " and asks : ' ' Dost thou believe 
 any age to have been more corrupt than that in which 
 lust could not be restrained either by sacred things or 
 by judicial procedures. " 
 
 Juvenal speaks of those divorced before the 
 nuptial garlands had faded, and whose chief distinction 
 it was to have had eight husbands in five autumns, and 
 again declares : ' ' There will be nothing further which 
 posterity may add to our evil manners ; those coming 
 after can only reproduce our desires and deeds. Every 
 vice stands already on its topmost summit." 
 
 Speaking of the same age and its tendencies. Rev. 
 Dr. R. S. Storrs, of Brooklyn, in a magnificent chapter 
 on the Effect of Christianity on the Moral Life of Man- 
 kind, says of the same age: "Women of high rank 
 even sought to be enrolled as common prostitutes that 
 they might be unhindered in their lusts— the very 
 temples became the resorts of lust. Buffoons and danc- 
 ing girls attended on the feasts. They closed in the most 
 licentious revelry, and whoever would have the image 
 of one of them distinctly before him, may find it in that 
 fearful picture of the Roman decadence, still, I think, in 
 the gallery of the Luxembourg, and reproduced in 
 occasional prints." 
 
 "Pantomines and buffoonery took the place of the 
 delicate comedy or the serious tragedy of the earlier 
 time. The scenes presented were full of adulteries and 
 amorous intrigues. The pimp and the courtesan in 
 Plantus plays had a popularity which Terence could 
 not rival. The most frightful obscenities added relish 
 to the performance, and the ballet-dancers danced 
 nearly or wholly naked on the stage." 
 
 "The men of moral feeling, of intellectual desires, 
 or of a generous public spirit, of whom there were still 
 many in Rome, could only stand aside watching with 
 
 47 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 bitterness this infernal procession of all the lusts ; 
 always in peril of being caught in it or of being hurled 
 by it into the unexplored abysm of death." 
 
 How completely these statements verify the 
 representations of the Apostle, in the opening 
 chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. 
 
 What wonder if as Matthew Arnold writes : 
 
 "On that hard Pagan world disgust 
 And secret loathing fell, 
 Deep weariness and sated lust 
 Made human life a hell ! " 
 
 Dr. Storrs notes Mr. Lecky's significant affirm- 
 ation that from this radical and permanent degradation 
 of spirit the distinctive Roman people have never re- 
 covered. 
 
 The social vice of Rome ; it cannot be successfully 
 denied was very clearly responsible for her dreadful 
 Fate. 
 
 " No nation," says Tytler with perfect correctness 
 ' ' has afforded a more striking example than the Romans 
 have done of the necessity of good morals to the 
 preservation of political liberty and the happiness of the 
 people." 
 
 The list of witnesses is not exhausted. We might 
 tell the story of Egypt, Assyria, Pompeii — the Cana- 
 anitish peoples, and every one of them will add force to 
 this testimony of the Ancient world, that debauchery as 
 certainly ruins a nation as its ruins a man. 
 
 But we hasten nearer home and to our own times, 
 and 
 
 II. Our second appeal is taken to after-history and 
 the experience of nations of later times: the immoral and 
 enervated East; Turkey with its harems, France with its 
 vast proportion of illegitimate births and its system of 
 State regtilatcd vice ; read us the same sad lesson. 
 
 Time will not allow us to do other than suggest to 
 those who have more time and opportunity the calling 
 of these witnesses. 
 
 4^ 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 The examination of French, Turkish and Syrian 
 history for the last three centuries, as indeed that of 
 many other lands would afford undoubtedly most 
 striking corroboration of the thesis we defend, but the 
 limits of this paper forbid entrance upon this examina- 
 tion. 
 
 There is, however, one so preeminent and terrible 
 illustration of the truth that social vice ensures na- 
 tional decay, now conspicuous in the eyes of the 
 whole civilized world, that it cannot be passed over; 
 on it so far as Modern History is concerned we may well 
 rest the case. 
 
 We refer to the Hawaiian and neighboring Islands. 
 
 An article in the Medical Record, September 10th, 
 1892, on the Etiology of Leprosy by Geo. L. Fitch, M.D., 
 of San Francisco, opens with the words, "What 
 is leprosy, and what causes it? The answer I believe 
 is; A fourth stage of syphilis." 
 
 This proposition Dr. Fitch undertakes to demon- 
 strate from the etiology of the disease in the Sandwich 
 Islands during the last hundred years. 
 
 The Islands were visited by Capts. Cook and Clarke 
 in his Majesty's ships Resolution and Discovery in 1778. 
 
 Of the morality of the Islanders at this time Jarvis, 
 in his History of the Islands says: "The ceremonies 
 observed on the death of any prominent personage were 
 extremely barbarous . . . Gambling, theft and murder 
 were as open as the day; clothing was cast aside as a 
 useless encumbrance; drunkenness and promiscuous 
 prostitution prevailed throughout the land; no woman 
 except the widow of the deceased being exempt from the 
 grossest treatment. 
 
 There was no passion, however lewd, or desire, 
 however wicked, but could be gratified with impunity 
 ... no other nation was ever witness to a custom 
 which so entirely threw off all moral and legal restraints 
 and incited the evil passions of men to unrestricted riot 
 and debauchery. 
 
 49 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ' 'As a general thing there was no such sentiment as 
 chastity;" indeed there is no word meaning '■'■chastity" in 
 the language. 
 
 Among a people thus given to utter sensuality, 
 syphilis which existed on theBritish ships was introduced 
 despite all the efforts of Captain Cook. 
 
 "Before the advent of the whites" says Dr. Fitch 
 ' ' in Hawaii Marriage as we understand the word, (one 
 male and one female consecrating themselves to each 
 other only) was practically unknown. 
 
 About the first lesson the Hawaiian mother taught 
 her infant after it could walk was the hula, or national 
 dance." This dance was grossly and beyond expression 
 lascivious in its motions, and "the more lascivious the 
 action, the more accomplished the performer. " 
 
 Dr. Fitch further says, "Friends in visiting each 
 other exchange wives over night, and strangers were ac- 
 commodated with women as a matter of common 
 courtesy. 
 
 Dr. Fitch on one occasion asked Queen Kapiolani 
 what proportion of the native women had been true 
 to their lawful husbands? 
 
 She replied — "Aole ukahi walhine likapu Ke la" 
 (not one like that). 
 
 Here we have a population under absolute dominion 
 of social vice. What is the result ? 
 
 It is no doubt true that the introduction of syphilis 
 among such a race must have intensified and accelerated 
 its decay, but the introduction of syphilis only partially 
 accounts for the ruin which followed. 
 
 The diary of Rev. Chas. Stewart, one of the early 
 Missionaries to Hawaii, under date May 22d, 1832, says 
 "Not to mention the frequent and hideous mark of a 
 scourge which more clearly than any other proclaims 
 the curse of the God of Purity and which while 
 it annually consigns hundreds of the people to the 
 tomb and converts thousands, while living, into 
 
 50 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 -walking sepulchres, the inhabitants generally are svib- 
 ject to many disorders of the skin. 
 
 Still more impressive and significant in this con- 
 nection are the following figures going back to 1833, 
 when intercourse between Hawaii and the outside world 
 received a great impetus. 
 
 The population mainly native was estimated in 
 1833 at 142,000. In 1832 it had fallen to 130,000. In 
 1836 to 108,000. 1853 it was 73,100. 1860—69,800. 
 1866—63,900. 1873—56,900. 1890—40,000. 
 
 If these figures do not lie how sadly and solemnly 
 they seem to teach that social vice is a chief source of 
 national decay. 
 
 A similar inference must be drawn from the 
 statement of Rev. A. A. Sturgis, who found a few cases 
 ■of syphilis in the Caroline Islands on his first visit there 
 as a Missionary in 1851. Now all the islands are in- 
 fected with it and about one in twenty of the natives are 
 lepers. 
 
 Here we might rest the case. Could anything be 
 clearer than this testimony of both Ancient History and 
 Modem experience that it is as with a man so with a 
 nation, the sin is sure to find the sinner out? 
 
 When a Nation sets at defiance the fundamentalV 
 laws of morality ordained by God it invites decay, ruin j 
 ,and extinction. 
 
 III. But we are unwilling to leave a subject so im- 
 portant without strengthening the truth by another and 
 third appeal, to the longevity of peoples whose morality 
 has been marked. 
 
 Going back to the early Mosaic legislation and the 
 history of the Chosen People one is struck by the 
 stringency of the Divine enactments with which the 
 Decalogue opens and which so emphatically prohibit the 
 least approaches to idolatrous worship. 
 
 Corresponding with the stringency of this require- 
 ment was the attitude of God toward Israel in all her 
 subsequent history. 
 
 51 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 No dereliction so quickly drew down upon her the 
 Divine anger in its terribleness of chastisement and 
 rebuke as the sin of idolatry. Again and again she 
 suffered awfully on account of it. 
 
 It may be said that a due recognition of the Being, 
 Unity and Dominion of God is basal in any correct 
 system of law or morality. 
 
 This is true and will go far to account for the 
 prominence given to this doctrine in the Divine legis- 
 lation. 
 
 But another point must be considered. Wherein 
 was Israel's temptation to idolatrous worship? Why did 
 she so often prefer Clemosh Astoreth Baal to Jehovah, 
 the gods of Amon and Moab to the one true and in- 
 finitely holy God? It would seem to have been an 
 extraordinary, a diabolical fascination. We believe that 
 the explanation is to be found in the sensuality of these 
 wicked and false faiths. 
 
 They appealed to the lowest and basest instincts 
 of the animal nature, and hence largely their enormous 
 and seductive powers. 
 
 Lascivious dances constituted an important part of 
 their ritual. 
 
 In the dusky shadows of their groves, the restraints 
 of morality were cast to the winds, while within the 
 precincts of the temples and around their very altars the 
 practice of an utterly obscene and sensual worship pro- 
 claimed the gods they worshipped ; gods of lust. 
 
 This certainly was characteristic of the worship of 
 Moab as one must learn from her attempted seduction 
 of Israel, (Num. 25). 
 
 The Septuagint renders the word "high-places" 
 (Ezek. 16:39) by a term which in Greek signifies "a place 
 of indecent resort." 
 
 It was not then merely, as concerned for the honor 
 of His own great Name, and the preservation of the 
 one true faith among men, but as well for t\\& physical 
 and moral salvation of the chosen people whose national 
 
 5 2 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 life these excesses of an idolatrous worship would threaten 
 with decay and extinction, that God made these enact- 
 ments so strenuous and preeminent, and fenced them 
 with penalties so prompt and terrible : and it is in good 
 part to the operation of these laws directly against 
 idolatry, incidently against sensuality, rigidly enforced 
 by penalty, that we must in some degree attribute the 
 reruarkable preservation and longevity of the Hebrew 
 race. A people scattered and peeled, wanderers without 
 a home, yet a people refusing to die; while nations 
 their superiors in wealth and numbers, honeycombed by 
 vice and immorality, have descended to the grave of 
 Empires and ceased to be. 
 
 In this same line of thought these words of Joseph 
 Cook in one of the Boston Monday Lectures merit 
 Temembrance : 
 
 ' ' There are many Saxon faces in this audience. 
 The blue eyes, the white forehead, the blond cheek, the 
 fair hair are signs of the Anglo-Saxon lineage. That 
 Race rules the world to-day. 
 
 That Race has given to us Goethe, Milton and 
 Shakespeare and Bacon and Kent and Hamilton and Ed- 
 wards and Cromwell and Washington and Lincoln. It 
 wrote Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, 
 the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 It has bridged the Ocean with its commerce and 
 traversed it with its electric wires. That Race in its 
 German forests was noted for nothing so much as the 
 spotlessness of its private morals. 
 
 While yet Barbarians our German fathers, as the 
 Roman historians state, buried the adulterer alive in the 
 mud. The adulteress they whipped through the 
 streets. 
 
 ' ' Non forma, non aetate, non opibus maritum 
 invenerit." Neither beauty nor youth, nor wealth 
 found her a husband. Out of this race sprung Chivalry. 
 It is this race which has proved itself in the :hivalric 
 contests of a thousand years, both in peace and .,var 
 
 S3 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 superior to all relaxed Italian and French tribes as the 
 leader of all the world's civilization. 
 
 ' ' The purity of the tribes in the German forests 
 prophesied their future. 
 
 " The hiding of the power of the Anglo-Saxon race 
 has been in the fact that it was at the first free from the 
 sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. 
 
 "In the German wilds our fathers were, as the 
 Romans found them, pure as the dews the forests shook 
 upon their heads. The race has predominated in history 
 because free "even when barbarian" from what else- 
 where has been the commonest leprosy of bar- 
 barism. 
 
 "If the Anglo Saxon race has shown exceptional \ 
 vigor the chief secret of its power is to be found in its 
 reverence for a pure family life. It will continue to 
 have that power and rule the world if it continues that 
 pure life. Otherwise not." 
 
 In bringing this paper to a practical conclusion we 
 must ask: Has History in all this no voice for our own 
 land? 
 
 Is there any danger that Social Vice will work out, 
 here and among our people, national decay? 
 
 There is such a danger. The study of statistics 
 shows an alarming increase of vice in our communities. 
 
 The number of prostitutes has of late years in all 
 our cities multiplied immensely; and the number of 
 male prostitutes in a community is fairly reckoned at 
 five times the number of female. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. B. F. De Costa has well said: 
 
 "The social evil is the greatest of all evils, because 
 it is honeycombing society, undermining the foundation 
 of the State, and destroying the public health. If one 
 wants to know the number of impure men in a com- 
 munity, all that is necessary is to find the number of 
 impure women and multiply it by five. * * * * 
 Until the double standard of morality is destroyed, there 
 is no hope for social purity." 
 
 54 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 But this is not the worst; forms of Vice, far more 
 disgusting and pernicious, almost unnameable are 
 known b}-- the students of criminal life, to have existed 
 among us for years, and as there is reason to fear are 
 on the increase. 
 
 Montesquieu once affirmed that the principle of 
 monarchy is honor, of despotism fear, of republicanism 
 virtue, and General Washington, in his farewell address, 
 reminded the nation he had done so much to found, that 
 RELIGION and MORALITY are pillars of the State. 
 
 It is sad to think of our beloved Country ; as we 
 contemplate this loathsome and wide-spreading moral 
 corruption, that, ' ' gray hairs are here and there upon 
 her, yet she knoweth not," as the Prophet Hosea said 
 of his people. 
 
 Time was, not long ago, when we were wont to 
 think that in the free and enlightened Institutions of 
 our happy land the great problem of human Government 
 had been finally solved, that a system so just, free, 'well- 
 balanced and conservative of human rights had at length 
 been secured, that its beneficent sway would last as 
 long as men need government. Alas ! if what we now 
 hear is true this great nation may not live out half 
 her days! 
 
 The same causes evermore produce the same effects. 
 Our Country can hope for no exemption from the 
 penalty which follows for the nation as well as the man 
 the violation of Divine law. 
 
 Social vice unchecked worked ruin for Babylon ; 
 Greece ; Rome ; Hawaii. Despite their Puritan begin- 
 nings ; despite a God-fearing and Bible-loving ancestry ; 
 despite the guardianship of just and righteous laws; 
 despite a noble history; Social Vice, if it shall come to , 
 be regnant and unchecked will work the same ruin for 
 the people of the United States ; and afford the World 
 and coming Ages one more melancholy illustration that 
 as among the more degraded so too among the freest 
 and most enlightened peoples ; Social Vice is the Parent 
 
 55 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 of National Decay. Years ago John Greenleaf Whittier 
 wrote, and his words are appropriate to us and here 
 to-day : 
 
 "Our fathers to their graves have gone 
 Their strife is past — their triumph won; 
 But sterner trials wait the race 
 Which rises in their honored place — 
 A moral warfare with the crime 
 And folly of an evil time. 
 
 "So let it be. In God's own might 
 
 We gird us for the coming fight. 
 
 And strong in Him whose cause is ours 
 
 In conflict with unholy powers, 
 
 We grasp the weapons He has given — 
 
 The Light, and Truth, and Love of Heaven.'' 
 
 56 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 I, AURA H. SATTERTHWAITE. M, D. 
 
 57 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE GREAT NEED OF THE MORAL CRUSADE. 
 
 By Laura H. Satterthwaite, M. D., Trenton, N. J. 
 
 One Beed only pause and listen to realize there 
 is an urgent demand for a gathering of forces to march 
 tinder the banner of purity. The work is too great for 
 longer concealment. The ravages upon the human sys- 
 tem from varying results of immorality are giving 
 decided warnings of what the future may be if there is 
 not an awakening. To the many desiring a betterment 
 of the social status but standing aloof, believing discus- 
 sion breeds an unhealthy condition in the minds of some 
 who know nothing of this and need never know, per- 
 mit me to suggest you are standing on a false hypothe- 
 sis, as this incident illustrates. A lady guarding her 
 children in every way to keep them ignorant of the 
 great social evil though exerting herself to warn them 
 of all others, was appalled to hear her thirteen year old 
 boy tell her he had been repeatedly urged to enter a 
 house of ill-fame and was aghast to find he knew what 
 transpired within. As this woman's eyes were opened 
 to the impossibility of keeping the knowledge from 
 anyone entering the world, to do his or her part in life, 
 or yours may be, and with a child lacking the naturally 
 strong character of this one, too late. For what this 
 boy learned on his short walk to school, others obtain 
 there, from thoughtless servants and unprincipled care- 
 takers. The only method to keep the information from 
 them is to sweep the immoral blight from our land. 
 
 Probably there has not been a greater obstacle to a 
 better moral standard and one claiming your attention 
 early in the campaign, than the too generally endorsed 
 idea that it is necessary to be lenient to one sex, accord- 
 ing to the laws of health. Can we say there is a 
 
 58 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 just God if we think a portion of humanity is condemned 
 to save others, to suffer not as Jesus suffered, to have 
 his reward, but in the belief of all adopting the teach- 
 ings of the Bible, to everlasting damnation? For is this 
 not the way of the lewd woman as Christanity views 
 her ? Charge your cannons with the truth and conquer 
 this false reasoning. No individual has an excuse, ex- 
 cept an uncontrolled passion for generations back. 
 
 A profound respect is held for the reverend gentle- 
 men present and for every consistent Christian, and you 
 working faithfully in the cause must not interpret cen- 
 sure, but as the whole field is surveyed there appears 
 a pressing need for this crusade to moralize so called 
 Christianity of to-day. You may answer how many 
 church members we have, and how many standing 
 before the Supreme Judge would have to answer in the 
 negative. Hast thou obeyed the Seventh Commandment 
 since connected with the church ? Why are religious 
 denominations so lax on this subject ? We see persons 
 holding high positions in their churches and meetings 
 who could not stand the searchlight turned upon their 
 morals one second. Yet there they are, equalling in 
 authority their righteous brother and sister. Aye, often 
 pointed to as worthy examples to innocent young minds, 
 whose acute perception discovers their hypocrisy, and 
 ■ often is known their blackened character. No earthly 
 power can convince me that the undefiled religion of 
 Jesus can be embraced in anything but a morally clean 
 body. Without this an otherwise clean soul must be- 
 come infected and its professions of righteousness a 
 superficial covering, which is far more harmful than open 
 corruption. A religion not applicable to our everyday 
 acts and duties is a blackguard upon the name ; and a 
 church or meeting looking with placid countenance upon 
 the two curses of this country — intemperance and immo- 
 rality, so closely allied — do more to embarrass Christianity 
 than the eloquent Ingersoll could ever do. There are 
 some in all denominations who would keep an incessant 
 
 59 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 commotion about obeying the doctrinal points of their 
 body, dictated by man, but won't ripple the surface 
 about the moral laws of God. Christians, to protect 
 your religion as well as your people, you must bring the 
 crusaders to the church doors and make an aggressive 
 warfare until every church and meeting house is what it 
 professes — a house of God. 
 
 This war is needed not for the erring only but the 
 pure, if all knowledge was theirs, would cry aloud for 
 quickened steps and powerful weapons. Most of you 
 are familiar with that dreadful scourge of Biblical fame, 
 leprosy, and would send into exile a case found among 
 you. A disease which I can't conceive to be in some 
 cases even second and certainly second only to leprosy 
 in its obnoxiousness, is in your very midst. There are 
 dying daily infants, children and all ages from its effects, 
 caused by an inherited taint or an innocent acquirement 
 possibly in their very household. Do you whisper, you 
 never heard of such a thing? Quite likely. The phy- 
 sician's certificate seldom gives the first sown seeds of 
 death or the unpleasant complications of an acute illness. 
 Yes, a filthy disease is all around us and being rapidly 
 spread by loose morals. We should be aroused to action, 
 from the dire results falling not merely upon the guilty. 
 Many authenticated cases show the wild oats of youth 
 are reaped in after years ; as that mother, marrying her 
 healthy daughter, with every prospect of a brilliant so- 
 cial career, to the idolized son of another mother realized 
 when she saw this innocent woman, after two years of 
 suffering, succumb to the vile disorder contracted fromN 
 her husband, who had lived but a few months of impru- 1 
 dence ; and the mother of that husband then understoody 
 the unexplainable utterance of her son on his wedding 
 day, that if he were not a coward he would shoot himself 
 before he again met his bride. Can anyone not be per- 
 sonally interested in this agitation? If you have a son 
 or brother do you not tremble at the possibilities in mar- 
 \ riage? If you have a daughter or sister do you not 
 
 60 
 
 [ 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 tremble at the greater possibilities in marriage? If you 
 have a babe seldom leaving your arms, in just one 
 unguarded moment a diseased germ may be implanted 
 upon an abraided surface of the child by a kiss. The 
 peril is so imminent the dealers themselves are becom- 
 ing alarmed and ask for protection in seeking licensed 
 houses of prostitution, where rigid examination of the 
 female inmates shall be required. Such a partial and 
 unjust law should be overcome in its infancy. 
 
 Is it not time to cry halt in clarion tones when pure 
 men defend unvirtuous woman on the plea that men are 
 excused ? No greater discouragement was ever ex- 
 perienced by me than this defence for association with 
 an impure woman. It seemed an insult had been given 
 to the chaste sister, mother and wife as well as the one 
 addressed. If good men of standing were going to con- 
 done this offense because man's standard was low there 
 might be a surrender at once. The writer believes the 
 future of this question rests largely with man ; woman 
 can do much but the virtuous man far more, in treating 
 the erring brother as the erring sister is treated. It has 
 been said "Virtue is the most precious jewel woman 
 possesses " and for the continuation of its value she 
 earnestly pleads and this crusade must fetter all such 
 declarations nourishing lewdness. The pedestal upon 
 which woman stands is not too high and she is not too 
 harsh upon this error of her sister. There is a tendency 
 to bring down one sex which as a body now stands supe- 
 rior and dim the splendor and glory of that masterpiece of 
 God, a true, noble, virtuous woman, by placing on the 
 same plane one of animal instincts. They cannot hold 
 that position, but pray you, men and women, let not the 
 sacredness of motherhood be tarnished by their touch. 
 Fight as you never fought before to barricade unchaste 
 woman from securing a stand wherft she can flaunt to the 
 breeze the flag of defiance and our children taught to 
 look upon her with deference. For the sake of human- 
 ity in their social, business and political relations this 
 
 6i 
 
 1 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 battle must be waged and the standard advanced all 
 along the line, because the force of Pope's lines, 
 
 "Vice is a monster of so frightful mien 
 As to be hated needs but to be seen ; 
 Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face. 
 We first endure, then pity, then embrace," 
 
 — 'tis natural to predict has been appreciated by many 
 in observing men and women, apparently of good stand- 
 ing and sound thoughts, smother their conscience for a 
 few moments, to enjoy some they inwardly repelled, for 
 the sake of that studied flattery and nicety given them 
 for purposes, some baser than others. I know it is not 
 a popular thought, but many a woman is leading two 
 lives to-day as successfully as man. Ere long the time 
 for the hushing process increases and the minutes grow 
 into hours, and their minds become so poisoned against 
 their true friends, whose words as well as their being 
 become repulsive, and the successful tempters hold their 
 victims so strongly in their grasp and so dull their vision, 
 that they detect no difference, and we see them actually 
 scorn virtue and embrace vice. They know not why 
 their path in life has become so troubled, believing they 
 are the same individuals as of yore, until Satan sounds 
 the bugle for his agents, their followers and their friends. 
 Then the once upright man and woman look around. 
 An awful realization dawns upon them, and uttering 
 cries of remorse, beheving their dual life will be over- 
 looked as in the past, make a dash for their former 
 abodes in the midst of honor, only to find the doors to 
 respectable society have at last been closed and barred. 
 On them a bulletin announcing their lost reputation, 
 and that another must be made before the key will be 
 turned ; and even then a back seat will ever be theirs. 
 This is a gloomy picture for anyone to contemplate, es- 
 pecially if beyond the prime of life, but unless something 
 is done to crush the growing power of these wily enticers 
 what family will feel secure from some of their number 
 being susceptible to their influence ? Their boldness in 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 defying public opinion is increasing, and if our good 
 people sit with closed eyes and muffled ears and say we 
 see and hear nothing, we are doomed. Does not this 
 social serpent of vice call for solid ranks and telling am- 
 munition? Cease not the care over the maiden but 
 bestow more upon the youth traveling equally as danger- 
 ous a road, being ensnared by the superficial and insincere 
 woman. The smoothed corrugator, and the delicate tinted 
 powder, with other artificial appliances, make as many 
 unhappy marriages as love for money, and such marriages 
 being breeders of immorality the crusaders are called 
 upon to slay their agents too. 
 
 If any think an unseeming harshness is shown 
 toward my sex, I assure them the sin and not the sinner 
 has been uppermost in the mind ; and the minute the 
 sinner casts aside the sin and proves a true repentance, 
 by living a proper life, in the strongest terms would I 
 say welcome them with open arms. But for the benefit 
 •of many withstanding with difficulty the outstretched 
 hand of crime, the final reward of virtue must not be 
 marred by having the once fallen placed above persons 
 ■who have reached the goal without yielding. They who 
 persist in living the life of degradation, help them as we 
 can ; but we shall be unable to enter into close associa- 
 tion and keep clean ourselves. As a widow with a de- 
 pendent family of children would be unwise and cruel to 
 enter a house reeking with the germs of contagious 
 disease, so would you be to the children of the world to 
 enter into a friendship which would bring reproach upon 
 you and destroy all future usefulness. Charity we must 
 have, knowing many of us have our grevious faults ; but 
 intemperance and immorality, the lowest and most de- 
 grading of sins, handicap one from entering the race of 
 life, and cause others to suffer more than the trans- 
 gressor, impeding the progress of all humanity and pre- 
 senting scars never to be erased from the life of the actor. 
 
 In closing may I repeat, the moral crusade is 
 needed to kill erroneous ideas ; to erect barriers for both 
 
 63 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 man and woman against sullied associates ; to fortify the 
 pinnacle which the one sex now occupies, and to bring- 
 the other to her level ; to clean churches and meeting- 
 houses and eradicate that foe to true religion; to resist 
 illegal bartering of young girls and children for unlaw- 
 ful purposes; to prevent our country from bringing 
 another curse vipon it by licensing houses of prostitution; 
 to rid all from the dangers now threatening to weaken 
 coming generations and destroy every vestige of honest 
 and good government ; to give us a clear, healthy, and 
 moral atmosphere in which the babe from its day of 
 birth will breathe an air which will not incite wrong- 
 doing but stimulate the best in them. 
 
 No one can deny the necessity of this war when 
 they witness the enemy; but some will say it is not 
 necessary for them to enlist. The utmost strength of 
 every individual is required to annihilate this many- 
 clawed monster, and not the frailest frame can be spared 
 from giving his or her mite, and not one of you rests 
 upon a solid foundation, if you care for the welfare of 
 your families or your friends; and as fellow-mortals 
 you should be willing to raise your arm in defence of 
 right, and give your voice in condemnation of the wrong. 
 
 Women, I beseech you, let there be no compromise. 
 Stand firm and demand purity for purity, remembering 
 Tennyson's lines : 
 
 " The woman's cause is man's, they rise or sink 
 Together, dwarfed or Godlike, bond or free." 
 
 64 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 JULIA WARD HOWE. 
 
 6S 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MORAL EQUALITY BETWEEN THE SEXES 
 
 By Mrs. Julia Ward FIowe. 
 
 I shall begin my brief address by recalling to the 
 minds of my hearers one or two of the trite sayings 
 which remind us how near to each other are some things 
 which we regard with very different feelings. ' ' From 
 the sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step." 
 This proverb is very familiar to us, and no less is St. 
 Paul's word that ' ' in the midst of life we are in death. " 
 Even so, a simple step may lead from what is honorable 
 in the sight of all men to the very depths of dishonor, 
 and in the midst of our moral and social life lurk the 
 seeds of our mora] death. To speak without paraphrase, 
 the relations of sex are either the crown of Society, or 
 its ruin: they either build the State upon a sound and 
 true foundation, or they set up fantastic structures upon 
 quicksands which speedily become yawning chasms of 
 loss and misery. 
 
 The rigid rule of our Puritan ancestbrs had, no 
 doubt, some part in calling forth the reaction against 
 ethical stringency which has been a feature in a part of 
 our Nineteenth Century. The Puritans were, indeed, 
 hard upon individual sinners, and much of their theol- 
 ogy has passed even beyond controversy. But they did 
 not exaggerate the danger which comes to the State 
 with the admission of loose morals. 
 
 A false assthetic has much to do with bad morals. 
 We all live as much by the beautiful as by the useful, or 
 more. The romancer of a period or of a special society 
 may ingeniously divorce the beautiful from the good. 
 In such a society the youth, whose ethical sense is as yet 
 
 66 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 immature, will run great risk of following the allure- 
 ment of the false beauty. 
 
 For I need not say here that there is no real beauty 
 apart from what is good and estimable. 
 
 Young people in America read so much and so 
 miscellaneously that they will be apt to come often in 
 contact with the misleading sort of romance which I 
 have in mind. In American life, energy and the spirit 
 of adventure are largely developed, but home culture, 
 the most important of all, is abridged by the early age 
 at which young people leave the paternal roof to seek 
 fortune elsewhere. And this going forth to better one's 
 condition may often cultivate a barren egotistic spirit, 
 always alive to the chance of personal advancement, and 
 to little else. 
 
 We must cultivate in our young people a sense at 
 once of the strictness of moral obligation and of the 
 largeness of personal relation. We like to boast about 
 our country. It is easy to do that, but let us rather 
 remember what we owe to our country. ' ' England 
 expects every man to do his duty," is a saying 
 which, no doubt, has had much to do with the 
 formation of character among the English people. 
 In the catechism of the Church of England duties 
 are set forth under two heads: Duty to God, and 
 to our neighbor — ^but we might add in the instruction of 
 the young, the question: What is my duty to my 
 country? I should answer, first, to learn to be a good 
 citizen, and secondly, to help, by influence and example, 
 to increase the number of good citizens. 
 
 Families are the wealth of states, and the ideal 
 family life is one which we Americans especially need 
 to cultivate. Let the romance of our youths look for- 
 ward to married life on a plane of mutual dignity ana- 
 equality. In my view the sense of equality is a most 
 important condition in marriage, and the surest 
 guarantee of its sacredness. Do what you will, in- 
 feriority of ability will involve as its sequence inferiority 
 
 67 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 of moral responsibility. The interests committed to the- 
 keeping of women are too momentous to be entrusted 
 by any man to his inferior. Such a feeling, latent in 
 his mind, will always tend to lower the moral tone of the 
 woman who looks to him for guidance and approval. 
 We smile at the naive device of the Vicar of Wakefield 
 who, undertaking to place upon his wall a pen-portrait 
 of his wife, adorned it with every high quality which he 
 wished her to possess. I find a touch of deep wisdom 
 in this. We all need to be reminded of the best that 
 can be expected of us, and are hindered if not demoral- 
 ized by the contrary course. There is surely in all this 
 a logical sequence. The man, regarding the woman as 
 his inferior, may consider it a light offence to work her 
 dishonor. She, acquiescing in his view, will yield 
 where she ought to resist. I am afraid that in such a 
 case the woman will fall back upon Adam's excuse, and 
 say: " The man tempted me. " Out of such relations 
 as these may be woven an intricate net work of vice and 
 folly. 
 
 Let us bless our Christian religion for this above 
 all else. It has explicitly stated and assumed the 
 equality of the sexes. ' ' In Christ Jesus there is neither 
 male nor female," says the Apostle; and what said the 
 Master: "He that looketh on a woman to lust after 
 her, 'hath already committed' the sin," which in the 
 woman we deem unpardonable. 
 
 All that to-day tends to the elevation of woman 
 tends to dry up the sources of sexual immorality. But 
 the Past has left us dread arrears with which the Present 
 has still to settle. It has created for us numbers of 
 degraded and unprincipled women who are content to 
 take their tone from men, less outwardly degraded, per- 
 haps, but even more unprincipled than themselves. 
 Philosophy and Poetry in our day have sometimes ap- 
 peared as the apologists of an evil which has come to us 
 from the barbarous Past, but which has no apology in 
 the civilized Present. I should say, pseudo-materialistic 
 
 68 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 philosopliy, unwholesome poetry, both of them unfit for 
 -a time of intellectual illumination like the Present. 
 
 For these evil views are a legacy from the old order 
 ■of the domination of physical force. In this the power 
 of offence was undoubtedly superior in the male sex, 
 while power of endurance was greater in our own. This 
 masculine ascendency has already in it one element of 
 cruelty, that of sacrificing the weaker to the stronger, 
 the ignorant to the designing. 
 
 I doubt whether the ferocity of the battlefield is as 
 merciless as is the remorseless onslaught of unscrupulous 
 passion. Oh, mothers, wherever you cultivate selfish- 
 ness in your sons, and allow cruelty, you add something 
 to the preponderance of evil in the world — you prepare 
 unworthiness and unhappiness for them and for those 
 with whom they will have to do. 
 
 I hold that equality of moral obligation is the one 
 idea which lies at the foundation of any true democracy. 
 This indeed is the only equality upon which we can in- 
 sist. Intellectual and social inequalities cannot be done 
 ■away with by any effort of human will. Every man 
 ■cannot be a monarch, a genius, or a millionaire. Every 
 woman cannot claim to shine by her wit, by her wealth,.^ 
 ■or in virtue of inherited position. To stand equal m 
 justice before the civil law, equal in dignity before the 
 moral law, this belongs to Christian democracy. And| 
 this positive idea will bloom into divinest beauty if we 
 carry it, as our Master did, to its energetic issue— not 
 only refraining from doing to others wbat we would not 
 have them do to us, but going on to render to them the 
 good offices which we should most value for ourselves, 
 breaking from our personal limitations to embrace and 
 serve the wholeness of our Humanity, which is present 
 in the least of men as well as in the greatest. 
 
 The greatest poets have wrought in this spirit and 
 to this end. Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare present 
 to us no one sided view of humanity. And yet, some 
 who have powerfully affected the imagination of the 
 
 69 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 reading world have done otherwise. Even our Milton 
 could say of our first parents : 
 
 " He for God only, she for God in him." 
 
 Thinking people have now passed beyond this 
 limitation. Shall the woman see God in the man, and 
 not in her own thought and conscience? Shall the 
 human guide her in preference to the divine? Not so — 
 let the sentence read: "Both for God only, in them- 
 selves — in each other." 
 
 The entertainment of the old unequal hypothesis 
 has often seemed to me like the building of an arch in 
 which one side should be reared in strength and strict 
 measure, while the other should be btiilt of unknown 
 material, and with no perfect correspondence of direc- 
 tion. Society rests upon these arches. For one side 
 you fit and smooth the stone carefully, for the other you 
 take such material as comes to hand. How will such 
 an arch stand? What pressure will it uphold? But if 
 we bestow equal care upon the two sides of our arch 
 then the keystone. Duty, will fit in, and our social 
 fabric will stand so firmly that countless generations, 
 shall not cause it to move or fail. 
 
 70 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MRS. REBECCA J. BROOMELL, 
 
 SECRETARY BALTIMORE BRANCH AMERICAN PURITY ALLIANCE, 
 
 BY WHOM MRS. HOWE's PAPER WAS READ TO THE 
 
 CONGRESS. 
 
 71 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF WOMEN IN REGARD 
 
 TO QUESTIONS CONCERNING PUBLIC 
 
 MORALITY. 
 
 By Emily Blackwell, M. D., New York. 
 
 The rapid development of Sanitary Science of late 
 years, and the importance with which this progress has 
 invested all questions of Public Hygiene, has created a 
 growing interest in these subjects in the community, and 
 especially among women. 
 
 The question of the best manner of dealing with 
 Prostitution has long been recognized as one of the 
 most difficult problems in municipal government in all 
 the great cities of Europe, as it was in those of ancient 
 times. 
 
 The growth of our cities during the past generation 
 with the consequent increase of all the conditions upon 
 which the evil depends, the extremes of wealth and 
 poverty, the numbers of children growing up under un- 
 favorable conditions, the difficulty of earning a living, 
 are bringing this problem into similar prominence 
 among us. 
 
 It is a question that has never been solved, but which 
 will become ever more pressing until the principles upon 
 which it is to be dealt with are finally settled. 
 
 Efforts have been made from the most ancient 
 times to diminish this evil, to restrain its extent, and 
 limit its injurious consequences, efforts which have be- 
 come more systematic and more stringent as society has 
 become more organized. 
 
 Every plan that is now suggested in the way of 
 regulation and supervision has been tried in the most 
 
 72 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 varied forms. No plan is now suggested that lias not 
 been put in operation somewhere and in some shape. 
 
 The one conspicuous result of these various efforts 
 is their utter futility, their absolute failure. The fact 
 stands prominently forth that the evil and its conse- 
 quences are as great and as uncontrollable as ever. 
 
 This result would of itself be sufficient to prove that 
 we have not yet reached the true principle on which to 
 deal with the subject. Every mode of dealing with 
 prostitution hitherto has treated it as a purely sanitary 
 question, whereas the matter goes much deeper and 
 involves the fundamental question of the relations of 
 men and women. Right dealing with this subject means 
 dealing founded on a true view of these relations. 
 
 The difficulty has been, and is, that every system of 
 regulation is founded on the false principle of the in- 
 equality of men and women, in reference to moral obliga- 
 tions, to the almost universal belief that license is venial, 
 even necessary to men, while Chastity is the one essential 
 virtue of woman, the one quality in regard to which the 
 least suspicion is fatal to her social respectability in any 
 rank of life. 
 
 This view has come down to us as a relic of bar- 
 barism, from the old times when women were slaves, 
 and their value and standing depended absolutely on 
 their relations to men as decided by men. Slavery in 
 every form yields slowly, and leaves an evil leaven be- 
 hind which works mischief in society long after the / 
 apparent disappearance of its cause. This inequality of I 
 moral obligation in men and women is the last trace of 
 the slavery of sex. 
 
 While this stage of the actual slavery of women has 
 long been outgrown, we are still far from accepting 
 and acting upon the idea that men and women are two 
 equal and co-ordinate halves of the human race, with 
 corresponding interests, rights and duties. We have not 
 yet learned that there cannot be any real antagonism 
 between the interests and requirements of men and 
 
 73 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 women in any question that concerns both, that any 
 apparent antagonism must necessarily arise from some 
 false conception not yet outgrown. 
 
 One of the deepest and worst of these lingering 
 falsehoods is this prevalent idea of the different attitudes 
 which both moral and physical requirements are held to 
 impose upon men and women in regard to moral obli- 
 gations. 
 
 This popular view implies a logical iinpossibility. 
 
 The morality of women as a whole cannot exceed 
 that of men as a whole ; vice is only diffused in one sex 
 and concentrated in the other. As a matter of fact 
 purity is not regarded by society as an essential requisite 
 of all womanhood, but only of a part of it. That wives 
 and mothers should be pure, another class of women 
 must have the whole balance of evil poured out upon 
 them. The higher sense of mankind says that the family 
 is the essential unit of the State. Our practice says the 
 family plus prostitution is the essential unit. 
 
 Yet the moral sense of both men and women would 
 revolt from the only logical conclusion of the present 
 view, viz. , that any people performing a necessary social 
 function should not be degraded thereby, and that this 
 most unfortunate class, instead of being made the scape- 
 goat of society and driven into the desert with the sins 
 of a nation on its head, should be regarded as an order 
 vowed to sacrifice in obedience to a cruel social necessity; 
 and their occupation should be regarded as legitimate and 
 respectable, and should be surrounded by all the safe- 
 guards that may be required for its protection. 
 
 The only possible alternative to this view is to take 
 our stand resolutely upon the ground of equal moral 
 obligation, and accept no method of dealing with this 
 evil that is based upon any other. 
 
 That men should not yet have risen to this point of 
 view is not extraordinary when we regard the whole 
 history of the growth of civilization. It seems at first 
 sight more surprising that women should accept this 
 
 74 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 double standard so widely and so zealously. This is, 
 however, only another instance of what we find as the 
 universal teaching of history, that any false social view 
 wide spread and long continued, is gradually accepted 
 by those whom it injures as well as by the dominant 
 class. The Divine Right of Kings was a popular doc- 
 trine under arbitrary monarchs. Loyalty, the unreason- 
 ing self-sacrifice of the inferior to the superior, was one 
 of the most popular virtues under the Feudal System, 
 and so the subservience to a shortsighted view of men's 
 requirements has come down ingrained in women from 
 the times when their whole existence depended upon 
 such subservience. 
 
 So women accept and act upon this popular fallacy 
 without realizing the results of their action. Multitudes 
 of good women would be startled by the assertion that 
 purity is as possible and desirable for men as for women, 
 and yet feel that loyalty to womanhood requires the 
 utmost severity in the judgment of laxity of conduct 
 among women. How many women are there in the 
 country who really feel that vice is as derogatory to men 
 as to women, who would turn the cold shoulder to a 
 man on the same degree of suspicion as would lead them 
 to drop his sister, who would be as distressed at im- 
 morality in their sons as in their daughters. Society 
 does not allow such equal justice, the feelings of women 
 do not impel them to it. They follow custom without 
 reasoning upon it. 
 
 Women will not, however, much longer be able to 
 ignore their responsibility in this question. Hitherto 
 any false regulation on this subject has been the work of 
 men alone. It is evident that this will not be the case in 
 the future, and that in its final settlement women will 
 inevitably have to share the responsibihty. Two very 
 marked tendencies have been developed among women 
 in recent times that will play a constantly increasing 
 part in social life. 
 
 75 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 The one is the tendency to combine and take united 
 action in many directions. Women's clubs, societies and 
 associations of all kinds have multiplied, and are multi- 
 plying endlessly; they are teaching women a much 
 needed lesson, that union is strength, and that to gain 
 it women must learn to act upon wider than personal 
 grounds. 
 
 Again, the immense development of Sanitary Science, 
 the management of Institutions and Charities, and our 
 way of regarding and dealing with the great questions 
 of Public Hygiene, is teaching them a second and equally 
 needed lesson. This is that they cannot fulfil their 
 duties even in the sphere universally conceded to them, 
 in domestic, social, personal life, without following their 
 interests outside the home, into the wider sphere of 
 municipal and state action. The active interest mani- 
 fested by many of our most conservative women in 
 municipal reform, and municipal action in matters of 
 public hygiene, shows that they are learning that they 
 cannot satisfactorily work at home without following 
 their interests out into the broader housekeeping of the 
 Ncity and the state, that they must become citizens as 
 jwell as members of the family. It is very certain that 
 these tendencies to wider action will increase and will 
 bring women more fully into contact with this most 
 painful of all social problems. It is of immense im- 
 portance that women should assume the right attitude 
 in this matter. We begin to see indications that this 
 will not always be the case, and that there is danger 
 that women, when first confronted with this question, 
 may not always see beyond the false and shortsighted 
 views which control our present customs. 
 
 The assertion that there can and must be only one 
 law for men and women is usually met by men with a 
 contemptous smile, as one of those quixotic conceptions 
 of reformers which indicate their real ignorance of the 
 world and human nature. Influenced by this deeply 
 rooted feeling women often believe the assertions so 
 
 76 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 constantly made that Lhe only way is to palliate an in- 
 evitable evil. 
 
 Thus we find that in New Zealand, where women 
 have recently obtained the suffrage, the "Woman's 
 Liberal League " recently adopted and published a 
 resolution endorsing the Contagious Diseases Act, and 
 urging its adoption in New Zealand. A Woman's Rescue 
 Society in Boston, last year, had introduced into the 
 Massachusetts Legislature, and pressed, though happily 
 unsuccessfully, the passage of a bill for the restricting 
 of vice in Boston, and in Illinois we hear of a recom- 
 mendation of the regulation of vice by a committee of 
 women. In several other directions we find notices of 
 action by women which show that they do not always at 
 first sight appreciate the true bearings of such actions. 
 
 The first step toward diminishing a vice is to recog- 
 nize it as such, and to stamp it with public reprobation. 
 This is true notwithstanding the fact that we cannot 
 hope to exterminate it by any mode of dealing with it. 
 We have not succeeded in exterminating murder, theft, 
 or any other crime by legislation. But the respect for 
 life has greatly increased since public opinion has con- 
 demned dueling, and every other form of private kill- 
 ing. Drunkenness and Prostitution are the only crimes 
 which we attempt to palliate by legali'dng the con- 
 ditions under which they may be committed. 
 
 It is often urged also that we take a sentimental 
 view of this matter. That it is a question of in- 
 dividuals. That every woman knows the penalty of a 
 lapse from virtue. That no woman need fall so low. 
 That Prostitutes are a degraded and criminal body, 
 whom their low moral sense, vanity, disinclination to 
 work, impatience of poverty, etc., has led them volun- 
 tarily into their present condition. That they are 
 hardened and shameless even beyond ordinary crim- 
 inals, and that their unrestrained activity is a menace 
 to society. Granting the truth of this judgment is it 
 not inevitable that a class which is permitted to exist, 
 
 77 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 but kept under the ban of society, must harden into 
 defiant antagonism to social law ? 
 
 Women often fail to perceive what wide spread 
 mischief this laxity of public opinion, in which they 
 ignorantly share, works to them. To its influence 
 is due in large measure every social and industrial 
 disadvantage under which they labor. The isola- 
 tion of women, their ignorance of the world, the 
 necessity of surrounding girls with crippling limitations 
 for their protection, the impossibility of allowing them 
 freedom and independence, which prevents their 
 acquiring self-reliance and power of dealing with 
 the world if circumstances take them out of the pro- 
 tected circle of family life, these are only remnants of 
 the old seclusion of women due to the danger of their 
 free intercourse with men. The absolute relegation of 
 women to the most narrowly limited private life, their 
 general seclusion from all wider outside occupations 
 and interests, which leaves the army of young women 
 engaged in industry to the almost exclusive direction of 
 and dependence upon men, comes from the same feel- 
 ing that women cannot safely engage in anything out- 
 side of domestic life. The whole organization of society 
 is built up upon the virtual separation of the sexes for 
 the protection of the weaker. This makes the position 
 of those women who must go out into the world 
 the more difficult, because it separates them from 
 older and better circumstanced women, deprives them 
 of their natural leaders and counsellors. Moreover, 
 upon this false view of necessity is founded the tacit 
 permission to build up a trade in vice, to form a wide 
 spread organization whose interest is to extend and 
 supply it. Yet this vilest of all social classes is the very 
 one which is made the accredited agent to superintend 
 it in any system of legalization. 
 
 In whatever direction women are working to extend 
 their openings for development, they are met by this 
 permitted absence of moral obligation on the part of 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 men as- one of the great obstacles in their way, for 
 it puts the relations of men and women and their 
 whole way of dealing with each other upon a false 
 footing, which works always to the disadvantage of 
 women. 
 
 We want to bring all women to understand that 
 the only true way to deal with prostitution is, first, to 
 diminish the demand upon which it is based by stamp- 
 ing vice with public reprobation in men as well as in 
 women. Secondly, to organize among women a 
 broader and more effective form of rescue work. At 
 present most of the effort in this direction is devoted to 
 saving the fallen. Without in any way reflecting upon 
 this benevolent work, it is yet evident that while the 
 conditions which maintain vice exist undiminished, the 
 place of every reclaimed woman is filled up by another 
 pushed over the brink. 
 
 We want a still more active effort to save those 
 "who are ready to perish." Girls' Clubs, Friendly 
 Societies, Women's Protective Associations, Employ- 
 ment Societies, everything that brings to the poorest 
 and most friendless the strength of combination and 
 companionship, that brings the wealthier, more edu- 
 cated, better placed women into friendly social relations 
 upon the ground of the equality of a common womanhood, 
 are the most effective forms of rescue work, and every 
 woman should feel bound to throw her help and in- 
 fluence into these efforts. Thirdly, every woman 
 should resolutely oppose any form of municipal or state 
 action that gives direct or indirect recognition or sup- 
 port to those who, as agents of vice, pursue the vile 
 trade of encouraging it for gain. The fact that this is in- 
 volved in every system of regulation should be enough 
 to condemn the whole thing. 
 
 Women have had imposed upon them by society, 
 and have accepted from their own moral sense the duty 
 of embodying in their own lives the ideal of purity, and 
 ofTtanding for it in family~ancl~Sociattife7 They are 
 
 79 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 pledged by every consideration of honor, of justice, of 
 self-respect, to insist that what society demands as es- 
 sential to every honorable woman should be made 
 possible to all women. We need to make every woman 
 feel that underlying and beyond her personal relation 
 to the men of her family and circle, far deeper and more 
 important than the personal interests or rivalries that may 
 grow out of these, she has a vital interest in the ques- 
 tion of the relation of women as a whole to men as a 
 whole. If in every relation, in domestic life, as edu- 
 cators, as social leaders, women brought all their in- 
 fluence to bear to bring about a higher and juster 
 moral attitude towards vice, their influence would be 
 irresistible. 
 
 We want to make every woman feel that if through 
 ignorance, thoughtlessness, or selfish indifference she 
 accepts and acts upon the present false view of unequal 
 moral obligations, she is tacitly instrumental in keeping 
 up conditions which are forcing her weaker sister into 
 the depths of degradation and crime. That she is not 
 doing her duty to womanhood or to society. 
 
 Each sex owes it to the other to hold it to its own 
 highest standard. It is no evidence of true regard for 
 men to condone licentiousness in them, as it is no mark 
 of respect of men for women to condone moral cowardice 
 in them as an excusable feminine weakness. 
 
 It is to the interest of both men and women, that 
 the highest standard of purit}'- should be recognized a.$ 
 ,the one and only law for both sexes, and that no lower 
 view should be tolerated in private life, or embodied in 
 public statutes. 
 
 It is on this line, and on this line only, that the 
 great battle against prostitution can be successfully 
 fought, and to secure recognition of this fact is the one 
 great end for which we must work. 
 
 80 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 J. W. WALTON. 
 
 8l 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 YOUNG MEN AND MORALITY. 
 
 By J. W. Walton, Cleveland, O. 
 
 The pure man is the ideal man. That impregnable 
 fact is not in dispute. At the same time there lurks in 
 our minds the feeling, unexpressed, undefined, that a 
 Joseph is less to be admired than a Judah. We may not 
 sneer, we may not go so far as to despise the man of 
 virtuous self control, but deep in our hearts we are in- 
 clined to fasten upon him a certain effeminancy of 
 character which is simply nauseating. 
 
 It is my purpose briefly to remind you that impurity 
 of thought and life is utterly foolish and unmanly, and 
 that no fellow who wants to make his mark in the twen- 
 tieth century can afford to overlook this increasingly 
 vital fact. 
 
 " To be carnally minded is death," alike to progfress 
 in this world and to hope for the world to come. 
 
 This truth, as old as the race, may well be repeated 
 in the ears of each generation, for the reason that new 
 facts, new discoveries, are constantly coming to light, 
 which bear with great emphasis upon it. I am not one 
 of those dark prophets who claim that the world is con- 
 stantly growing worse. On the contrary there is strong 
 reason to believe that the world is growing better. 
 
 Read ancient history, note how those old splendid 
 civilizations rose and why they fell ; then draw a paral- 
 lax, if you will, upon our modern life. Note progress, 
 even in the brief span of our own American history. 
 
 Can you for a moment imagine another Aaron Burr, 
 brilliant statesman though he be, elevated to the second 
 place in the gift of our nation? 
 
 Heaven defend us from the growth of a class at 
 once rich and idle, the curse of any land, as both ancient 
 and modern history demonstrate. 
 
 82 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 I have been all my life intimately associated with 
 young men, and I know how to look at this subject 
 through a young man's eyes. If you are bound to make 
 shipwreck of life, I know of no swifter or surer way for 
 you to do it than to give free rein to passion. If, on the 
 other hand, you realize that we are to pass through this 
 world but once and ought to make the best of it, then I 
 have a word of friendly counsel for you. 
 
 The^ jlaws of na ture are not playthings; they are 
 stem, immutable realities. These statutes we may vio- 
 late if we choose, but they carry their own retribution. 
 Mercy may forgive the sin, but, so far as we can see, no 
 tears, no length of time, no, not even Omnipotence 
 itself, can avert the awful penalty. 
 
 You may break the costly mirror, you may rub the 
 down from the ripened peach, or brush the dewdrops 
 from the rosebud, but can you replace all these? No 
 more can lost purity be restored b}' force of will. 
 Thoughts of evil will come back to you, like foul birds, 
 in your holiest moments, and no skill of necromancy, 
 no supreme effort will put them down. 
 
 There is an instinctive sense of chivalry due from 
 every man toward every woman, as such, a lofty ideal, 
 a sanctity, a feeling of responsibility for defense and 
 protection, of loyal devotion to the sex. 
 
 The voluptuary has killed all these finer feelings. 
 The romance, the charm of the world is gone. He has 
 committed moral suicide. 
 
 Whether known only to yourself and your Maker, 
 or whether your guilty knowledge is shared with 
 another, " Be sure your sin will find you out." It is 
 found out when you know it yourself. You cannot 
 thereafter look at yourself in the glass without the 
 reflection, " I am a degraded man ! " 
 
 Perhaps you are saying that your wrong doing has 
 proceeded no further than your thought, that it has not 
 wrought itself out in any deed of evil. Nevertheless 
 the root of the whole matter is there. It is just as true 
 
 83 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 to day of the American young man as of his forerunner 
 in the days of Solomon. " As he thinketh in his heart, 
 so is he." You look for malaria in the vicinity of 
 swamps, and find it. Loose thinking is invariably 
 followed by loose living. It is only a question of time. 
 
 Did you ever reflect upon the power of a man's 
 imagination in headlong flight without a guiding rein ? 
 Its break -neck pace increases with every bound. No 
 amount of sensual gratification can check its wild 
 career. On, on it rushes, goaded by its own insatiable 
 passion, toward the awful precipice in its path, over 
 which it must surely plunge — and then! Ah! what 
 then ? 
 
 Do the laws of the universe change when we shed 
 these tissues which we term the body ? Is there any 
 reason to think that the fact of death causes a revolu- 
 tion in your undying character ? I shall not attempt to 
 dwell upon the consequences of secret vice. Physicians 
 will tell of impaired vision, of tottering steps, of inca- 
 pacity for connected thought, followed in time by mental 
 collapse. Nature, kinder to the offender than he has 
 been to himself, decrees of him that development shall 
 cease and that the candle of his race shall be extin- 
 guished. 
 
 Or it may be that your violation of the law of purity 
 .-is shared by another. 
 
 Shall this be an innocent victim thrown from the 
 high pedestal of pure womanhood into the fathomless 
 mire of an evil life ? 
 
 " Let fair liumanity abhor the deed 
 That spots and stains love's modest snow-white weed!" 
 
 More commonly young men transgress in company 
 with those who make a business of sin. The conse- 
 quences are not long delayed. Self-respect, once lost, 
 can never be fully regained. Each surrender to passion 
 weakens your power of self-control. The appetite grows 
 by what it feeds oh, but satisfaction lies not that way. 
 
 84 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 It is only a question of time when the young man 
 "who sm renders to passion will have to reckon with 
 disease, in spite of precaution, and in spite — I had 
 almost said because— of so called health certificates based 
 upon medical examinations, worthless except as false 
 lighthouses to lure men on to the rocks. 
 
 That shameful maladies are abroad in the land, 
 shameless advertisements of quack nostrums only too 
 broadly demonstrate. These harpies grow rich, and 
 their fortunes are in the main drawn from young men. 
 
 A wide-spread disorder, more dreadful than cholera 
 or yellow fever, is prevalent, confirming the truth of 
 inspiration, " Her house is the way to hell, going down 
 to the chambers of death. " Any large hospital furnishes 
 an object lesson on the text, "The way of trans- 
 gressors is hard." We have seen young men setting 
 out with splendid prospects, who became prematurely 
 old and shriveled and helpless, loathed by themselves 
 and by those who through duty or affection became 
 their care-takers, sinking hopelessly into dishonored 
 graves when they should have been at their best in life, 
 dragging wife and children with them. Can you imag- 
 ine a stronger foretaste of hell than to look into the face 
 of a helpless child — your child — whom in a moment of 
 wild passion you have sentenced to a life-long struggle 
 with suffering and disease, perhaps with deformity or' 
 idiocy? Your thought was that your sin was covered, 
 but it has come out beforealLthg^^ wprliin the next 
 generation, which wifS^ weaJcened wni-power_will 
 probably still "furthCT-g-q down until the stock itself runs 
 out. Said a late distinguished alienist to me on this 
 subject : ' ' Think you that a disease which eats through 
 skin and muscle and bone and marrow will spare that 
 most delicate of all organs, the brain ? Be sure it will not. 
 Mental disorders most commonly follow. Tell the young 
 men that this matter of lewdness is a marked sin." 
 Every candid medical man will reinforce all that I have 
 said, and more. 
 
 8S 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Would to God I could pass over this most unsavory 
 subject more lightly, but the truth has only been ap- 
 proached, not laid bare. A word to the wise is 
 sufficient ; fools will go on sinning and suffering until 
 they die, and their memory shall rot. 
 
 There is another disease which commonly follows 
 in the train of social sin, a disease which I need not 
 name, but which is often the subject of light jest on the 
 part of young men. " As easily cured," they say, " as 
 a cold in the head. " Is it ? 
 
 Science with its microscope and its patient investi- 
 gation has been making some important discoveries 
 just here, especially during the past few months. Ask 
 your physician, and if he is at all abreast of the times 
 he will tell you that in the remorseless march of evolu- 
 tion Nature has decreed of those who contract this so 
 called lighter malady, "Write these men and women 
 childless. " Hopeless sterility for yourself and for the 
 wife of your bosom is not the invariable but probable 
 result. 
 
 Thus are the iniquities of the fathers visited upon 
 the children unto the third and fourth generation, or 
 else the generations themselves blasted, their places are 
 taken by the sons of those who by their own election 
 are found worthy to perpetuate the race. 
 
 Let us turn, now, to the brighter side, the reasons 
 for a virtuous, sensible life. 
 
 I like that word "virtue." It comes from the old 
 Latin root, " vir, " — a man. There is much in language 
 to denote the common thought of mankind. Our very 
 words speak the high regard in which we hold the man 
 of self control. First of all, his conscience is at rest. 
 Madame Guyon, though a prisoner in the Bastile, could 
 say, " I care not what my outward circumstances may-, 
 be, so long as the little bird is singing sweetly in my 
 bosom." Nature itself, to say nothing of revelation, is 
 in harmony with your better self. 
 
 86 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Virtue prolongs as well as ennobles life. Without 
 virtue, on the testimony of thousands, life is not worth 
 living. 
 
 " Virtue, the strength and beauty of the soul 
 Is the best gift of heaven ; a happiness 
 That e'en above the smiles and frowns of fate 
 Exalts great Nature's favorites ; a wealth 
 That ne'er encumbers, nor can be transferred." 
 
 It is only fair to her whom you choose for your life 
 companion. Is there any valid reason why you should 
 refuse to bring to her the unsullied mind and life which 
 you demand from her ? Marriage is, in its very 
 nature, a mutual thing. 
 
 He who guards the purity of his young manhood is 
 delivered from the fear of much that must haunt the 
 roue or the unhappy victim of secret sin. He can look 
 his pure bride in the face with calm assurance. He has 
 earned the respect of the world at large. ' ' Virtue is 
 bold, and goodness never fearful." 
 
 " He is most powerful who has himself in his 
 power. " 
 
 In the language of holy writ: "He that ruleth his 
 spirit is better than he that taketh a city." 
 
 His children and his children's children shall rise 
 up and call him blessed. 
 
 I am convinced that these reflections furnish a 
 powerful motive of restraint to young men. I beg you 
 will grasp and hold them. 
 
 Then, again, the virtuous man, and he alone, is 
 worthy of the friendship of pure and virtuous women. 
 Young man, the older you grow the more potent will 
 this fact become. Friendship is a master passion in 
 life. Whom do you choose to be the friends, the com- 
 panions of your declining years? Fit yourself for the 
 higher companionship of the purest and best, of whom 
 the world is not worthy. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 The elect of God and man shall walk in white, 
 their countenances reflecting the pure light that shines 
 from above. 
 
 The noble of the earth will recognize in you a 
 kindred spirit, and you will be welcomed to their fellow- 
 ship. We may strive to deceive ourselves and others, 
 but we succeed only in deceiving ourselves. 
 
 Our place in the esteem of those we value most is 
 fixed, not by circumstances, but by ourselves. 
 
 An ancient Latin author has said: 
 
 "His own character shapes the fortunes of every 
 man." 
 /- Again, the practice of virtue is a triumph of the 
 
 j> higher over the lower nature. By it, and this alone, 
 the soul becomes worthy of its origin and destiny. 
 These thoughts, repeated a thousand times, are not 
 mere platitudes. They are profound truths that take 
 hold upon our lives. They involve the very aim of our 
 S existence. "The pure in heart, and only they, shall 
 ^see God." None others can. Impurity, like a hot 
 iron, destroys the very eyes of the soul. I leave it to 
 the theologians to explain all the depths of this pro- 
 found revelation. I am convinced that He who spoke 
 the sermon on the mount was most kind in his warning. 
 
 " What then? What rests? 
 Try what repentance can. What can it not? 
 Yet what can it, when one cannot repent? 
 O wretched state ! O bosom black as death ! 
 O limed soul ! that struggling to be free, 
 Art more engaged.'' 
 
 Suppose we were to wake up in the great hereafter 
 and hear the mighty voice of the great Captain ring out 
 the command: "As you were!" That is the substance 
 of the Revelation : 
 
 " He which is filthy, let him be filthy still, and he 
 that is righteous, let him be righteous still." 
 
 They who have overcometemptatiqnjiere^shallgo 
 onwai^~aTtd-trpward, eveTTiTore growing into the likeness 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 of the Model Man, purity personified. Then shall we 
 be satisfied. 
 
 I should be untrue to Him were I not to recommend 
 Him as a helper to reach this ideal. Mere struggle 
 against vice will not prevail. You need to replace vice 
 with positive virtue. Throttle temptation at the start, 
 but do more than this. Be beforehand with ennobling 
 thoughts and useful occupations. Exercise body and 
 mind. I welcome the modern Young Men's Christian 
 Association, which does not coddle young men but gives 
 them^hat'they need, exercise of every power of body, 
 mind and soul, to drive out all sorts of morbid imagina- 
 tions. 
 
 Young man, brother man, learn to "overcome evil 
 •with good." 
 
 " Be in the end, what you wish to be to-day." 
 
 — Dean Stanley. 
 
 89 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE SOCIAL PURITY ALLIANCE OF GREAT 
 BRITAIN, 
 
 By Miss C. M. Whitehead, London. 
 
 " The experience of the past is the best hope for the 
 future, " and truly we find that it is so when we turn the 
 pages of history, and mark for our consolation and encour- 
 agement the course and development of great moral 
 movements. 
 
 The "Ascent of Man" is not true scientifically only 
 but also spiritually. Step by step the race mounts on- 
 ward and upward ; and we trace with gratitude, which 
 ought to make us calmly expect victory in the future, that 
 catastrophies and shocks in the moral world have con- 
 tributed to that higher progress. 
 
 Each revelation of wickedness has roused man to 
 take a higher step in demanding a remedy, to insist 
 that it shall be found. 
 
 In pessimistic, faithless moments perhaps a dim 
 idea flits across the mind of man that former days were 
 better than these ; but the searchlight of a truer knowl- 
 edge turned upon the pages of the past reveals a con- 
 dition of shameless immorality patiently accepted, and 
 dispels that dim idea. 
 
 At least that one point has been achieved. 
 
 The conscience of mankind has been so awakened 
 that abuses are revealed only to be repudiated, con- 
 tested, and sooner or later removed. Men and women, 
 their moral consciousness kindled to a burning glow of 
 enthusiasm for purity and holiness, have not been want- 
 ing to vow themselves to the cause of rightousness if 
 need be to the death. 
 
 They did not deem it sufficient themselves to wear 
 and cherish "the white flower of a blameless life," but 
 
 90 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MISS C. M. WHITEHEAD. 
 
 91 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 with the cry of the old crusades upon their lips, " It is 
 the will of God," have flung themselves into a new 
 crusade against iniquitous laws which were founded on 
 the principle that vice was a necessity for man. It is 
 not too much to say that the fight against those laws, 
 commonly known as the Contagious Diseases Acts, has 
 brought the nation to a much higher point of purity 
 than was ever known before, shown in an increasing 
 demand for an equal moral standard for man as well as 
 for woman. 
 
 Many have been directly and indirectly the depart- 
 ures into new channels of energy which have dated 
 from that great struggle for the recognition of an equal 
 standard involved in that contest, and the Social Purity 
 Alliance came into existence when the fight was at its 
 height, in 1874, and its objects are well set forth in 
 words quoted from the retrospect of its early history, 
 taken on its attaining its majority this year, 1895: " It 
 was soon felt it would not be enough to repeal these 
 degrading Acts ; they were themselves the outcome of 
 a degraded standard of social purity. It was commonly 
 held that immorality which was shameful in a woman 
 was in man very pardonable if not necessary. This was 
 the root of the evil. The new Society firmly took its 
 stand upon the principle that the law of purity was as 
 strongly binding on every man as upon every woman." 
 More, it felt the spirit of a crusade was needed, and 
 therefore the Alliance was formed "for the recognition 
 of the duty of a combined social protest, the duty of an 
 active instead of a merely passive opposition to the in- 
 roads of vice." 
 
 These twenty-one years have seen, as was natural, 
 many vicissitudes. Other Societies have arisen which 
 have perhaps diverted public attention from the steady 
 work which has gone quietly on in success and failure, 
 mainly educational, seeking in the warning and instruc- 
 tion of young men to lay a deep and solid basis of 
 sound national purity. 
 
 92 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 It has held firmly to its original charter, and there- 
 fore it was fitting that the groundwork of that charter 
 should have been reiterated of late, making a total and 
 declared repudiation on the part of its Committee of 
 any lurking sympathy with the principles of the system 
 known as the State Regulation of Vice a necessary con- 
 dition of holding office. 
 
 The Society in its constitution has held firmly to its 
 declared principles, for, contrary to the rule of so many 
 old foundations, it has from the first associated men and 
 women together, and found in their joint work and con- 
 sultation a source of mutual strength and encourage- 
 ment. 
 
 There have not been wanting those who have said 
 that the need of the Society was over, that other 
 associations were doing its work, but to those who see 
 more deeply its need was never greater that at the 
 present moment. Because this is the hour of all hours 
 when the principle of mutual union of men and women 
 in the cause of purity needs to be insisted on. 
 
 Again and again in England we have the curious 
 anomaly of men, in societies for the rescue of women, 
 legislating, acting on committees, giving women no 
 voice in what surely is beyond all doubt their natural 
 sphere, the helping and succoring their sisters who have 
 been beaten down into shame and despair by men. It 
 is time that an efficient protest was raised against such 
 one-sided and mistaken action, and in the existence of 
 a Society where men and women have from the first 
 been banded together in a righteous cause on equal 
 terms is found the best antidote to the spirit which 
 would have excluded women from touching this matter, 
 or at least from sharing the councils of men even where 
 their own sex is mostly concerned. On three principles 
 preeminently the Social Puriiy Alliance bases its opera- 
 tions, and can be confidently recommended to the 
 cordial support of those who value those principles as 
 the groundwork of all right action Social Purity is 
 
 93 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 not a solitary fragment of life divided off into the strict 
 keeping of the Seventh Commandment, but it is a web 
 of many strands, chief amongst which predominate those 
 eternal principles of justice, truth and courage. 
 
 Was it not because those principles were allowed 
 to slip in the past that the Alliance was needed to pro- 
 claim one moral standard for men as well as for women 
 instead of the unequal j udgment which then prevailed ? 
 
 To unequal judgment even now the failure of 
 much rescue work may be attributed. How can it be 
 otherwise? How can you go forth to raise and rescue 
 the woman if you believe in your secret soul that vice 
 is a necessity for the man, and that the purity you 
 recommend to her is impossible to him ? Your hand 
 outstreched to help your sister to rise falls paralyzed at 
 your side if you believe for one moment that her ruin 
 and that of hundreds more is a necessary if sorrowful 
 condition in the scheme of human economy. 
 
 And yet we find that subtle falsehood poisoning the 
 minds of many to-day ! 
 
 How does it work ? We see many who would 
 shudder at the bare idea of taking a fallen woman into 
 their homes (repentant though she might be) for fear of 
 the contagion of her presence, have no dread of the 
 malarial poison distilled by the low standard of morality 
 held by many men who unblushingly avow one 
 law for themselves and another for the women they 
 degrade. 
 
 It is apparent, when men speak at meetings in the 
 face of physical facts as if women were the sole of- 
 fenders, as if tliey could and did sin alone. It tells 
 again in the excuses offered for a man's nature, as if a 
 woman's brought no fierce temptations to be fought 
 down in hours of weak health, weary duties and dull 
 monotony. 
 
 It only needs to point to our law courts to emphasize 
 this habitual view, and in more ways than we enumera- 
 ted social purity demands justice. 
 
 94 
 
THE NATIONAL' PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 Naturally that principle leads to another, for to 
 judge justly truth must be made clear — truth which is 
 knowledge which must know, and will not decide 
 blindly in the dark. 
 
 Judgment grows wider, more discriminating, more 
 tender as it sees further. 
 
 How hard, for instance, is the judgment of a 
 woman who lives at ease, knowing nothing by ex- 
 perience or imagination of the awful temptations of the 
 work girl who starves on three shillings or half a crown 
 a week. 
 
 Knowledge then is needed to get at truth on this 
 pressing problem, till we learn that somehow, some- 
 where, consciously or unconsciously, we all touch the 
 fringe of this evil, 
 
 " That even the loneliest one must stand 
 Dependent on his brother's hand," 
 
 — and that our economic policy is at the root of the whole 
 matter, and the comfortable woman who buys carelessly 
 and underpays her dependents, has to answer for her 
 share of the social evil just as much as the sweater. 
 
 Also a foolish idea has prevailed that ignorance is 
 innocence, and boys and girls have gone forth in abso- 
 lute blindness as to the great facts of life which it most 
 behooved their salvation to know. 
 
 This point may well be stressed in speaking of 
 our Alliance, for it has made the education of the young 
 — boys going forth to the dangers of school life, work 
 ^irls to the perils of a great city — its special work, 
 striving to give the needful information just when and 
 where it was wanted, simply, frankly and purely. 
 Some of its best publications have been written for 
 parents and guardians of the young, showing them how 
 best to safeguard the young heart against the perils of 
 our day and generation. 
 
 Not less is the work done in warning young men in 
 meetings held specially for them by the secretaries of 
 
 95 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 the Alliance, work carried out with singular tact and 
 enthusiasm, which has been instrumental in bringing- 
 fresh adherents from all parts of England. 
 
 With the knowledge of danger comes also the 
 sense of sympathy, of comradeship, and the realization 
 it is not a lonely struggle against overwhelming odds. 
 In keeping silence as the good have done far too long 
 they seem to have forgotten that evil is not dumb, that 
 the boy in his school, or the young man in his bank, is 
 assailed by plausible and specious arguments in favor of 
 self-indulgence to which a traitor within the citadel — 
 his own surging nature — bids him yield, against which 
 he has not been fortified. How powerful good can be 
 against evil has again and again been proved, in cases 
 known where one word of warning given almost by 
 chance has been a very panoply of protection against 
 the fiercest assaults of evil. The Alliance seeks to give 
 that word of warning which shall prove a support in the 
 hour of need, and nerve the heart with courage — our 
 third great principle — to stand firm in the moment of 
 attack. 
 
 The Alliance calls on its members to nave the 
 courage of their convictions, courage to break through 
 the ' ' conspiracy of silence " by which the good and pure 
 have too often played into the hands of those who wish 
 for evil and try to spread it. 
 
 It bids those who are sorely pressed in the fight take 
 heart since they are not fighting alone, but are comrades 
 in a great company, bent not only on saving their own 
 souls, and keeping their garments white, but in ' ' aiding 
 those who fall, and strengthening those who do 
 stand." 
 
 So in the threefold strength imparted by unfalter- 
 ing allegiance to these three great principles — justice, 
 truth, and courage — the Alliance has concluded the 
 twenty-first year of its existence and looks out hopefully 
 into the future, recognizing that its work of education 
 was never more needed than now, when these principles 
 
 96 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ought to be taught through the length and breadth of 
 our land. 
 
 A subtle danger lies in victory, it is capua which 
 enervates, and many, in the face of the great moral 
 triumphs gained in the Repeal of State Regulation of 
 Vice, and in the passing of the Criminal Law Amend- 
 ment Act, are tempted to forget the lessons of the past, 
 and do not remember that if we are to keep what we 
 have gained, the rising generation must be educated up 
 to a true, moral standard. 
 
 In literature, in drama, we see that the sex ques- 
 tion is stirring society at large. All Europe, as Professor 
 Forsyth truly says, is moving on to a settlement of it, 
 and justice demands, therefore, that the woman, who has 
 such a vital interest in the matter, as she bears her own 
 penalty for any false step, and frequently the man's 
 share as well, should be free to put forward her own 
 claims for consideration and her demand for equal 
 justice. 
 
 The rising generation needs to be taught that her 
 demand is a just one ; that knowledge can be fearless 
 where ignorance would cower in terror, for truth is the 
 foundation of true courage. 
 
 Faith in the justice of the cause of purity, as the 
 "Will of God " for man as for woman, desire to make 
 that truth widely known, courage to act on that faith, 
 these principles inspired by God Himself from a three- 
 fold cord which will not be quickly broken, but bind our 
 Alliance to fresh efforts and fresh victories. 
 
 97 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 HELEN H. GARDENER. 
 
THIRD SESSION. 
 
 HEREDITY AND ETHICS 
 
 By Helen H. Gardener, Boston 
 
 I shall ask this Congress to look at the question with 
 which I shall deal, upon strictly natural and scientific 
 grounds. To eliminate all religious bias and to think 
 of the entire subject in its relation between man and 
 man and not at all as a question between man and a God. 
 When we discuss heredity in any form we rob our work 
 of all scientific value if we proceed upon the basis of 
 thought which assumes that some outside ' ' higher 
 power " regulates or changes or interferes with the fixed 
 order of nature. It is true that we do not know, abso- 
 lutely, what some of the laws of heredity are ; that we 
 do not know exactly how to modify or change a strain 
 which we discover. But there are facts and laws which 
 we do know and if we will but exclude all emotionalism 
 and vagary there is much more that we can learn. That 
 physical characteristics and tendencies are transmitted no 
 ■careful student or observer can doubt. No biologist of 
 standing questions the fact. No stockman doubts it. 
 Every finely bred horse or hunting dog proves it, and, 
 strange as it may seem, we can learn more facts of value 
 in the consideration of these questions as related to the 
 human race, from horse, and dog and cattle raisers than 
 from any other source. Why ? Simply because they 
 have tested and studied the topic without a veil of 
 mystery, mysticism and prudery before their eyes. 
 They know that the colts of a " vicious " or tricky animal 
 
 99 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 are likely to have the same mental or moral traits. Per- 
 haps you are surprised to hear me use the word moral 
 when speaking of a brute animal. But if you will hut 
 stop to think you will know that animals below man 
 vary as surely in their mental and moral life as does man 
 himself. They have a sense of responsibility or a lack 
 of it ; they have loyalty, faithfulness, affection, honesty, 
 or they lack these qualities. Now in their appHcation 
 to a wider range and scope are not these qualities or 
 their absence what we mean by morals or ethics in man? 
 There has been a habit of mind and speech which has 
 led people to assume that what is "instinct " in animals 
 below man is " reason " or "intellect" in the human 
 animal. With this view I think no competent scientific 
 observer can agree. In degree we differ from them but 
 we partake in kind of their physical and their mental 
 characteristics and possessions. Everyone knows, then, 
 that physical characteristics are transmittable and trans- 
 mitted. How often do we hear, ' ' Oh, yes, I should have 
 known he belonged to that family, the likeness is so 
 marked," or some such similar proof that we all recog- 
 nize, the transmission of physical qualities. Now we 
 have but to reflect a bit more deeply to be able to assume, 
 at least, that since our mental (and therefore our moral or 
 ethical) life is but the result of the expression of one side 
 of our physical quality, we have a good working theory. 
 It is beginning to be well understood that degeneracy, 
 whether of mind or body, is upon a physical basis. 
 
 It is not a healthy, normal, pathologically whole 
 brain-mass in the skull of either an idiot or a criminal. 
 Idiocy is a phy sical disord er. So is insanity. So is 
 criminality. Famous criminologists are beginning to 
 give us the "ear marks," so to speak, which they have 
 learned to expect upon certain kinds of offenders against 
 the canons of morality — that is to say, against the 
 natural basis of ethics, which all peoples and all re- 
 ligions recognize and which therefore form a natural 
 basis of morals — the basis which applies between man 
 
 100 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 and man, strictly. All peoples hold that murder, theft, 
 arson, etc. , are wrong. That is because all people ob- 
 ject to being murdered, stolen from or burned out. As 
 we develop in brain capacity these few primary qualities 
 are added to and elaborated until we have a vast code 
 which it is deemed "right" or "wrong" to follow or to 
 avoid. Often one race develops these in one direction ; 
 another in another line ; but ever and always it is the 
 more or less wise effort of those who are struggling to- 
 ward what they believe will secure the highest social 
 harmony. That is to say the most wholesome and 
 endurable relationship between man and man. Of 
 course many blunders are made and have to be unmade, 
 and hence the moral or ethical code is never stationary 
 and is ever shifting, ever reaching out toward what we 
 believe will better the condition of man. This very 
 struggle leaves its physical marks. Witness the facial 
 grimness of the "Pilgrim Fathers" — still visible, but 
 modified — in New England. Witness the debonair counte- 
 nance of the Cavaliers and their descendents of the 
 South. 
 
 It is very generally recognised in these days that 
 crime and criminals are not accidents. They are 
 naturally produced and may be naturally prevented. 
 Reformatories and prisons are mere palliatives. The 
 protection of the nation against an increasing penal popu- 
 lation lies in another direction. But first we must grasp 
 fully the causes and sources of crime. That we have 
 failed to do this accounts in large measure for the fact 
 that we have found no cure. Just so long as we per- 
 mit ourselves to drift vaguely in the matter of cause 
 and effect just so long will cure be impossible and 
 palliatives be necessary evils. We pride ourselves as a 
 cation upon the fact that our prisons, insane institutions 
 and hospitals are many and large and finely equipped ; 
 that our blind and deaf and imbecile asylums grow in 
 numbers and efficiency, and so long as we have a large 
 population of unfortunates it is, of course, our impera- 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 tive duty to see that every possible relief be given tliem ;■ 
 but more imperative still and back of tbis duty to our- 
 selves and to tbe nation is the duty to know why we 
 need all of these institutions and consider if it may not 
 be possible to lock tbe barn door before tbe horse is. 
 stolen. To give health and sanity and a useful life to 
 these cripples of society, to make them self reliant, self 
 supporting and socially and economically useful factors 
 instead of burdens to themselves and on the State, is, 
 far more important than is the most perfect hospital and 
 prison system possible to devise. This needs but to be 
 stated. No one will question its truth but strange to 
 say there are few who have appeared to recognize the 
 fact that it is possible to prevent, in large part, rather 
 than care for or cure such human wreckage. There are 
 two lines of action open to us; the improvement of, 
 first, the heredity and then the environment of the sub- 
 merged classes. But can we improve the heredity until 
 the environment is made better ? Can the birthright of 
 a child be secured if the parents are ill nourished, sur- 
 rounded by filth, crime and disease ? Is it possible for 
 children to be mentally and physically whole and 
 morally and ethically sane, who are bom into unwhole- 
 some surroundings and from parents either or both of 
 whom may be tainted in body or diseased in mind ? We 
 inherit our ethical as well as our physical caliber and 
 quality. There are many persons who are intellectually 
 bright who are bom morally insane — what is called 
 "moral idiots." This lack of ethical or moral grasp. 
 varies from absolute idiocy, as in the case of the Hatha- 
 way woman now in prison in New York for wholesale 
 murder, on and up through the grades of moral tone or the 
 lack of it, which would compare with the infinite grades 
 of intellectual grasp or the lack of it, from the type of 
 an absolute imbecile to the ablest minds of the ages. 
 The grocer who sands his sugar, the farmer who sells 
 light weight, the milkman who waters his milk, the 
 banker who "borrows" trast fvmds, the R. R. presi- 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 dent who works his men to the limit of endurance on 
 starvation wages, the politician who trades on his 
 position, one and all are in varying degrees morally 
 obtuse, ethically near-sighted or blind. Let me illus- 
 trate: In a school or college there are all grades of 
 mental stupidity or alertness. One boy is so dull he is 
 dubbed a dunce; another is a bit brighter, but still he is 
 far below the mental average ; another is just an average 
 boy whose mind labors slowly and more or less ac- 
 curately over not particularly difficult problems or 
 questions; a higher mental type grasps quickly and 
 fully his lesson, while still a higher comprehends not 
 only the lesson as it is, but in its relations to all else that 
 he has learned. The grades and types of moral quality 
 vary quite as widely and are as innate — as much a 
 matter of birth — as is the unequal mentality, yet we 
 rarely take this fact into account. One man is morally, 
 utterly obtuse, idiotic. He may at the same time be 
 mentally unusually bright. Just as the very dull boy 
 mentally may be and often is the soul of honor and 
 honesty. That is, he is morally sound but mentally 
 slow or dumb. Conversely, he may be and not in- 
 frequently is, intellectually above the average or even 
 brilliant and at the same time stone blind in his moral 
 nature — or in parts of it. It is time that we recognize 
 this fact and, at the same time, that we search for its 
 cause and aim at its cure. 
 
 The foundation of all that is diseased in body and 
 mind is laid in the wrongly adjusted family relations. 
 These defects may be, and of course often are, developed 
 afterward by outside means, but the seed is sown and 
 the plant sprouted in the home, and before the child is 
 brought into contact with the outside social environ- 
 ment which develops the final blossom. It is held to 
 be an awful crime to take human life. May it not, 
 under many conditions, be a far greater crime to give 
 human life? Is that not worth thinking of? Is it less 
 than a capital crime to thrust unasked upon a human 
 
 103 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 being a diseased, a polluted or a crime soaked nature? 
 To push out into the world a helpless atom whose 
 future is mortgaged to idiocy, insanity or vice? Do 
 you not know that the living lies men are, in their re- 
 lations with their wives, helps to account for that 
 tendency in children? Do you not know that the pre- 
 tended subserviency but resentful acquiesence of wives 
 helps to account for the mendacity of their offspring? 
 Perhaps it is all this and more that you have in mind to 
 deal with, and if so it will be useless to simply try to 
 rescue those who have already thoroughly developed 
 their inherited trend toward social immorality. It is 
 important first of all to teach men and women that 
 inside the marriage bond, even more than outside, 
 is crime and disease bred. The majority of morally 
 and mentally diseased children are born of those who 
 are married. There is a cause for this which social 
 purity workers cannot afford to ignore if their work is 
 to be more than the merest surface plaster. An 
 ' ' owned " maternity at the mercy of a licensed paternity 
 is a menace to mankind. The command to "increase 
 and multiply " has been read always as a command to 
 bear many children, whether physically, mentally, or 
 morally fit for such a task or not ; but suppose even re 
 ligionists should pause to see if it might not have meant 
 to "increase, multiply and replenish the earth" — that 
 is, to till, fertilize and make fruitful the earth? Why 
 not? If it were the word of a God (assuming that a 
 God is wise and merciful), he surely could not have 
 meant to have the brutal, insane, dull, diseased and 
 criminal fathers and mothers (whether iiiarried or not) 
 curse the helpless unborn by thrusting life upon them. 
 The belief of woman in the necessity to obey that com- 
 mand has filled the world with idiots, criminals, insane 
 and vicious human pawns to whom life is a cruel 
 mockery and because of whom this organization exists 
 in large part. Consider that. And consider what is 
 back of it and how it can be met. 
 
 104 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 REV. MARY T. WHITNEY. 
 
 1°5 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE LAWS OF PARENTAGE AND HEREDITY. 
 
 By Rev. Mary T. Whitney. 
 
 This is a world of cause and effect. 
 
 We come into the world knowing nothing. We 
 either blunder into facts, or are taught them. People 
 have walked the earth for ages, but have only lately 
 learned to travel by electricity. No new forces have come 
 into existence ; it is only that we have newly found them 
 out. We are increasing our knowledge and making 
 valuable discoveries in every other direction, but here is 
 a whole realm about which we know nothing. We study 
 gravitation and other natural laws, but not the laws that 
 govern this vital matter. 
 
 In teaching our children, we leave a blank just here. 
 We teach them arithmetic, all there is of it ; we do not 
 go as far as proportion and then stop. But in physiology, 
 we teach them thoroughly up to a certain point, and 
 then there is a blank. In Sunday School and elsewhere, 
 we teach our children honesty, we teach them all the 
 virtues but one, thoroughly, and then we stop. We 
 teach them any kind of business thoroughly ; but in re- 
 gard to the greatest business of all, marriage and 
 parentage, they have no teaching. 
 
 Then consider life-culture. How carefully flori- 
 culture is studied, and with what wonderful results!. 
 The florist or gardener can make you almost any kind 
 of rose or apple you want. It is the same with stock- 
 raising. The stock-breeder can make you almost any 
 kind of a horse to order, the heavy draught horse or 
 the swift race horse, because he has studied the subject 
 and works according to the law of life. But when we 
 come to the culture of human life, we find a blank. 
 
 io6 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 There is no place where wisdom is so much needed or 
 ignorance so disastrous as just here; yet we do not 
 even think o£ studying it; the whole subject is left in 
 midnight darkness. 
 
 I respect legislative and rescue work ; and I have 
 been thinking how brave Mr. and Mrs. Powell were to 
 begin this work years ago when people did not dare to 
 speak of these things. But the first thing needful now 
 is the careful, thorough, scientific study of this matter. 
 A prominent minister said to me once, "All the 
 knowledge we have about this subject we have blundered 
 into; " and we have not blundered into much. We have 
 got to study the law of the sexes thoroughly and scien- 
 tifically, as we do electricity. 
 
 We shall never get rid of prostitution outside 
 marriage till we have got rid of it inside marriage. We 
 must begin with the inside, not the outside. We shall 
 never get rid of prostitution while the fathers of our 
 children support disreputable houses. The keeper of 
 one of these houses was asked : ' ' Who supports these 
 establishments? Is it the young unmarried men?" 
 "Oh, no," was the answer. "They are supported 
 mainly by well-to-do married men, whose wives move 
 in the best society. " What does this mean? It means 
 that the children of these men will» inherit the same 
 tendencies and weaknesses. We have yet to learn in 
 any broad, general sense, that in heredity, the father is 
 as important a factor as the mother. We shall never 
 have a pure and chaste generation till we have pure and 
 chaste men as the fathers of our children. 
 
 It was inevitable that the Social Purity Movement 
 should begin with rescue work, and I honor the brave 
 men and women who have fought this hardest of all 
 battles ; but we must now change the direction of our 
 thought a little. We must now take this subject from 
 the gutter up to the highest place. The law of sex is 
 not just like the law of gravitation or that of chemical 
 affinity; it is above them: it is the law by which God 
 
 107 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 creates all life. You in this audience are all workers; 
 none of you have come here out of curiosity. I urge 
 you to study the laws of parentage and heredity, and 
 then to go out and teach ; for people are eager to learn. 
 I do not doubt that before many years this subject will 
 be intelligently taught to all young people, and that 
 they will grow up with serious views of marriage, and 
 will enter into it seriously and intelligently, instead of 
 blundering into it. 
 
 io8 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 SAMUEL C. BLACKWELI.. 
 
 109 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE MUNICIPALITY IN ITS RELATION 
 TO VICE. 
 
 By Samuei, C. Blackwell. 
 
 Among the apt and noble words which we inherit 
 from our forefathers is this great word, the ' ' Common- 
 wealth.'' It expresses the object of free government, 
 the government of the people, by the people, for the 
 people. This is the pole star of the American citizen, 
 never to be lost sight of amid all paltry politics, falsely 
 so called, meaning the strife of parties for the salary and 
 perquisites of office. The American who loves his coun- 
 try will never forget that office, rightly understood, 
 means service, ihe loyal discharge of a trust whose one 
 great end is the public good, and its substantial and en- 
 during reward the gratitude and honor of his fellow 
 citizens. 
 
 The municipality, that is, the local self government 
 of the American citizen, is especially charged with the 
 promotion of the welfare of its own constituency, by the 
 maintainance intact of those institutions upon which the 
 good of every individual citizen depends, in the sup- 
 pression, by its collective power, of those overhanging 
 or undermining evils which attack the welfare, the free- 
 dom and the happiness of every citizen, evils with which 
 the citizen, alone and unaided, cannot cope. 
 
 For the discharge of this duty the municipality is 
 equipped, by its local statutory board of aldermen or 
 commissioners, its executive, mayor or chairman, its 
 judiciary of local judges or justices of the peace, and its 
 local constabulary or police. 
 
 No one of us dare overlook his own responsibility, 
 for nothing good will come out of our civil and town 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 governments that we do not first put into them. The 
 tide will not rise higher than it is lifted by the ocean. 
 
 We laugh at the vanity of the French king who ex- 
 claimed, "L'Etat, C'estmoi"!— the State, I am the State ! 
 There is no occasion for laughter but there is immense 
 significance in the fact that the American citizen may 
 say, must say, my local government is what you, I and 
 our fellow townsmen make it. 
 
 What now is the relation of the municipality to great 
 public evils? 
 
 First of all, the municipality owes it to its constitu- 
 ents to take and to hold the attitude of defence of all that 
 works for the public good, and of resistance, constant 
 and consistent, towards all that work against it. 
 
 We know the worth of a high example. How a 
 great school of young men and women are guided and 
 strengthened by the character, kind and firm, of a teacher 
 who commands their respect and trust. How mere pub- 
 lic whim, expressed in fashion, can change the very cut 
 of the garments of a whole community with the passing 
 ■season. 
 
 Much more the public sentiment expressed in com- 
 mon usage shapes the conduct of high and low. Still 
 more potent is this object lesson, seen by all, the attitude 
 of the local government. If it be indifferent to public 
 virtue its constituents tend to indifference. If the local 
 home government is vascillating, weak and compromis- 
 ing in its policy, demoralized by bidding for base votes, 
 as a means to clutch party spoils, this cannot fail to 
 quicken all the seeds of vice. 
 
 But if its policy reflect the uprightness of its manli- 
 est citizens, the better sentiment of the community will 
 respond like vegetation to the sunbeam. The vigilance 
 of the municipality will command the hearty co-opera- 
 tion of all men and women of good will, in its thought 
 and action for the common weal. 
 
 So much for the normal attitude of the municipality 
 towards every prevalent vice, but, considering its duty 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 and its opportunity in dealing witli the terrible evil 
 which confronts us on this occasion, every suggestion 
 applies with added force. 
 
 For this is a vice that not merely tends to evil, but 
 consummates it. It differs from intoxication, which 
 tends to evil ; it is in itself a suicide, both physical and 
 moral; it differs from anger, which impels to violence; 
 it is in itself murder, both of the outward and of the 
 inward life of man and woman. It is vice that has 
 become crime. 
 
 It is a vice that tends to undermine marriage, the 
 basis of enduring nationality and the guaranty of pro- 
 gressive civilization, as well as the central etliic of 
 Christianity. Marriage is the one relation that may 
 identify the affection, the interests and the hopes of man 
 and woman for life. It is fitted to survive the parting 
 of all other ties and to endure when youth itself has 
 fled. i 
 
 This vice delays ot utterly defeats the normal ten- 
 dency of youth to marriage. It unmans the boy and 
 cheats him of his Creator^s kindest gift, the identification 
 of two unsullied lives, and this unspeakable impoverish- 
 ment, for a wretched counterfeit, which surrenders his 
 human birthright to his lowest animal instinct, a mere 
 instinct that requires no soul. 
 
 Upon marriage depends the Family, that brother- 
 hood derived from a common parentage beginning in 
 infancy, strengthening throughout youth, maturing in 
 manhood, and normally lasting to the end of life. From 
 such brotherhoods associated have grown the Clan, the 
 Town, the State, the Nation, and, in such associated 
 > brotherhoods, following our Creator's method of. devel- 
 \ ment, lies the promise of international fraternity, the 
 Vjsrotherhood of mankind. 
 -C^ Has not the municipal government a duty, to arrest 
 
 -, the growth of a vice which tends to subvert Marriage 
 \ and the Family, those foundations of the welfare of its 
 i. people? The slaves of this vice know not what they do. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 Its indulgence is suicide for the perpetrator and murder 
 for the victim. 
 
 This is no phantom. We are not beating the air. 
 This vice has indeed become crime. The Honorable 
 Elbridge T. Gerry and Police Superintendent Burns, in 
 1893, estimated that there were then, in New York alone, 
 not less than 40,000 abandoned women. We speak of 
 these crushed and trampled beings as a class ; but think 
 ■of them rather as 40,000 women, once possible wives, 
 who might have represented 40,000 homes, now rendered 
 impossible forever. This in one city. Every other city 
 contains a similar pitiable class, in proportion to its pop- 
 ulation. Ruined and helpless prisoners, confined by 
 despair and alcohol within a deadline patrolled by famine. 
 
 There are those who say, ' ' These women are already 
 lost, these at least are fair prey." Where is our man- 
 hood gone? Is this the type of real manhood, the 
 manhood that will not break the bruised reed? 
 
 But this large class of women, themselves made 
 hopless outcasts, deprived of self respect and sympathy, 
 and of all opportunity for honest self support, driven by 
 destitution, once tempted by men have now become in 
 turn the tempters of men. 
 
 And now, reflect that a much larger class of men, 
 averaging four or five times the number of their victims, 
 •are lured to degraded lives of secret sensuality by the 
 practice of this vice. More than 160,000 men in one 
 single large city, drawn aside from upright private life to a 
 private life of deceit and untruthfulness. Instead of 
 being helpful to others, become dangerous destroyers of 
 the helpless. 
 
 Can this sad fact exist and continue without the 
 most disastrous effect upon the welfare of the commu- 
 nity? Does not it challenge the most serious thougfht 
 and efficient action of the municipality? 
 
 I do not for a moment think or say that we must 
 rely chiefly upon law and police for the cure of this evil. 
 -Municipal responsibility cannot lessen individual and 
 
 113 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 professional duty. Parents must sedulously elevate the- 
 moral character and strengthen the self control of their 
 children; and, beyond all other ennobling influences, 
 they should make their own lives attractive object lessons 
 of domestic joy. 
 
 Every minister must think on the temptations which 
 surround the unwary, and must protect them by up- 
 lifting the human standard of ennobling domestic life 
 in order to shame and silence the demon whisper of mere 
 animal instinct. 
 
 Every physician must remember that his patient 
 has a mind as well as a body, a mind fitted to guide the 
 body, and that normal human nature must crown the 
 mind as king, or body and mind both will fail of their 
 real welfare. 
 
 Every man of good will, young or old, must treat 
 all women with respect: not with mere lift the hat dis- 
 play, but with sincere, considerate courtesy, for the sake 
 of their womanhood. By such an example each man can 
 best teach every other man this first characteristic of true 
 manhood. 
 
 Every woman must estimate character above fortune 
 in her choice of friends. And the basis of character is 
 truthfulness. 
 
 And all men and all women who forgive and honor 
 the returning prodigal son, should do no less by the 
 returning prodigal daughter. 
 
 So much for individual effort, which must continue 
 while the world lasts, and so long as successive genera- 
 tions come upon the stage, all inexperienced, with the- 
 angel and the demon on each hand. 
 
 In dealing with an evil, prevention is better than 
 cure, and in prevention lies the special power of the 
 municipality. 
 
 What can the municipality do? 
 
 I would urge, first and foremost, one leading fact, 
 which must be always borne in mind in the application 
 of preventive methods. This enormous evil originates 
 
 114 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 in an enormous wrong. As a rule, each one of these 
 40,000 outcasts was misled before she fell; cunning, 
 flattery, money, deceit, falsehood, possibly force, led her 
 to a fate which she did not choose. 
 
 This is a vice in which two participate, and the 
 originator andjnaintainer of its fearful work is the man 
 rather than thewoman. ^ 
 
 It seems to me that the inefficiency of every muni- 
 cipal effort to district, or to regulate in any way this 
 vice and crime, has lain in the fact that it has contem- 
 plated only one-half the evil and ignored the other. 
 Can the farmer succeed in protecting his sheep by 
 merely fencing them in? Is it not still more necessary 
 that he chain the dog? 
 
 The duty of the municipality is not amelioration 
 but repression. This vice will grow rather than starve, 
 by efforts of amelioration. We cannot ameliorate theft 
 or murder, we must repress it. 
 
 Every effort to confine this evil, by districting it, 
 has failed by ignoring the iniquity of the vice. The 
 municipality has permitted and condoned in one street 
 what it pretended to condemn and punish in another. 
 It has lent its sanction to the originating wrong, and 
 this has tended rather to encourage than to repress it, 
 and consequently to increase the resulting evil. Every 
 effort to ameliorate this evil by attempting to regulate 
 it, has rather stimulated the vice instead of repressing 
 it, because it has permitted it, and has held out an 
 illusory idea of greater safety in its practice. 
 
 The effort of the Catholic Church to district the 
 vice in Rome was tried, and abandoned as impracticable. 
 The "Contagious Diseases Acts" of Parliament, pro- 
 posing to regulate this evil in England, after sixteen 
 years of vain experiment, were repealed by Parliament 
 in 1886. The statute to regulate the evil in Missouri, 
 passed by the Legislature of 1870, was repealed by the 
 Legislature of 1873. 
 
 IIS 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 The preventive power of the municipality may be 
 secured through its several departments by suitable 
 selection of its common council and judges, its mayor 
 and its chief of police and by careful instruction of the 
 rank and file of the police as to their faithful perform- 
 ance of duty, to be rewarded by promotion and their 
 inefficiency to be followed by dismissal. 
 
 A primary duty of the municipality is to extinguish 
 the trade which this vice engenders, for avarice~seeks 
 money profit in furnishing facilities for its practice. All 
 schemes for pecuniary profit to be derived from pander- 
 ing to its demands and all efforts to obtain fresh victims 
 from the innocent of either sex, should be punished as 
 among the gravest of crimes. Neither tenant nor land?-~--_ 
 lord should be spared in the impartial vigilance of the 
 police, and all condonement or blackmail should lead to 
 immediate dismissal. 
 
 Public solicitation to vice should subject the offender 
 of either sex, alike, to arrest and to equal punishment; 
 and punishment, as a rule, should be by imprisonment 
 rather than by fine. 
 
 The sanitary duty of the municipality demands the 
 utmost vigilance. The approach of cholera or smallpox, 
 from abroad, is recognized and averted with the utmost 
 care, but cholera and smallpox desolate for a time and 
 pass by. Malarial and typhoid fevers, originating in 
 our midst, require and receive constant sanitary ex- 
 amination for their extermination. No less must the 
 utmost sanitary vigilance and the most decisive sanitary 
 measures be employed in this case, to stamp out by re- 
 pression the hideous plague, loathsome as the leprosy, 
 by which the human constitution protests against 
 promiscuous sensuality. For this becomes hereditary, 
 and among the 160,000 fallen men of New York, how 
 many, faithless to their marriage vows, may transmit 
 the dread contagion to innocent wives and to the help- 
 less children of another generation. 
 
 ii6 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Medical examination and sequestration for liospital 
 cure, when found necessary to prevent tlie spread of 
 disease, should be applied equally to both sexes with 
 strict impartiality. Sufferers among- tb^ poor should be 
 subjected to compulsory hospital treatment and private 
 practitioners should perhaps be required to report all 
 cases under their charge until cured, as they do cholera 
 and smdllpox, in order that they may meanwhile be sub- 
 jects of surveillance by the sanitary authorities. 
 
 The charge of women, arrested for whatever cause, 
 should be entrusted to suitable matrons and to physi- 
 cians of their own sex, whether in police stations, prison 
 or hospital. The municipality, in all its departments, 
 should seek to preserve and to promote the decent self- 
 respect of all women under their cootrol. 
 
 Buildings and flats should be periodically examined 
 and when manifestly unfit for lodgement with decent 
 privacy and cleanliness they should be vacated and con- 
 demned. 
 
 The distribution of books and advertisements and 
 the display of placards plainly designed to make money 
 by demoralization should be recognized as a crime, and 
 should be checked by a prompt notice for their suppres- 
 sion or punished by severe penalties. 
 
 Of course this line of municipal policy must be pur- 
 sued with good sense, so as to deserve and command 
 public approval, yet it must be constantly, consistently 
 and impartially maintained, if we would have the muni- 
 cipality exert its power to lead public sentiment and to 
 fulfill the object of the American Commonwealth. 
 
 Nelson at Trafalgar signalled his fleet, " England 
 expects that every man this day will do his duty." 
 Peace also hath her victories and her preceding conflicts. 
 Standing on a wider battle field, confronted by a more 
 insidious foe, America expects of her municipalities, her 
 home guards, that each one will do its duty. 
 
 117 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ORGANIZED PROSTITUTION— HOW TO DEAL 
 WITH IT. 
 
 By Mrs. Dora Webb. 
 
 The immensity of this subject cannot be con- 
 jectured, even by those who have had experience in 
 dealing with it. 
 
 The length, breadth, height and depth of this in- 
 iquitous business has never been uncovered by any in- 
 dividual in the work. I doubt if hell itself measures 
 more that is devilish than do houses of ill fame. 
 
 Every house of ill fame is organized prostitution. 
 Bad men and bad women combine to run them for 
 money. They systematically plan for the ruin of young 
 girls, that they may get control over them and make 
 merchandise of them. 
 
 Their methods to obtain victims are as varied as 
 they are devilish, 
 
 They especially take note of unprotected working 
 girls and set traps for their unwary feet. One of their 
 successful methods is to send out circular letters to 
 working girls, offering large wages for light work. 
 Thousands leave honest work to accept this offer and 
 find themselves in the hands of villains. 
 
 These places combine with assignation houses, 
 where only rooms are let for base purposes. These 
 assignation houses, many of them, are luxurious in 
 their belongings. Music and gaiety which is bewilder- 
 ing to the tempted girl, who is ignorant of the character 
 of the place to which she has been invited, together 
 with the serving of the finest confectionary and soft 
 DRINKS, soon cause her to yield to the seductive in- 
 fluences and thus, step by step, the way is paved for 
 her to become an inmate of the brothel. 
 
 ii8 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MRS. DORA WEBB. 
 
 119 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 These places combine together for the purpose of 
 protecting and extending their business. The mayor of 
 one city said he always had to plan to raid a number of 
 houses at the same time or he would fail to succeed 
 with more than one, as warning would quickly reach 
 the others. 
 
 They form syndicates for the purpose of supplying 
 fresh victims. A few years ago it was stated to the House 
 Committee, which was investigating the immigrant 
 question in New York, by the President of the Woman's 
 National Industrial League, that "syndicates exist in 
 New York and Boston for the purpose of supplying 
 fresh young girls from immigrants arriving in this 
 country, for houses of ill fame ; agents of the syndicate 
 go abroad and assist in this nefarious business. Im- 
 migrants arriving in New York City furnish 30,000' 
 victims annually." 
 
 I am informed by good authority that within a few 
 years there existed in Chicago a syndicate which con- 
 federated with a fortune teller in Montreal, Canada, to 
 furnish girls for the business. 
 
 These places are a community by themselves, and 
 when a girl once gets into their toils it is almost im- 
 possible for her to extricate herself or for her friends to 
 find her. Indeed, she is about as lost to the world as 
 if the earth had opened up and swallowed her. There 
 is a constant exchange of girls carried on by these 
 places in order that the basest desires of their patrons 
 may be gratified. In one of our cities, at a broker's 
 office, there came a message for a supply of tickets. 
 Said the broker: "That means that a fresh lot of girls 
 are being sent to the houses of ill fame." 
 
 Young girls are kidnapped, entrapped by decep- 
 tions; young girls are bought and sold, for cash, like 
 slaves for this "market of lust." Is it any wonder 
 there are so many fallen women? 
 
 These places plan to ruin our boys. Not satisfied 
 with the open door and the regulation — for every one 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. , 
 
 \ 
 of these places carries out a system of inspection 'j 
 
 which says to the young man you may sin with im- ! 
 
 pimity. They send out agents whose sole business is 
 
 to solicit patronage. Our boys are solicited at every 
 
 turn to enter these doors of hell; even our college boys I 
 
 are not exempt. At one of our colleges in Ohio, anj 
 
 agent from one of these houses in a neighboring city- 
 
 came to young boys under eighteen with offers and | 
 
 promises that would make their fathers and mothers i 
 
 tremble with indignation and fear did they know of it. 
 
 Messenger boys, errand boys, boys who deliver dry 
 
 goods and groceries, all must come in contact with these 
 
 places. 
 
 One young man who was serving as collector for a 
 large business firm, resigned his position rather than 
 suflEer the insults which were unavoidable by reason of 
 his being obliged to collect from these dens of vice. 
 
 Last year, in the city of Cleveland, it was found 
 that some boys were frequently absenting themselves 
 from school. Upon investigation it was learned that 
 they were carrying flowers to houses of ill fame, to sell 
 to visitors. And our boys are falling by the 
 
 THOUSANDS. 
 
 An eminent lawyer said to me, " It is my deliberate 
 conviction, based upon facts coming to my knowledge 
 in the course of twenty years' practice, that more boys 
 are converted to drinking habits in houses of ill fame 
 than in the saloons." 
 
 Hundreds of these leprous places are allowed to ex- 
 ist and ply their business in every city. And just so 
 long as these places are tolerated, just so long will there 
 be an effort to license and regulate them. 
 
 How SHALL WE DEAL WITH THEM ? 
 
 As they now stand, the laws on our statute books 
 recognize the running of a house of ill fame, or the 
 renting of property to be used as such, as only mis- 
 demeanors and placed alongside of minor offenses to be 
 tried in the police courts and, with but few exceptions, 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 the police courts draw the line against diseased women 
 only. As a rule, city and police officials prefer the ex- 
 istence of houses of ill fame for the revenue and 
 political influence they may gain therefrom. I believe 
 I am telling the truth when I say our greatest hind- 
 rances to the enforcement of law against these places are 
 the officials themselves. 
 
 We need to get laws on our statute books that will 
 make the running of a house of ill fame and assignation 
 houses a. felony, to be punished by imprisonment in the 
 penitentiary. Why not? 
 
 The individual who runs a house of ill fame is an 
 abettor to every crime known in the " Catalogue of 
 Sin." Murder, drunkard making, lying, stealing, 
 gambling, buying and selling human beings, obtaining 
 property under false pretenses, adultery, rape, and 
 crimes against the body too shameful to mention, are 
 included in the business. I could give facts to sub- 
 stantiate every charge had I the time. The proprietor 
 of a house of ill fame is a criminal in its largest sense 
 and should be punished by imprisonment in the peni- 
 tentiary, and the mayor or official who regulates this 
 unholy business is accessory, and we should have a law 
 by which they could be punished by imprisonment also. 
 
 I don't believe this to be impracticable. Give 
 women the right of suffrage and we would help very 
 soon to solve this vexed problem of ' ' municipal 
 misrule." 
 
 In every city and town there should be an auxiliary 
 to the American Purity Alliance, whose business it is to 
 bring about agitation, education and legislation against 
 the existence of houses of ill fame. Literature should 
 be freely circulated. Public meetings and mass meet- 
 ings should be held where information upon this sub- 
 ject can be given. 
 
 People are so ignorant concerning these and in- 
 different because ignorant. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Inform the people of the traffic in girls caused by 
 these places. Inform them of the traps set for the feet 
 of their own loved ones. 
 
 Agitate, agitate; educate, educate; then we can 
 legislate and enforce legislation. 
 
 Society is saturated and honeycombed with the idea 
 that nothing can be done to eradicate this evil. 
 
 If Christian people would but awake, and put on 
 the " Whole Armor," given in 6th chapter Ephesians, 
 they would go forth to conquer this enemy. 
 
 This octopus, whose lecherous grip has well nigh 
 strangled justice, which has bought and sold virtue, 
 which has robbed manhood and womanhood of all that 
 is sacred in life, which has ruined more homes than has 
 the liquor traffic lo these many years, can be wiped out 
 of existence. 
 
 Will we do it? 
 
 If God be for us who can be against us, 
 
 123 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ADDRESS BY FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 Frances E. Willard, President of the World's and 
 National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, who 
 had recently arrived from England, visited the Congress, 
 was warmly welcomed, and, in an impromptu address, 
 spoke substantially as follows: 
 
 "These are good days. I am surprised to see that 
 you could muster such a Congress to talk upon such a 
 theme. It shows a bright outlook for humanity. There 
 is nothing new in the topic. Ten years ago we dared 
 not talk about it nor even tell each other what we thought. 
 Our great hope is that we shall dare in the future to tell ■ 
 each other that we do think about the sacred problem of 
 the relations of the sexes. We shall have then a basis 
 of principles and argument, of science and common 
 sense that will build up a stalwart cause for purjty, for 
 the equal chastity of man and woman, for the protection 
 of home and for the training of the little child that 
 toddles at our feet. 
 
 "Ten years ago, I say, we women did not dare 
 speak of social purity. We hinted at it mildly and 
 gently between the lines. And it was one man's splen- 
 did chivalry that unloosed our tongues and gave us 
 courage to speak out the thoughts of our hearts. 
 
 "Whatever blame may be laid at the door of 
 William T. Stead for his methods, he certainly did a 
 great work for purity when he published his exposures 
 of London immorality. It was that cyclone of moral 
 power started by him which, crossing the seas, gave cour- 
 age to us white-ribboned women so that when in session 
 at Philadelphia, we organized our purity department. 
 
 "The bill for the protection of women was becalm- 
 ed in the British Parliament but Mr. Stead's work caused 
 the passage of this bill and made every little girl in Great 
 Britain more safe from brutal men. 
 
 124 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 125 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 " In this country we have carried on a similar fight. 
 This is the age of petitions, rather than votes, for 
 women, and we spent several years in getting up petitions 
 to the various legislative bodies in which we asked for 
 adequate protection to women and children from the 
 assaults and designs of wicked men. The National 
 Congress, at our instance, placed a law upon the statute 
 books making the age of consent sixteen years, and 
 many other states have raised the figures as you know. 
 
 "Thus the movement has gone forward in its multi- 
 form powers and rising strength. We are only in its 
 dawn, and there may be some of us who will live to see 
 the glorious daylight. We want the wider companion- 
 ship of men and women ; we want the world tO' enjoy 
 the "meeting of two in a thought," as Emerson says. 
 And the prospects are bright for this. In 471 colleges 
 in this country there are but 41 now which exclude 
 women from their classes. And in the schools for 
 women there are 30,000 girls who are becoming the 
 intellectual equals of the best educated men. 
 
 ' ' This is all a much brighter state of affairs than in 
 the Old World, where men still go to school by them- 
 selves. In the famous public schools of England, where 
 young men are isolated, I have been told that the 
 tragedies of vice are too terrible to be even named. 
 Look at Germany, with its sabre-cut, beer-drinking 
 students. Has America anything like that? And yet 
 even Germany, with all its opposition to woman's ad- 
 vancement, is coming slowly to its sober senses. Last 
 week at its socialistic congress a woman was one of the 
 chief speakers and on educational and progressional lines 
 some progress can be seen. 
 
 "In joint athletic sports I am sorry to say that 
 England is ahead of us. In almost every game, sport 
 and play, youths and maidens are side by side in health- 
 ful out-door enjoyment in that country. 
 
 "The girls are growing taller as a result of it. 
 They are on an average three inches taller than the 
 
 126 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 generation which preceded my own. And the boys, I 
 am sorry to say, are stunting their growth by the use of 
 tobacco. The best medical testimony says that. It is a 
 cause of grave alarm among the the military people be- 
 cause they will not have such well-formed soldiers. 
 
 " The bicycle — well, I think that is one of the great- 
 est allies of purity and temperance the world has ever 
 seen! In England this summer I often saw the sign, 
 ' Milk for Bicyclers,' and when you can get men to drink 
 milk it means well for temperance, for the home, for 
 purity. In Chicago, the city from which I come, and a 
 city of which I am very proud, my friends write to me 
 that people who keep saloons, tobacco stores or Sunday 
 theatres, are loud in bewailing the losses which the 
 bicycle has brought upon them. I would not ride my 
 own wheel on Sunday in any public place, but I am 
 glad to see a man do so if it will keep him away from 
 the theatre or the saloon." 
 
 127 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 LETTER FROM MRS. JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER. 
 
 Mrs. Anna Rice Powell, Corresponding Secre- 
 tary, read to the Congress the following letter from Mrs. 
 Butler: 
 
 1 King Street, Westminster, 
 London, Oct. 3, 1895. 
 My Dear Mrs. Powell: 
 
 I fear my letter will be too late for you to bring a 
 message from us to your Congress. I was much 
 fatigued for some days after the Colmar Conference and 
 was some days later recalled to England by the news of 
 the death of a dear sister, which event has engrossed 
 and distressed me much. 
 
 We had a most useful and successful Conference, i 
 personally felt the absence of Mr. Powell as a great 
 loss. America was represented, however, by your brave 
 and able compatriots, Dr. Kate Bushnell, and Mrs. An- 
 drew, whose addresses made a deep impression. 
 
 We had had some fears of disunion, owing to the 
 facts of this being our first International Conference 
 held in Germany, and that German opinion in general is 
 more in favor of severely repressive measures than we 
 think to be right or safe, measures which have the 
 inevitable tendency to be carried out against women 
 alone, without regard to their male companions in 
 wrong doing. 
 
 We were, however, rejoiced to find how much less 
 these opinions prevailed (at least in Alsatia) than we had 
 expected. There was just sufficient divergence of 
 view on the subject of proposed future legislation to 
 give a vivid interest to the discussions, while perfect 
 harmony and brotherhood prevailed, and the standard of 
 principle of the Federation was held up firmly and clearly 
 and was heartily accepted by all. You will receive full 
 
 128 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 reports shiortly of most of the addresses, and later I 
 hope to send you in pamphlet form the most able and 
 interesting discourses of M. Felix Bovet and Professor 
 Louis Bridel, jurists. These defined the limits of state 
 action in dealing with sexual vice and marked sternly 
 and clearly the lines beyond which the State and the 
 Law cannot usefully go. When the law in this matter 
 ceases to be useful, it tends to become positively mis- 
 chievous. Other forces must be brought into operation, 
 notably the force of a changed and purified public opinion, 
 which can accomplish what no laws or police measures 
 can ever accomplish. 
 
 From the Colmar Conference our sympathies went 
 forth to you, our fellow workers in the States, and to 
 our fellow workers in all lands. Personally, I can only 
 once more beseech our friends who have accepted the 
 principles of the Federation to be firm, very firm, 
 against every form of compromise. Many of the offered 
 compromises are fair and harmless in appearence ; but 
 if carefully studied they reveal the subtle intention and 
 the half concealed machinery to carry out the intention 
 of bringing certain women under the control of men for 
 the most selfish and degrading ends. 
 
 Believe me ever most warmly yours in this noly 
 cause, 
 
 Josephine E. Butler. 
 
 129 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE AMERICAN PURITY ALLIANCE AND 
 ITS WORK. 
 
 By Mrs. Anna Rice Powell, Corresponding Secretary. 
 
 The nucleus of the American Purity Alliance was 
 formed in the summer of 1876 and was then called the 
 New York Committee for the Prevention of State 
 Regulation of Vice. The revered Abby Hopper 
 Gibbons, a daughter of Isaac T. Hopper, was its presi- 
 dent. It was organized in response to an appeal that 
 came to us from the International Federation for the 
 Abolition of State Regulation of Vice, of which a 
 venerable and influential English physician, Dr. J. 
 Birkbeck Nevins, of Liverpool, is President, Pro- 
 fessor James Stuart, M. P., of London, is Honorary 
 Secretary, and the honored and beloved Josephine E. 
 Butler of England was and is the inspired and 
 inspiring leader. The delegates sent over by the 
 Federation were the Rev. J. P. Gledstone, of London, 
 and Henry J. Wilson, M. P., of Sheffield. The winter 
 previous to their arrival, some of us in New York 
 had been active in protesting against an attempt, 
 in our Legislature, to introduce the immoral 
 system of legalized vice.. We were therefore better 
 prepared to welcome the message of warning which 
 they brought, and which it was their great concern to 
 have widely extended in our country. They had good 
 evidence that it was the purpose of the Regulationists 
 abroad to extend the system internationally, and the 
 issues involved were then little understood here in 
 America. 
 
 They left some of their literature for us to circu- 
 late, which we did to the best of our ability. But we 
 
 130 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MRS. ANNA RtCE POWELL. 
 
 131 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 soon found that we needed to publish for ourselves 
 what was specially suitable for local needs, as it 
 required constant watchfulness to thwart the schemes of 
 those who were persistently plotting to obtain the 
 obnoxious legislation. 
 
 We gave no strength to organization; we simply 
 worked on from year to year, doing what we could, not 
 anticipating so long a service. But the work grew and 
 enlarged upon our hands. Through our publications, 
 our constituency, not large in numbers, but choice in 
 moral quality, extended in most of the States of the 
 Union. Still we were not in a concentrated form to 
 gain the strength we needed from them, and a year ago 
 we broadened our basis and took the name of The 
 American Purity Alliance, hoping thereby to do more 
 and better work, and to come in closer touch with our 
 allies and supporters. 
 
 While our first active efforts were directed against 
 the attempted legalization of vice, it soon became 
 apparent that this was but a symptom of a deep seated 
 disease in the body politic, which could not be cured 
 without constitutional treatment; and that the people 
 must be made to understand the need of it. 
 
 We have had our rescue homes, and alas! there are 
 never enough of them, but there has been too little 
 rescue work done for fallen men. We must plead for 
 justice as well as mercy, and bear a united protest 
 against the double standard of morality — one for 
 women, quite another for men. 
 
 Let us, by all means, multiply our rescue homes, 
 opening doors of hope for the sinning woman bearing 
 for her the message : 
 
 " O, wronged and scarred and stained with ill, 
 Behold thou art a woman still ! " 
 
 But let us not forget that the appeal we make to 
 her womanhood needs also to be made to the fallen man, 
 in pity as well as condemnation, for the honor of his 
 manhood. 
 
 13^ 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 HENRY J. WILSON, M. P. 
 
 '31 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 It is the purpose of the American Purity Alliance 
 to impress the thought upon society that it is a grave 
 injustice to boys to allow them to be weighted with the 
 belief, in their struggles with temptation, that they can- 
 not live as pure a life as their sisters. When they are 
 taught to resent such a view as an insult to true man- 
 hood, temptations to impurity will lose much of their 
 power. We live according to our ideals and wrong 
 thinking results in wrong action. 
 
 Many a man mourns in secret to-day over blemishes 
 of impurity left on his soul in boyhood, because he was 
 not helped to believe in his higher and nobler self. The 
 best atonement for such regrets may be found in service 
 to save others from like transgressions. 
 
 While, therefore, it is the mission of the American 
 Purity Alliance to help to redeem fallen womanhood, it 
 has a special concern, as the best safeguard for girlhood, 
 to save boyhood and manhood from the false and God- 
 less doctrines which tempt to the sacrifice of purity and 
 make a victim class of women enslaved to vice, 
 possible. 
 
 We charge upon this dual standard of morals the 
 need -we see for legislative reform, especially for the 
 protection of the young of both sexes. Only a few, 
 comparatively, realize the nature of the "age of con- 
 sent " laws, so called in legal phrase, by which the plea 
 of the consent of a mere child of ten years to her own 
 ruin, may shield her betrayer from punishment. Much 
 ready sympathy is expressed by those who can be 
 reached when this is explained, but it does not prove an 
 easy task to move legislative bodies to change the legal 
 code ; or to secure convictions when it is changed. It 
 will take time and persistent effort ; and it needs the 
 concentrated power of organization. 
 
 Many are the individual expressions of interest that 
 come to us from all parts of the country when the 
 injustice of the double standard of morality is pro- 
 claimed, showing how hearts are burdened and 
 
 134 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 REV. J. p. GLEDSTONE. 
 
 '35 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 oppressed by it and hOw much the promulgation of a, 
 better gospel is desired. Individual testimony is valu- 
 able, but a united protest will reach farther, and the 
 propagandists of evil v/ill feel in it a power that can 
 resist their stratagems, and hear in it a voice that speaks 
 for the voiceless, and for those who are made an easy 
 prey because of their dependence. 
 
 Any person who approves these principles may 
 become a member of the Alliance by the payment of 
 $1.00 a year; be entitled to vote at its meetings, and to 
 receive its annual report. We invite memberships 
 from all parts of the country of those interested in the 
 promotion of its work. 
 
 We have relied largely on the types for the dis- 
 semination of our principles. The Alliance publishes 
 The Philanthropist, a monthly periodical devoted to 
 the promotion of purity, the better protection of the 
 young, the repression of vice and the prevention of its 
 regulation by the state. Its price is $1.00 per year. 
 Our leaflet literature covers the various phases of this- 
 painful social problem. It is designed to reach and 
 elevate public sentiment ; to gain a regeneration of 
 thought on these matters, and to inspire an affirmative 
 faith in the possibilities of chastity as a basis for the 
 reform needed in all ranks of life. 
 
 While the police and citizens alike choose to assume 
 ignorance of the existence of the up-town house of sin 
 and its patronage from fashionable circles, little can be 
 gained, in the advancement of good morals, by raiding 
 the low dens of debauchery in the slums. Therefore, 
 while we aim to do all we can to secure repressive 
 measures, we realize that our movement must be educa- 
 tional and preventive in a specific, radical sense to be 
 permanently effective. 
 
 We need jurors who have been trained in White 
 Cross Societies, and we expect, in time, to have them. • 
 Our faith is primarily in the higher law engraven on the 
 hearts of men and women alike. 
 
 136 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 This may seem to some Eutopian, but look- 
 ing back only a few years, we see marked evidences of 
 progress, and great cause for encouragement to hold up 
 these principles. 
 
 No thoughtful student of this movement can fail to 
 see how it is forcing itself upon the consideration of 
 those who have heretofore ignored it altogether. The 
 silence of centuries is being broken. Women with men 
 are watching legislation to secure moral safeguards 
 never understood in times past. All this represents 
 that agitation of thought which must precede any 
 great reformation. 
 
 We can each bear some part in the important work 
 to be done. 
 
 137 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE DESERTED CITY— LEGALIZED VICE. 
 
 By Rev. Joseph F. Flint. 
 
 Our age excels all that have preceded it in heeding 
 the first commandment ever given to man : "Be fruit- 
 ful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it ; 
 and have dominion over every living thing that moveth 
 upon the earth." An army of trained scientists is ques- 
 tioning, and exploring and prying into the vast domain 
 of nature, and with the aid of microscope, retort and 
 scalpel, are wresting one secret after another from her 
 reluctant grasp. Every nook and corner of the earth is 
 being explored, surveyed and ransacked with the 
 avowed purpose of augmenting the richness and full- 
 ness of human life. 
 
 Another army of men are equally intent upon dis- 
 covering the best methods of distribution, insisting that 
 the good things of life are not for the privileged few 
 but for the needy many. Men are searching for general 
 principles, for universal truths, and seek to strengthen 
 the bonds of a common brotherhood. The eighteenth 
 century was individualistic, the nineteenth century is 
 organic. Then the soldier was first, now it is the 
 citizen. Then the classes held sway, now the masses 
 are valued. Exclusiveness, egotism and superstition 
 are being superceded by inclusiveness, altruism and 
 universal enlightenment. We hear the sweet, the far- 
 off song, that hails a new creation. Cain has had his 
 day, now the Good Samaritan steps forward, and ac- 
 knowledges himself his brother's keeper. We are 
 entering upon the cosmopolitan era when international 
 law, exact science and spiritual truths are awaiting the 
 coming of time's grandest product — the world citizen. 
 
 138 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 
 
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 REV. JOSEPH F. FLINT. 
 
 139 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 In view of these things, ladies and gentlemen, what 
 shall we say of the daring attempt made to turn the 
 dial of time backward and fasten upon American cities 
 one of the worst evils of the old world, namely legalized 
 vice? In this age of light and water and soap, to 
 countenance so vile and dark a nuisance ! In this age 
 when the submerged tenth of England, the sweat-shops 
 of New York and even the children of the Gretto re- 
 ceive a sympathetic hearing, to give legal standing to 
 what is wrecking manhood and destroying homes! 
 Can anything exceed such folly? Looked at from all 
 sides, legalized vice is the quintessence of all the 
 deviltry and meanness the world has ever known — the 
 greed of the auction block, the cruelty of the inquisition, 
 the secrec)- of the robber's den, the confinement of the 
 Bastile, and the horror of the Tower of Silence — and all 
 to gratify the abnormal passions of bad men at the ex- 
 pense of the week and erring. If there is any good in 
 legalized prostitution, it must stand the test as a general 
 principle — by their fruits ye shall know them. It was 
 my fortune to visit a community founded by Communists 
 — what was the outcome of the experiment? Squan- 
 dered fortunes and a demoralized populace. I recall a 
 western village from which churches were carefully ex- 
 cluded — what kind of a place was it? It was unsafe for 
 a man, much less a woman, to be on the streets at 
 night. 
 
 I wish to show that legalized vice, when left to 
 work itself out to its logical conclusion, speedily proves 
 self-destructive, and it has occurred to me that perhaps 
 it would prove a welcome change to the audience if I 
 gave what I have to say, in the form of a brief sketch 
 entitled the Deserted City: 
 
 The city of Vanity Fair was intensely American in 
 antecedents and traditions. Full well had the pioneers 
 laid its foundations in thrift, industry and righteousness, 
 and now after a century of existence, their descendants 
 were reaping the rich fruits of the early bountiful 
 
 140 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 sowing. Wealth flowed in on the people in golden 
 streams, and in the wake of wealth came luxury, dis- 
 play and selfish ease. It was the ambition of the citi- 
 zens to begin where their fathers left off, not foreseeing 
 that they might end where their fathers began. At 
 first the dwellers of Vanity Fair were greatly intoxicated 
 with the wealth of good things flowing in upon them, 
 then a little later luxury came to be taken as a matter 
 of course, making it entirely reasonable to interpret life 
 in terms of pleasure and not of duty. The next step 
 in their history was quietly to discard orthodoxy and 
 adopt ' ' naturalism " as their religion with the one 
 article of creed, " Let us eat and drink and enjoy our- 
 selves, for that is the chief end of man. " Certain old fogies 
 that still persisted in preaching Christian stoicism were 
 laughed out of court, or rather out of church, while 
 speakers that prophesied smooth things, were voted 
 capital good fellows. The most popular resort at this 
 time was a dancing academy; none of your ordinary 
 affairs, observe, but a select French establishment, pre- 
 sided over by a hooknosed Parisian of charming man- 
 ners and faultless attire. Not to be up to all the 
 doings at the academy was to be hopelessly belated and 
 dull. And as for art, it was suddenly discovered what 
 a divine thing is woman's form, some of the ladies 
 evidently not agreeing with Theano, a Roman matron, 
 who, as she was putting on her shawl, displayed her 
 arm, and somebody observing, "What a handsome 
 arm," replied, "But not common! " 
 
 One day there came to our city a real live count, 
 fresh from Europe. The fin de Steele ladies pronounced 
 him perfectly lovely, and the local dudes went into 
 ecstacies over the delicate tint of his necktie. And then 
 he had such a knowing, worldly-wise air that quite 
 captivated the natives. They gathered about him in 
 groups, drinking in his double-edged stories and cabal- 
 istic lore with gratified approval. The moment being 
 favorable, this unclean bird of passage assumed a know- 
 
 141 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ing look and expressed his amazement that so progres- 
 sive a city should yet lack one thing. 
 
 "And what is that? " came from all directions. 
 
 "Why you blockheads," he replied, "can't you 
 guess? Unless my eyes deceive me, you are without 
 that crowning convenience of a modern city — a temple 
 of Venus. In Paris we do these things better. " Then he 
 went on to picture in glowing terms what would have 
 brought the blush of shame to the cheeks of a purer 
 generation, who would have kicked the scoundrel into 
 the street. 
 
 My first point is, that should any American city 
 ever give legal standing to prostitution, it will prove a 
 traitor to its own past history. For not only was this 
 nation founded by righteous men who lived the life of 
 the spirit, but so also were our cities. The pioneers 
 were true men, who took life seriously and set a noble 
 example to their children. But the citizens of Vanity 
 Fair were emancipated, you see; they looked upon the 
 body not as the instrument of a conquering will, to be 
 subdued and toughened to hard work, but as the proper 
 source of pleasure. Hence they saw nothing objec- 
 tionable in the plan unfolded by the stranger, especially 
 as he convinced them of its perfect safety as well as of 
 its desirability. 
 
 Now it happened that while the leading men were 
 contemplating the new move of enthroning Venus, one 
 of the local papers reported an instance where a promi- 
 nent young man had been accosted by an impudent and 
 noisy siren of the streets, who robbed him of his hat 
 and then tried to decoy him. The editor called atten- 
 tion to the frequency of these disgraceful scenes, and 
 asked if nothing could be done to clear the. streets ? 
 
 Now we know what a former generation would 
 have done; they would have dealt severely with the 
 individual offenders and then called for a general revi- 
 val of righteousness. My second point is, that as long 
 as the heart of a community remains sound, as long 
 
 142 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 as the Parkhursts and Roosevelts hold sway, there is no 
 danger that legalized vice will ever root itself among 
 us. The issue lies not with the rabble but with the 
 respectable citizens. 
 
 But as already said, Vanity Fair was progressive ; 
 they believed in the higher Pantheism, that finds all 
 alike good, including the pandered human body, and be- 
 ing the disciples of Comte, the philosopher, they 
 concluded to set up the worship of humanity, more par- 
 ticularly woman, and what woman was so worthy as she 
 who made of herself a martyr to shield her sisters? Did 
 not the French revolutionists enthrone a harlot as the 
 Goddess of Reason? And what would clear the streets 
 so quickly as gathering these girls into one place? 
 Happy thought. The people were bound to worship 
 something, and as the men declared that the worship of 
 God was too high and exacting, why not substitute 
 naturalism in its most pleasing form, the form of woman? 
 The rude and lawless rabble had long clammored for 
 greater license; here was just the thing to satisfy every- 
 body — raise the fleshly Venus into a religious cult, make 
 a State religion of it, with laws and regulations. 
 
 Yes, a temple must be built with a statue of Venus 
 before the altar and with such historic worthies as 
 Cleopatra and Henry VIII. and Napoleon the Great as 
 titular saints. No sooner said than done. A stately 
 dame was soon found, vulgarly known as the queen of 
 the demi-monde, whose graceful poise and lofty air and 
 exquisite taste in dress fitted her to be the high priestess. 
 She was not long in gathering about her a choice bevy 
 of assistants, vised and approved by the authorities. To 
 be sure the girls did not understand the meaning and 
 outcome of it all, but they were pleased with the costly 
 robes and bright ribbons, and were they not free from 
 drudgery and anxiety for daily bread? What gay, hila- 
 rious times they had, these second cousins of the old 
 Roman Vestal Virgins. They were so knowing and 
 clever. They claimed to be perfectly " straight " and 
 
 143 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 insisted that they were respectable, and were envied by 
 every happy wife and mother for their knowledge of the 
 world. The world they saw was of course the only true 
 world. They know the names and price of every drink, 
 they could spot a tenderfoot afar off, and held in re- 
 serve a wicked little laugh for any young fellow that was 
 too reserved and puritanic to worship at their shrine, sanc- 
 tioned by the State, as it was. Why, if these goddesses 
 were so worldly-wise, they had to be treated like the 
 inmates of a kindergarten, and even held as tearful 
 prisoners, was never explained. 
 
 Meanwhile the authorities were immensely pleased 
 with their manifest success. The treasury was full, 
 lavish prodigality prevailed, and multitudes of worship- 
 pers thronged the shrine of the new State institution. No 
 need of church bells to call them together; all were 
 singularly enthusiastic from the first, and were sure to 
 come again. What strapping high-pressure fellows they 
 were, these worldly devotees. They gave nature credit 
 for making them what they were, they could not help 
 being otherwise, though to be sure that good creature, 
 whisky, and high feeding helped the matter on not a 
 little. Their watchward, " Back to nature," was some- 
 thing the fanatics could not understand, who insisted 
 rather in going forward in the spirit. Many of the old- 
 fashioned citizens moved out of town, taking theirfamilies 
 with them. Sadly they shook their heads and exclaimed, 
 " Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone." Fire 
 and brimstone did not rain down upon this modem 
 Sodom : it was simply left to its fate in the relentless 
 grasp of natural law ! And here it is well to note the 
 fact that no amount of bravado, or sophistry, or the 
 clamor of mere numbers can ever take the place of 
 scientific facts and the results of experience. If ever 
 vice is legalized in our cities, it will be because the 
 rabble have overborne the voice of reason and truth. 
 
 Having once committed themselves to the new cult, 
 the authorities were very willing to be left severely alone, 
 
 144 
 
THE J^ATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 for was not everything going as merry as a marriage 
 bell? Speaking of marriages, it was admitted that the 
 old-fashioned weddings were falling off to an alarming 
 extent, and many a sweet maiden was left to pine away, > 
 because her true love never came, but over at the Temple \ 
 they were having great times. As the love for quiet j 
 home life decreased, the liking for the more exciting j 
 life at the State institution increased. The populace was 
 so well gratified that they gave a banquet to the illus- 
 trious foreigner already mentioned, the latter taking 
 occasion in an eloquent address to laud Vanity Fair to 
 the skies, comparing it to Berlin, Vienna, and even to 
 Paris the only ! What an immense advance over the 
 Simple-Simon ways of the past when people were afraid 
 to eat of every tree in the garden ! 
 
 But the brilliancy of the occasion was somewhat 
 marred when the very next day it was vaguely whis- 
 pered about that all was not well over at the Temple of 
 Venus. More than one of the goddesses has suddenly died 
 amid unutterable agony, and others were heartily sick 
 of their position ; instead of being elevated and ennobled 
 thereby they were robbed of the last vestige of modesty 
 and happiness. The matter was kept as quiet as pos- 
 sible, and the high priestess rolled her eyes to heaven 
 and murmured something about the victims having 
 received a martyr's crown, to which the officials nodded 
 a pious assent. Upon investigation, it appeared that a 
 sort of unquenchable fire had broken out upon the altar 
 of Venus, which outsiders called by the vulgar name of 
 venereal disease. Nothing of the kind had ever been \ 
 known in well regulated homes, and this strange fire i 
 could only be compared to the fires of Moloch that 
 devoured the sons and daughters of KingAhaz, and the 
 eternal fires that burned before the shrine of slaughter 
 in the ancient temple of Montezumah, and whereas in 
 the abomination of the Amorites the youth were first 
 slain and then offered up to Moloch, the ceremony was 
 here reversed, it being the duty of the Temple assistants 
 
 i45 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 to continue in service as long as possible, without 
 actually perishing. Some pitiful sights were witnessed, 
 as the vestals, unlike their Roman cousins, endeavored 
 to escape the ravishes of the fire while unwittingly 
 keeping it burning. 
 
 Everything under Heaven was done to check the 
 devouring and painful flames, specialists were employed, 
 who repeatedly claimed to have found the proper ex- 
 tinguisher, but again and again the smouldering coals 
 burst out beneath the ashes, as virulent as ever. Be- 
 coming thoroughly alarmed, the authorities quietly sent 
 a committee of investigation over to Europe, only to be 
 told that the Venus worshippers over there found the 
 same appalling fire devouring its thousands every year: 
 but it was added, with a knowing wink and a wicked 
 smile, that " as Europe swarmed with poor girls, easily 
 alltired and trapped into their temples, the supply always 
 equalled the ceaseless demand. " This only added to the 
 perplexity of the commissioners, who were aware that 
 Vanity Fair had long ago been quarantined from the rest 
 of the world, for the purpose of fully testing the outcome 
 of the new cult. 
 
 However, arriving home they put on a bold front, 
 crammed out the fine phrases and new arguments learned 
 abroad, hung up the seductive works of art imported for 
 the Temple, and thus for a time renewed the waning en- 
 thusiasm. But balms and lotions and logic all failed to 
 stay the ravages of death. When it was finally hinted 
 that the men should supply half the victims, theideawas 
 indignantly spurned. What, the lords of creation, for 
 whose special benefit the state institution had been es- 
 tablished, shall they make sacrifices? Never! Why 
 were the girls fed and housed and officially enrolled if 
 not to be offered up for their betters? This splendid 
 logic, of course, settled the matter; a girl more or less 
 was no serious loss. It never occurs to the friends of 
 license that their premises are wrong, hence the conclu- 
 sions they draw therefrom must be also false. Beginning 
 
 146 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 with the brutal assumption that the body is supreme, no 
 place is left for the spirit: no wonder, therefore, that 
 ■every rational principle of ordered human society is out- 
 raged, including the right of woman to her best life. 
 
 Gladly would our friends have foraged upon outsiders 
 -had not their former neighbors withdrawn their families. 
 As it was, the Temple police were ordered to compel the 
 faithful themselves to furnish the maiden tribute. The 
 •agents found no little difficulty in the way. A physician 
 who was one of the first to advocate the new cult, indig- 
 nantly refused to fill his own prescription, as it were, by 
 ^ving up his daughters ; and so with a preacher, who 
 iad said, " It is better that one girl die than that the 
 whole city be tainted," not foreseeing that the death of 
 one would finally involve the death of all, even the fair- 
 est of the flock. 
 
 To make a long story short, the emancipated city 
 ■of Vanity Fair, too proud to acknowledge its mistake, 
 with an energy born of despair and a devotion worthy of 
 a better cause continued the slaughter of the innocents, 
 playing the role of Jephthah and his daughter on a large 
 scale. Of course these drastic measures could not last 
 forever, but as long as the grist held out it must be poured 
 into the hopper to satisfy the hungry mob that remained 
 blinded and stubborn to the last. No tongue can describe 
 the horror and desolation of the scene. The very sun- 
 light seemed to shun the doomed city : the perfume of 
 -flowers, the song of birds and the gay prattle of children 
 were memories of a happier past. Broken hearted moth- 
 •ers followed their stricken daughters, to fill with them 
 unmarked graves, struck down by the same awful scourge. 
 
 As for the men, they doggedly insisted that they 
 were sound in limb and consistent in conduct, while all 
 the while the secret flres of their own kindling were 
 gnawing at their vitals. A leprosy worse than that of 
 Naaman the Syrian had fastened its fangs upon them. 
 
 One morning when the sweet springtime came up 
 from the south and the king of day spread his golden 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 light over the earth, a scene met his gaze out of saddest 
 harmony with the fresh awakening life of the world. 
 Vanity Fair was a deserted city, a charnel house. Na- 
 ture, which the votaries had professed to adore, had 
 taken terrible vengeance on her outraged majesty. 
 Before the shrine of the fleshly Venus lay the prostrate 
 form of the high priestess, a look of utter despair upoa 
 her distorted features, now pale in death. With impre- 
 cations upon their lips the once proud and confident 
 advocates of legalized vice breathed their last. As the 
 last deluded mortal expired, the fire that had so long 
 haunted the weird temple flickered and went out. As 
 the final whiff of blue smoke curled its way through the 
 silent chamber, it traced these words on the blackened 
 walls : 
 
 " There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but 
 the end therecf are the ways of death." 
 
 148 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MRS. CHARLTON EDHOLM. 
 
 149 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE TRAFFIC IN GIRLS AND FLORENCE 
 CRITTENTON MISSIONS. 
 
 By Mrs. Charlton Edholm, Chicago, III. 
 
 Mrs. Edholm began her speech by asking all to bow 
 their heads in silent prayer that Christ would put upon 
 her lips just the words He would have her say, and that 
 the Holy Spirit would so descend on every heart that we 
 should hear His divine call, " Go ye out quickly into the 
 streets and the lanes of the city and bring in hither the 
 poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind." Ris- 
 ing from her knees she said: I shall_ always thank God 
 that through Evangelist Charles N. Crittenton, that 
 magnificent "brother of girls" — the name given him 
 by our peerless Woman's Christian Temperance Union 
 leader, Frances E. Willard — I was brought into the 
 rescue work. Once when he was holding evangel- 
 istic meetings in Oakland, California, which I, as a 
 newspaper woman, was reporting, he said: "Sister, I 
 believe God wants you for the rescue work." I said, 
 "Oh, Mr. Crittenton, I can't do that. I love these girls 
 at arm's length, and as a newspaper woman have written 
 many articles pleading for the same standard of purity 
 for men as for women, which is, after all, the solution of 
 this whole problem ; for when every man has the chivalry 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ in his heart there cannot be in 
 all the world such a thing as an outcast girl, and I have 
 written many articles pleading that the rescue homes 
 might be supported, so that girls should have a chance 
 for a better life. But, Mr. Crittenton, for me to go down 
 into a haunt of shame and put my arms about one of those 
 girls and point her to Jesus, oh, I couldn't do that. 
 Don't you know they might say something about me, and 
 I'm willing to give God everything in the world I have 
 but my reputation, but I can't give Him that." I shall 
 
 150 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 never forget the kindly look in his eyes as he said, so 
 gently, ' ' Sister, don't you remember it is written of 
 Jesus, " He made Himself of no reputation? Nowcan't 
 you do as He did? Can't you follow where He leads? 
 And let me tell you something : you give your reputation 
 to God and He will take care of it. You try to 
 keep it yourself and you will be sure to lose it." But 
 still I did not want to come, and so I made another ex- 
 cuse. I said, " Mr. Crittenton, you know I am a working 
 woman and must support myself and my boy by my 
 newspaper work, and I can't go into this work in the 
 slums where there is no money." And again he said, 
 so gently, "Well, sister, God never yet called anyone 
 into His work to starve them, and I know if you go out, 
 throwing yourself in faith upon Him and the generosity 
 of His people, I know you and your boy will be taken 
 care of." 
 
 Then, beloved, as Mr. Crittenton described the awful 
 horrors of the lives of those girls — my little sisters and 
 your little sisters — it seemed to me as though I could see 
 them, kicked and beaten, 230,000 of them, and they out- 
 stretched their arms to me and cried out, ' ' come over 
 and help us," and I threw myself upon my knees and my 
 own eyes were full of tears, and I said, " Oh, dear 
 Saviour, if you can use me for this work among the girls, 
 here I am. I consecrate myself to it from this time for- 
 ward." And, beloved, I am so glad He took me, for 
 I've never had such joy as when I have taken some poor 
 little sister in my arms and led her from a life of sin in 
 a brothel to the Lord Jesus and a home in the Florence 
 Crittenton Mission. 
 
 And how true Mr. Crittenton's words proved. I did 
 give my reputation to God and He has taken care of it. 
 And although I have been in the haunts of sin of most 
 of the large cities and spoken before conventions and 
 conferences of ministers, God has made the hearts of 
 the people so kind that I have not had a word of criti- 
 cism. 
 
 151 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Then God takes care of finances, and while I go out 
 simply for free will offerings, not only does God put into 
 my hands enough to take care of myself and my orphan 
 Doy, but He has put into these hands hundreds of dollars 
 that have gone right back to the Florence Crittenton 
 Mission work. Why do I speak of these personal expe- 
 riences? Because God is calling some man or woman 
 here to the rescue work, and I beg of you, beloved, don't 
 make excuses, as I did, but come into this work and find 
 the greatest joy of your life in saving souls. 
 
 About six months after this talk with Mr. Critten- 
 ton I went to the New York Florence Mission, for I 
 wanted to get the data for our book, ' ' The Traffic in 
 Girls and Florence Crittenton Missions," and night after 
 night found us in the slums, and oh ! the horror of those 
 nights ! 
 
 One evening we visited quite an aristocratic house 
 of shame, and as I stood in the doorway of that parlor 
 such a sight met my gaze as froze my heart with horror. 
 There sat eight or ten of the most beautiful little girls 
 I ever saw, and not one of (hem was over sixteen years 
 of age. There they sat, dressed in their little short 
 dresses, just as mother dressed them, with their hair 
 braided down their back, just as mother braided it to 
 send them to school. And as I looked at them I could 
 think of nothing but a lot of little lambs waiting for the 
 slaughterer's knife. And, beloved, if some man had 
 taken a knife and drawn it across the throat of every 
 one and left her weltering in her blood on that splendid 
 carpet it would not have been one ten-thousandth so bad 
 as what she was waiting for. As I looked into the eyes 
 of these beautiful girls I thought of a little girl I have 
 up in heaven waiting for me, and I pressed my hands 
 across my throbbing heart and said, ' ' Oh, God ! what if 
 it were my little girl." Then, beloved, my heart broke 
 for the mothers of those girls. It seemed to me I could 
 see them in their desolate homes, mourning for their 
 
 152 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 children and, like Rachel, ' ' they would not be comforted 
 because they are not. " 
 
 Then I put my arm about one of these girls and said 
 to her, "Child, does your mother know you're here?" 
 And oh! that cry of pain!— sometimes I hear it in my 
 sleep, and I wake up and don't sleep any more that 
 night — as she said, "Oh, mother's heart would break if 
 she knew I were here." Then I said, " Well, won't you 
 tell me how you happened to come, dear?" "Well, we 
 lived on a farm up in the northern part of the State, and 
 there were a good many of us and father had a pretty 
 hard time to get along, and I thought if I .could get a 
 good position in housework in New York I could send 
 most all my wages to papa. So I watched the New York 
 papers and I saw an advertisement where they wanted 
 girls for housework, and I wrote to the man and told him 
 I wanted a good place so I could help papa. " And he 
 wrote back and said he had a good place for me, and if 
 I would come on a certain train he would meet me and 
 take me right to the place where I was to work." And 
 she said, "I did come and he did meet me and he 
 brought me here and I've been here ever since." And, 
 beloved, I stand here in the presence of God to say that 
 of the 230,000 erring girls in this land three-fourths of 
 them have been snared and trapped and bought and sold 
 as that little girl was. For when that man placed that 
 child in that haunt of shame and the key was safely 
 turned on her and she was a prisoner and a slave, he 
 received his price for her, and how much do you think 
 he received? What do you think little American girls 
 are worth in the shambles of shame? Only $35 to $50. 
 Why you would pay more than that for a Poland-china 
 pig. I said to her, " Dear, I don't believe you want to 
 stayhere." "Oh! no," she said; " this life is hell upon 
 earth." Then I said, "Come with us, dear, to Flor- 
 ence Mission. Hundreds of girls have been saved there 
 and gotten back to mother's arms and mother's Jesus." 
 Willingly she came to the Florence Crittenton Mission, 
 
 153 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 was lovingly welcomed by our dear " Mother " Pnndle, 
 who loves these girls as her own daughters, and through 
 the blood of the Lord Jesus she was saved. 
 
 When Mr. Crittenton found there was an organized 
 traffic in girls and that through false employment adver- 
 tisements, mock marriages, the cursed wine rooms, 
 drugs, dancing, and starvation wages, thousands of girls 
 are annually trapped in those dens of infamy, he said, 
 " For God's sake let us get this information in shape so 
 the fathers and mothers and ministers and teachers may 
 warn the girls so they may be saved from falling into 
 these awful snares." This has been done, and in our 
 book, "The Traffic in Girls anii Florence Crittenton 
 Missions," is detailed those traps that are laid for the 
 girls of our land. I wish every father and mother would 
 read it, for I know many precious girls would be saved. 
 I know your blood will tingle with horror as you read, 
 that you may not be able to sleep for a week. I wasn't 
 when I found out these things, but surely it is better to 
 lose your sleep for a week and save your darling than 
 not ever again to have a good night's rest because she 
 is lost. 
 
 Then as you read the beautiful story of the founding 
 of the Florence Crittenton Missions, your tears of indig- 
 nation will turn to tears of joy. Mr. Crittenton, a 
 wealthy merchant of New York city, was summoned by 
 telegraph to the bedside of his baby girl Florence. 
 When he stood inside the doorway of his child's bedroom 
 and saw the flush of scarlet fever upon his darling's face, 
 he knew he would not have her long. They put the 
 little girl in his arms, and, as though she knew her death 
 was to be his conversion, she said, ' ' Papa, please — sing 
 —the— sweet— By-and-by." With choking voice he 
 sang the beautiful words, which seemed more like a 
 funeral dirge than a paean of joy. As the beautiful eyes 
 closed on earth to open in heaven, his great heart broke. 
 For six long months he struggled with his grief, and at 
 last he threw himself down beside his bed and said, 
 
 154 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 "O, dear Christ, I can't stand this another minute ; I must 
 know that I will spend an eternity with my little girl, 
 and I won't leave this room till I leave it a Christian 
 man. " After a little prayer the wonderful peace came 
 in his heart, and as he went down stairs this verse rang- 
 in his ears : " Go ye out quickly into the streets and 
 lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the 
 maimed and the halt and the blind." So down into the 
 slums of New York he went ; and one night he was plead- 
 ing with a poor erring girl to come to Jesus, repeating 
 His words, " Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin 
 no more." She sobbed out, "But where can I go?" 
 That question went through his heart like a knife thrust. 
 In that big Christian city of New York, with its thous- 
 ands of Christian homes and hundreds of Christian 
 churches, there was scarce a door, save the door of sin, 
 open for her. He made up his mind there that there 
 should be such a home, and in the memory of his little 
 Florence he founded the New York Mission, where for 
 thirteen years those precious girls have been pouring in 
 and being saved. Hundreds have been returned to the 
 arms of their loved ones, hundreds are married and in 
 happy homes, and many are earning an honest liveli- 
 hood, and scores have swept into the arms of a pitying 
 Saviour and are waiting for Mr. Crittenton to come. 
 Then Mr. Crittenton's heart went out to the girls every- 
 where, and he has now founded twenty-one of these 
 Florence Crittenton Missions in as many cities of the 
 United States, and at the earnest solicitation of Lady 
 Henry Somerset one will be founded in London. 
 
 The work has now grown to such large proportions 
 that it is now organized into the National Florence Crit- 
 tenton Missions. Florence Crittenton Rescue Circles 
 will be organized in bands of ten, on the plan of the 
 King's Daughters Circles. It is Mr. Crittenton's hope 
 that at least one such Circle shall be organized in every 
 church in America, and the rescue work thus accom- 
 plished may be reported in church annals as a regular 
 
 •55 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 part of church work. Many of these Circles will be 
 composed of holy women and men who feel that God 
 has called them to the special work of seeking and sav- 
 ing these poor lost girls by weekly visits to the houses 
 where they live, talking and praying with each girl, and 
 always leaving a touching little leaflet that shall have 
 the address of the nearest Florence Crittenton Mission 
 upon it. In this way every girl in a house of shame can 
 have the message of the loving Saviour carried to her 
 once in two weeks, and thus hundreds of these precious 
 girls would be saved ; for God's word is true : ' ' My word 
 sliall not return unto me void, but shall accomplish that 
 which I please." These Circles of young ladies could 
 gather weekly and make garments for our girls and the 
 tiny little ones in our homes. Surely in the construc- 
 tion of those dainty baby wardrobes, with here and there 
 a bit of embroidery or lace, will give scope for artistic 
 taste and be the Master's "fancy work," for it will clothe 
 His little ones and bring to the maker such a blessing 
 as He has promised to those who minister to the least of 
 His children. Then another ten could be the peace 
 makers, and find the young man who has betrayed the 
 girl, and by kindly persuasion show him the awful wrong 
 he has done and get him to repair that wrong to mother 
 and child by marriage. Many such marriages have 
 taken place in our homes and are most happy. Some- 
 times, too, a glimpse of Penitentiary bars has a very 
 persuasive influence on such a young man. Then another 
 Circle can hold Evangelistic meetings two or three times 
 a week in our homes. Another Circle can make the 
 solicitation of funds and supplies for the Florence Crit- 
 tenton Home their special work. Circles of young men 
 can push the White Cross work and raise the standard 
 of manly purity to that of the Lord Jesus. Some Circles 
 can be legislative, working for better laws for purity, 
 and especially in raising the age of consent or the age of 
 protection. Every Legislature in our land ought to be 
 besieged by good women and men till a girl's virtue is 
 
 iS6 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 protected at least as long as her property. Member- 
 ships are, annual, $1; Sustaining, $5 annually; Life, 
 $35. Half of this goes to the support of the State Flor- 
 ence Crittenton Home and half to the general work of 
 keeping Evangelists in the field and founding new Mis- 
 sions. For all information address Mr. Charles N. 
 Crittenton, 31 Bleecker Street, New York City. It is 
 earnestly hoped many of Christ's followers will join us 
 in this grand work. 
 
 With such organizing methods many new Missions 
 will every year be founded, and ere long every large city 
 in America will have one of these Homes where the 
 tempted girl may find food and shelter and clothing and 
 human love that shall lead her to the dear Saviour and 
 a consecrated life for Him. 
 
 But, dear friends, the best way to help the rescue 
 work is to prohibit the saloon. As long as we have the 
 traffic in drink we will have the traffic in girls. Surely 
 American mothers, when they realize that they must 
 give not only 100,000 boys but 46,000 girls every year to 
 die drunkards' deaths, will join the Woman's Christian 
 Temperance Union and help to save t/ietr own children. 
 Surely, sometime, fathers will quit authorizing saloon 
 keepers to make their boys into drunkards and their girls 
 into that pitied thing whose name our shuddering lips 
 refuse to mention. If I voted for the saloon to make 
 somebody's boy into a drunkard, I'd expect to have my 
 boy made into a drunkard. If I voted for the saloon 
 to send some mother's beautiful girl to the streets, I'd 
 expect to find mine there. God help the 4,000,000 
 Christian voters to vote as they pray, and prohibit the 
 liquor traffic, when the traffic in girls will cease and 
 Florence Crittenton Missions not be needed. 
 
 JS7 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 LETTER FROM HON. THEODORE ROOSE- 
 VELT. 
 
 The following letter from President Theodore 
 Roosevelt, of the New York Board of Police Commis- 
 sioners, who was to address a Good Government meet- 
 ing in Baltimore, and who was invited also to address 
 the National Purity Congress, was read by the Presi- 
 dent, and warmly applauded ; 
 
 Police Department, 
 New York, Oct. 14th, 1895. 
 
 Aaron M. Powell, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir: — I am sorry to say that I shall only get 
 on to Baltimore a few minutes before the meeting, and 
 will leave immediately afterwards, so I could not pos- 
 sibly speak elsewhere. 
 
 You are entirely at liberty to quote that I re-aiErm 
 in the most hearty manner what I said before. I will 
 not have one law for men and one for women ; they shall 
 be treated exactly alike, so far as I am concerned. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 158 
 
THE NATIOXAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 O. EDWARD JANNEY. 
 
 159 
 
FO UR TH SESSION. 
 
 THE MEDICAL PROFESSION AND MORALS. 
 
 By O. Edward Janney, M. D., of Baltimore. 
 
 The physician holds an influential position in society. 
 In the capacity of medical attendant of parents and 
 children, he becomes to both, and especially the latter, 
 a loved and trusted friend, to whom, as they grow in- 
 to manhood and womanhood, they appeal in matters 
 medical and non-medical requiring the exercise of 
 trained judgment. The medical profession, moreover, 
 is composed of well-educated and thinking men, students 
 of the questions of the day, on which they bring to bear 
 their trained mental powers. 
 
 For these reasons physicians stand high in all com- 
 munities. Their opinions and example have great 
 weight with others, and their decision in medical and 
 sanitary matters is final. 
 
 Such being the case, it is of the utmost importance 
 that physicians carefully study moral and social ques- 
 tions as they arise, in order that the views they come to 
 hold in regard to the proper solution of these problems 
 may be righteous, for, should their opinions be in- 
 correct, many will be led astray. 
 
 This is especially the case with those social problems 
 which are semi-medical in their nature; those which 
 have to do with health, or whose study requires a know- 
 ledge possessed only by the physiologist, and parti- 
 ctilarly with those problems, most perplexing in their 
 nature, which deal with the relation of the sexes. 
 
 Perplexing as they are, these problems press upon 
 the conscience of the observant and the thoughtful and 
 demand the right solution. The time for decision and 
 action has arrived. These evils which have thrust their 
 hideous presence upon us from time immemorial must 
 
 i6o 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITV CONGRESS. 
 
 he banished from the earth. No longer are men and 
 women willing to call them necessary evils. No longer 
 can we hear unmoved the cry of anguished and helpless 
 girlhood, and our heart-strings are torn with the oft- 
 repeated story of their wrongs. An aroused conscience 
 demands that a righteous attitude toward moral de- 
 gradation be maintained and looks to the medical pro- 
 fession for enlightened co-operation. 
 
 Such co-operation will be afforded, doubtless, by 
 the majority of the profession, and yet there does exist 
 within its ranks a certain element from which no 
 assistance in this moral crusade need be expected. 
 It is the element which upholds the idea that chastity 
 is incompatible with perfect health and teaches men 
 so. 
 
 When physicians assume this position, they do so 
 either from ignorance, which is inexcusable in a learned 
 profession ; from policy, because they know that such 
 advice will prove acceptable to many young men, or 
 else from an intrinsic wickedness which thinks evil of 
 all men and allows them to take no interest in efforts 
 for the elevation of the race. 
 
 Upon this class of men arguments and illustrations 
 have little weight ; but an enlightened public opinion 
 will reach them at length, and therefore an effective 
 means of correcting this evil is to help to form such 
 a public sentiment and trust to its general expression 
 to effect the desired reform. 
 
 To argue that a continent life is not a healthful one 
 is to stand in opposition to the known laws of nature. 
 One has but to recall many familiar instances among 
 animals to perceive its fallacy. Everyone is acquainted 
 with men and women whose nature is fully developed 
 physically, mentally and morally, and yet have lived 
 single lives. Examples illustrating this point could be 
 mentioned in great number, but only one need be given, 
 the great Example, whose name is mentioned with 
 reverence — Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 i6i 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 This fact is now understood and accepted by the 
 better part of the profession: Witness the following 
 declaration, indorsed by a large number of the best 
 known and most eminent physicians of both schools: 
 "In view of the wide-spread suffering, deplorable 
 hereditary results and moral deterioration inseparable 
 from unchaste living, the undersigned, members of the 
 medical profession, unite in declaring it as our opinion 
 that chastity — a pure, continent life for both sexes— is 
 consonant with the best conditions of physical, mental 
 and moral health." 
 
 It may be wise at this point to consider some of 
 the results of giving improper advice to young men in 
 regard to the matter under discussion, whether such 
 advice comes from physicians or others. 
 
 Scarcely a day passes that an account of the suicide 
 of some young man does not appear in the public press. 
 Many of these result from following such advice. 
 Prompted by such counsel, he enters into evil com- 
 pany and evil places and before long, finding his moral 
 tone lowered, his self-respect lost, his body diseased, 
 his hope of a life of usefulness darkened, his conscience 
 a coal of fire, he seeks relief from his sufferings in death. 
 Oblivion, he thinks, is preferable to such a life. But is 
 oblivion obtained ? Only God knows. 
 
 But, perhaps, in his desire to carry out the advice 
 given, instead of seeking evil company, he cultivates 
 the acquaintance of some innocent young girl. In such 
 an instance there is a possibility, too often realized, that 
 there will be added to the load of iniquity he is to carry, 
 the ruin of another life, and the despairing cry of a lost 
 soul drives him to destruction. 
 
 Not always, however, is the nature of man so 
 sensitive, and he with ruder instincts may choose to 
 live, and live to be a curse to womankind. 
 
 But suppose a man has ' ' sown his wild oats " and 
 has not experienced all the evils that follow, what can 
 be said of him ? In the first place it may be said that 
 
 162 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 such associations as he has had have blunted his moral 
 sensibilities. It is true that ' ' the punishment fits the 
 crime," and such a man is not and never can be the man 
 he might have been had he led a pure life. His wings are 
 scorched and will not lift him into the purer upper realms. 
 
 Follow his further experience in life. He would 
 marry, and here it is to be observed that he does not 
 seek a companion fallen like himself, but one whom the 
 faintest breath of suspicion has never touched. This 
 man, with his unsavory past and with the seeds of 
 disease in his system, does not hesitate to unite, in the 
 holy bonds of wedlock, with one who is pure and inno- 
 cent. Has the medical profession no protest to utter 
 in these cases ? 
 
 The following instances from actual practice may 
 serve to illustrate what often follows such marriages : 
 
 W. B. , aged twenty-four, a healthy young woman, 
 married a young man whose life had not been pure. 
 Within two years she began to suffer with a local diseased 
 condition, which after causing great distress, finally 
 demanded a surgical operation and this resulted fatally. 
 
 F. A. was a lovely young woman with fair com- 
 plexion, bright color, excellent health, happy dispo- 
 sition, and with every prospect of a long and useful 
 life, when she married. He who promised to cherish 
 her was one who had followed the evil suggestions so 
 often given to young men, and brought to the altar a 
 wrecked constitution, under a fair outward semblance. 
 As months passed the friends of the bride noticed that 
 her cheeks were losing their bright color, that listless- 
 ness had succeeded animation, and they feared that 
 all was not well. A year passed and one night there 
 came into the world a little, wasted, immature child, 
 with life poisoned before it was born. This same 
 poison, which had been working in the mother's system 
 ■for a year, now swept her with a force no remedy could 
 stay, and the mother and her child were laid in one 
 grave. 
 
 163 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 And the cause of this lay with him who had 
 promised at the altar to love, honor and protect the 
 innocent and confiding being who there committed her- 
 self to his keeping. 
 
 Suppose that child had lived, what then ? One 
 evening a young man called to be treated for a peculiar 
 form of skin affection. His sister was affected in a 
 somewhat similar way. Almost as plainly as if it had 
 been on a printed page, could be read a history which 
 told that a parent or grand-parent of these young 
 people had followed the bad advice against continence 
 and had brought upon these innocent young people 
 a curse that is beyond power of removal and which 
 they, in turn, may transmit to their offspring. 
 
 No wonder when such cases as these appear in the 
 daily practice of physicians, they are impressed with the 
 necessity of taking a stand in this matter and show a 
 willingness to co-operate with those who aim at reform. 
 
 The physician has a certain duty to perform toward 
 the public. It is his high privilege not only to cure the 
 sick but to prevent sickness. Now it is well-proved 
 that when a man has once suffered from any of the 
 diseases of impurity he never fully recovers, but carries 
 through life the power to transmit disease. It is 
 claimed with reason that this is the cause of a large 
 proportion of the diseases of women which produce 
 serious local disorder and often require dangerous 
 operative procedures. 
 
 In view, therefore, of the physical and mental 
 suffering often amounting to torture, to wives and 
 sometimes to children, that follows, physicians should 
 assume and firmly maintain a position of opposition to 
 the marriage of a man who has ever suffered from a 
 disease of impurity, even the mildest. 
 
 Should this attitude be understood and supported 
 by the public, it would almost solve the Purity problem. 
 
 In the advocacy of purity reform the chief error 
 that medical men are likely to fall into is the adoption 
 
 I 6a 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ■of some improper, half-way measure, such as the State 
 regulation of vice, a system which vainly aims to pro- 
 tect bad men, while holding in hopeless slavery all 
 suspected women; and preventing the saving of those 
 who have been unknowingly entrapped by the designing, 
 or the reformation of the penitent. Let no physician 
 advocate any such iniquitous scheme, but with high 
 moral courage demand the abolition of the whole evil 
 system of social wrong ! 
 
 May the members of the medical profession, 
 ' ' with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the 
 right, " stand in opposition to all such vice and advice, 
 and so wield their mighty influence as to further the 
 cause of virtue, and, like knights of old, so place their 
 shields as to protect the weak and the innocent. 
 
 1 65 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 TEMPERANCE AND PURITY. 
 
 By Mary Clement Leavitt. 
 
 It sometimes happens that a reformer is so. 
 thorotighly engrossed in his own cause that he loses 
 sight of the importance of other reforms, and even of 
 the help that others might be to his. In a few sad. 
 instances he has been known, figuratively speaking, to 
 throw stones at others who are really helping him. 
 
 Among all the reforms that engage our attention at 
 the present time, none are more closely allied than purity 
 and temperance, no vices more closely related than im- 
 purity and intemperance. No reformers can or ought to 
 be more mutally helpful than those engaged along these 
 two lines. 
 
 In this country I believe all who are engaged in 
 either are friendly to both, but in England there are 
 persons doing earnest work for purity, who are unwilling 
 to investigate even the effects of alcoholic drinks upon 
 chastity, while on the Continent of Europe some of the 
 purity workers are utterly opposed to total abstinence, 
 as are the masses of religious people and nearly all the- 
 clergy, Protestant and Romish. 
 
 In the course of the long journey I made all over 
 the world, which lasted from July 13, 1883, to June 18, 
 1891, although I started for the sole purpose of organiz- 
 ing W. C. T. U.'s, I soon found that I must help in the 
 Purity Reform or fail to do my duty. In this way 
 much additional light was thrown upon the close con- 
 nection between the two evils. 
 
 I have indeed come to believe that in Christian 
 countries, where alone religion holds up the correct 
 standard of purity, the two vices are intertwined at the. 
 
 i66 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MARY CLEMENT LEAVITT. 
 
 167 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 warp and woof in the web. Where the religion of the 
 country presents no barrier to sins of impurity, if drink 
 adds its incitements, the results are fearful beyond de- 
 scription 
 
 The desire to lead a pure life must arise from in- 
 stinct inherited from a pure ancestry, from a knowledge 
 of God's plan, the only high, holy, joyous plan, for the 
 conduct of sexual life, the fear of evil results from a 
 wrong course, or the union of these motives. In the 
 latter case we have a young person well fitted to go 
 through life with a face open as the light, a life as pure 
 as the stars. 
 
 Comparatively few such young people would go 
 astray if their powers were not thrown out of the normal 
 balance. 
 
 Alcohol (opium and tobacco as well) is capable of 
 doing this, and then saddest results follow. 
 
 " I never should have yielded to him but for the 
 wine he persuaded me to take," is the wail of thousands 
 of young girls who had no wish to go astray. 
 
 ' ' I could not support the horrors of this life (in a 
 brothel), without the spirits I drink. It deadens my 
 feelings and then I don't care," is constantly said to 
 workers by these poor fallen sisters. 
 
 ' ' I never wished to sin with women till after I took 
 to drink," is the frequent confession of men who have 
 turned back from a sinful life. 
 
 ' ' One thing I know, you cannot carry the purity 
 reform till we fellows leave off drink," said a " society " 
 man to the White Cross advocate who was laboring with 
 him. 
 
 These are not isolated sayings, but repeated so often 
 that they may be taken as formulcB for great classes. 
 All through Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New 
 Hampshire, no sooner had prohibition been put into 
 operation than inmates of houses of ill fame began to 
 steal away, and soon the houses themselves to be closed, 
 and it is a constant sequence of prohibition. 
 
 i68 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Naturally the question will be asked, "How does 
 alcohol bring these things to pass? 
 
 For a clear understanding of the case it is necessary 
 to state what alcohol is. I use the words of the late 
 William B. Carpenter, of England, who to the day of 
 his recent death was the first toxicologist of the world. 
 He said, in an important and well considered lecture, 
 given in a scientific course before the Lowell Institute 
 in Boston, and afterwards printed : ' 'Alcohol is a deadly, 
 irritant poison, not a true stimulant. Through this nar- 
 cotic power it first attacks, then weakens, and, if the 
 alchoholic habit continues, destroys the will power." 
 
 Next, it constantly confuses reason and judgment. 
 
 Thirdly, it produces, especially if taken in the form 
 of malted liquors, an abnormal excitation of the sexual 
 desires. 
 
 If the last named result only took place, the higher 
 powers of reason and judgment might still point out the 
 only right and safe line of conduct, and that rudder of 
 the human being, will power, keep him walking in it. 
 But, alas, while evil clamors for indulgence, all these 
 higher powers are drowsy, and the fall comes. 
 
 When in conversation with a well known English 
 lady residing in Naples, she spoke of the very common 
 infidelity in marriage by wives of all classes, as well as 
 husbands, declaring that more than one-third of the mar- 
 riage vows taken were broken by husband or wife, or 
 both. I remarked that the universal habit of wine drink- 
 ing probably had some influence in bringing about that 
 state of affairs. 
 
 " Oh, no! It is the forced, loveless marriages," said 
 the lady. To that I replied, ' ' Suppose a young wife 
 has no love for her husband ; suppose she falls in love 
 with another man who has conceived a passion for her. 
 If neither drank they would yield to reason, decide to see 
 each other no more, and will power would hold them to 
 that course." When I had finished the explanation as 
 given above, the lady said, " I believe you may be right. 
 
 169 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 I have not understood before how alcohol acts on the 
 different powers of the mind. " 
 
 John Ellis, M. D., author of "Avoidable Causes of 
 Disease," "Deterioration of the Puritan Stock," etc., 
 says upon this subject: "I am satisfied that the chief 
 causes of the social evil . . . are the use of intoxi- 
 cating drinks and narcotics . . . and the fashionable 
 modes of dress among women." 
 
 A lady in one of our large cities whose husband is 
 a quiet but indefatigable worker among wicked fashion- 
 able young men, told me that again and again men said 
 to her husband, " If I am to live right I must give up 
 balls, society, everything. The wine, the undress of 
 the ladies, are too much for me every time. We rush 
 from the ball to the brothel. Every great ball prepares 
 a harvest for that sort of place." 
 
 An American gentleman who has recently spent 
 much time in France, observed very carefully the effect 
 of wine upon young, even little, children. As all child- 
 ren drink at table d'hote, he had plenty of opportunities 
 to observe. He saw so frequently a plainly marked 
 excitement in this direction that he became convinced 
 that wine is an important factor in bringing about the 
 early and common impurity in the country. In view of 
 these facts I appeal to the supporters of this Congress 
 who are not yet identified with the temperance move- 
 ment, to give us your voice and vote to remove this 
 potent stimulant to sexual vice, not only in our country 
 but all over the world. 
 
 Most of us must give ourselves mainly to one reform 
 only, but occasions frequently arise when one Society 
 can give countenance and help to another, and we can 
 always help each other at the polls. The W. C. T. U. 
 in all State and National legislation the Purity Associa- 
 tion ma.y undertake, will help you to the limit of our 
 power and influence, while every step we gain is break- 
 ing down the obstacles to your ultimate triumph. 
 
 170 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 And now, as I have not, in reading my paper, con- 
 sumed all the time I may fairly claim, I wish to bring 
 forward three points vital to the success of the Purity 
 Reform. 
 
 First : Woman was not created to be an adjunct of 
 man, but co- ordinate with him ; responsible to God only 
 jiist as man is, in doing God's work of peopling the 
 earth, subduing it, and carrying on the world. As long 
 as the opposite idea prevails, as soon as a man listens to 
 the seductions of sin he will feel at liberty to thrust this 
 being, created solely for his use, into whatever condition 
 pleases him best. Hence polygamy, concubinage, divorce 
 at the will of the husband alone, as in Japan, Egypt and 
 other countries, and hence harlotry. The co-ordination 
 of men and women must be taught to the young, es- 
 pecially to boys, everywhere and always. 
 
 Second: All boys must be taught that personal 
 purity of thought, word and act, all through life, is as 
 glorious and indispensable in man as woman, and as 
 obligatory upon him ; that he commits an irreparable 
 wrong not only against himself, body, intellect and soul, 
 but against his future wife and his descendants, down to 
 the third and fourth generation, if he transgresses the 
 law of purity. We must teach that it is as necessary for 
 a boy or young man to keep the marriage vow as well 
 before as after marriage. Girls must be taught the 
 frightful consequences to themselves and their children 
 if they marry impure men. 
 
 And thirdly: We must change laws and constitu- 
 tions, if need be, in order to punish adequately women 
 and men who make a trade of betraying innocent girls 
 into the clutches of vile men, veritable Minotaurs, fatten- 
 ing upon the bodies and souls of virgin girls. 
 
 Let us remember that the constitutions, whether 
 National or State, as well as the laws, were made by men, 
 have been amended and can be whenever advance in 
 thought, in knowledge, in justice or humanity demands 
 i t. The needed change is to forbid these persons to be 
 
 171 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 released on bail, between arrest and trial; if convicted, 
 not to sentence them to pay a fine, but to prison for a 
 term of years for the first offence, and for life on the 
 second conviction. 
 
 As it is now, the rich customers go bail, the rich cus- 
 tomers pay the fines, and the wretched panderer to vice 
 gets off with a few hours in the station house, a few hours 
 more in the court room, and with no pecuniary loss. 
 Should not this trade in virgin innocence be put on a par 
 with treason and murder, the two unbailable offences? 
 When you return to your homes to night, which would 
 be the more terrible news toj-ou: that a beloved daugh- 
 ter lay murdered in her saintly purity, or had been stolen, 
 sold to a villain ; you could not find her ; your eyes would 
 never see her more, but she would soon be sold again 
 into a brothel, there to lead a life of the most revolting 
 slavery this earth has ever known? If your daughter is 
 safe because of your standing in society, will not you 
 make the daughters of the poor man in the back street, 
 or of the poor widow who once lived next door to you, 
 or the poor girl who stands alone in the world, with no 
 man or woman to protect her, as safe as your own? 
 
 172 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MARTHA SCHOFIELD. 
 
 173 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 SLAVERY'S LEGACY OF IMPURITY. 
 
 By Martha Schofield Aiken, S. C. 
 
 This subject is so full of disagreeable, heart-sicken- 
 ing facts, that the truth should only be spoken to awaken 
 a desire to help the many who do not yet realize there is 
 in them a spirit " made in the image of God." 
 
 We who were called to labor in our country, dark- 
 ened by the blight of slavery, find the roots of impurity 
 so deeply imbedded in the animal nature that a genera- 
 tion has made little progress in weeding them out. 
 Thirty years of missionary work in the South forces the 
 conviction that the blackest shadow lies on the white 
 race. 
 
 Impurity robbed the slave of the sacredness of par- 
 entage; it destroyed the holiness of motherhood; it 
 separated those whom God had joined together and put 
 their children, created in the love of the Lord, on the 
 auction block for gold. It tore asunder the /«o;«^ ; it 
 rent in twain the families that God had set together ; it 
 robbed men of their divine right of fatherhood ; it gave 
 children to women whose fathers they would not have 
 chosen. 
 
 It whitened African blood without law or gospel. 
 Impurity was permitted and often encouraged between 
 sexes and colors in little children, and thus at an early 
 age they began to increase the slave market ; many a 
 young man's " first-born " was sold to the highest bid- 
 der. 
 
 The mother of six children when asked why her 
 mother had not taught her how to cut out a baby's 
 dress, or iron the clothes after washing them, replied: 
 ' ' My mother could teach us nothing ; she was too good 
 
 174 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 a field hand and too good a breeder ; she brought nine- 
 teen children to her master ; " then added in a most pa- 
 thetic tone, "she was only allowed nine days when we 
 was bom, then sent back to the field. An old woman 
 took care of us, sending the baby to the field to be 
 nursed. They made me marry at fourteen years of 
 age, told me nothing, and when my baby was bom I 
 wanted to kill it ; I wouldn't look at it for two days. I 
 hated it, cause of my pains." 
 
 The market value of every coming child was calcu- 
 lated as a dairyman does his Jerseys. 
 
 This terrible excrescence of animalism can only be 
 overcome by an education that teaches there is no sex 
 in sin, it is neither male or female, and that the Lord 
 holds a man responsible for his children whether he 
 feels accountable or not. 
 
 A sad part is that a profession of Christianity puts 
 little restraint on what too many ministers, especially of 
 the colored race, call ' ' nature. " This is the excuse in 
 the minds of wrong doers who have been well educated 
 in theological schools by money donated to ' ' educate 
 ministers." The ministry used as a stepping stone to 
 an education and with no struggle of mind or manual 
 labor to meet expenses, loose rein was given to inherited 
 tendencies. While studying for the ministry honest 
 labor and manual training would have curbed the sur- 
 plus of animal passion. Oh, that those good people 
 who gave of their substance had been iviser and re- 
 quired those being educated for the ministry to labor 
 with hands as well as brains. On i/iis rock many smart 
 men out of slavery have wrecked their own moral char- 
 acter and been followed by church members. Purity of 
 life was not a requisite to become a member of any de- 
 nomination in either race. When a young man was re- 
 proved (he was the son of a minister) for wasting his 
 money on women and asked if he was not a church 
 member he replied, " Yes, I grew up in Sunday School 
 and have studied my Bible well, but never found where 
 
 175 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Adam and Eve were married, yet they had children." 
 He was asked if he knew what Jesus said. "Yes, that 
 was adultery with another man's wife, but these women 
 ain't married — got no husbands." This, with many 
 worse facts, proved to us that the Bible is often used to 
 cover and lessen the responsibility of sinning. It is a 
 two edged sword in the hands of babes, and it takes 
 courage to warn regarding the possible wrong of giving 
 it to children or to men with minds not developed and 
 trained to rule the animal nature. The rebound of 
 slavery left two races to guide themselves by feelings 
 instead of principles. 
 
 There are no young lives in America that have as 
 much to contend with as the young colored women, often 
 pretty and attractive and more solicited when they can 
 read and write notes for appointments, or tales of ' ' un- 
 dying affection," and have been under refining in- 
 fluences. 
 
 We stood by the coifin of a beautiful girl of twenty 
 years, whose rich English father had died suddenly and 
 the property he left her colored mother, since dead, 
 lessened in the lawyers' hands. Her boarding school 
 knowledge and inherited refinement (father and grand- 
 father white) added to her attractiveness. We looked 
 on the still face and felt she had been called with her 
 babe to "go and sin no more." Then arose within us 
 a strong pity and compassion, with yearning to help the 
 young white men who were sharers in her shame, 
 whose arms had caressed her and whose money had 
 decked her body and paid for the costly coffin. 
 
 In an interview with the white clergyman where 
 they attended church, and oiiering to help save them, 
 sons of respectable parents, he said, ' ' nothing we could 
 tell would equal what he knew." 
 
 The communion bread and wine had been offered 
 in white churches by men who led colored school girls 
 from the path of virtue, and most of the men in the 
 congregation knew it. 
 
 I 76 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 What minister dare touch the sin of slavery and re- 
 main in the South during its existence ! Free speech of 
 the truth of impurity is- still barred and bolted by cus- 
 tom and inheritance, while the messages of the Lord 
 wait for utterance. 
 
 Did these things end with slavery? No! no! no! 
 The trail of the serpent is everywhere. A Northern 
 teacher had to write to a public official, saying a certain 
 young woman was a teacher in her school because, he 
 had made a vile proposition when she went to the court 
 house on business about the land she had earned. That 
 official moved in the best society. One cannot conceive 
 the feelings of modest, retiring, educated and refined 
 colored women who know they are never safe from the 
 insults of white men, or the temptation to a life of ease, 
 luxury and a comfortable home, often with an affection 
 that lasts for years, for the fathers frequently support 
 and educate their children. 
 
 The pitiful part is that the best families are not yet 
 awakened to the shame of such wrongs. First-class 
 lawyers have been known to go to a colored man in a 
 campaign and say, ' ' I know you are my half brother 
 now I want you to vote for Mr. ." 
 
 There is a darker side yet, fulfilling the truth of the 
 words that the sins of the fathers shall be visited on 
 their children. It does not saj' on sons only, and 
 daughters inherit from fathers and have become moth- 
 ers of babes whose fathers were mulatoes. These girls 
 were often in the care of men house servants or coach- 
 men, and after the birth of the child it was given to a 
 slave woman and both put in the market. It is unneces- 
 sary to multiply cases or give more startling facts ; the 
 social evil is written everywhere in the color of the 
 children born since the war. The city schools 
 are bleached and most of the boarding schools whitened 
 with it. 
 
 The stain of this Legacy of Impurity will outlast 
 the bondage of body and stripes to the flesh. 
 
 177 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Rays of light are coming in by the active work of 
 the women in that clarifying organization, the Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union. In their broader intel- 
 ligence and aroused abilities they are sharing a weari- 
 ness of so much talk and preaching about keeping race 
 purity. They know what enemy is in the household 
 and through them it must be cast out. Their work 
 combined with the educational efforts to lift colored 
 women to a higher wifehood and holier motherhood is 
 one of the means. The still greater need and only safe 
 building for the future is to teach boys — yes, boys — the 
 danger and the wrong, and lift men to the responsibility 
 and nobleness of fatherhood and to respect all women. 
 
 The men are slow to recognize that as church mem- 
 bers and professing Christians, their own lives must be 
 pure, and on combined effort depends the blotting out of 
 the darkest legacy ever left by one generation to 
 another. 
 
 178 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 REV. A. H. LEWIS. 
 
 179 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 THE SACREDNESS OF FATHERHOOD. 
 
 By Rev. A. H. Lewis, D. D. 
 
 God has absolute power to give life. All creating' 
 centers in Him. He has conferred infinite honor and 
 infinite responsibility on man, by giving him power to 
 re-create and perpetuate his kind. 
 
 Fatherhood is a most sacred function. In this life 
 alone its exercise is fraught with measureless results for 
 good or evil ; considered in view of the endless life on 
 which all men have entered, the possibilities and results, 
 are beyond conception or computation. The ignorance 
 and indifference which abound among men — otherwise 
 well informed — concerning fatherhood and its obliga- 
 tions are startling and criminal ; while the wickedness 
 which degrades this function to the low level of animal- 
 ism is a shameful badge of degradation. 
 
 It is a sad commentary on this ignorance and 
 indifference that men lead in social impurity, regardless 
 of their higher duties and holy responsibilities. They 
 \ furnish the money which creates the commercial power 
 / of this evil. Enough will be offered upon the altar of 
 lust in this city to-night to build many churches and 
 relieve thousands who are in distress. The fires 
 of animalism turn the forces which belong to pure 
 fatherhood to bitterness and ashes. The history of 
 social vice is the history of depraved manhood. Under 
 the false and cruel ' ' double standard " of morality 
 which has shielded men and trampled on women, men 
 have been the greatest sufferers as well as the greatest 
 sinners against themselves, their sisters and the God 
 of purity. There are now at least three fallen men to 
 every fallen woman. In the sight of God these men 
 are "lost ones," quite as much as the women are. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Prostituted manhood and outraged fatherhood are 
 among the darkest stains in the history of the ' ' social 
 evil." To call it the "degradation of manhood" would 
 be more appropriate. To claim that it is a necessity 
 for the protection of virtuous womanhood against the 
 animalism of men is an insult to all manhood and to 
 fatherhood. 
 
 Science has fully demonstrated the value of father- 
 hood in fields lower than those which men occupy. The 
 world accepts these conclusions of science, and places 
 high commercial value on fatherhood in horses, cows, 
 chickens, and poodle dogs for foolish women to fondle. 
 Race horses and fox hounds must be "well born;" how 
 much more immortal men! If earth-born fatherhood 
 is thus valuable, how more than priceless is that by 
 which men project themselves through time and the 
 eternities for good or ill? Oh ! the everlastingness of 
 results. 
 
 In the largest sense, fatherhood includes mother- 
 hood. Parenthood is co-re-creation. Much is said of 
 the sacredness of motherhood, and men demand purity 
 in wives and mothers as a first and never-to-be fogotten 
 factor. It is only just and logical that as much be de- 
 manded of men. This we do demand, and on this 
 demand we base all pleading for the faithful recognition 
 of "The Sacredness of Fatherhood." 
 
 DEFINITION. 
 
 Under God, fathers are subordinate creators of im- 
 mortal life and eternal destiny. God instituted mar- 
 riage, monandrous and monagamous, when time was 
 young and Eden was sinless, that human life might be 
 kept strong and pure in continuous perpetuation. 
 Through this divine endowment man's creatorship in- 
 volves body and soul, all being and all destiny. Through 
 it all generations link and mingle in enduring unity. 
 The heart throbs of other centuries are still felt in our 
 own, and ours will mingle with those of generations yet 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 unborn. Character and destiny are ever attendant on 
 fatherhood. Thus is that law true — so glorious in 
 obedience, so terrible in disobedience — which the Finger 
 of Fire wrote on Sinai, ' ' Visiting the iniquities of the 
 fathers upon the children to the third and fourth gen- 
 eration of them that hate me ; and showing mercy unto 
 thousands of them that love me and keep my command- 
 ments." In tte presence of such truth we can better 
 understand the deeper meaning of the words, ' ' No man 
 liveth unto himself." 
 
 PREPARATION FOR FATHERHOOD. 
 
 Ideal fatherhood, such as the dawn of the twentieth 
 century ought to see, begins with perfected physical 
 life. To be valuable for fatherhood a horse must be 
 a "magnificent animal." So must a man. This is 
 especially true as to everything which touches that form 
 of life we call "nervous force." Whatever impairs this 
 unfits for fatherhood. Hence the shame and sin of 
 bestial lust. Hence the crime of men against them- 
 selves and their children in the use of alcohol, tobacco 
 and all like poisons; the wickedness of placing the 
 pleasures of an animal indulgence over against the 
 demands of fatherhood. The question is not whether 
 men intend to wrong themselves or their children. It 
 is not a matter of purpose, much less of option. The 
 law of cause and effect works ceaselessly, whether we will 
 or not. If it were not imperious the best results could 
 not come. Because it is imperious evil results will 
 follow from evil causes. "Whatsoever a man soweth" 
 both he and his children must reap. Men must give to 
 the future what they possess. They must transmit 
 what they are. A man never escapes from himself. 
 The ideal father is the ideal upward looking and upright 
 walking animal, the true Antkropos, and not the lust- 
 ful beast. The earthly dwelling place of the immortal 
 one, which has so much to do with character and soul 
 development, should be well bom. Narcotized nerves 
 
 182 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 and lust-poisoned bodies cannot furnish fit fatherhood 
 for that which is highest and best in each succeeding 
 generation. 
 
 Why is it that whiskey and tobacco must resort to 
 lust-provoking pictures to quicken trade? Why must 
 these put a premium on vileness in order to succeed, 
 more than bake shops and meat markets do? The pic- 
 tures which accompany the cigarettes that are tainting 
 the fountain of fatherhood in the boys of to-day are fit 
 counterpart to the nameless symbols which defiled the 
 streets of Pompeii, when the pagan vileness of decaying 
 Rome was at its worst. This terrible harvest is enough 
 to appall the friends of purity, without considering the 
 awfulness of those diseases which lust entails and per- 
 petuates. 
 
 "^URE SOUND MENTALITY. 
 
 The ideal father is not until the " magnificent animal " 
 becomes the thinking and reasoning man. The quality 
 of intellect goes with fatherhood as surely as physical 
 characteristics do. Fatherhood gives trend to thought, 
 as it gives contour to features and color to eyes. Hence 
 no man is at liberty to be content with low intellectual 
 powers or attainments. He is bound to make the 
 most of himself and for himself for sake of those who 
 may be born to him through fatherhood. He should 
 seek that which is highest in thought, richest in intellect 
 and noblest in conception touching all things, all ques- 
 tions, all duties. To be indolent and non-thoughtful is 
 to fall below all real manhood. To be content with 
 mediocrity is to be worthy of condemnation. To labor 
 continually that he may attain higher heights of knowl- 
 edge and of intellectual culture is the least a man can 
 do, if he would be true to his possible mission as a 
 father. 
 
 THE WORSHIPING IMMORTAL. 
 
 Body and physical life, mentality and intellectual life 
 are only the foothills which lead toward the mountain 
 
 183 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 top of ideal fatherhood. This mountain top is reached 
 when a God fearing, trath seeking and humanity loving 
 spirit posesses and sways the whole man. Whatever is 
 noblest in purpose, richest in purity and holiest in en- 
 deavor belongs to fatherhood, and is demanded by it. 
 This demand is above ' ' creed " and party. It is above 
 computation in value and beyond question in its im- 
 perativeness. If a man could forget himself and be 
 indifferent to his own destiny, he must not forget his 
 children and his children's children. If he could be 
 careless of body he must be mindful of the eternities 
 which await him and his. Strong and clean physically, 
 rich in culture and nobility intellectually, reverent and 
 Christ-loving spiritually, the ideal father stands nearer 
 to God in fatherhood than in any other relation. 
 
 THE SPHERE OF FATHERHOOD. 
 
 When the morning stars sang the first wedding 
 march in the sinless Eden, God set the bounds of father- 
 hood and motherhood within the sacred temple of 
 monandrous and monagamous wedlock. To seek father- 
 hood otherwise contravenes the highest laws of human 
 life and relationship. To incur the unfitness and degra- 
 dation which come through promiscuous lustful indul- 
 gence is a crime from which every noble man will 
 shrink. 
 
 Judged by the highest law, the lust-indulging man 
 ought not to become a father. He has no right to put 
 weights on body and soul which his innocent child must 
 carry through weary eternities. 
 
 We talk of the glory of motherhood. Art puts the 
 aureole upon the head of the Madonna; this is well. 
 But fatherhood has equal glory. When a pure husband 
 knows that another heart is beating beneath the heart of 
 his wife, that another life belonging equally to both is 
 preparing to step into full birth, that he has thus begun 
 to project himself into the history of all life and all time, 
 then as never before he begins to put on the crown 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 of manhood, and to take part with God the Everlasting 
 in the work of creation ; then the angel who writes the 
 "vital statistics" of the universe places his name 
 among those who have entered the sacred temple of 
 Fatherhood. 
 
 Men, you who are already fathers of sons, bow your 
 heads while God grants you new annointing, that you 
 may fulfill your mission thus well begun by teaching 
 your sons their high and holy place in the universe and 
 among men. Let no false delicacy keep you from 
 revealing to them, as the years demand, the sacredness 
 of those wondrous powers which are to fit them for co- 
 creatorship with the Universal Father in heaven. 
 
 Young men, you to whom fatherhood is yet to come, 
 begin anew from this hour that preparation which will 
 enable you to look upon your first born with thanks- 
 giving rather than regret. Prepare yourselves for the 
 divine mission, the matchless honor and the endless 
 destiny which lie enshrined within the portals of your 
 waiting fatherhood — high, holy, sacred fatherhood ! 
 
 185 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE NATIONAL PURITY CON- 
 GRESS. 
 
 FROM THE "committee ON THE PURIFICATION OF THE 
 
 PRESS," OF THE BALTIMORE YEARLY MEETING 
 
 OF FRIENDS, PARK AVENUE. 
 
 By Pauline W. Holme. 
 
 In presenting this report of our Committee in the 
 midst of as important and interesting papers as are 
 claiming the attention of this Congress to-night, a sense 
 of the value of every moment of time compels brevity. 
 
 In 1889, during our Baltimore Yearly Meeting of 
 Friends, a very general concern was felt in the Women's 
 Meeting that the greatest care might be taken to guard 
 the young against improper reading. In this connec- 
 tion the influence of the daily press, which is felt in 
 every home and is so important a factor in moulding 
 the character of our boys and girls, was considered, and 
 as was recognized its power to elevate our people in 
 virtue and morality, by ever preserving a high, pure 
 tone in its delineation of facts, or to degrade and debase, 
 by pandering to the demands of the lower elements of 
 society, it was deemed advisable to appoint a committee 
 to co-operate with the noble minded among our editors 
 and journalists in the endeavor everywhere to obtain a 
 purer public press. That committee was appointed 
 and for six years has continued its labors with unabated 
 zeal. 
 
 During the first year, an appeal pleading for the 
 omission of details of vice and crime and other objec- 
 
 i86 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 PAULINE W. HOLME. 
 
 187 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 tionable items from our daily papers, was sent by them 
 to 79 editorial organizations of the United States and 
 Canada, from whom so numerous and hearty responses 
 were received that the committee were encouraged to 
 pursue their work. Having been reappointed the fol- 
 lowing year, they presented the needs for this work to 
 more than 400 editors and publishing associations. 
 Each year a printed report of the work has been circu- 
 lated. These reports, with various appeals, have been 
 sent to about 4,000 editorial oifices. The personal re- 
 plies received and the various editorials promulgating 
 these pure principles, give evidence that the simple 
 efforts of this small committee are already bearing 
 fruit. 
 
 The committee elicited the co- operation of some of 
 our most prominent educators and other influential 
 citizens by obtaining the signatures of more than 100 
 well known college professors and teachers, doctors, 
 ministers, lawyers and leading business men to an ap- 
 peal for the exclusion of detailed and sensational reports 
 of the evil doings of the day, and all immoral or ques- 
 tionable advertisements from our newspapers. A copy 
 of this appeal and the signatures was sent to every 
 newspaper office in our State. 
 
 We also sent a copy to leading reformers in other 
 States, desiring them to do for their own locality a 
 similar work to that begun in Maryland. We have also 
 presented our plans of work to other Yearly Meetings 
 of Friends, t'"* the annual conference of the Methodist 
 and the Unitarian clergy and to many ministers of the 
 various denominations in Baltimore. They have at 
 once recognized the importance of these endeavors and 
 have heartily endorsed them. 
 
 We have also communicated our efforts to the Na- 
 tional Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and to 
 National and International Leagues and Press Clubs; 
 and through their resolutions endorsing the action of 
 this committee our work has been reported not only to 
 
 1 88 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 the journalists of America, but it has been brought to 
 the notice of the European press. 
 
 Our experience with editors, from whom we have 
 invariably received the most courteous consideration 
 and such endorsements as encourage us to continue our 
 endeavors, leads us to this conclusion : 
 
 If those who deplore the standard of the public 
 press would raise their voice against the clamor for ex- 
 citement and sensationalism, and uphold the hands of 
 those worthy journalists who are endeavoring to raise 
 the standard of public opinion, they would help make 
 way for a better day in journalism. There is a work 
 for all. The demand for sensation is imperative, and 
 the first seeds of morbid desire and impure sentiment 
 are often sown in the mind of the innocent and ignorant 
 by the details of the evil doings of the world, so vividly 
 portrayed in the newspapers that daily enter the home. 
 Let parents and all educators note this danger and 
 unite with other good people in an earnest effort to 
 maintain a pure press. 
 
 Each subscriber has the right to call the attention 
 of the editor to what he deems objectionable in his 
 paper, and this privilege, wisely exercised, would doubt- 
 less be very effective in raising the standard of the daily 
 press. Too often the perusal of the vivid descriptions 
 of sinful conduct has enkindled in the young of weak 
 character latent evil propensities; or an improper ad- 
 vertisement has opened the door to a corrupt life. Then 
 what more worthy undertaking for purity workers ! 
 
 It is with this feeling that our cause is one that we 
 have ventured in this brief manner to present our work 
 to-night to the National Congress of the American 
 Purity Alliance. We realize that this cause of purity, 
 in the interests of which we are assembled, can be fur- 
 thered in no way more rapidly than by the efficacy of a 
 pure public press; while an impure press can blight the 
 noblest efforts of our best workers. Therefore we ap- 
 peal to this powerful organization, whose influence is 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITV CONGRESS. 
 
 SO potent and extended, to include among its many 
 laudable endeavors the promotion of this worthy cause 
 by helping to banish those sensational sheets which 
 tend to sow broadcast seeds of impurity and immorality, 
 and by sustaining and aiding those who are endeavoring 
 to make the press an educator and source of pure enter- 
 tainment. 
 
 1 yo 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 DR. ELIZABETH BLACKWELL. 
 
 191 
 
FIFTH SESSION. 
 
 ENGLISH EXPERIENCE AND PURITY WORK. 
 
 By Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. 
 My Friends: 
 
 I would gladly be with you on this important occa- 
 sion, viz., the first meeting of the National Purity 
 Congress of the United States. But as this is impossi- 
 ble, I hope you will allow me to offer you some of 
 the experience gained in England, which may be of 
 service to the Purity movement now growing up in the 
 great New World. 
 
 I have spent the last twenty-six years in England, 
 taking an active part in the important moral movement 
 which has grown up there, and have seen some of the 
 causes which have brought it about. At the same time 
 I have watched the growth of what is called free love 
 and free divorce in the United States. I have thus 
 learned to recognize the important effect exercised by 
 law, /. e., by human laws, upon the relations of men 
 and women; and I increasingly realize both the diffi- 
 culty of the problems before us and their fundamental 
 character. 
 
 I see how necessary it is that thoughtful men and 
 women of the sa ne race but of varied experience, on 
 the two sides of the ocean, should unite in seeking a 
 wise solution of this vital problem of our sexual rela- 
 tions. I trust that out of this important Congress 
 active, permanent committees may be formed, includ- 
 ing both men and women, who will seriously study 
 the various branches of this great question of Purity. 
 These include the sexual education of the young, the 
 questions of fornication and promiscuous intercourse, of 
 marriage and divorce, of police regulation and State 
 
 192 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 legislation. By the fomiation and union of such active 
 committees a great social force would be formed to 
 develop and enforce the application of the principle 
 of equal justice. 
 
 ENGLISH EXPERIENCE. 
 
 Among the potent causes of moral deterioration in 
 England is the English law of divorce. It is as long 
 ago as 1858 that the present unequallaw was established 
 by Parliament as the law of the land. 
 
 This new law practically denied the unity of the 
 moral law by its unequal condemnation and treatment 
 of men and women, for it made adultery a criminal 
 offence in women but not necessarily an offence in men. 
 It was a direct attack upon the sanctity of the family 
 relation. 
 
 The injustice thus taught to the rising generation 
 during thirty-eight years by human law bore its inevi- 
 table fruits in a deterioration of social morality. This 
 was shown in 1865 to 1868, when the iniquitous " Con- 
 tagious Diseases Acts," dealing with female fornicators, 
 were passed by Parliament. 
 
 Gradually, however, the sense of justice, which 
 seems to be inherent in our slow Anglo Saxon race, 
 was aroused by the gross injustice of these acts and the 
 scandals that arose in their application, and twenty-six 
 years ago an arduous struggle began, which ended in 
 the abolition of these last bad laws in 1886. 
 
 During this long and intense struggle for the repeal 
 of the "Contagious Diseases Acts," the relations of men 
 and women were subjected to a popular criticism, such 
 as has never occurred before in the history of mankind, 
 for they were brought before the judgment of the two 
 halves of the human race— women as well as men. 
 
 It was then perceived that the ' ' Contagious Diseases 
 Acts " were a symptom and a result of a false and 
 dangerous error that permeated society. This error was 
 the belief that it is possible to maintain a double 
 
 193 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Standard of sexual morality in any country that claims 
 to be a Christian country. It was clearly seen that the 
 false doctrine of one law for women and another law for 
 men must be exposed and swept away, and the truth 
 established that men and women of the same race must 
 be guided by identical moral principles, if the progress 
 of advancing civilization in that race is to be maintained. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE SOCIAL PURITY MOVEMENT. 
 
 On the realization of this fundamental truth, viz., 
 the unity of the moral law, began that active effort in 
 its defence which is now known as the So cial Purity 
 Movement. 
 
 The first Society, under the title of the "Social 
 Purity Alliance," was formed in 1875 by the banding 
 together in a public organization of some of the most 
 active men and women opponents of- the ' ' Contagious 
 Diseases Acts." 
 
 From this apparently insignificant beginning this 
 )fight_for_4iiat^e has graduallv extend ed into every 
 civilized country, until to-day we are able to rejoice in 
 this noble Congress, the latest and m ost hopeful de velop- 
 ^lent of that grea t transformin gTruth — the unity of the 
 moral l aw. 
 
 STEPS OF PROGRESS. 
 
 In the past ' ' Contagious Diseases Acts " contest, it 
 was especially necessary to protect women from the short- 
 sightedness of one sided legislation, and maintain the 
 sacredness of potential motherhood. 
 
 Now, however, in the new crusade of purity we are 
 in addition called on to defend the honor of men and 
 maintain the sacredness of fatherhood. It has become 
 urgently necessary to expose the gross materialism 
 which can believe in no spiritual power higher than the 
 physical instincts — a materialism which would resort to 
 ca.iniibalism were there no other way of satisfying the 
 imperative instinct of hunger. But we, recognizing 
 
 194 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 the equal nobility of the masculine and feminine 
 natures, are called on to defend men from the aspersions 
 cast upon them by their own sex. 
 
 Young men are now taught the false physiological 
 •doctrine that the biological difference in the structure of 
 the sexes is so great and so unequal that the male can- 
 not be guided by the same high law of self control as the 
 female. 
 
 This false and dangerous error is now accepted and 
 promulgated by "men of the world," by many physi- 
 cians, legislators, professors of moral science, and even 
 by clergymen and women tutored by them. We, as 
 purity workers, deny this atheistic doctrine. On the 
 contrary, profoundly respecting the noble work which 
 men are called on to perform in the world, we reject the 
 assertion of the fatal subjection of men to such false and 
 unworthy theories. We believe that men equally with 
 women possess strong souls as well as bodies. We de- 
 clare that will and conscience are not chimeras, but_are 
 intended to direct tke__growth of the hunian organiza- 
 tion, physical as w ell as me ntal. We state that it is a 
 phj^iologicaFfalsehood that chastity must be injurious 
 to health ; and we maintain that it is an insult to the 
 human male, as well as a blasphemy against our com- 
 mon nature, to assert that men are dependent upon the 
 selfish use of women for the maintenance of their indi- 
 vidual physical health. 
 
 SOUND PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 Physiology, which includes biology, when intelli- 
 gently Studied with unprejudiced consideration of all 
 the factors involved in the problem, proves conclusively 
 the following important truths : 
 
 1st. The parallel physical and functional structure 
 in the two halves of the human race. 
 
 2d. The equally powerful moral force of sexual 
 attraction in those two halves of the race. 
 
 195 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 3d. The indispensable influence of the parental rela- 
 tion in the gradual elevation of the race. 
 
 Through these truths of physiology we learn the 
 important practical lesson that in neither half of the 
 race is the exercise of the creative faculty indispensa- 
 ble to the maintenance of individual physical health, 
 whilst at the same time its exercise is essential to the 
 continuance of the race. We learn, also, from physi- 
 ological and social observation, that the rational exercise 
 of the parental function is a precious means of human 
 development in both men and women. 
 
 These three great biological truths, viz., individual 
 independence, race necessity, and social development 
 through parentage are essential Christian truths. They 
 form the strong foundation of our purity work. 
 
 It will be observed that they centre around the 
 great fact of parentage as their determining principle. 
 They demonstrate to our intelligence that the exercise 
 of our creative powers must be guided by their relation 
 to the responsibility of parentage. We must grow into 
 the perception that it is the abuse of a great trust to 
 subordinate the higher to the lower use of this trust. 
 
 In all our efforts as purity workers we must seek to 
 harmonize these three biological facts by their rational, 
 i. e. , their religious adaptation to the divine order of 
 growth. 
 
 In seeking enlightenment respecting education, mar- 
 riage, divorce, legislation, these vital subjects must all be 
 brought in their practical applications to the tribunal of 
 these essential facts. 
 
 THE CAUSE OF SEXUAL EVIL. 
 
 The disorder at present existing in the special re- 
 lations of men and women is owing to our failure to 
 subject the most powerful attraction of sex to the 
 enlightenment derived from the higher law of parent- 
 age. For the preservation and advancement of our 
 race it is absolutely necessary that the narrow impulse 
 
 196 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 of individual selfish indulgence should be enlarged and 
 exalted by thought for others and by enthusiasm for the 
 advancement of humanity. 
 
 We learn from the records of past history, as well as 
 from the direful evils of the present day, that sexual evil 
 lies at the root of _alljiational decay. 
 
 miin the spirit of reverence for the race that the 
 first necessary instruction to the young should be given 
 at the important epoch of puberty. 
 
 THE LAW OF PROGRESS. 
 
 As all permanent national progress centres around 
 the family group, which is the social element, the Divine 
 Law of progress requires that each factor in that group 
 shall receive the consideration which is needed for its 
 healthy development. This power of healthy develop- 
 ment constitutes the necessity, or fundamental "rights," 
 of each individual. Only when these necessities are rec- 
 ognized and provided for will a noble and progressive 
 parentage of the race be possible. 
 
 Now the sacredness of motherhood has always been 
 recognized to a certain extent and in a more or less con- 
 fused way, in civilized societies. The responsibilities 
 and rights of motherhood are being gradual ly esta blished ; 
 and women themselves are beginning, in Christian coun- 
 tries, ~to realize their rSpbnsibiHy as creaturesln "^zr>7? 
 relationship to the Divine Creator. 
 
 So also the sacredness of childhood and the protec- 
 tion due to its freshness, helplessness and unfolded 
 possibilities, are gradually taking possession of the adult 
 mind. 
 
 The weighty importance, however, of fatherhood, 
 that first essential factor in the social element, is not 
 studied in our day with that profound consideration that 
 advancing science requires. The continued power of 
 fatherhood, in its mental as well as physical potency ; its 
 effect on gestation ; the mighty magnetic and moral influ- 
 ence of the father in the wonderful work of promoting 
 
 197 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 the advent of a human being ; the indispensable influence- 
 of the father as well as the mother, in infancy, childhood 
 and adolescence, — all these facts involved in the sacred- 
 ness of fatherhood have not yet received that reverential 
 and careful consideration that God, speaking through 
 nature, demands for it. 
 
 Our children now come, too often, half orphaned 
 into this world, and fatherhood too generally is regarded 
 as a temporary and comparativelyjrresponsible or insig- 
 nificant/act. 
 
 This slower consideration of the full meaning of 
 fatherhood seems to be inevitable. In the gradual emer- 
 gence of the human race from the rough and hard 
 conditions of savagery, the male has necessarily been the 
 strong and brave physical pioneer of progress, protecting 
 and dominating the female, on whom the wonderful but 
 hidden burden of creation seemed especially to rest. It 
 was inevitable that in this division of the world's work a. 
 certain amount of arrogance on the part of the protectors, 
 to the protected should grow up, before the higher reali- 
 ties of the spiritual life were unfolded. We see this quite 
 unconscious arrogance transmitted through the ages. It 
 appears in every department of life. It is observed even 
 in our religious teachers, from Moses to Compte. It 
 makes the one divine life and direct teaching of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ stand out in striking contrast, as a prophecy 
 of the future, presenting the ideal towards which we 
 must reach forward. 
 
 It is the brightest feature of the present age that this- 
 narrow selfhood is giving way to the large and joyful 
 hope of free co-operation, as we see here to-day, when 
 men and women become true_fellow;Work ers for t he 
 manifestatiQa-and-advancemen t of divine or der. 
 
 SYMPATHETIC JUSTICE. 
 
 The ideal of Christian justice is sympathetic justice. 
 This is the latest and divinest development of the human 
 mind. It requires that the individual (or the community) 
 
 198 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 that seeks to be just should enter into the life of his 
 neighbor, as if it were his own experience. He must 
 realize the limitations, the temptations, the special con- 
 ditions of environment of his neighbor, as well as the 
 higher object of life and its ideal, before a just practical 
 judgment can be reached. Just judgment between men 
 and women cannot be made until a sympathetic appreci- 
 ation of each half of the race by the other half is gradually 
 attained. 
 
 The law of Christian or sympathetic justice must 
 be applied to each factor in the social element (man, 
 woman and child) if the family group is to grow up into 
 the strong creator of a healthy race. 
 
 The needs of the man, the woman and the child 
 must be sympathetically studied. The man must learn 
 to realize the mighty force of love which, germinating 
 in the womanly nature, may grow into wisdom under 
 natural laws of development. The woman must learn 
 to respect the strong, active force of men, which will 
 grow into wisdom when permeated by the unselfish 
 power of love 
 
 THE ROOT OF PURITY. 
 
 I have spoken of the unjust divorce law of Eng- 
 land. It is a subject on which English public senti- 
 ment is gradually maturing. It is a subject on which 
 we shall gladly learn from wise American thought. But 
 we cannot abolish one injustice by inflicting another; 
 and this would be done by introducing the laxity of di- 
 vorce existing at present in the United States — a laxity 
 which dangerously imperils the sacredness of the family 
 relation. 
 
 My own strong belief at present is that no true solu- 
 tion to the various problems which now surround the 
 sexual question can be found until we learn to realize 
 that virginity on entering upon the marriage relation is 
 as obligatory on young men as on young women. 
 
 199 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 In both it is virginity of soul, as well as body, that 
 is required. We must realize this need in education; 
 and education begins before birth. 
 
 It is for this reason that I have ventured to call at- 
 tention to that all-important aspect of this subject, 
 which seems to me involved in that great force — the 
 Sacredness of Fatherhood. 
 
 Virginity is essential to true marriage. It is a 
 realm of infinite possibilities. It includes reverence, 
 self-dominion, unselfish thought for others and recogni- 
 tion of the sacredness of parentage. 
 
 It is only when the boundless ocean of love that ex- 
 ists unexercised in virginity finds its rich expression in 
 the race that childhood will be redeemed from orphan- 
 age. 
 
 Any one who has thrown away this rich endowment 
 of the human being, has in so doing desecrated or 
 trifled with the health of body and soul. Such an one 
 is unfit for marriage unless and until by repentance, 
 expiation and redemption, the lost potency has been 
 regained. 
 
 The preservation of the purity of our youth, their 
 growth from innocence into virtue, is the ideal towards 
 which our thought and practice must tend. It is in the 
 light of this ideal that all our practical measures must 
 be studied. 
 
 Strength, Beauty and Love lie enfolded in this 
 sacred human endowment of Purity. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 REV. S. S. SEWARD. 
 
 201 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESv^ 
 
 PURITY— HOW PRESERVED AMONG THE 
 YOUNG. 
 
 By the Rev. S. S. Seward, New York City. 
 
 Man is born neither good nor evil. His mind is 
 not like the printed page, which must always bear the 
 impress of what is stamped upon it, and which cannot 
 be changed for better or worse without destroying its 
 identity ; but like a blank page, upon which he may, under 
 God write such characters as he chooses, whether pure 
 or impure. Although the sexual instinct is strong, and 
 when once aroused difficult of restraint, it is as much 
 under our control, with the Divine aid and the use of 
 wise methods, as any of the other appetites of the body. 
 If this is not so, there is no remedy for the evil, and 
 ' ' we are of all men most miserable. " If it is so, our 
 task is simple — to discover the remedy and to apply it. 
 
 In order to preserve the purity of the young, and 
 in this way of the race, we must begin in the earliest in- 
 fancy. Every mother should use the utmost precaution 
 to make sure that her child, be it boy or girl, does not 
 handle himself. This care should begin as soon as his 
 hands are free. Even at that early age there is a cer- 
 tain pleasurable sensation connected with this habit, 
 that may seduce the child, if I may use so strong a 
 term, without any instruction from others or sin on his 
 part. Sometimes the contamination comes through 
 thoughtless servants, sometimes through innocent play- 
 mates ; but more frequently it is due to the excitement 
 of the parts through contact with the clothing. But 
 whatever may have been the cause, I can bear testi- 
 mony, from the confidences that have been reposed in 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 me in my pastoral capacity, that many an impure and 
 unhappy life has been begun in this manner. The 
 mother who does not use every precaution to protect 
 the little ones committed to her care against this 
 danger is guilty of criminal neglect. For this 
 purpose the clothing should be so arranged as to guard 
 against it, and all causes of irritation avoided. At night 
 the child should be dressed warmly about the shoulders 
 and arms, and taught to sleep with its hands outside 
 the bed clothes. Its mind should be imbued with a 
 horror of handling itself, and the little hands should be 
 punished if they do. If it becomes necessary to commit 
 the child to the care of nurses, or to others than the 
 mother herself, she should spare no pains to make sure 
 that no wrong habits are fostered or permitted. 
 
 This is the first duty. The next is to guard the 
 child, as soon as it grows old enough to associate with 
 other children, against impure suggestions. To this 
 end the mother should always know where her children 
 are and with whom they are associating. She should 
 select their playmates with as much care at this tender 
 age as she would the society of her grown up daughters. 
 If any improper conversation has been had she should 
 be able to discover it. For this purpose she should re- 
 tain the implicit confidence of her children, and teach 
 them never to indulge any confidences with others that 
 they cannot share with her. This done, a few simple 
 questions at "the mother's hour," when the evening 
 prayer has been said and the little ones are being tucked 
 away in their beds, will suffice. If anything wrong has 
 happened during the day, the innocence and ingenuous- 
 ness of childhood will not be able to conceal it, and with 
 a little effort the whole story can be brought out and 
 the antidote applied. I am sure I need not dwell upon 
 the importance of this kind of precaution. Many of us 
 know by experience, and others will not need proof or 
 illustration, that the most subtle and deadly poison that 
 is ever infused into the human mind is infused in this 
 
 203 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 way and at this time. It is the more subtle and deadly 
 because it is received in the innocence of the child's 
 heart and implanted deeply in his nature. In later 
 years he begins to know the nature of his own thoughts, 
 and resents, or at least questions, an evil suggestion. 
 But at this innocent and uninstructed period of its life 
 the child does not " know to choose between good and 
 evil," and imbibes evil suggestions as readily and as 
 deeply as good ones. In this way children of both sexes 
 have been known to teach each other the crime against 
 nature, while it is not to be doubted that their mutual 
 and stolen conferences on these secret and to them oc- 
 cult subjects, are not unaccompanied by that extrava- 
 gance of the imagination which is characteristic of the 
 childish mind in other respects. It is impossible to 
 over-estimate the deadly nature of the virus that is in- 
 sinuated in this way, or to measure correctly the pollu- 
 tion that must be repented of in adult life if the victim 
 ever comes into a salvable state. It sets the imagina- 
 tion on fire. It arouses longings and desires that are 
 all the more dangerous because vague and ill-defined. 
 It causes the mind to wander and destroys all fixity of 
 pursuit and purpose. It renders purity of thought out 
 of the question, and oftentimes leads to lewdness of 
 conduct. It takes away the innocence and frankness of 
 the girl as well as of the boy, and produces a kind of 
 false modesty that is painful to witness. It renders a 
 pure and holy love of one of the sex impossible, and 
 brings the man and woman together, even in marriage, 
 on the plane of the flesh instead of the spirit. And 
 yet all this could be guarded against by a little wisdom 
 and self-sacrifice on the part of parents, God helping 
 them ; and this I believe to be one of the most import- 
 ant and needed lessons that parents can learn. The 
 marriage relation and the parental instincts were not 
 created merely that children might be born naturally, 
 but spiritually; and parents who neglect to learn all th-e 
 subtle dangers to which their children are exposed, and 
 
 204 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 to guard them against them, are derelict in their high- 
 est duty. 
 
 Thus far I have dealt chiefly with preventive meas- 
 ures. Sooner or later it will be the privilege as well 
 as the duty of parents not only to provide their children 
 with means of protection within, but to guard them 
 against the infusion of wrong notions from without. 
 For this purpose it will be necessary to give them all 
 needed and proper instruction on these important and 
 vital topics. 
 
 We cannot say exactly when such instruction should 
 begin. It is impossible to lay down laws universally 
 applicable to all. As a general rule, it may be said 
 that as soon as a child, whether boy or girl, is likely to 
 be exposed to impure influences of which it is impossi- 
 ble for parents to have any knowledge, or against 
 which they cannot guard at the time — when, for in- 
 stance, the child goes to a large school where they can- 
 not choose or control his companions, or has frequent 
 opportunity for private intercourse with other children 
 of which they can know nothing — it is time for them 
 to take him into their confidence, explain to him as 
 much as he can bear of the nature and use of his sexual 
 organization, and ask him for his confidence in return. 
 Nor need there be any difiiculty about this. In com- 
 municating knowledge on this subject it is not necessary 
 that we should clothe our ideas with obscure figures and 
 far-fetched illustrations, for fear of contaminating the 
 minds of children. On the contrary, the air of mystery 
 may be carried so far as not only to obscure the truth 
 we wish to impart, but to arouse questions and suggest 
 conjectures that may produce the evil we are striving to 
 avoid. The sacred confidences of a mother with the 
 little one she loves better than her life, cannot easily 
 lead to wrong. The secret conferences of children with 
 each other, carried on with a great show of privacy and 
 many "hushes " and "don't tells," may have such an 
 effect. " The wicked walk on every side when the vile- 
 
 205 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ness in men is exalted. " (Psalm xii. , 8.) But coming 
 from a mother actuated by a no less holy purpose than 
 the salvation of her child from impurity and lust, they 
 bring with them none but heavenly influences, all of 
 which will co-operate with her in her holy purpose. 
 Children are under Divine protection. " Their angels," 
 that is the angels who are associated with them, ' ' do 
 always behold the face," or understand the interior and 
 most loving purposes of, ' ' the Father in Heaven" 
 (Matt, xviii., 10); and they are by this means con- 
 stantly kept in innocent and chaste thoughts, unless un- 
 hallowed and filthy ideas and imaginations are infused 
 by some adverse influence from without. The Lord 
 and the angels will co-operate with us if we will co-op- 
 erate with them. 
 
 Such being the case the simple story of the egg and 
 the chick will serve to suggest to them how little chil- 
 dren are born; while the fact that with some animals, 
 like the colt or the calf, the egg is developed within 
 the mother, and not without, will solve the whole mys- 
 tery of their origin beyond all childish questions. This 
 simple story, coming from a father's or a mother's lips, 
 and accompanied with the sphere of holiness and purity 
 which, because of its marvellous analogy with spiritual 
 birth, is associated in the angelic mind with natural 
 birth, will be the most wonderful story the child has 
 ever heard. Not the slightest taint of impurity will be 
 associated with it in his mind. It will be regarded as a 
 sacred confidence to be shared with his mother alone, 
 and it will bring his life again into vital union with 
 hers. If told that he must never talk of these things 
 with others, and if there is anything that he wishes to 
 know he must come to those who love him best for the 
 information, he will respect the admonition; and with 
 continued care and affection on their part, his parents 
 may be sure that the impurities that he will inevitably 
 hear as he grows up will make little or no impression 
 upon him. 
 
 206 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 But the time will come, in the case both of the hoy 
 and girl, when they will desire to know more. When 
 that time comes the father should take the boys in hand, 
 and the mother the girls. And here again the simple 
 truth of the matter — the fact that the egg, which is 
 formed in the mother, must be impregnated with the 
 germ or seed that is formed in the father, and the latter 
 must be transferred to the former — will best answer the 
 purpose ; and this can be told in such a manner by a 
 wise and loving parent as to satisfy the mind without 
 suggesting a thought of excitement or passion. We 
 know that this can be done because we know that it has 
 been done, and because, so far from being impure, there 
 is nothing so exalted and holy as the things connected 
 with conception and birth. Besides this, the need for 
 such instruction as I am now speaking of will not occur 
 to the youthful mind until the rational faculties have be- 
 gun to be opened ; and when this is the case we can ap- 
 peal to the sense of right and wrong, the powers of self 
 control, and the responsibility to his Maker, which is 
 implanted in the mind of every rational being. 
 
 Certain it is that if the child has thus far been'" 
 guarded against improper habits and impure thoughts,*- 
 the holy lessons of a parent on such transcendent themes ^ 
 cannot be readily misinterpreted or misapplied ; while if 
 he is left to learn what he must learn sooner or later 
 from the tainted lips of playmates and companions, ac- 
 companied with many impure suggestions and vain im- 
 aginings, the result cannot but be disastrous. 
 
 The conclusion then is that two things are requisite 
 in order to preserve the purity of the young; first, that 
 parents should guard their children in infancy and 
 childhood against all contamination; and, second, that 
 they should give them all the information they need as 
 they grow up, 'and not leave them to gather their know- 
 ledge from less trustworthy sources. 
 
 But it will be noticed that in explaining these things 
 I have given but the barest outline of what seems to be 
 
 207 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 requisite. I have done this partly because it is all that 
 can be done in the limited time at my disposal, and 
 partly because it is all that would be proper in an as- 
 sembly like the present ; but principally because, after 
 all that can be said, we must rely chiefly on the good 
 sense, delicacy, tact and Christian spirit of the parents, 
 themselves. Those who will undertake this task with 
 the right motives, looking to the Lord for guidance, 
 cannot fail of encouraging results. If, however, more 
 information is desired, it can be obtained by reference 
 to any of a number of little books that have been pub- 
 lished for this purpose. But such books, excellent as 
 they are, should be used with caution. They should 
 never be placed in the child's hands, but their contents 
 should be filtered through the parents' minds and tinc- 
 tured with their spirit in order to come to the child with 
 authority and without danger of misconstruction. The 
 minister and physician may instruct the parents what 
 they should teach, but they should not, except in 
 cases of necessity, permit themselves to usurp the 
 parent's office. One of the first lessons we need to 
 learn is that the education of children in these 
 vital respects belongs in the providence of God 
 to parents, and that it is a responsibility they cannot 
 delegate to others. The truth regarding the genesis of 
 life can best come to us through those from whom we 
 derive our life. 
 
 Having given an outline of what seems to me the 
 best method of preserving the purity of the young, and 
 by this means that of the race, I trust I may be allowed 
 a few remarks by way of enforcement and stimulation. 
 
 1. It should be understood at the outset that the 
 child's mind is perfectly pure in the beginning. It is a 
 tablet prepared for the tool of the engraver, but as yet 
 virgin. The impression, too commonly entertained, 
 that the sexual nature in man involves a kind of moral 
 taint, into which we are all bom and from which we 
 cannot escape, is as false as it is degrading. It is an 
 
 208 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 impression that this Alliance has done much to dissipate 
 during the past year by the publication of its admirable 
 ' ' Medical Declaration Concerning Chastity ;" an achieve- 
 ment that would in itself be a sufficient vindication for 
 the existence of the Alliance if it had never done any- 
 thing else, and the moral force of which it is impossible 
 for us to overestimate. I am firmly convinced that if 
 the children of the rising generation should be fully 
 protected in the way I have indicated against the wrong 
 habits and ' ' evil communications " to which all are ex- 
 posed, they would grow up perfectly innocent and free 
 from all impure thoughts and desires. I am convinced 
 that this is true of boys as well as of girls ; and I am 
 convinced of it, not as a mere matter of theory or specu- 
 lation, but from facts that have come within my own 
 knowledge and the experience of others. I am con- 
 vinced that this more than any other passion is a slumb- 
 ering monster, that needs to be awakened before it be- 
 comes dangerous ; and that it is awakened, not only by 
 the bad habits into which children innocently fall, but a 
 thousand times more by the vague imaginings that are 
 excited by secret confidences and lewd and obscene con- 
 versations. Childhood is the season of germ planting. 
 The Divine injunction not to "despise" one of these 
 little ones was not spoken of them as individual beings 
 only, but of every childish state or experience through 
 which they may pass. Convince men in this skeptical 
 and leprous age that the child's mind is not in itself im- 
 pure, and that it can be defended against the inroads of 
 pollution from without, and you have done much to se- 
 cure the end in view. After all, Bob Ingersoll to the 
 ■contrary notwithstanding, health is more contagious 
 than disease, and life stronger than death. 
 
 2. But, on the other hand, it should be equally 
 well understood that our children are as liable to fall 
 into these evils as other children. While they are born 
 free from actual taint, they have a strong tendency to- 
 ward it, and have no inherent protection in themselves. 
 
 209 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 If we happen to belong co the middle or well-to-do 
 classes, the danger is even greater than with the very- 
 poor. Our children are more by themselves ; they have 
 more opportunity for improper conversation ; they are 
 left more to servants, and their appetites are more pam- 
 pered. The notion that because they are our children, 
 and seem to be innocent and unconscious in the pres- 
 ence of others, they do not need the utmost care and 
 watchfulness, should be guarded against as a tempta- 
 tion of the devil. This applies especially to parents, 
 who have escaped the dangers to which others have 
 fallen victims. While we rejoice that there is a heaven, 
 and that the way thither is made so plain that ' ' the 
 wayfaring man though a fool shall not err therein," we 
 must not forget that there is a broad and easy path that 
 leadeth to destruction, as well as a straight and narrow 
 one that leadeth to life. 
 
 3. In the third place we must disabuse our minds, 
 of all false modesty and shamefacedness with regard to. 
 our sexual nature — as a thing never to be spoken of ex- 
 cept with bated breath, nor thought of without a sense 
 of shame and guilt. On the contrary, we should learn 
 that because it has the highest end in view — the procre- 
 ation of the human race and the multiplication of the 
 heavens — and because it is the centre and source of the 
 highest and purest affections of which mankind is capa- 
 ble, it is the noblest endowment with which we are 
 gifted. In its creative power it is nearer the Divine 
 than any other gift of human nature. Instead of apolo- 
 gizing for it, we should be humbly glad, every man for 
 his manhood and every woman for her womanhood. 
 Instead of looking upon it as a kind of necessary evil, 
 we should learn, and should teach our children as soon 
 as they are old enough to understand, t hat it is not t he 
 . usebutt he abuse of our sexual nature tha t makes us 
 guilty ; and that consequently it is our highest duty to 
 consecrate it to. the heavenly purpose for the sake of 
 which it was designed. Here again a little wise in- 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 struction with regard to the Divine orig-in and high and 
 holy use of marriage will do more to correct the evils 
 of which we complain than any amount of repression 
 and denunciation. Let any young man (or young 
 woman) grow up minus the taint of a corrupted imagi- 
 nation SL-nAplus a true and exalted idea of his manhood 
 through a pure and holy marriage, accompanied by a 
 confident trust in the Lord for light and support, and 
 in his case the battle is more than half won. 
 
 4. Again it should be understood that this work of 
 preserving the purity of the young, and finally intro- 
 ducing them under the Divine auspices into a heavenly 
 marriage, is in the line of the Divine Providence, and 
 cannot fail to call forth the Divine approval and aid. 
 Bringing little children into the world and training 
 them for heaven is the highest use we can perform, to 
 which all other pursuits of life are subordinate and 
 intended to contribute. In this work we may be sure 
 of the Divine co-operation. The Lord has not left 
 us alone. ' ' All the angelic powers on high " are 
 on our side, and their influence is continually exerted 
 to strengthen and confirm right ideas as fast as we 
 implant them in the child's mind. It is from the angels 
 who are unconsciously associated with little children that 
 their innocence is derived, and they are in the constant 
 effort to preserve it. If parents would but recognize this 
 truth and take advantage of it with a believing faith, 
 there would be no such thing as failure. ' ' All things 
 are possible to him that believeth." 
 
 5. Finally, it follows from all that has been said 
 that this is the most fruitful field in which we can work 
 for the preservation of the purity of the race. It is an 
 old and trite saying that an ounce of prevention is bet- 
 ter than a pound of cure. This is doubly true with re- 
 gard to the social evil. No amount of legislation or 
 regulation can correct it, so long as our children are al- 
 lowed to grow up with tainted minds and corrupt 
 habits. It is idle for the churches to unite for the pur- 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 pose of closing houses of public resort, if the young 
 men of what are called the best families are permitted 
 to become the supporters of such places. If we would 
 succeed in the work of reform we must strike at the 
 root of the evil and not at its effects. We must begin 
 in our own homes, and in the secret chambers of our 
 homes - the nursery. What the world needs is a cam- 
 paign of education on this subject. Every minister 
 should be a true shepherd or leader of his flock in this re- 
 spect. Every physician should be the protector of the 
 young who come under his influence. Every wise 
 woman, above all, should be the helper of the less wise 
 or less favored. Not merely White Cross movements 
 for the instruction of the young men and maidens of the 
 land should be organized, but golden cross societies for 
 the stimulation of parents and the protection of infants 
 and little children. There should be if possible a uni- 
 versal federation of parents to stamp out not only all 
 glaring and open vice, so that it cannot appear before 
 the eyes of the young, but every secret sin and impure 
 communication among the little ones themselves; and 
 so to enable them to grow up as free from taint in this 
 world as we may imagine those do who have been trans- 
 planted in infancy to the other world. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 MRS. J. H. KELLOGG. 
 
 213 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRKSS. 
 
 PURITY AND PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 By Mrs. J. H, Kellogg. 
 
 Were there some spot upon this sin-shadowed earth 
 where impurity could not enter, or a time or an age in 
 the life of a child when temptation would not assail him, 
 then might responsibility with impunity lie, as it so 
 often appears to do, with a feather's weight upon the 
 parent's heart. But with vice everywhere prevalent, 
 the parents who hope to keep their children in the path 
 of virtue must be awake to their trust, studying to 
 understand the hundreds of different avenues by which 
 depraving influences and temptations may reach their 
 homes, and striving to increase the safeguards around 
 their children. They must face the fact that their 
 children, like themselves, are by nature sinful and liable 
 to stray into forbidden paths ; hence they must endeavor 
 to hedge up the way against evil by right training, by 
 the formation of correct habits and by the environments 
 of a pure home atmosphere. 
 
 Few other influences have such power to keep a 
 person in the path of rectitude as that of right home 
 training. Upon parents rests the responsibility of this 
 training. They stand before God as surety for those 
 human beings, made in His likeness, whom He has en- 
 trusted to their care. Parents may shrink from this 
 self-assumed responsibility, ignore it, shirk it, try to 
 delegate it to others, but it is still there — they cannot 
 escape it. 
 
 To train a child wisely, to develop within him a 
 strength that shall dominate over weakness, to inspire 
 in him such a love for that which is pure and good that 
 evil will be distasteful, is the duty incumbent upon all 
 parents. If, through their mistakes or those of their 
 
 214 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ancestors, their child has inherited a nature morbidly 
 suceptible to evil, ready to fall into temptation at the 
 slightest provocation, then is their responsibility indeed 
 Ifreatly increased ; then what special watchfulness and 
 care are needed to intercept temptation, to build up the 
 wrall within at the points were it is weakest, and to so 
 accustom the child to a pure moral atmosphere that he 
 cannot breathe freely in any other. Inherited tenden- 
 cies may be overcome or greatly modified by proper 
 training ; but it should not be neglected till the germs 
 of evil have sprouted and their roots become firmly 
 grounded, and the attempt be then made to crowd them 
 out. The evil should rather be preoccupied with good 
 seed, and thus the mischief -making seeds be prevented 
 from germinating. Says Dr. Talmage : ' ' Before they 
 sow wild oats get them to sow wheat and barley. You 
 will thus fill the measure with good corn, and there will 
 be no more room for husks." Herein lies one of the 
 highest responsibilities of parenthood, to so nourish and 
 cultivate right tendencies that the evil ones will be 
 choked out. 
 
 One of the chief reasons why so many homes are 
 saddened by the terrible revelation that a son or a 
 daughter has gone astray lies in the fact that parents do 
 not awaken to their responsibilities early enough in 
 the life of their children. They think, as they watch 
 their little one in its cradle, or guide its first faltering 
 footsteps, that when the child grows older their 
 responsibilities will increase ; but if for the present his 
 physical needs are well supplied, and the enjoyment of 
 his waking hours assured, it is all sufficient. All the 
 child's thoughts and tendencies are left to chance dur- 
 ing this susceptible period when every word he hears 
 and every act he sees may serve to influence his whole 
 life. In these impressionable years the seeds of both 
 good and evil take deeper root because the child is lack- 
 ing in the power of resistance which comes with later 
 years. If parents neglect to sow and tend the good 
 
 "5 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 seeds at the outset of life, while they are asleep to duty 
 the enemy will come and sow tares and weeds. If these 
 first germs of evil are allowed to take root and unfold, 
 it need scarcely be wondered that in later years rank 
 growths of sin should flourish in the soul and yield their 
 harvest in unchaste lives. The embryo man should be 
 started along the path which the man of mature years 
 ought to tread. 
 
 We are so accustomed to associate impurity with 
 some gross breach of moral rectitude, that the early 
 beginnings, the first steps, the little deviations, the 
 trifling words and acts, are overlooked and neglected. 
 The floodgates are closed against the great tempta- 
 tions, but the little drops which go to swell the mighty 
 river of impurity too often fall unheeded ; and yet these 
 little things — mere trifles they may appear to be — sum 
 up into a vast column, the total of which is appalling. 
 
 The change from virtue to vice is not a sudden 
 one. A long preparatory process goes on in the heart 
 before the individual commits open sin. Parents must 
 study to recognize the first indications of evil, and check 
 them at the outset. This they can only do by main- 
 taining the closest intimacy with their children, by 
 studying to know them and their needs, by keeping in 
 full sympathy with them — in other words, by ' ' living 
 with their children." This sympathetic relation must 
 begin with the very dawn of life, grow with the child, 
 and overspread with loving light his whole existence. 
 The wise parent who establishes such an intimate fel- 
 lowship with his children will find it one of the strongest 
 barriers against evil that could be erected. It will, 
 however, require much painstaking effort, trouble and 
 self sacrifice on his part to perpetuate such a relation, 
 for it must be continuous, not merely spasmodic, in its 
 nature. 
 
 The secret of so many parental failures lies in 
 their unwillingness to sacrifice the love of personal ease 
 and enjoyment, to set aside the demands of society, the 
 
 2l5 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 engrossing cares of business, or other of their own sel- 
 fish ends, for the sake of their children. It is so much 
 easier to turn the little ones out of doors to hunt up 
 their own amusements than to give up one's time to 
 their instruction and diversion ; so much less trouble to al- 
 low them to select their own companions than to accord 
 them one's personal companionship, that a danger, 
 ously large proportion of parents share the sentiments 
 of a mother who, when asked by a friend concerning the 
 welfare of her five little ones, replied: " I am so thank- 
 ful to have them out of the way that I don't trouble my- 
 self to find out where they are so long as they come in 
 for their meals at the proper time and are in in time to go , 
 to bed at night." Yet this mother, a prominent church ' 
 member, kept two servants, and was in nowise so ham- 
 pered as to be unable to give her children watchful 
 care. One shudders to think of the risk such parents 
 are carelessly and, perhaps, thoughtlessly taking, par- 
 ticularly when it is remembered that before the child 
 has reached the age of ten years the parents have done 
 half they will ever be able to do toward the formation 
 of its character. With this thought we turn again to 
 the magnitude of parental responsibility and the im- 
 portance of early beginnings. 
 
 Among those elements of character which, if early 
 established and firmly rooted, will help to antagonize 
 vice in later years, is self control. The boy who is 
 trained in childhood to intelligent self mastery over his 
 appetites and passions will grow to manhood strong to 
 resist the blind leading of impulse. Self control is not, 
 however, an innate instinct, but a quality that must be 
 cultivated by judicious training ; hence it is a matter 
 resting largely in the hands of the parents. Much of 
 the child's inability to govern himself in later years is 
 due to his mismanagement in infancy. It is so much 
 easiei to give baby what he cries for, to consult his in- 
 clinations and whims, than to make the effort necessary 
 to restrain and control him, that parents are very apt to 
 
 2 I 7 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 make the mistake of choosing that which will afford the 
 easiest course at the moment. The little one very soon 
 learns that he is master of the situation, that what he 
 cries for he will get, and so he cries for everything he 
 wants ; if the coveted thing is not immediately forth- 
 coming, he cries the harder. To his mind the act of 
 crying is the effort he must put forth to secure the de- 
 sired object, and so he increases his efforts in proportion 
 to the delay. He is only doing as best he knows how 
 just what he would be commended for in his struggles 
 to attain success in later years ; but he soon cries so hard 
 that he is unable to stop, and his parents begin to won- 
 der what can have caused their little one to exhibit such 
 * ' outbursts of temper. " 
 
 A recent writer upon babyhood asserts that children 
 do not exhibit temper until they have learned to be angry 
 either through seeing signs of ill temper in others or 
 through being unnecessarily thwarted in their natural 
 impulses. The little one was not angry when he began 
 to cry, he was simply putting to use the means he had 
 at command, which from previous experiences he sup- 
 posed would be effective in bringing about the result he 
 desired ; and when at first his eff rts seemed unavailing 
 he increased them until he became wholly excited and 
 unbalanced. If he is permitted frequently to bring him- 
 self into this condition, the habit of uncontrol will soon 
 take possession of him. The oftener he gets into such a 
 state, the easier it is to again lose control of himself. 
 All bad habits as well as all good habits gain force and 
 strength by exercise. Through thoughtless mismanage- 
 ment parents may thus foster a condition of uncontrol 
 which years of after discipline can never quite correct. 
 A parent who duly appreciates the great work that every 
 human being has to do in attaining self government will 
 assist the process from the very first by every means 
 within his power. 
 
 Self control can be made much easier for the child 
 by careful attention to his physical habits, particularly 
 
 218 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 as regards his diet. A child fed largely upon stimulat- 
 ing foods will be likely to have a fiery and excitable dis- 
 position. If by careful feeding his physical condition is 
 kept in an unexcitable state, the temptation to give way 
 to irritability is lessened, and self control made more 
 easy. While parents teach their children to do right, 
 they should make it as difficult as possible for them to do 
 ■wrong. Much of the child's ability to control himself is 
 ■dependent upon his physical condition. The will is un- 
 der the control of the nerve centres. The will inhibits 
 or restrains the action of the muscles and of the intel- 
 lectual organs just as other nerve centres restrain the 
 action of the heart. An unhealthy condition of the 
 nerves will therefore lessen the individual's power of self 
 control. Hence every cause productive of an unhealthy 
 or abnormal nervous condition should be sedulously 
 avoided. All hygienic measures, such as good, whole- 
 some food, plenty of sleep, proper clothing, and abund- 
 ant air and exercise, lend a most salutary influence to- 
 ward the upbuilding of self control. 
 
 One of the helpful measures to be used in early child- 
 hood where self control is yet lacking is a daily physical 
 ■drill. Training in Swedish gymnastics serves a most 
 admirable purpose in this direction ; it not only strength- , 
 ■ens and invigorates the whole body, thus giving tone to 
 the nervous system, but the variety of exercises at one 
 lesson necessitates close attention and quick voluntary 
 movements, thus disciplining the will in controlling the 
 muscles. Control exercised in one direction aids control 
 in other directions. Every child desires to be strong 
 physically because he sees how much greater enjoyment 
 and usefulness comes to a strong person than to a weak 
 ■one, and moral strength can be made to seem to him 
 quite as desirable as physical strength. Character influ- 
 ences character, and high ideals of control properly 
 presented to the young mind will greatly aid in the es- 
 tablishment of self government. But let parents bear in 
 mind that ' ' the highest in the child is aroused only by 
 
 219 
 
THE NATIOKAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 example," and that whatever lessons they desire their 
 children to learn they must themselves first learn. 
 
 Although self control is one of the first essentials to 
 be striven for as an anchor for purity in the young life, 
 it is not the only element the parent must seek to estab- 
 lish in the child's character. Impurity is so closely 
 interlinked with other sinful propensities that the only 
 sure immunity from evil comes from the right formation 
 of character in its entirety. Obedience, well learned, 
 lies in the path of self control. The more perfectly th& 
 habit of obedience to parents is fixed, the more easy it 
 becomes for the individual to yield to the behests of right 
 and duty. 
 
 The child who is taught to respect his own body as 
 the temple of the Holy Spirit, lent him for his temporary 
 use, to be returned pure and undefiled to his Creator, 
 will find it far easier to exercise self control in the use 
 of it. 
 
 Self reliance early taught will aid in making the. 
 child capable in self entertainment in wholesome and 
 profitable ways. The boy or girl who is wholly depend- 
 ent upon somebody else for entertainment and happiness, 
 who does not know how to spend a leisure hour profita- 
 bly, is in great danger. Such an one is easily led into 
 pernicious associations, and may only because of favora- 
 ble circumstances escape the path of ruin. 
 
 Often the danger which besets the pathway of the, 
 youth comes through a lack of training in industry; 
 through the neglect of parents to instill into the child's 
 character a love of work for work's sake. The child 
 must be occupied with something ; if he is not occupied 
 with good he will be busy with evil. " The idle hour 
 waiting to be employed, idle hands with no occupation, 
 idle and empty mind with nothing to think," these are 
 the great invitations to vice. To the child who has been 
 trained to love work idleness will not be pleasurable. 
 The boy or girl whose time is filled with wholesome occu- 
 pation will have little desire to loiter upon the street 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITV CONGRESS. 
 
 corners, frequent the parks and other pubHc places 
 where temptation so often assails the untaught, pleasure 
 seeking, indolent youth. Let parents reflect that 
 thoughtfulness of mind, stability of character and purity 
 of life are among the natural outgrowths of a training in 
 industry. 
 
 Another fountain from which springs the stream of 
 impurity, is the lack of a proper training of the appetite, 
 a failure to teach that its gratification is to be made sub- 
 servient to right and reasonable ends. The appetite, 
 like all natural instincts, is susceptible to education 
 both in a right and a wrong direction. This fact is often 
 unrecognized, and the child's appetite left to chance de- 
 velopment, which, far more frequent than otherwise, 
 leaves him subject to rather than ruler of it. Depraved 
 appetites are frequently inherited, but they are as often 
 ■created through lack of proper care and training. Purity 
 of heart is a condition quite incompatible with sensual 
 pleasuring of the appetite. Children allowed to eat at 
 all hours, to partake of unwholesome, stimulating food, 
 to overeat, to eat without need simply to please the taste, 
 are thus taught self gratification rather than self control 
 and are almost hopelessly placed under the dominions of 
 their lower natures. A love of appetite established in 
 one direction will be hard to restrain in others. 
 
 Not the least among the influences which tend to lead 
 boys astray is the acquirement early in life of a disre- 
 spect for womanhood. Laxity of parental discipline is 
 in a great measure responsible for this. The boy who 
 is permitted to trample upon his mother's authority soon 
 loses respect for her and, in time, for her sex. The 
 average boy judges air women by his estimate of his 
 mother and sisters. The discrimination so frequently 
 seen in families in favor of the sons soon leads them to 
 esteem their sisters lightly, and to regard all women as 
 inferior beings. In many households the daughters are 
 taught to wait upon the sons, and to make their own 
 wishes subservient to those of their brothers ; thus these 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Sons grow to manhood with the idea that women's chief 
 mission in the world is to minister to man's convenience 
 and pleasure. Two different standards of morality are 
 the outgrowth of the training in many homes. While the 
 daughters are carefully instructed in the ways of modesty 
 and virtue, the sons, instead of being taught from 
 earliest infancy that God intended them to go through 
 life just as pure as their sisters, are left to come 
 up as they may, with no training whatever, and their 
 first steps on the downward road are condoned by the 
 oft-repeated excuse, "Oh, he is a regular boy," thus 
 making a tacit distinction in the moral standard of the 
 sexes. 
 
 One of the greatest responsibilities of the parents 
 lies in the direction of imparting proper knowledge at 
 the proper time. The influences which children are 
 sure to encounter at school, upon the playground, along 
 the streets, and even in their own homes, makes it im- 
 perative that they be forearmed against danger by 
 being forewarned. To shield one's children from see- 
 ing or hearing evil is a matter of especial importance, 
 since it is true that ' ' by beholding we become changed ; '* 
 but ignorance is not innocence. Knowledge is power; 
 to be able to discern evil when evil comes unexpectedly 
 is a strong defensive armor against the wiles of Satan. 
 Shield them from contact with evil under every pos- 
 sible circumstance, but fortify them against sin by 
 that knowledge which shall make them in love with 
 truth and in fear of that which is impure and unholy. 
 
 The responsibilities devolving upon parents, if they 
 would have their children grow up clean and pure, are 
 indeed almost numberless. All along the way from 
 infancy to maturity, the way is so beset with pitfalls 
 that eternal vigilance is the only price of safety. 
 Parents must seek to cleanse the pathway which their 
 • children's feet must tread — to guard their associations, 
 their amusements and their reading— and to barricade 
 every possible avenue leading to evil. They must 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 themselves supply the proper conditions for upward 
 growth : then, through the grace of God, they may hope 
 to witness the development of a noble manhood and a 
 true womanhood upon the foundations thus carefully and 
 securely laid. 
 
 223 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MORAL EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG. 
 
 Bv Mary Wood- Allen, M. D. 
 
 Perhaps no moment in a woman's life is so full of 
 sacred joy as that in which she looks for the first time 
 into the face of her child. That little helpless bundle of 
 capabilities owes its life to her. From her it has re- 
 ceived many of its talents and tendencies. Upon her 
 depends very largely its moral and physical training. 
 Will she prove equal to the demand, is the question that 
 presses upon her with overwhelming force. To the 
 father the same query presents itself, yet in all proba- 
 bility not with the same force, nor in the same way. 
 His mind leaps forward toward practical success in ma- 
 turity, and sees in fancy the results of the training, 
 rather than the processes by which these results are to 
 to be secured. 
 
 Upon both parents, however, rests the responsibility 
 of the right moral training of the child, and neither can 
 shirk the duty, nor lay it off on the shoulders of some 
 one else, without great loss to themselves as well as to 
 the child. Certain phases of moral education they will 
 have no inclination to shirk. They expect to teach 
 honesty, truthfulness, consideration for the rights of 
 others ; in fact, all the principles of ordinary business 
 probity. But there is a field of moral training which 
 perhaps they shrink from entering, and that is the do- 
 main of sexual morality. While they desire that their 
 children shall grow up virtuous in life and pure in 
 thought, they hesitate about giving specific instruction 
 along these lines. They hope that by guarding them 
 as far as possible from evil companionship they may be 
 able to preserve their innocence iintil the demands of 
 actual life shall make information a necessity. The 
 
 224 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D. 
 
 225 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 child who is guarded only by parental watchfulness 
 from the acquisition of evil knowledge, finds that guar- 
 dianship only too easily evaded, and outside of its pale 
 he is greeted with voluntary proffers of the information 
 so sedulously kept from him by his parents, but clothed, 
 alas ! in the garb of vile words and shrouded with a veil 
 of evil mystery which stimulates his imagination and 
 arouses a prurient curiosity to pry still further into the 
 fascinating darkness. In all probability if the same 
 facts which he learns in a guilty and alluring manner, 
 and which conduce to evil thought and conduct, were 
 presented to him by parent or teacher as simple, scien- 
 tific truths, he would find in them no mysterious charm, 
 but the effect would be rather to strip them of their fas- 
 cination. This is no mere theory. Experience has 
 proven it to be true. 
 
 A father discovered that his little boys were being 
 taught certain physiological facts in regard to animal 
 life in mysterious and secret ways by other boys. 
 Taking the children openly to the place where they had 
 gone secretly, the father explained to them purely and 
 scientifically the matter they were so curious to investi- 
 gate, and from that moment the crude knowledge of 
 their childish companions lost its charm, and at the 
 same time the simple truth, told with the authority of 
 science and the purity of parental love, destroyed their 
 prurient curiosity. Perhaps few fathers would dare to 
 follow this example, but the result more than justified 
 to this father the wisdom of his course. 
 
 In this question of the moral training of children, 
 we must bear in mind the fact that we cannot keep 
 them in ignorance until we have come to the conclusion 
 that they are old enough to be instructed, and we must 
 also remember that their moral training begins in the 
 craale, and therefore its inception is in our hands. By 
 the habits of life with which we surround the infancy of 
 the child, are laid foundations of moral character. The 
 regularity of hours of sleep or of feeding has more 
 
 226 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 than a physical bearing; it is moral in quality. Felix 
 Adler says that "Regularity is not of itself moral, but it 
 conduces to morality. Rules may not be good, but a 
 life of unregulated impulse is always bad. " Those who 
 are taught, or allowed in childhood to yield ever to the 
 demands of the senses, be it only in so small a matter 
 as eating whenever the impulse seizes them, are being 
 weakened in will power, and are thus being unfitted to 
 cope with the stronger temptations of more mature 
 life. 
 
 The quality of food has also a bearing upon this 
 question. Foods which, by their stimulating and irri- 
 tating qualities, produce nutritive disturbances, may 
 also be responsible for local irritations which may lead 
 to the formation of bad habits. Many a child has con- 
 tracted evil habits simply by an effort to allay a local ir- 
 ritation produced by indigestion and its consequences. 
 The clothing of the child has its influence. By its 
 uncleanliness ; by undue pressure from improper con- 
 struction, or by being outgrown; by its tightness and 
 consequent production of pelvic congestions, it may be 
 the cause of physical habits which, in the beginning, 
 had no moral quality, but which come in time to be de- 
 cidedly immoral. 
 
 This is a phase of the subject which the thoughtful 
 mother will ever bear in mind. She will also not forget 
 that in the sacred boundaries of her own home may ex- 
 ist influences tending in the same direction. From 
 nurses and other servants, or from chance companions 
 whose visits may be brief and infrequent, may be 
 learned direful lessons of evil. 
 
 As the child develops in intellect he begins to 
 need something more than a careful guardianship, and 
 should have some direct instruction as to the sacredness 
 of his own body and the need of himself protecting it 
 from evil. This does not involve frightening him with 
 horrible delineations of the results of sin, but by arous- 
 ing a reverence for his bodily temple that makes him 
 
 227 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 instinctively shrink from the invasion of its sacredness, 
 even in thought. 
 
 It is unfortunate that while we are so hesitant in 
 regard to teaching openly the facts of sex, we are 
 unconsciously stimulating sex-consciousness, not only 
 among the older children, but even among the little tod- 
 dlers who, in all innocence, manifest an innocent fond- 
 ness for each other. I have in my possession a scrap 
 cut from a newspaper which says, ' ' Cards are out an- 
 nouncing the engagement of Master Willie Scott, aged 
 four, and Miss Mabel Perry, aged six, " and these babies 
 are taught to regard each other as lovers and future 
 husband and wife. What comprehension of the dignity 
 of love or sacredness of marriage can they have in ma- 
 turity, when they have been given these ideas as toys to 
 be played with in their childhood ! And this is not the 
 only result of this teaching, but we are laying founda- 
 tions of immorality and breaking down bulwarks of 
 protection. We are teaching the boys that they may 
 treat girls with familiarity if the girls will permit it, 
 and we are teaching the girls to permit it in childhood, 
 and then later we try to undo this teaching, too often 
 with little effect. Boys and girls also imbibe the idea 
 from our foolish jests that there are no other relations 
 between persons of opposite sex except that of senti- 
 mentality, and a condition arises which furnishes one of 
 the most perplexing problems to the teachers of our 
 public schools. These teachers testify that foolish sen- 
 timentality pervades the schools, and boys and girls are 
 so constantly engaged in writing love letters, quarrel- 
 ing, making up and holding clandestine meetings, in 
 fact are in such a state of emotional excitement that 
 study is interfered with. 
 
 At first this might seem an argument against co- 
 education, but in fact it is not the association in the 
 school room that is at fault, but the suggestion through 
 the jests and teasing of friends at home. The girl in 
 convent or a girls' school, is apt to invest young men 
 
 228 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 with ideal virtues, but the glamour vanishes when she 
 comes to compete with them in practical school life, and 
 this would be still more completely the case were she 
 permitted, outside of school, to associate with them on 
 terms of frank comradeship. While we claim to be ex- 
 ceedingly reticent concerning the fact of sex, holding it 
 to be indelicate to teach scientifically the truths of the 
 body and its powers, we are actually stimulating to a 
 consciousness of sex which embarrasses the association 
 of young people with each other. What we need is by 
 accurate information concerning the peculiar physical 
 endowment of men and women to create a reverence for 
 true manhood and womanhood which forbids the ques- 
 tion of sex to intrude itself into all the relations of life, 
 but allows it to remain in retirement until it is called 
 upon in the sacred precincts of the home, to confer the 
 gift of earthly life and so add, not to personal gratifica- 
 tion, but to the power, greatness, virtue and glory of 
 the nation and of the race. 
 
 The facts of sex can be taught so simply that the 
 child receives the knowledge with as little embarrass- 
 ment as he does instruction concerning plant life, but 
 the consciousness of sex arising from constant allusions 
 to some mysterious relation between boys and girls 
 must of necessity be accompanied with undue stimula- 
 tion of the very feelings which we as parents should de- 
 sire to repress. 
 
 The flirtations and loverings of school children are 
 often but the prelude to a deeper intimacy which per- 
 haps ends in shame and ruin. The revelations of im- 
 morality which sometimes come to the surface in our 
 public schools, are but the floating straws that indicate 
 the tendency of the deep, strong current which bears 
 them along. When we learn of some child whose sin 
 has found him out, we spring upon him with ferocity 
 and call him a reprobate ; when in fact he has been, by 
 our silence and our jests, led to do the evil for which we 
 condemn him, and which condemnation he does not 
 
 229 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 understand but instinctively feels is unjust. And lie is 
 right in this feeling. 
 
 The child has a right to understand himself in all 
 his functions, and it is but an intuitive knowledge of 
 this right that has led him into the evil for which we de- 
 sire to punish him. What he needs is not punishment, 
 but proper instruction. I know that there are those 
 who believe that the information concerning himself 
 and the facts and purposes of sex will lead him still 
 more surely into criminal conduct. But facts do not 
 support this theory. If the information incites to evil 
 it is because of its manner of presentation. 
 
 Take, for example, the little child who comes to his 
 parents with that intense longing to know concerning 
 himself which is the problem of the philosopher as well 
 as the child. "Whence am I?" he asks. With blushes 
 and confusion the mother bows her head and answers 
 with an evasion, and the little questioner intuitively 
 feels that his coming into the world is surrounded with 
 shame, and it is no wonder that he no longer questions 
 mother, but listens with avidity to the story told by 
 some wiser child-companion, which, in its impure 
 thought, explains to his immature mind the cause of his 
 mother's embarrassment. From that time the thought 
 of fatherhood and motherhood is tainted. There is to 
 him no sanctity in the relation of husband and wife, but 
 he feels that there is something in the home that is hid- 
 den from view because too vile to bear open inspection, 
 and it need not be wondered at if later in life love and 
 marriage are only names that cover thoughts of lust and 
 self-gratification. 
 
 But, supposing at the time that the innocent child 
 came with his honest query, the mother had taken him 
 in her arms and with holy words had told him of the 
 days when he had been part of her own life, when held 
 in her close and protecting embrace, he had grown with 
 the beating of her heart and been motilded by the touch 
 of her thought, when her love had enfolded him and her 
 
 230 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 prayers had created the tenor of his own thoughts, when 
 through long days she had dreamed of him and worked 
 for him, and prepared for his coming, and finally had 
 gone down into the vale of physical pain, perhaps even 
 to the gates of death, with a brave courage to welcome 
 him to his independent earthly existence, ah ! do you not 
 believe that the holiest of feelings would have been 
 aroused in that child's heart, and henceforth to him 
 mother would be the tenderest, holiest word, and love 
 and marriage be symbolic of unselfish loyalty and most 
 sacred responsibility? When the sweet story fell upon 
 the ear of one child, he threw his arms about his moth- 
 er's neck, exclaiming, "Now, mamma, I know why I 
 love you best of all the world." 
 
 Later, in the mind of the little philosopher a query 
 arises which may strike new terror to the heart of the 
 parent not prepared to meet it — the question of the 
 duality of parentage, but even here we need not stand 
 appalled. Through plant -life and lower animal forms a 
 child may learn reverently to think God's thoughts after 
 him, and come to see that only through the plan God 
 has chosen to perpetuate life would it be possible to 
 bind humanity together in bonds that defy time and 
 change, and even death itself; bonds that not only 
 unite human beings to each other, but bind them to 
 the great Creator himself. What force would the 
 words, "Like as a father pitieth his children," or "As 
 one whom his mother comforteth," have to us, if we 
 were not endowed with creative power and the divine 
 prerogative of parentage? Life takes on a new meaning 
 when we realize the dignity of parentage and the 
 " Fatherhood of God " becomes comprehensible to our 
 finite minds through our own yearning over those to 
 whom we have given life. 
 
 As the boy and the girl approach the height of ma- 
 turity, they pass through the mysterious land of the 
 "Teens", at the gateway of which is conferred upon them 
 the gift of creative power. This gift is accompanied 
 
 231 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 with the wondrous unfolding of powers, physical, men- 
 tal and moral. The body develops into greater beauty 
 and perfection ; new avenues of thought are opened and 
 new and strange emotions begin to sway the youth with 
 tremendous force. The whole organization seems to be 
 in a state of revolution, and the result is often shown 
 morally in willfulness, perversity or hysteria, and physi- 
 cally in the appearance of languor, or of inherited ten- 
 dencies toward some special form of disease. This, 
 period may justly be styled a climacteric, which Web- 
 ster defines as "A critical period in human life in 
 which some great change takes place in the human con- 
 stitution. " 
 
 Marion Harland says: "All climacterics are at- 
 tended with more or less peril. The transition period 
 in religion, in government or in the individual is one 
 which calls for wisest care and vigilance. " 
 
 Parents usually comprehend that the girl at this 
 period needs especial care and watchfulness, even if 
 they do not give her special instruction ; but few parents 
 recognize that the boy needs as much sympathy as the 
 girl — indeed, even more, for the internal forces are 
 stronger and work with greater energy while the tempta- 
 tions from without are more numerous and powerful. 
 One can scarcely wonder that the boy falls into im- 
 morality when we recall these few facts, and add to 
 them the fact of his ignorance and the common idea, 
 that he is not to be held to the standard of absolute 
 purity which is raised for the girl. 
 
 To the boy trained according to ordinary methods, 
 the endowment of virile power means only an added 
 means of personal enjoyment, and he is led to believe 
 that he is most the man who soonest calls into activity 
 the new power. He has never heard of the sacredness 
 of manhood. No one has ever suggested to him that 
 the new forces are his as a trust for future generations ; 
 that upon him and his use of his manly power depends 
 any part of the honor, virtue, health, courage and value 
 
 232 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 of the race. In his mind the whole question of sex is 
 covered with a veil to be lifted only by unclean hands, 
 its mysteries to be investigated only with impure 
 thoughts and vulgar glances. Dr. Blackwell asks: 
 "What practical steps can be taken to secure the truer 
 standard of morality which will remodel the education 
 of youth ? This weighty question," she adds, "can 
 only receive a complete answer as the intelligence of 
 our age awakens to the fact that the attainment of the 
 principle of sexual morality is the fundamental princi- 
 ple of national growth. The great truth to be recog- 
 nized is the fact that male as well as female purity is a 
 necessary foundation of progressive human society. 
 The necessity of upholding one moral standard as the 
 aim to be striven for must become a fundamental article 
 of religious faith. Above all, parents must realize the 
 tremendous responsibility which rests upon them to 
 provide for the healthy growth of the principle of sex 
 in their children." 
 
 This dictum of the experienced physician indicates 
 that the education of the child must begin in the minds 
 of the parents. If they accept God's plan for the per- 
 petuation of life as pure and holy, and recognize in it 
 the way by which selfishness is to be banished and love 
 in its truest sense to be made the governing power in 
 every human life, they will perceive that a true under- 
 standing of the relations of men and women is one of 
 the most important safeguards of public virtue. We 
 often declare that the stability of the nation rests on the 
 sanctity of the home; but the sanctity of the home rests 
 on the right understanding of what Dr. Blackwell calls 
 the ' ' noble principle of sex ; " and this right under- 
 standing is only to be obtained by pure, scientific 
 instruction given to the young by their rightful guard- 
 ians, instead of leaving them to acquire inaccurate, 
 insufficient and unclean information from young com- 
 panions, whose knowledge has come to them through 
 
 233 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 polluted channels, and is spiced with vulgar witticisms 
 and served in secret. 
 
 This duty of parents and teachers we may indeed 
 shirk, but in so doing we lay up "wrath against a day of 
 wrath " for ourselves, our children and the nation. We 
 see how our silence is accompanied with secret vice, 
 with shame, the degradation of manhood, and the ruin 
 of womanhood. We see that with lack of knowledge 
 vice flourishes, or is even legalized, and outraged moth- 
 erhood and unprotected childhood bear witness to our 
 national degradation. Could frank and scientific instruc- 
 tion be productive of greater evil? 
 
 But if our young people were so wisely taught that 
 they would recognize the advent of creative force into 
 their own lives as a sacred trust, to be guarded as 
 jealously and worn as nobly as the diadem of the 
 monarch, we should have a mighty force working 
 toward regeneration through right generation, and we 
 should thereby be storing up a constantly increasing 
 inheritance of righteous tendencies, making each gen- 
 eration stronger, purer and more capable of self control. 
 
 This is the path we even now mark out for woman's 
 feet to tread. Why should there be a dark and danger- 
 ous by-path in which we imagine young men may walk 
 without condemnation ? Have we so little confidence 
 in our sons that we believe them incapable of the 
 highest virtue ? Our failure to hold them to the highest 
 standard arises largely from the mistaken opinion that 
 the physiological needs of man abrogate moral law, and 
 the lad is early led to believe that the use of his powers 
 is a test of his manhood. He needs to know that Ten- 
 nyson expressed scientific truth as well as poetry, when 
 he wrote, 
 
 ' ' My strength is as the strength of ten, 
 Because my heart is pure." 
 
 An able surgeon has left on record his advice in 
 these words: " The boy has to learn that to his imma- 
 
 234 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ture frame every sexual indulgence is an unmitigated 
 evil, every illicit pleasure a degradation to be bitterly 
 regretted. It is of vital importance that boys and 
 young men should know the danger of straining an 
 immature power, and that the only safety lies in keep- 
 ing even the thoughts pure. " 
 
 A continent life is enforced in rigid training for 
 athletic sports as one of the means of attaining the 
 greatest possible amount of vigor and endurance. This 
 fact observed in ancient times is confirmed by modem 
 experience. It is well known that the early ancestors 
 of our vigorous German race guarded the chastity of 
 their youth until the age of twenty-five years as the true 
 method of increasing their strength, enlarging their 
 stature and enabling them to become the progenitors of 
 a vigorous race. 
 
 With right instruction, then, as to the possibility of 
 self control, of the subjugation of passion to the higher 
 faculties, marriage takes on a new aspect, and no 
 longer appears as an opportunity for license but as an 
 opportunity for the development of the strongest 
 powers of self government and the dominance of un- 
 selfish love over unreasoning self indulgence. 
 
 If there is ever a need of moral training of the 
 young, it is when they are about to enter into that 
 relation which involves not only their own happiness 
 but the possible welfare of future generations. Ought 
 we who have learned, perhaps through sad experience, 
 how our lives, our thoughts, our habits, even in the far 
 away years of youth, have recorded themselves on the 
 tendencies of those who draw their dower of life from us, 
 ought we to keep silence through any false delicacy and 
 allow these our children to make the same blunder, to 
 perpetuate still further our mistake ? 
 
 I know there are those who believe that instruction 
 along these lines will awaken and arouse prurient curi- 
 osity and do harm rather than good. But an observa- 
 tion of years has convinced more than one thoughtful 
 
 235 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 person that pure, reliable knowledge is the surest safe- 
 guard of virtue, and that all topics which have a bear- 
 ing upon the welfare of the young may be safely 
 discussed with them. 
 
 Young people are more sensible than we sometimes, 
 give them credit for being. They are desirous of knowl- 
 edge, and that is a commendable longing. They would 
 prefer authoritative instruction if it were obtainable, 
 and failing that they take what is so eagerly offered 
 them by the emissaries of vice and feel no shame in so. 
 doing. Why should they feel ashamed? Moral con- 
 fusion has met them at the very threshold of responsi- 
 ble life. Sex is an incontrovertable fact ; its impulses, 
 thrill them, but society gives no absolute standard in 
 regard to it. For the one sex it marks out an unmis- 
 takable path of purity, but for the other it leaves much 
 leeway. True, the boy hears much moral preaching 
 but he sees much immoral practising; so he comes to 
 believe that the sin is not in doing but in being dis- 
 covered. He is not trained out of his childish and 
 ignorant innocence into a wise and manly virtue. His 
 theories of right and wrong are vague ; his inexperience 
 will not permit him to reason from cause to effect, and 
 thus understand the consequences of wrong action. 
 Those who could instruct him are silent, and those who 
 proffer information are careful to say nothing that 
 will warn him, and so he stumbles along blindly, swayed 
 by impulse, and, perhaps, by premature use of his im- 
 mature powers, leaves no space between puberty and 
 estabhshed virility for storing up vital force; but, 
 ignorant of possible results, finds himself in early man- 
 hood, much to his surprise, a physical wreck, morally 
 contaminated, and suffering under the remorse of his 
 own conscience and the condemnation of those through 
 whose silence he drifted ignorantly into the wrong. 
 
 Moral training is not complete also if it does not 
 cover the explanation of the responsibility and dignity of 
 parentage. If the influence of parents upon their chil- 
 
 236 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 dren began after those children had begun their inde- 
 pendent existence it would do to postpone the instruc- 
 tion of parents until then; but we know that even in 
 •childhood the individual in his habits is forming the 
 characteristics of his maturity. We are beginning also 
 to understand that at the same time he is creating the 
 characteristics of his posterity. What harm would there 
 be in his knowing this while yet he has time to modify 
 Ms own life and thus tend to modify the tendencies of 
 his posterity? What harm would there be in his realiz- 
 ing as fully as possible that the wild oats he sows in his 
 youth will probably be harvested more abundantly by 
 his descendents? What harm for the girl to compre- 
 hend that her heartless flirtation may make it easy for 
 her daughter to slip over the boundaries of virtue and 
 sink in the gulf of shame? What harm that both hus- 
 band and wife should understand at the very outset of 
 married life that the momentary feelings of their hearts I 
 at the initial moment of another's life may taint that ' 
 life with impulses that shall make it criminal in its 
 tendencies or impart those upward impulses which shall 
 give it the characteristics of a regal nature? 
 
 Such possibilities are too vast, too full of an over- 
 whelming power to be left to chance ; too sacred to be 
 sullied by evil thoughts, too dignified to be the subject 
 of jest. 
 
 ' ' Love must come, " said Mrs. Jameson, ' ' and 
 Death must come — Love and Death, the Alpha and 
 Omega of existence, the two points upon which God's 
 universe turns." Which is fraught with the greater 
 burden of weal or woe — Love or Death? Death is the 
 gate of personal future life. Love opens the gate of 
 individual existence, earthly and eternal, for the genera- 
 tions that follow us and carry on with them the change 
 our lives have created for them. 
 
 The maiden's whispered "yes" we may hear re-( 
 •echoed in the stentorian tones of a hundred men who! 
 bear on heart and brain the impress of her obscure life, 1 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 her hidden thoughts, long, long years after her body has. 
 turned to dust. 
 
 O, friends, this subject of moral training is so broad, 
 so high, so deep, so wide that it involves the whole 
 of life. It is found not only in the lessons at the 
 mother's knee, but in the school, the pulpit and th& 
 press. It is found in the statute books where laws, 
 remove or strengthen the safeguards of virtue. We 
 may keep silence, but myriads of voices are proclaiming- 
 truth or falsehood in regard to purity. In city streets, 
 or country lanes, in field or forest, in market or court, 
 from printed page or the book of nature the facts of 
 sex are being taught. Shall we turn away in confusion 
 and leave the world of innocent childhood to learn these 
 inevitable lessons from the evil book or impure com- 
 panions ? or shall we, believing in God, proclaim His 
 truths with dignity and purity, not abashed before 
 the pure eyes of our children because the "truth has 
 made us free," and God himself is justified through His 
 works ' 
 
 238 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 REV. J. B. WELTY. 
 
 239 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE NEED OF WHITE CROSS WORK. 
 
 By Rev. J. B. Welty, Secretary of the White Cross Branch 
 
 OF THE Purity Department ok the National Woman's 
 
 Christian Temperance Union. 
 
 The object of the White Cross Branch of the Purity 
 Department of the National W. C. T. U. is clearly de- 
 fined in article second of the constitution, and is as 
 follows : 
 
 "To elevate opinion respecting the nature and 
 
 claims of morality. 
 
 ' ' To maintain the law of purity as equally binding 
 upon men and women. 
 
 ' ' To protect women from wrong and degradation. 
 
 ' ' To preserve the purity of society. 
 
 ' ' To shield the young and weak from temptations 
 to impurity. 
 
 ' ' To advocate the highest standard of manhood 
 and womanhood. 
 
 ' ' To uphold in their integrity the institutions God 
 has appointed for social relations." 
 
 Is there any need for special work along these 
 lines? 
 
 There is ; and there never was a time m the his- 
 tory of our country when such work was so much 
 needed as now. This is evident from the following 
 considerations : 
 
 1. The fundamental institutions appointed of God 
 for social relations and the laws regulating them are to- 
 day boldly assailed, and that at many points. 
 
 Marriage between one man and one woman, which 
 is the only foundation for well ordered society, is under 
 discussion and is adversely criticised. By many it is 
 disparaged, underestimated, dishonored, travestied and 
 robbed of its sacred sanctions. We hear it denounced 
 
 240 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 as "a dismal makeshift," "a miserable failure," "a 
 relic of barbarism," an unaccountable custom of a be- 
 nighted age," "a bond of slavery both for men and 
 women." Freeloveism, with its vagaries, sophistries 
 and sensuous philosophy came in about forty years ago, 
 sowed its seed of social tares and society is now reaping 
 its unclean harvest. According to its dictum "the en- 
 tire edifice of matrimony is antiquated, unsuitable, 
 unfitted for the intelligent women of the last half of the 
 nineteenth century. " The thinking of multitudes con- 
 cerning marriage has been misdirected, corrupted, 
 poisoned; whilst in practical life this all-important, 
 basic institution is degraded, dragged down to the level 
 of a common business transaction or employed as a 
 mere civil arrangement for love and lust. 
 
 Legislation in almost every State in the Union has 
 lent its aid to the abuse and degrading of marriage by 
 the enacting of loose, mischievous, iniquitous divorce 
 laws. Divorce has been made easy, and when divorce 
 is made easy divorces multiply, and that too at an ever 
 increasing ratio. The results are far-reaching, fearful, 
 degrading and corrupting to individuals and to society. 
 Conjugal fidelity is weakened and the sacredness of the 
 marriage vow is violated. Homes that might have 
 been happy are broken up, and children that have a 
 right to parental care and protection are worse than or- 
 phaned and turned out upon society. New and unholy 
 alliances are formed by unscripturally divorced persons, 
 and thus the sin of impurity is spread farther and sinks 
 deeper into the life of the people. The very founda- 
 tions of society are threatened with destruction. It may 
 safely be written down as a law that all trifling with 
 fundamental and approved institutions of society means 
 mischief, social disorder, social danger, social sin and- 
 inevitable corruption. Where God's plans and laws for 
 the sexes are not scrupulously honored and jealously 
 guarded there licentiousness is sure to enter, and more 
 and more, in all its horrid forms, will abound. 
 
 241 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 There is needed to-day in every State and in every 
 community, town and city throughout this broad land 
 an earnest, aggressive, red-hot propaganda of Christian 
 ideas and principles concerning marriage, divorce, the 
 family, the home, and the duties of men and women 
 pertaining thereto. The White Cross means such a 
 propaganda. 
 
 2. That White Cross Work is needed is evident 
 from the fact that the double standard of morality is 
 still operative in society. It is well known how that 
 law binds the obligations of purity loosely upon men, 
 but tightly upon women ; that it condones in men what 
 it damns in women ; that it tolerates the scarlet man 
 but condemns to eternal infamy the scarlet woman. It 
 has been described as 
 
 " A common law by whicli the poor and weak 
 Are trampled under foot of vicious men, 
 And loathed forever after by the good." 
 
 That unwritten but everywhere present and tyran- 
 nous law is wrong, unjust and severely cruel to women. 
 It makes them the himted game of protected libertines. 
 It is wrong to men for it is a species of license for them 
 to commit nameless crimes against women. It is also a 
 wrong to society for it is a breaking down of the law 
 that God gave for social purity. For the man and for 
 the woman it is written : ' ' Thou shalt not commit 
 adultery. " 
 
 The double standard means leniency to guilty men, 
 and when lust is treated with leniency virtue is treated 
 with indifference. Tolerance to scarlet men means 
 danger to women — to our sisters and to our daughters. 
 
 This invidious law is to be reprobated also because it 
 excludes the guilty woman from an equal chance with 
 the guilty man for repentance and restoration. Before 
 God they have an equal chance to repent and reform 
 and they should have the same equal chance before 
 men. 
 
 242 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 There must be a mighty campaign of annihilation 
 ■against this hoary, unjust and wicked law. The 
 cruelty, tyranny, injustice and wrong of it must be por- 
 trayed before the people until public opinion is changed 
 and its repeal secured. 
 
 3. That there is need for such work as the White 
 Cross proposes is evident from the fact that women do, 
 in many ways, suffer wrong and degradation. 
 
 There is discrimination against women in legisla- 
 tion, in business, in commerce, in the trades, in the 
 shops, in civil service, in many schools and colleges and 
 everywhere in matters of work and wages. 
 
 Men still arrogate to themselves the legislative 
 function, and this is the prime cause for all unjust and 
 unequal discrimination against women. They that do 
 not have equal rights and privileges in political matters 
 must suffer wrong and submit to limitations in many 
 other places and in many ways. Keep women from the 
 ballot and you debar them from a thousand other 
 rights and make the path of human progress an unequal 
 one. Continue to exclude them from legislative halls 
 and they will be just so long handicapped in every other 
 department of political and industrial life. It is more 
 than we dare expect of human nature that one sex can 
 or will wisely, justly, impartially and fully legislate for 
 the other sex. Men in the past and up to the present 
 time in all their legislation in matters concerning the 
 sexes, have uniformly discriminated against women and 
 no doubt will continue to so discriminate as long as they 
 are the sole law makers. " Because of the hardness of 
 their hearts " it has been so. The best for each, for the 
 men and for the women, for society also, and the State, 
 can be reached only when women as well as men shall 
 have a voice and vote in the making of the laws that 
 govern either or both. 
 
 Reward in the matter of wages has ever been and 
 is to-day a grievous wrong against women. Poverty is 
 the enemy of virtue, and women in poverty are doubly 
 
 243 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 tempted. But there will be, there can be, no correction 
 of this crying- injustice until woraen can vote and have 
 their votes counted. There can be no uplift for man- 
 kind to the highest and best until womankind is fully- 
 emancipated. The sexes must rise together and at 
 equal pace, and with equal political rights, or they shall 
 both flounder together and remain incomplete. Politi- 
 cal emancipation, full, free, unhampered, is the only 
 leverage that can raise women from social and indus- 
 trial damnation. No class of people, not even mothers, 
 wives and daughters, can, in this democratic America, 
 be denied political freedom and not suffer wrong and 
 degradation. It is clear that protection to women — to 
 all women — can be secured only by giving them a part 
 and a voice in making the laws that concern their honor 
 and well-being. 
 
 4. The need of White Cross work is made impera- 
 tive because of the ravages of licentiousness. 
 
 Of all the master vices that prey upon and curse 
 American society, or any other for that matter, it is ad- 
 mitted by those in a position to know, that licentious- 
 ness is the greatest. It is, more than all others, univer- 
 sal, deep seated and most deadly. It is easily the 
 darkest sin in all the catalogue of sin and shame. 
 
 We have evidence that licentiousness to-day, as 
 ne3^eiiJiefDre, ha,s,as sumed the jgroportions and methods 
 of a trade. It has the form, phases, agencies and ma- 
 chinery of a great, complicated, ramifying business. Its 
 agents travel everywhere ; the telegraph and the United 
 States mails transmit intelligence for it ; and the rail- 
 roads, express companies and ships at sea carry its 
 vicious freight. Vile literature in papers, magazines, 
 ) books and pictures, full of unspeakable abominations, 
 abounds everywhere and is propagating xdeas of social 
 /nastiness. 
 
 The stage, now popular in city and town and vil- 
 lage, with its spectacular scenes of love and lust and 
 managed by a hundred thousand men and women 
 
 244 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 raostly low, lewd and lawless, is vitiating the minds and 
 hearts of thousands, until their sense of the pure and 
 the impure is obliterated. 
 
 The saloon, that legal institution of infamy and 
 tyranny, is firing the passions of men and sending 
 them down the scarlet avenues that lead to chambering ' 
 and wantonness. 
 
 We see also that efforts are being made in different 
 places and in high places and even in legislative halls, 
 and with alarming success, to establish professional 
 prostitution in our cities under cover of law and under 
 the control of police force. That means the traffic in 
 and the sale of untold thousands of the young daughters 
 of the people throughout the land. The procurer and 
 procuress already travel, even under the guise of honor- 
 able business and sometimes of piety, to hunt for ' ' the 
 precious life." Incredible thousands of our sisters and 
 daughters are sold every decade like cattle in the tol- 
 erated shambles of lust. Oh, the fearful ravages of 
 licentiousness ! Monstrous, harrowing, and still on the 
 increase! There are now two hundred and thirty 
 thousand (230,000) fallen women in the United States, 
 and that means at least eight times that many fallen 
 men. To supply the demands of passion in men one 
 hundred families must give up a daughter apiece every 
 day in the round year. What a draft this is on homes ! 
 What sin and shame and misery and heartaches and re- 
 morse and cruelty and murder and death and damnation 
 this means ! Think of it ! Estimate if you can the fear- 
 ful cost of this^ scarlet coramerce ! And then remember 
 that this unclean, abominable, merciless business is go- 
 ing on now, that it is ever enlarging, spreading, taking 
 in more victims; and there is little or no effort being 
 made to stop it. What if it goes on for another ten or 
 twenty years with the same ratio of increase that has 
 marked it in the last ten or twenty years? "What will 
 the harvest be? " 
 
 245 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 5. Special effort in purity reform is forced upon 
 us because of the inadequate instruction, or lack of in- 
 struction, by parents in their homes, teachers in the 
 schools and pastors in the churches upon the subjects of 
 personal chastity and social purity. 
 
 The reticence of parents in these matters is well 
 Imown. Because of temerity, false modesty, inability, 
 or ignorance of the need of it, they fail to instruct 
 children and young people in ' positive knowledge con- 
 cerning sexual relations and duties. For the most part, 
 especially with the boys, their first lessons about sex 
 and reproduction and motherhood and fatherhood are 
 learned from corrupt playmates, unclean innuendo, vile 
 literature, obscene pictures, vulgar stories and unfor- 
 tunate personal experience. There are some things, 
 some knowledge about ourselves, that must come by 
 teaching, by explanation, by discipline. Important 
 among these are the facts and duties indicated in the 
 Seventh commandment of the Decalogue. Let alone, 
 boys run to the bad and at an incredible early age be- 
 come impure in thought and often in practice. 
 
 In the public schools there is almost a total neglect 
 of all the facts that pertain to sexual functions, rela- 
 tions and duties. Physiology stops short of these most 
 important things and the young are left to inference, or 
 to unfortunate ways for learning what above all they 
 need to know. If we are to believe the testimony of 
 teachers of public schools then we are persuaded that 
 uncleanness and vileness and impurity, in word and in 
 conduct, are fearfully prevalent in them. Dr. J. H. 
 Kellogg gives an instance where a superintendent of 
 city schools made a careful inquiry into the personal 
 habits of four hundred boys between the ages of ten and 
 eighteen, and found but seven in the entire number 
 who claimed to be free from impure practices. Nor is 
 there any guarantee that the matter is going to be cor- 
 rected, for our school authorities make no manner of 
 
 246 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 provision for instruction in the laws and principles 
 of sexual relations, personal chastity and social 
 purity. 
 
 Nor is the pulpit of our times, save in a very few- 
 exceptional cases, outspoken in warnings and instruc- 
 tion concerning chastity, the sins of licentiousness, 
 social disorders and dangers and all unholy sexual asso- 
 ciations. There are but few preachers that ever preach 
 on the Seventh commandment of the Decalogue; or 
 upon Christ's law of purity; or give an exposition upon 
 his teachings concerning marriage and divorce. If they 
 took up these subjects more frequently they would not 
 so often be caught officiating at the marriages of unlaw- 
 fully, that is unscripturally, divorced persons. 
 
 Ministers are or should be in a special sense the 
 monitors of public morals and the guardians of children 
 and women. Yet how few there are who speak out 
 bold, clear and timely words of warning against the sins 
 of the flesh; and how seldom are sermons preached ex- 
 posing the wrongs that are perpetrated against woman- 
 kind; and how silent the pulpits are concerning the 
 legislative crimes in every State of the Union, whereby 
 the sanctity of marriage is destroyed, divorce made 
 easy and promiscuous prostitution encouraged. The 
 simple, sad fact is that the ministers in the churches 
 are not doing the purity work that is needed. They 
 have entered upon an era of silence upon this subject. 
 They do not teach their young men as they need to be 
 taught by their religious guides; they do not boldly 
 and pointedly rebuke the old men of unclean habits; 
 and plain words of counsel are never spoken to the 
 women of the churches. Strange, guilty, dangerous 
 silence! The old preachers and prophets were not like 
 dumb dogs upon these subjects, and the preachers now 
 ought not to be dumb where and when there is needed 
 line upon line, precept upon precept and warning upon 
 warning. Oh, for men like Nathan, who went to guilty 
 David and said, "Thou art the man;" like John the 
 
 247 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Baptist, who went to the licentious Herod and told him 
 frankly that he was living with the wrong woman. 
 
 In all this I make no charge against the ministry; I 
 simply state a fact — sad, universal, alarming fact. 
 
 Somebody should speak out ; somebody should tell 
 the truth about these matters. The work must be done 
 and God will find people to do it. If the ministry will 
 not take it up God will raise up men, messengers and 
 workers, from the ranks of the democracy who will take 
 it up. 
 
 The W. C. T. U. seeing the ravages of licentious- 
 ness, feeling the power of unholy and unjust laws, like 
 that of the double standard, knowing the need of reform 
 and painfully, regretfully conscious of the silence in the 
 churches, have felt constrained to take up the work. 
 They have added to their purity department the White 
 Cross Branch. They bid God-speed to all who are in 
 the same work and extend the hand of co-operation to 
 all workers in this iraportant reform. 
 
 6. There is yet one other evidence that White 
 Cross work is needed that should be mentioned in this 
 place. It is the fact of the indifference, false modesty, 
 cowardice and ignorance among the best people of the 
 land concerning the nature, extent, power, threat and 
 actual mischief of licentiousness. 
 
 To-day, as of old, it must be said : ' ' My people 
 perish for lack of knowledge. They do not know as 
 they ought to know their dangers and their duties. The 
 great Apostle to the Gentiles, seeing the people in sin 
 and in ignorance, went to them, ' ' warning every man 
 and teaching every man that he might present every 
 man perfect in Christ Jesus." Warning and teaching 
 are the two important things needed to-day in purity 
 work. To be well taught is to be well warned. Infor- 
 mation here is social salvation. "To be forewarned is 
 to be forearmed. " The people, and especially the young 
 people and the young men, need the teaching and they 
 need the warning, and for this the White Cross is here. 
 
 248 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 It seeks to arouse such a noble, beautiful chivalry as 
 will lead every man to treat every other man's mother 
 as he wants his own mother treated; to treat every 
 other man's wife as he wants his own wife treated; to 
 treat every other man's sister as he wants his own sister 
 treated; to treat every other man's daughter as he 
 wants his own daughter treated. 
 
 349 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 CHASTITY AND HEALTH 
 
 By J. H. Kellogg, M. D., Battle Creek, Mich. 
 
 That a most important relation exists between 
 chastity and health is a fact too obvious to require for- 
 mal demonstration. That there is a natural as well as 
 a divine law, if such a distinction can be made, pro- 
 hibiting unchastity, is shown by the terrible penalties 
 which are inflicted for violation of the law of purity, 
 which, from a physical standpoint, far exceed in severity 
 those which follow the infraction of any other physical 
 or moral law. Men have sought, by every artifice 
 imaginable, to avoid these penalties. One of the most 
 specious of these is embodied in the so called Con. 
 tagious Disease Act, requiring medical inspection of 
 prostitutes, which has been for many years in operation 
 in Continental Europe and India, and which has repeat- 
 edly been proposed in legislative halls in this country, 
 but, thanks to the efforts of this Association, through 
 its officers and kindred influences, such legislation has 
 thus far found no substantial foothold on American 
 soil. 
 
 There is probably no country in which the pro- 
 visions of this Contagious Disease Act have been so- 
 thoroughly carried out as in Germany; nevertheless, 
 the commission appointed by the »Society of Medicine 
 of Berlin, with Professor Virchow as president, recently 
 reported, as the result of an investigation, that both 
 prostitution and venereal diseases were found to be 
 rapidly increasing in Berlin. For example, the num- 
 ber of regular prostitutes, recognized as such by the 
 police, was, in 1886, 3,006. The number had increased 
 in 1891 to 4,364, an increase of almost 50 per cent. This 
 
 250 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 J. H. KELLOGG, M. D. 
 
 251 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 represents, however, but a small proportion of the 
 women actually engaged in prostitution, as 16,000 
 women are annually arrested for plying their vocation 
 upon the streets in Berlin, and it is known that a great 
 number of women live lives of prostitution clandes- 
 tinely, so that the committee estimate the total number 
 of prostitutes in Berlin at 40,000 to 50,000. 
 
 Some idea of the number of persons who are annu- 
 ally infected by venereal disease may be gained from 
 the fact that the committee reported nearly 80, 000 cases 
 as having been treated at two hospitals alone in Berlin 
 between 1880 and 1889. The fact was also mentioned by 
 the committee that a great number of cases were doubt- 
 less not included in this category. They quote the 
 estimate of Blaschko, that one in every nine or ten of 
 the male population of Berlin has been infected with 
 syphilis. 
 
 A most convincing evidence ot the utter inefficiency 
 of the inspection service in preventing the spread of 
 venereal disease, was shown by the fact developed by 
 the committee, that the naked-eye inspection, which 
 has been universally relied upon, detects less than one 
 in five of the cases of gonorrhoea, to say nothing of 
 syphilis. By making a bacteriological examination of 
 each case, the proportion of prostitutes found to be 
 suffering from gonorrhoea was increased from nine 
 per cent, to fifty per cent. 
 
 The conclusions drawn by the committee as to the 
 proper action to be taken under the circumstances seem 
 to be quite absurd. Instead of recommending the 
 abandoning of the unwise attempt to make vice safe, 
 by enabling the criminal to escape the penalty which 
 nature inflicts for the transgression of moral and 
 natural law in relation to purity, they recommend a 
 more rigid investigation, suggesting that the examina- 
 tion should be made twice a week instead of weekly, and 
 that a bacteriological examination should be made in 
 every case. They also recommend that special hospitals 
 
 252 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 and dispensaries shall be provided for persons suffering 
 from venereal disorders, where they may be treated at 
 the public expense, and thus enabled to return as quickly 
 as possible to their base and immoral business. 
 
 What a horrible spectacle is this to contemplate in 
 the midst of our boasted civilization ! A vast outfit of 
 laboratories and hospitals, an army of physicians, nurses, 
 pharmacists, clerks, etc., all devoting their lives to the 
 fostering and encouraging of a business which depends 
 wholly for its existence upon the violation of the laws 
 of God and man ! If the moral sense of society, espec- 
 ially of politicians — and we fear the same must also be 
 said to a considerable extent of the medical profession — 
 were not blunted to a most astonishing degree, the only 
 remedy which would be suggested for this gigantic evil 
 would be its absolute prohibition and extermination by 
 means of severe penalties and a faithful administration 
 of the law. What can be said of the inconsistency of 
 which nearly every civilized community is guilty, shown 
 in the maintenance of laws rendering prostitution and 
 licentiousness a crime, while at the same time this deadly 
 traffic is winked at, and not infrequently protected and 
 encouraged ! 
 
 We commend these facts to the consideration of 
 tnose who are anxious to introduce into this country 
 laws for the regulation and inspection of prostitutes. 
 
 The infection of one-tenth of the entire male popu- 
 lation of a great city like Berlin with so horrible a con- 
 stitutional malady as syphilis, means race deterioration 
 at a most terrific rate, and yet this estimate is, probably, 
 none too large, for even a larger estimate has been 
 made in relation to Vienna, Paris and some other con- 
 tinental cities ; and eminent specialists do not hesitate 
 to place New York upon an even footing with Berlin. 
 We say race deterioration, for the reason that the evil 
 consequences of vice are not to be studied alone in the 
 vicious, but may be traced with equal distinctness in 
 the progeny of the unchaste. Vice of every sort, but 
 
 253 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 most of all sexual vice, places an indelible mark upon 
 its victims. The progeny of the impure are not only 
 the subjects of special ailments, which have been traced 
 directly to the various specific infections communicable 
 through unchastity, but they are also subject to general 
 constitutional feebleness, weakness of will, lack of men- 
 tal, moral and physical stamina, with little resistance to 
 disease and a proneness to structural degenerations of 
 various sorts. Largely — I think I may say chiefly — 
 through the influence of impurity, a vast multitude of 
 persons, who might properly be termed the disinherited, 
 are to be found in our modern society. This great 
 mass of unfortunates is augmented annually by a num- 
 berless host of recruits. 
 
 A philosopher has said, "It is the greatest of all 
 human felicities to be well born. " It is yearly becom- 
 ing more and more apparent that an increasing propor- 
 tion of human beings are badly born. In every large 
 city are to be found thousands who belong to what are 
 known as the vicious, the criminal, or the indigent or 
 pauper classes. For the most part these persons are 
 born into the condition in which they are destined to 
 spend their lives, and are little more responsible for the 
 unhappy situation in which they find themselves than 
 are the deaf and dumb and blind, or those who are in 
 other respects congenitally deformed. The only differ- 
 ence between the infirmities from which these persons 
 suffer and those with which the crippled, the blind or 
 the deaf are afflicted, is that their physical deficiencies 
 are less conspicuous; they are, nevertheless, as real. 
 For the most part their deformities consist in bad or 
 abnormal construction of the brain, although a minute 
 examination will reveal, in the majority of persons 
 belonging to these inferior classes, external deformities 
 of a very pronounced character. 
 
 That these weaknesses and abnormalities of body 
 and mind are perpetuated by heredity, is no longer a 
 question upon which there is any difference of opinion. 
 
 254 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 It is as clearly settled that mental and moral character- 
 istics are inherited as that the color of the hair and 
 eyes, or other physical characteristics, are thus derived. 
 It is equally true, although the fact is often forgotten, 
 that the resemblance of the internal structures of the 
 child to those of his parents is as close as the likeness 
 which can be traced in the external features. Heredity 
 is a force which operates in the most thoroughgoing 
 manner. Every human being is the product of a 
 principle which has been taking careful notes of the 
 lives and habits, the neglects, the excesses and the abuses 
 of every crime against the body through all the genera- 
 tions from Adam down to the individual man in ques- 
 tion. The living man or woman is simply the material 
 representation, the focus, or vortex, so to speak, of the 
 myriad of influences which have been operating from 
 the earliest ages of man's history down to the moment 
 ■of inspection. 
 
 Man's physical, mental and moral character is as 
 much a matter of heredity as is the capital of wealth 
 with which he starts out in life. The man who lives 
 the life of a spendthrift and dies bankrupt leaves his 
 children penniless. Sometimes it takes a series of gen- 
 erations to consume completely the accumulated earn- 
 ings of preceding generations. So it is with bodily 
 and mental health. The complete mental and physical 
 bankruptcy which lands a man in the insane asylum or 
 an almshouse infirmary, may be simply the results of 
 two or three generations of sins against the body and 
 the soul on the part of the profligate ancestors. " The 
 fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth 
 are set on edge. " 
 
 The world looks with disdain upon the money 
 spendthrift. The man who recklessly squanders the 
 family inheritance and leaves his children penniless, is 
 regarded by the world as little short of a criminal, a 
 thief, a robber. What does society say about the man 
 who, by a process exactly identical, disinherits his chil- 
 
 255 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 dren of the most valuable of all possessions — soundness, 
 of body and mind ? Society ignores the sins of this 
 class of criminals, never asking a man to consider the 
 consequences of his course of life upon his possible 
 progeny, but allows him to squander, without question- 
 ing his right, the constitutions of his unborn children, 
 in open violation of the law by which nature has pro- 
 tected the well being of the human race. 
 
 Through this almost universal ignoring of the duty 
 devolving upon every human being to preserve intact, 
 as far as possible, the natural powers transmitted ta 
 him from his ancestors, and by training and painstaking 
 development make the most of them, we find the human, 
 race deteriorating in physical stamina, and a rapidly 
 growing multitude of "disinherited" individuals who 
 are bom into physical, mental and moral bankruptcy. 
 It is high time that society gave more serious attention, 
 to this great class of bankrupts by heredity, from which 
 springs the greater share of crimes and criminals, 
 cranks, lunatics, fanatics and imbeciles. 
 
 The wonderful investigations made by Hertwig 
 and others into the method of cell growth, multiplica- 
 tion, and especially the vital activities connected with 
 reproduction, have thrown a flood of light upon the 
 problem of heredity which has a very interesting bear- 
 ing upon this question. These investigations show that 
 in the process of reproduction both parents actually 
 enter into the formation of the new individual, and in 
 so real a manner that a man may be actually said to 
 live in his son, heredity securing a physical immortality 
 for the individual as well as for the race. 
 
 In the marvelous process of karyo kinesis, which 
 has been especially studied in the fecundated ova of 
 various species of fishes, and other inferior animals, it 
 is seen that in the process of reproduction each animal 
 in each sex contributes an imperfect cell, which, by 
 uniting with an analogous cell from an animal of the 
 same species, but of the opposite sex, becomes a com- 
 
 256 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 plete cell, representing the characteristics of the two 
 individuals. 
 
 Bouchard, the distinguished French physiologist, 
 has recently shown that the character of these cells, as 
 well as of all other cells within the body of an animal, 
 depends upon the influence of certain subtle substances 
 in the fluids of the individual, which, although so small 
 in amount that they have, until recently, evaded the 
 closest scrutiny of the physiologist and the chemist, are, 
 nevertheless, so potent in their influence upon the ani- 
 mal organism that they practically control every func- 
 tion from the first step of nutrition in the digestion of 
 the food to the final process of assimilation in the con- 
 version of food elements into tissue. 
 
 Bouchard has called especial attention to the in- 
 fluence of these substances upon heredity, both through 
 the influence which they may exert upon the activities 
 of the sexual glands and through their absorption 
 from the mother's blood during fcetal life. The marvel- 
 ous control which these potent substances exercise over 
 all the nutritive processes was first discovered by the 
 late Professor Brown-Sequard, an American born physi- 
 cian, who achieved the highest honors which could be 
 bestowed upon him by the physicians and scientists of 
 France because of the numerous remarkable additions 
 which he has made to physiological science, as the re- 
 sult of the long painstaking researches to which he 
 devoted his life. Dr. Brown-Sequard was the first to 
 point out the fact that certain structures within the 
 animal body give rise to these peculiar substances to 
 which he gave the name "internal secretions." The 
 supra-renal capsules of the kidney, the thyroid gland 
 and other structures, together with the sexual glands, 
 he mentioned as being the seat of important secretory 
 processes whereby a marvelous control was exercised 
 over all the processes of life. So called ductless glands 
 have been a mystery until now. 
 
 257 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 When last in Paris, a few years ago, I had the pleasure 
 of renewing the acquaintance of this distinguished man, 
 which, as a student in medicine, I had enjoyed more 
 than twenty years ago, and while assisting him in his 
 laboratory in a special research in which he was then 
 engaged upon this subject, I listened with amazement — 
 and I must confess with some incredulity — to the novel 
 theories which he expounded. These theories, after 
 producing something of a sensation at first, were later 
 made the butt of much ridicule and sarcastic criticism, 
 but as Bouchard, Roger, d'Arsonval and others have 
 taken up the investigation which the eminent savant 
 laid down with his life a year or two ago, his views had 
 not only been largely confirmed, but, following the 
 same line of inquiry, other equally interesting facts 
 have been developed. 
 
 Dr. Brown-Sequard stated to the writer that he had 
 been convinced for more than twenty years that certain 
 glands in the body produced secretions which, being 
 absorbed and circulated in the blood, influence the nutri- 
 tion and development of the body in a remarkable way. 
 His later researches and the researches of his associates, 
 d'Arsonval and others who were engaged with him in 
 this interesting work, have shown the correctness of 
 this theory and have demonstrated many remarkably 
 interesting facts. For example, it is now known that 
 the removal of the thyroid gland from the body of an 
 animal will produce death by the development of a pe- 
 culiar form of disease, but if an extract of thyroid 
 gland, made by macerating the gland in water, is in- 
 jected into the body of the animal from time to time, 
 the injurious effects ordinarily resulting from the re- 
 moval of the gland do not appear. It has been found 
 also that if a thyroid gland, or a portion of a thyroid 
 gland, be introduced into some other part of the body 
 of an animal from which the gland has been removed, 
 the animal recovers from the injury inflicted by the re- 
 moval of the gland. The supra-renal capsules of the 
 
 258 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Kidney, the spleen, the lymphatic glands, and the pan- 
 creas, have each their peculiar internal secretions, which 
 influence and modify nutrition in various ways. For 
 example, the internal secretion of the pancreas is a pe- 
 culiar ferment, by the aid of which the body is able to 
 burn up or oxidize the sugar introduced with the food. 
 When the pancreas becomes diseased and ceases to fur- 
 nish this ferment the sugar is not utilized and appears 
 in the urine, producing diabetes. The internal secre- 
 tions of the lymphatic glands and the spleen exercise a 
 special influence over the formation of blood capsules. 
 The internal secretions of other parts have for their 
 function the destruction or antidoting of certain poisons 
 which are produced within the body or which are intro- 
 duced from without in the food. Dogs from which the 
 thymus glands had been removed, died if fed upon a 
 meat diet, but if fed upon a diet of bread and milk re- 
 mained in health. 
 
 The eminent Claude Bernard had some inkling of 
 these remarkable physiological effects, and had prepared 
 extracts of muscles, glands and other tissues. Experi- 
 ments which have since been made by Brown-Sequard 
 and his pupils show that every tissue produces certain 
 substances which, circulating in the blood, modify every 
 other tissue, thus producing unity and harmony in the 
 development of the various organs of the body, inde- 
 pendent of the nervous system and explaining what has 
 heretofore been one of the greatest mysteries of animal 
 physiology. 
 
 One of the most striking of all the observations 
 made by Brown-Sequard was the fact that the secretion 
 of the sexual glands is possessed of most remarkable 
 physiological properties. For example, Dr Brown- 
 Sequard stated to the writer and published to the world 
 the fact that in experiments made upon himself he found 
 a notable increase in strength by the simple hypodermic 
 injection of an infusion freshly made from the sexual 
 glands of a rabbit. He observed not only an increase 
 
 259 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 of muscular strength, but of general vigor and vitality.. 
 His observations have been confirmed in a vast number 
 of cases, although the careless method employed in the 
 testing of the theory by many experimenters led to so 
 many negative results that no practical therapeutic use 
 has ever been made of the discovery in this country. 
 
 Dr. Brown-Sequard's first experiments were made 
 upon himself. At the advanced age of eighty years I 
 found him hard at work all day in his laboratory, al- 
 though previous to the beginning of his experiments he 
 had been barely able to work a few hours in the fore- 
 noon. He experienced not only a notable increase of 
 muscular force, but also of intellectual vigor. He had 
 previously been greatly troubled with inactivity of the 
 bowels, making the use of purgatives necessary. Since 
 using the injections, both mechanical and medicinal 
 means for aiding the bowels were entirely unnecessary. 
 
 It was not claimed that the organic changes of old 
 age can be modified by this means, but that the vital 
 activities of the body are marvelously quickened by the 
 introduction of this vital fluid obtained from the sexual 
 glands ; neither was it claimed that the effects were per- 
 manent, it being necessary to repeat the injections every 
 few days. 
 
 The bearing of these discoveries upon sexual hy- 
 giene is, however, very obvious and highly important. 
 The investigations of Brown-Sequard and the subse- 
 quent investigations of Bouchard and others, have shown 
 that the sexual glands are useful, not only as a means 
 of race perpetuation, but for the physical well being of 
 the individual through the vital stimulus exercised by 
 them, through the influence of their peculiar secretion 
 upon the processes of development and nutrition. In 
 view of this fact it is evident that so far as the individual 
 is concerned, physical benefit is to be looked for, not in 
 the loss of the secretion of the sexual glands, but in its 
 retention and appropriation. In other words, reproduc- 
 tion is accomplished at the sacrifice of individual inter- 
 
 260 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 ■ests, a law which prevails throughout the whole organic 
 world, being in some instances so pronounced that the 
 development of progeny is accomplished only through 
 the death of one or both parents. 
 
 These discoveries afford a thoroughly satisfactory 
 and scientific explanation of two facts which heretofore 
 have rested solely upon the basis of observation and 
 experience : 
 
 1. The fact that continence is favorable to physi- 
 cal vigor. 
 
 2. That sexual intemperance is productive of ex- 
 haustion and debility to a most extraordinary degree. 
 
 The influence of the sexual glands upon develop- 
 ment has been understood from very early ages. The 
 influence of the removal of these glands in the equine 
 or bovine race is well known. The proudly arched neck, 
 the graceful roundness of trunk and limbs, the magnifi- 
 cent courage and vigor of the stallion, are not found in 
 the mutilated animal. The massive head and horns, 
 the flashing eye, the terrible majesty of the bull, are 
 never encountered in the castrated animal of the same 
 species, the meek-eyed ox. The difference in size, ap- 
 pearance and character, which exist between the horse 
 and the stallion, between the ox and the bull, are purely 
 the result of the loss of the magic influence of the secre- 
 tion of the sexual glands as a stimulus to development 
 and a regulator of the nutritive processes. 
 
 The removal of the sexual glands before puberty, 
 or the failure of their development from any cause, 
 gives rise to similar difference in the human male. We 
 encountered a year ago an interesting example of this 
 fact. A young man between twenty and twenty-five 
 years of age presented himself at my office for exami- 
 nation with reference to a condition which he supposed 
 might be remedied by a surgical operation. On exami- 
 nation, I found no evidence whatever of the presence of 
 the sexual glands in the usual location, and learned 
 from the young man that he had been informed that the 
 
 261 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 glands had remained in the abdomen, having failed to 
 descend at the proper period before birth. Upon care- 
 ful examination I became satisfied that the glands were 
 present in only a rudimentary state. On further inves- 
 tigation I found that the young man presented many 
 evidences of the influence of these glands upon develop- 
 ment. His hips were broad and his thigh large like 
 those of a young woman, while his shoulders were nar- 
 row. The difference between the breadth of the 
 shoulders and hips was only half what it should be. The 
 sternum was proportionately short, as in women. There 
 was an entire absence of beard and other external evi- 
 dences of development, the external genital organs be- 
 ing infantile in appearance. Notwithstanding the 
 feminine appearance presented by the young man in 
 many respects, the legs and arms were long, as in men, 
 and the case was evidently not of the mixed but of the 
 neuter type. 
 
 The loss of the influence of the sexual glands re- 
 sults in the production of an effeminate man, while the 
 removal of these glands in a young woman who has not 
 reached the age of puberty produces a mannish woman. 
 It appears then that the influence of the sexual glands 
 is to develop in man manly characteristics, or those spe- 
 cial features which contribute to make up manhood; 
 while the sexual glands of woman produce in her those 
 qualities and characteristics which are especially wom- 
 anly. 
 
 Within the last twenty years, in dealing profession- 
 ally with some ten or twelve thousand cases of men who 
 have been, in various ways and various degrees, trans- 
 gressors of the law of chastity, I have particularly noted 
 the frequency of effeminacy in appearance as a char- 
 acteristic of those cases in which habits of sexual indul- 
 gence had been begun before puberty and practiced to 
 a considerable extent during the developmental period, 
 showing that the excessive loss of the activity of the 
 sexual glands in a normally developed person produces. 
 
 262 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 results analogous to those which follow the extirpation 
 of the glands. 
 
 In view of these facts we can readily understand 
 why the acute observation of the trainers of the Greek 
 athletes led them to require, as one of the conditions 
 most essential to the development of the highest degree 
 of physical vigor, absolute continence — not simply tem ■ 
 perance, which is all that is expected by most trainers 
 at the present time. The conditions of Greek society 
 were certainly less favorable to purity and continence 
 than are those of to-day ; yet so great was the ambition 
 of the Greek to win a prize in the Olympian games that 
 he willingly exercised the great self control necessary 
 under the peculiar circumstances under which he lived. 
 Plato, in his " Laws," makes one of his characters say: 
 " So then they, to obtain victory in wrestling and run- 
 ning, thus abstained; and shall our children be unable 
 to persevere for a far nobler victory?"— a statement ap- 
 proved by the apostle Paul in I Cor. , 9 : 35-27, when he 
 says, "Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown ; 
 
 but we an incorruptible But I keep under my 
 
 body, and bring it into subjection. " 
 
 The compensation sought by the Greek for the re- 
 straint of his animal propensities was to become a 
 stronger and more vigorous animal ; and in this he was 
 not disappointed, for Plato mentions a number of cele- 
 brated athletes, among others, Astylos and Diopompos, 
 whose bodies were "much lustier" than others. Hav- 
 ing practiced total continence during their training, 
 they had much stronger and more vigorous bodies than 
 others who had not subjected themselves to the same 
 restraints. 
 
 The doctrine that continence is unfavorable to 
 health, if true, supplies a very strong argument for the 
 maintenance of a harlot class for the benefit of soldiers 
 and sailors, who, for the most part, cannot marry. This 
 doctrine is indeed the stronghold of the apologists for 
 prostitution and of the advocates of laws regulating 
 
 263 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 vice. The considerations already offered seem amply 
 sufficient to show the fallacy of this doctrine ; neverthe- 
 less, I will offer a few additional items of evidence, in- 
 cluding the testimony of a number of eminent physi- 
 cians. 
 
 Dr. James Henderson, a physician in Shanghai, 
 China, writing in refutation of the idea that continence 
 is more difficult or dangerous in tropical countries than 
 in temperate climates on account of peculiar climatic 
 conditions, says: "I have seen many suffer severely, 
 destroying their health, happiness, and life by following 
 the promptings of their unbridled passions. (_Need I say 
 that I have never seen a man suffer from keeping him- 
 self pure?^ 
 
 In the course of my own professional experience, I 
 can truthfully say that I have never met with a single 
 instance in which disease of any kind was present as the 
 result of a pure or continent life. On the other hand, I 
 have seen the most horrible results from the unlawful 
 and unprofessional advice sometimes given by physicians 
 to young men, suggesting unchastity as being essential 
 for the relief of some physical weakness, /though I have 
 never met with a single case in which the slightest ben- 
 efit had been derived from following such advice./ My 
 observations with reference to the character of those 
 who give professional advice of this sort have long ago 
 led me to the belief that, as a rule, only those who have 
 themselves been impure to such an extent that they 
 were bereft of their ability to judge properly of the in- 
 fluence of a pure and continent life are capable of giving 
 such unwise and immoral advice. 
 
 Acton, an eminent London physician, declares that 
 the claim that disease results from continence " is a de- 
 vice of the unchaste, a lame excuse for their own incon- 
 tinence unfounded on any physiological law." The 
 same writer adds : ' ' The admitted fact that continence 
 is frequently productive of distress, is often a struggle 
 hard to be borne, still harder to be completely victorious 
 
 264 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 in, is not to be at all regarded as an argfument that it is 
 an evil. " 
 
 These statements are amply confirmed by common 
 experience with animals, especially in continental 
 Europe, where the castration of working animals is 
 practiced only to a very small extent. The experience 
 of many most distinguished men must also be quoted in 
 confirmation of these statements. Among such men 
 may be mentioned Sir Isaac Newton, Kant, Paschal, 
 Michael Angelo, St. Augustine, and many others of the 
 early Catholic Fathers who were among the ablest and 
 most learned men of their time, and in fact, of all time, 
 and who led continent lives. The majority of these 
 men lived to a very great age, retaining to the last their 
 wonderful mental powers. 
 
 The exorbitant demands of the sexual appetite en- 
 countered among civilized people are not the result of a 
 normal instinct, but are due to the incitements of an 
 abnormally stimulating diet, the seductions of prurient 
 literature and so called art. and the temptations of im- 
 pure associations. 
 
 The relation of diet to impurity is one which is far 
 too little considered. Certain senses are given us to add 
 to our pleasure, as well as for the practical, almost indis- 
 pensable use they are to us. For instance, the sense of 
 sight is not only useful, but enables us to drink in 
 beauty without stint and receive no harm thereby. 
 The same is true of music and other harmonies, which 
 may come to us through the sense of hearing. But the 
 sense of taste was given us to distinguish between 
 wholesome and unwholesome foods, and cannot be used 
 for merely sensual gratification without debasing it and 
 making it a gross and harmful thing. An education 
 which demands special enjoyment or pleasure through 
 the sense of taste is wholly artificial ; it brings us down 
 to the animal plane, or below it, rather; for the instincts 
 of the brute creation teaches it to eat to live. 
 
 265 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 There can be no doubt that unwholesome food, 
 especially such stimulating articles as spices and other 
 condiments, and the excessive use of flesh food, pastry, 
 and highly-seasoned viands, is one of the most active 
 causes of impurity in modern times. The early Romans, 
 who fed upon the simple fruits of the earth, were as 
 chaste in morals as abstemious in diet; but, under the 
 degrading influence of a luxurious and stimulating diet- 
 ary, the Roman emperors developed a degree of moral 
 turpitude that astonished and disgusted even the heathen 
 world in which they lived. The great monarchies which 
 once ruled the world became immoral and corrupt 
 only when their citizens became wealthy and adopted 
 luxurious modes of life. Simplicity in diet, dress, and 
 in all the habits of life, is most conducive to virtue. 
 
 The same principle applies in relation to sexual 
 gratification as to the gratification of the sense of taste. 
 The sexual function is double in its purpose: first, the 
 sexual organs are always active, even when not excited 
 to such a degree as to obtrude their activity upon the 
 consciousness, as they supply the body with a needed 
 vital stimulus and regulator; secondly, they furnish the 
 only means by which the physical immortality of the 
 individual in the perpetuation of the race may be 
 accomplished. In neither of these important functions 
 is the personal gratification of the individual the pri- 
 mary consideration. The exercise of the sexual func- 
 tion with a purely selfish purpose would seem to be as 
 much a debasement of the sacred function in which 
 man approaches most nearly to the creative power of 
 which he is the image, as is eating for the mere gratifi- 
 cation of the palate a debasement and prostitution of 
 the appetite and the sense of taste. 
 
 Evil association is often the avenue through which 
 the father of lies and iniquity leads his victim down to 
 ruin. A moral contagion is abroad in the world. The 
 troops of boys of all ages, from five to twenty, seen 
 upon the streets of every city, sitting on the curbstones, 
 
 266 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 loitering about the corners, gathering here and there 
 in little knots from which the ears of passers-by may 
 easily catch words and phrases which bring the blush 
 to virtue's cheek, are evidence that parents are by no 
 means generally awake to the danger which lies in evil 
 companionship. Many boys, especially in the cities, are 
 allowed, after they reach the age of ten or twelve years, 
 to select their own associates ; and it is generally the 
 case that the association most easily formed is with 
 some foul-minded youth, who is only too anxious to 
 impart to an innocent lad the evil knowledge which he 
 has in like manner gained from some other boy- 
 missionary of evil. 
 
 Growing up thus, with an abnormally developed 
 sexual appetite, it is not strange that young men very 
 readily imbibe current notions respecting the hygienic 
 necessity for incontinence, and that they find in their 
 own experience an apparent evidence of the correctness 
 of this most pernicious doctrine. It is, therefore, highly 
 important that a warning voice should be raised, and 
 with no weak or uncertain sound, against this immoral 
 and incontinent teaching. If the young man finds a 
 continent life extraordinarily difficult or a cause of suf- 
 fering, he should be informed that the apparent neces- 
 sity is purely an artificial and an abnormal one, and is 
 either the result of a sensuous imagination or of morbid 
 conditions which require medical treatment, and which 
 will be certain to be aggravated rather than alleviated 
 by the gratification of the desires. The young man 
 should be taught so to order his habits of life, his diet, 
 his regimen, his exercise, that he may be enabled to 
 maintain self mastery. Plato calls attention to the fact 
 that the man who reaches a high degree of physical 
 vigor as the result of severe training, finds the control 
 of the sexual appetite a much less severe task than does 
 the man who neglects muscular activity. 
 
 The value of a simple diet and active muscular 
 exercise in subduing abnormal animal propensities, the 
 
 267 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 writer has proved in hundreds of cases in whicli his 
 prescription has been carried out by young men seek- 
 ing relief from the thralldom of clamorous desires. 
 
 My purpose in this paper has been to show, from 
 purely physiological considerations, that unchastity can 
 be, under no circumstances, either necessary or justifi- 
 able ; that science and religion, the teaching of nature 
 and of the decalogue, are in accord; that chastity, not 
 incontinence, is the law of nature. The considerations 
 which have been brought forward I think amply justify 
 me in the assertion that chastity is not only consistent 
 with the highest health under all circumstances, but 
 that it is one of the conditions essential to the attain- 
 ment and maintenance of the highest degree of physical 
 and mental vigor. 
 
 268 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 JOHN J. CORNELT,. 
 
 269 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 REMARKS OF JOHN J. CORNELL. 
 
 John J. Cornell, of Baltimore, said that while his 
 work had been mainly regarding the suppression of in- 
 temperance in the use of and traffic in intoxicants, he 
 had not been unmindful of the enormity of its twin evil, 
 the existence of the social vice, and he was in hearty 
 sympathy and accord with the object of the present Con- 
 gress. He felt that this great evil, if it did not have its ori- 
 gin in the use of intoxicants, was largely fostered and sus- 
 tained by them ; and while he recognized the necessity 
 of organized opposition to these evils and hailed it as an 
 omen of an advancing public sentiment, he yet realized 
 the need of a dependence upon the revelation of the 
 Divine Spirit, to which, if one would listen and be obedi- 
 ent, it would lead him into such a life as would free him 
 from the commission of these as well as other evils. 
 
 270 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 C, W. WATCH. 
 
 271 
 
SIXTH SESSION. 
 
 SOCIAL PURITY WORK IN CANADA. 
 
 By Rev. C. W. Watch. 
 
 We must know the conditions to understand the. 
 work. Our land is one of vast areas, stretching from 
 ocean to ocean and from the lakes to the Pole, in all 
 about three and a half millions square miles. A land 
 not of perpetual snows, but rich with resources. We are 
 not over crowded with people : our population is about 
 five millions. Montreal, our largest city, has nearly a. 
 quarter of a raillion, and besides this we have about fifty 
 cities and towns, with populations of from five thousand 
 to two hundred thousand. We are somewhat mixed as 
 to our nationality ; overamillion of our people are French 
 Canadian, speaking the French language. Canadians 
 are steady going, making progress slow but sure. An. 
 opinion as to the moral sentiment of our people might be 
 formed by the temperance votes recently taken. Whert 
 asked to express themselves as to the prohibition of the 
 liquor traffic, four Provinces out of seven, representing- 
 a population of nearly three millions, said, by a majority 
 of nearly 133,000 at the polls, that they favored prohibi- 
 tion; and another Province, of over 300,000 people, 
 declared by the unanimous vote of their Legislature that 
 they also were prepared for it. So that, doubtless, did 
 the whole Dominion speak at the ballot box, it would 
 declare with a majority of 100,000 in favor of prohibi- 
 tion. Thus perhaps we are morally no worse, and, it 
 may be, we are a little better, than some other nations^ 
 but we certainly are not as good as we ought to be. 
 
 272 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 Then again there are conditions which the workers 
 in other lands have to meet from which happily we are 
 spared. The regulation of prostitution and vice is un- 
 known to us ; not but some may desire it, and in a few 
 cities districting may be winked at. Yet recently, when 
 the Chief of Police of Montreal expressed himself in favor 
 of supervision and districting, the better element of the 
 city protested with emphasis, and nothing more has been 
 heard of it. Though we have one garrison town — Hali- 
 fax — the C. D. Acts would be impossible in Canada. To 
 know of such a systera would result in our people loath- 
 ing it. We have no struggle over uncertain or lax 
 divorce laws. We have neither a divorce court nor law, 
 except in one of the smaller Provinces. To procure a 
 divorce with us requires a special Act of Parliament in 
 each case. The result is that for the past ten years there 
 have been only forty-eight applications for divorce, forty 
 of which have been granted, or about one divorce for 
 every six or seven thousand marriages consummated. 
 Even those who by establishing a residence in any other 
 country may secure a separation, it is a question if our 
 laws affecting bigamy are not sufficient to reach them, 
 should a marriage be consummated again within the 
 Dominion. 
 
 As to our laws, in regard to age of consent we are 
 below the standard, sixteen being the age. It is crimi- 
 nal to seduce under promise of marriage up to the age 
 of eighteen, but the male is not responsible under the 
 age of twenty-one. An effort is being made to raise the 
 age of consent and to make it a criminal offence to seduce 
 under promise of marriage in the case of a female not 
 more than twenty-one years of age, and in the case of a 
 male from the age of eighteen. But the difficulty arises 
 just here from the indifference of our representatives in 
 Parliament to this class of legislation. Rape is punish- 
 able by either death or life imprisonment. Illicit 
 relations with girls under fourteen is punishable by 
 life imprisonment and whipping. Another advantage 
 
 273 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 we have is the exclusion from our mails of indecent lit- 
 erature and pictures, under heavy penalties. We refuse 
 admission into our country, or sale among our people, 
 of the Police Gazette, or any such papers. In allmatters 
 of legislation we are much indebted to Mr. John Charl- 
 ton, who is our leader in Parliament on social purity 
 questions. Notwithstanding our advantages the social 
 evil exists, disorderly houses in some places are tolerated, 
 and too often the periodic raiding and regulation fine are 
 looked upon or understood as a license. One birth in 
 every seventy-nine or eighty is an illegitimate birth. 
 There is an apathy of sentiment on the part ' of a large 
 portion of the general public, and a lack of high princi- 
 ples en the part of another considerable portion, and so 
 we have with us in social life the unequal standard of 
 morals for the sexes and too often the same conditions 
 as other peoples for making girlhood an easy prey for 
 vile men. 
 
 Purity work is the outcome of Christian philanthropy. 
 The churches may be wofully ignorant of their respon- 
 sibility touching the low age of consent and of the wrong 
 there is in an unequal standard for the sexes, yet it is 
 ever the Christian sentiment of the country which is 
 seeking to educate the public conscience, awaken a pub- 
 lic interest, and sustains those institutions and helpers 
 who are lovingly engaged in the work of rescue and 
 prevention. There is not a city and scarcely a town of 
 any size but are found homes and workers in women 
 and child saving. Among the Indians of our country 
 the gross immoralities of other days are impossible now, 
 and it is the missionaries, male and female, of all the 
 churches, who by their teaching and life have brought 
 about the change. On the Pacific Coast the Methodist 
 Missionary Society and the W. C. T. U. have Refuges 
 for the, saving of Chinese girls, brought into the 
 country from seven to fourteen years of age, altogether 
 for immoral purposes, and marvelous are the stories of 
 rescue and conversion. 
 
 274 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 In speaking of the educat,ional phase of our purity- 
 work, that our Press is fairty clean can be truthfully 
 said, but just now a moral protest is being heard, and 
 it requires yet that it be made more emphatic against 
 the details of vice and scandal and crime published to 
 gratify the prurient mind. We take pride in our public 
 school system and think that no country can boast of 
 teachers purer in life and example than can we. Tem- 
 perance and hygiene are taught in our schools. We 
 carefully guard the separation of the sexes in the play- 
 ground, still we find both teachers and parents lament- 
 ably slow to believe the dangerous possibilities from the 
 teaching of vile practices of boys to boys and some- 
 times of girls to girls, or if they realize it they are cer- 
 tainly slow to meet the danger with honest teaching and 
 exposure. We have but few White Cross societies as 
 such, but we have White Cross and Social Purity com- 
 mittees working in other organizations. The W. C. T. 
 U., by its literature, by its standards of living and every- 
 where by the consistency of its members in living up to 
 its standards, is an educational strength to us. No rnat- 
 ter who frowns upon them they seem determined to 
 hold out until peace, purity and prohibition are secured 
 for all. The Royal Templars, a body of advanced pro- 
 hibitionists, are, under Provincial Superintendents, keep- 
 ing the White Cross movement before its membership, 
 and by a special depajlment in its organ, having a cir- 
 culation of 25,000, going to all parts of the Dominion, 
 they are keeping the social purity movement before the 
 people. The Y. M. C. A. and other young people's 
 Christian societies are not one whit behind in purity 
 work their fellow workers in other lands. 
 
 We cannot speak of our work without identifying 
 with it that undertaken in the interest of prevention and 
 rescue. These homes are in nearly all our cities and 
 are carried on after the same manner and with the same 
 object as the Florence Crittenton and other rescue mis- 
 sions. To mention two or three will be sufficient to in- 
 
 275 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 dicale what is being done by all. The W. C. T. U. 
 have homes for shelter and rescue in Halifax — a garri- 
 son town — with all those conditions existing which go to 
 make the work both more difficult and urgent, and in 
 Quebec, Montreal, Winnipeg and in the cities of the 
 Pacific Coast. Where we find these workers without 
 homes under their own immediate supervision, we still 
 meet their members on all boards and committees for 
 the helping of their unfortunate sisters. In Quebec 
 Province, the population being largely Catholic, the 
 Protestant missions can accomplish but little. Yet here 
 we find earnest educational work being done by many 
 priests in that church, while the various sisterhoods 
 strive faithfully to save and reclaim the fallen of her 
 women. In Montreal " T Lie Woman's and Children's 
 Protective Society" not only undertakes rescue work 
 but also that of inquiry and prosecution. Ill treated 
 and neglected wives and children come within their 
 sphere of operation, and over three hundred cases 
 passed through their hands last year. In Toronto, 
 among other agencies, we have " The Haven and Prison 
 Gate Mission," dealing with as many as 700 or 800 cases 
 every year, not by any means all fallen women; many 
 of these are women addicted to drink, and who would 
 probably become impure, and many other poor girls 
 who seek and receive shelter as well as inspiration to a 
 better life. The last workers to enter this field are 
 those of the Salvation Army. Their rescue work was 
 inaugurated eight or nine years ago, and now they have 
 eight homes in as many cities. A shelter for women 
 with a nursery attached, and also a shelter for children. 
 During the past year 514 girls have been received into 
 these homes; of these only 38 were known to have defi- 
 nitely gone back to vice, while a very large portion of 
 the remainder were sent to situations, changed in their 
 right minds. Three hundred and thirty-six children 
 passed through the Children's Shelter. The Women's 
 Shelter supplied 4,945 beds and 3,681 meals. One sad 
 
 276 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 feature of all this rescue work is that no matter how 
 many homes are established, nor how many are saved 
 by their influence, still they are continually kept filled. 
 The cause remains, the wrong is with us, and while 
 rescue work is essential and Christly, we are convinced 
 that education and legislation is even more so. 
 
 In the city of Toronto, in connection with its police, 
 there is a work done in the interest of purity unique in 
 police methods. Toronto is a city of 200,000. It has 
 only 150 saloons strictly closed on the Sabbath, and no 
 street cars run on the Lord's day. But there is one de- 
 partment of police work of special interest to purity 
 workers. It is known as the morality department, and 
 is placed in charge of one of the most experienced 
 officers, a Christian gentleman of influence in the city 
 and country. Staff Inspector Archibald. This depart- 
 ment was inaugurated in February, 1886. The duties 
 given to this officer and his staff are ' ' To enforce laws 
 relating to the sale of liquors illicitly and houses of ill 
 fame and assignation; to suppress gambling, lotteries 
 and prize fighting ; to regulate baby farming establish- 
 ments; to prosecute for indecent exposure, cruelty to 
 women, children or animals, desecration of the Sabbath, 
 immorality of all kinds, and generally to deal with all 
 cases of a domestic nature requiring police intervention. " 
 At the time of the appointment it was said that in the 
 city were about fifty houses of ill fame and equally as 
 many disorderly houses. While to-day we do not deny 
 that there is prostitution, no doubt there are houses 
 where fornication is carried on, yet there is not a known 
 house of ill fame that can keep its establishment open 
 as such. The women that persist are of the lowest grade 
 and gravitate between the court room, jail and street 
 with not more than an average of twenty days upon the 
 street. But the best part of this officer's work is not 
 heard in court nor seen in print. He is the friend of the 
 girl who desires to reform ; he is the counsellor of the 
 ill treated wife, the deserted child and the troubled 
 
 277 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 mother. Any or all of these in need may turn to his 
 office. It is often more like the office of a city mission 
 than a police office. The Christian agencies in the city 
 work in harmony with the Inspector. He may be feared, 
 perhaps hated, by the determinedly vile and vicious, but 
 he is respected and trusted by those who, appreciating- 
 counsel, would without him suffer greater ruin and 
 misery. In this respect we believe the police methods 
 of Toronto have shown how at one and the same time 
 the law can be made a ' ' terror to evil doers and a praise 
 to those who do well." 
 
 What is our situation to-day ? Our people are per- 
 haps as moral as any other people, but we feel the in- 
 difference of our legislators and also of a large part of 
 our people to the importance of a proper age of consent 
 and to the one standard of morals. Our work for the 
 present must be largely educational. The public con- 
 science has to be reached. The youth have to be 
 taught. "The White Life for two" has to be insisted 
 upon. We may, perhaps, lead others in the matter of 
 prohibition. We are ready to learn from others in 
 methods of work for social purity. 
 
 278 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 M. L. HOLBROOK 
 
 279 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ALCOHOL AND CHASTITY. 
 
 By M. L, Holbrook, M. D. 
 
 In presenting what I have to say on the subject of 
 this paper I will be very brief and not try to go over all 
 the ground that might be traversed. Any one who is 
 interested in the subject can easily do this. The Bible 
 and many historical and temperance works, and even 
 the common observations of most persons, tell the story 
 of shame caused by strong drink. What I desire to say 
 will be presented in another way than this subject is 
 usually discussed, but I hope not on this account less 
 useful. 
 
 It is now generally admitted by scientists that man 
 has come to his present state by a process called Evolu- 
 tion, that is, development from lower forms to 
 higher ones, or from simple forms to more complex 
 ones. In this process of evolution there has been added 
 new functions and new powers as they were required by 
 the necessities of his life and his environment. And it 
 is one of the fundamental laws of being that newly ac- 
 quired traits are not so firmly fixed or established in the 
 nature of man as the older or first acquired ones. 
 
 It is believed by our phsychologists that one of the 
 last acquirements of man is the power of self control. 
 
 Let us stop a moment to inquire what self control 
 is and how useful it has been and can be to us. If we 
 study animals and low organisms we may see that the 
 power to control their own acts is wanting or nearly so. 
 Let any one observe for an hour under his microscope 
 living micro organisms, and what will he behold ' End- 
 less movement, perfectly meaningless to him. They 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 rush along the line of least resistance without the slight- 
 est control of their acts. It is an automatic movement. 
 
 With insects it is the same. Does the silk worm 
 say, now I will make a cocoon and undergo my trans- 
 formations in it, or, I will not make one, but go and 
 ■enjoy myself in some other way? Nothing of the sort. 
 It makes it under the law of its instinct without any 
 volition of its own. When the time comes it must spin 
 it whether it will or no. The reflex actions of its com- 
 plicated nervous system compel it to do this just as 
 surely as the laws of gravity acting on a ball unsup- 
 ported in the air forces it back to the earth. It cannot 
 say, " I will not, but I will do something else." 
 
 Do the bees or the butterflies plan out and control 
 their movements as they go from flower to flower? Do 
 they stop to reflect before they visit a blossom, or say, 
 we will gather no more nectar to-day? No, they are 
 guided by an instinct — see them fly through the air, 
 now this way, now that. They have manifestly no 
 power of controlling their own lives, or directing their 
 own ways. 
 
 When it comes to higher animals, the horse, the 
 dog, the bull and cow, there may be slight intimations 
 of self mastery, but they are slight indeed. 
 
 With man, however, the case is different. He has 
 had a story or several of them added to his intellect. It 
 takes in a wider range, a larger view. Man has devel- 
 oped the power of self control. He takes charge of his 
 own life and his own conduct. He is able to say, I will 
 do this, for it is wise; I will not do that, for it is unwise. 
 Even though his desires prompt him to do one thing, he 
 can by this inhibitory power given by self control, hold 
 himself back and do something far different, something 
 actually disagreeable, painful. He can even plan out a 
 course of action which will continue for years and hold 
 himself up to it during a long life. With most success- 
 ful men and women, .in whatever field, this is the case. 
 We can hardly estimate how very valuable it has been 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 for them to do this. We get some notion of the use of 
 this new power by comparing a man whose whole life 
 has been aimed at the accomplishment of some noble 
 work and the one who has no aim, but is carried about 
 by the whims and caprices of the hour. Can any animal 
 take its life under control as man can? No, not even 
 the highest ape and hardly the lowest man. 
 
 I said in the beginning this power of self control 
 has been one of the last acquired by man and that it has 
 not been so firmly fixed in his nature as some other of 
 his faculties, as that of the desire for food, for air, for 
 procreation. It is not constant as these desires are in 
 the healthy individual. Many persons have it in a low 
 degree, and by just so much come short of having the 
 full stature of men and women ; they yield to their likes 
 and dislikes, their whims and caprices, their passions 
 and temptations, even when their best judgment tells 
 them that it is not wise to do so. The inebriate is a 
 good illustration. He does not control his appetite for 
 drink, often cannot. The glutton is another. Our in- 
 sane asylums are full of men and women who have lost 
 all control over their own minds and they think and act 
 wildly, disorderly, unreasonably. 
 
 The sexual impulses are less under our control than, 
 they should be, often even in those who otherwise live 
 well ordered lives. These impulses are very important 
 and will be so as long as reproduction of the race must 
 go on. The greatest good as well as the greatest evils 
 results from them. There is no use in denying this. 
 QBut as the evolution of man goes on, these impulses 
 /should and must more and more come under self con- 
 / trol. If social purity is ever to make any headway this 
 new power in man's character, new comparatively only,, 
 must have a far larger influence on his sexual life. 
 Without probably looking at it from this point of view, 
 this is what tfie organization convened here is for, to in- 
 duce men and women to place their sexual nature tinder 
 the guidance of reason, of conscience, of hygiene. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Now, if I am right in what I have said, anything- 
 that makes it harder, or impossible to keep a mastery- 
 over one's own nature, is a positive evil, and it is here 
 the relation of what I have said to the use of alcohol 
 comes in. Do alcoholic drinks increase or diminish 
 man's self control over any part of his nature? If they 
 increase it, then they are in this respect a positive good. 
 If any food or drinks can be discovered which will make 
 man more his own master than he now is we may cease 
 half of our efforts for reform and try to induce people to 
 take them. Nor would it be difficult even though they 
 might be unpalatable. But no such food or drink has 
 been or is likely to be discovered, and as related to alco- 
 holic drinks, they always and invariably act reversely 
 and lessen the inhibitory power of man over his acts. 
 If his powers in this direction are great when sober, 
 they grow less and less the more alcohol he puts into 
 his blood. If his powers are small in this respect a little 
 alcohol upsets them and control is gone till nature re- 
 moves the poison from his blood. 
 
 We have abundant evidence of this in that class of 
 inebriates which are found in asylums and institutions 
 for their treatment. If they had not lost self mastery, 
 they would not have put themselves under the care of 
 another to guide them back to health of body and mind. 
 
 Let me now enumerate some of the simple facts 
 which go to show that alcohol destroys self mastery. I 
 will take first the muscular system. In health and in 
 the prime of life the voluntary muscles of a man whose 
 body has had proper training are corelated into one 
 movement of almost ideal perfection. Take a gymnast, 
 a sleight of hand performer, a dancer, as extreme illus- 
 trations. Take even a skilled wood chopper in some of 
 our Western forests. How perfectly the muscles of 
 each obey the dictates of the brain. But how is it when 
 the dancer, the gymnast, the axman are intoxicated? 
 The power of control is lost in proportion to the degree 
 of intoxication. No longer do the muscles obey his 
 
 283 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 will, but the person reels, staggers, or falls helpless on 
 the ground. Many of us no doubt have had slight ex- 
 perience of the power of alcohol to take away self con- 
 trol of the muscles when it has been used only medicin- 
 ally and in very small quantities. For this reason it is 
 a dangerous remedy for any one with a weak will and a 
 tendency to evil. 
 
 The same thing happens to the mind. Under alco- 
 holic influence the brain begins to think awry. It can- 
 not think straight, clear. The judgment becomes 
 warped, the intellect clouded. A man under hquor 
 once said to me : "Do you see that horrid creature com- 
 ing down from the stars with a load of snakes, throwing 
 them left and right about the room?" It was a case of 
 delirium tremens. His brain was no longer his own, it 
 ran wild like an engine in full motion and no engineer 
 to guide it. 
 
 Who of us would knowingly trust our lives on a 
 railway train with an intemperate engineer? We know 
 his judgment cannot be depended on to bring us safely 
 to our journey's end. Many a battle has been lost, 
 many a ship sunk, because the colonel or captain had 
 lost control of his brain through drink. 
 
 Shakespeare tells the whole story when he says: 
 
 " Drink, and speak parrot, and squabble, and swag- 
 ger, and swear, and discourse fustian with one's own 
 shadow." 
 
 In the effect of alcohol on the moral nature, we find 
 the same result of its taking away man's power over his 
 own acts. Seneca said, ages ago : ' ' Men will do many 
 things in their drink they are ashamed of when sober. 
 It emboldens men to do all sorts of mischief. It irritates 
 wickedness. It was in a drunken fit that Alexander 
 slew Clytus. It makes him who is insolent, prouder; 
 him who was fierce, more cruel. It takes away shame. 
 The tongue trips, the head turns round." 
 
 I have thus by degrees led up to the final point, 
 the effect of alcohol on chastity. The sexual impulse 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 as already stated, is one of the most powerful in man. 
 It is necessary that it should be strong, but it is equally 
 necessary that it should be under right guidance. There 
 are no checks to its abuse in human beings as there are 
 in the lower animals. Its wrong action must be pre- 
 vented by self mastery, guidance. In the normal man, 
 if he knows the benefits to health and happiness which 
 result from chastity, he will take this part of his nature 
 under the dominion of his reason and his better judg- 
 ment. But the experience of the ages shows that in- 
 temperance, drink, alcohol has so lessened the inhibitory 
 power which is slowly growing up in man and which 
 distinguishes him from all lower animals, that this is 
 impossible. Under its influence he drops back to a pri- 
 mal state, yes, worse than a primal state, and gives way 
 to his impulses, whatever they may be — the very worst ' 
 thing, it seems to me, that can happen to a human 
 creature. He now becomes degenerate. 
 
 I could give abundant testimony that the use of al- 
 coholic drinks is a cause of unchastity of no slight sig- a 
 nificance. Take it away and our houses of prostitution] 
 would have removed from them a chief prop to their 
 activity. With the reign of universal temperance its 
 worst forms will, I believe, disappear, and whatever of 
 it that remained could, without doubt, be easily man- 
 aged by the right kind of education, and a knowledge 
 well grounded into our natures that happiness is the re- 
 sult of obedience to the laws of life and that misery 
 comes from disobedience to the same. 
 
 285 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE PURE IN HEART. 
 
 By Hannah Hallowell Clothike. 
 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
 God," was the promise of the Master nearly nineteen 
 centuries ago. Practical as His teachings ever were, it 
 must be that this truth, as all others, He intended to 
 apply directly to our daily lives. Not only in the far 
 distant future are we to be called ' ' blessed " and are we 
 "to see God," but now, in the golden present, on this 
 earth. We shall see and feel Him in all life around us, 
 in the eyes of our fellow men as in their best efforts and 
 undertakings. The waving of the most delicate flower 
 in the lightest zephyr, as the prostration of the oak in 
 the hurricane, speak to us of the Great Invisible Power 
 of the universe, if only our hearts are pure. Just as a 
 blur on the pane of glass affects the whole aspect of the 
 view beyond, just so the slightest blemish on our hearts 
 affects life for us ; its glory is either revealed or hidden 
 through the condition in which we keep our own hearts. 
 
 What is purity of heart ? Does it belong always to 
 those whose lives receive praise before men, always 
 to those whose actions resound the world over, always 
 to those whom we call Christians? Sad to say it does 
 not. Sadder still that it seems possible for men to live 
 upright lives before their fellow men, and yet upon 
 their hearts bear the scars and taints of guilt. Saddest 
 of all that they should wish it to be thought they are 
 living for God, when really they are living only for the 
 opinions of men. 
 
 286 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Purity of heart belongs to those who are pure, 
 not only in the sight of men, but pure in the sight 
 of God; to those who stand in such relationship to 
 Him that their inmost natures could be laid bare in 
 His sight ; to those whose every motive as well as every 
 action works in harmony with His will. There is no 
 hardship in it all ; the flower does not find it a cross to 
 "bloom, nor do the ' ' pure in heart " find it a cross to 
 feel, think and act under the Father's loving control. 
 Light and darkness cannot dwell together; neither can 
 the Spirit of God take its abode within a heart quicken- 
 ing ungodly feelings, impure thoughts, questionable 
 habits, or wrong actions of any kind. There are many 
 other attributes of our nature which might be mentioned, 
 but I will call your especial attention to those above 
 named, and briefly consider them in turn. 
 
 First, feelings. Here the word is used in a broad 
 sense, signifying the state of emotions, under which head 
 fall all the human desires and passions of the heart. Let 
 lis query. Are these given to us by nature? Do they 
 lie entirely beyond our control? A very large part of 
 our being they do indeed seem to be ; but, before pass- 
 ing judgment as to their origin, let us examine closely 
 and see what may be their quality. If they are those 
 which tender and soften the human life, which express 
 only the spirit of the soul, we need not fear them ; they 
 have found their proper places, and will go toward 
 deepening and enhancing life's truest joys and happi- 
 ness. If, however, they are those which seize us so 
 strongly that they cause our lives to rise and fall, fluctu- 
 ating in an alarming manner, at one time inspiring us 
 to noble things, at another leading us to destruction, 
 then are they dangerous, and then must we admit 
 that we have no right to call them gifts from God which 
 we are powerless to master. Let us rather bravely say 
 that they have been misdirected, or, perhaps, not 
 •directed at all ; that we have trusted our lives to an 
 uncertain guide, and that in the future we shall fix our 
 
 287 . 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 eye on a more steady power, which is able not only to 
 oppose all barriers to its growth, but even to replace 
 them by true aspirations and ambitions, which crave 
 only that which is holy. May we give no depth of 
 earth to the seeds of base feelings and desires, and they 
 will not long remain a part of our being; even without 
 ovLT knowledge the chaff will be separated from the 
 wheat. 
 
 Second, thoughts. How is it with them? Too often 
 the mind is considered a sea whereon thoughts drift to 
 and fro, like the vessel with no one at the helm, tossed 
 here and there in storm and tempest, till, perchance, 
 it becomes wrecked upon the rocks, all the while we 
 stand as eye witnesses on the shore, helpless to aid. It 
 is our thoughts that mould our characters. Can it be 
 that they were intended to wander where they will, our 
 lives partaking of all the rubbish which they encounter 
 along the way? Perhaps we say that they come to us 
 unawares. It is not the coming which is always the sin, 
 but the being found unawares. We should have our 
 minds under such control that at the very dawn of evil 
 thinking we could turn it into other channels. Martin 
 Luther said that he could not prevent the birds of the 
 air from flying over his head, but he could prevent them 
 from making their nests in his hair. We can prevent 
 thoughts from taking their abode with us, if we so 
 decide. 
 
 Third, habits and actions. In these days, when 
 such poisonous trash is being circulated in our midst, 
 it has become a stern necessity to guard well one's 
 reading. It is not difficult for those of experience who 
 know the danger to escape the evil, but there are the 
 young under their care, and those beyond the warmth 
 radiating from their own hearth, with whom the bond of 
 common brotherhood closely links them, who are in- 
 capable of judging for themselves, and whose innocent, 
 pure hearts are being stung by the fatal serpent. Though 
 unharmed by it ourselves, may we remember that we 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 are our "brother's keepers." We need only stop at 
 some of the news stands in our large cities to realize in a 
 mild degree this evil. 
 
 Our pleasures: where do we seek them? In the 
 midst of those things which only result in lowering the 
 ideal standard of purity? It is dangerous ground when 
 the biased reasoning tries to entice us to engage in 
 pleasures which we feel can never harm us, but which 
 all the while are harming others. Our purity should 
 never be so challenged. Beware, lest at a moment we 
 know not we ourselves become tempted. 
 
 How much depends upon the company with whom 
 we associate. There is a law of attraction which brings 
 those of like tastes and ideals together, and our charac- 
 ters may often be roughly estimated from the company 
 we keep. The more we seek those of refinement and 
 culture, the more easy shall we find it to grow toward 
 our highest ideals, and the less shall temptations hold 
 us. Our social intercourse should be beneficial to our- 
 selves and to our neighbors, and we should realize the 
 influence surrounding our lives which goes forth to help 
 or hinder another's progress. 
 
 In conversation, light and mirthful though it may 
 be, and seem of little importance one way or the other 
 what is said, there are often seeds sown in some one's 
 heart for good or ill. A little word, a look, or, per- 
 haps, a shrug of the shoulders, bearing an uncertain 
 meaning, which we deem unnoticed, our neighbor 
 catches, and its influence we can scarcely estimate. 
 Low jesting, and everything which, if analyzed, would 
 bring shame to the company, should be utterly dis- 
 countenanced. 
 
 Men and boys, in your conversations at the club or in 
 your own rooms, do you speak of things which your wives 
 and mothers should not hear? Women and maidens, is 
 your chastity ever tainted by conversing upon subi'ects 
 with which you have no right to deal? May we all think 
 sacredly of this matter, and realize its great importance. 
 
 289 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 May it be our aim to keep our conversation fitting for 
 the angels of heaven to hear. 
 
 Who are there amongst us who have not found, in 
 mingling with one another, the truest blessing which 
 results from life and love? I refer to that relation of 
 friendship with our fellow men, through whom, as Emer- 
 son expresses it, " all things take nobler form and look 
 beyond the earth; " that close union, sealed by God's 
 own hand, which makes all life the sweeter and softer, 
 because it binds soul to soul in that love which ' ' braveth 
 all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endur- 
 eth all things, " and in which we see our friends as they 
 are. This divine gift is one which has come down 
 through the ages, being realized by those who have 
 received and made the most out of life, and is open 
 now, as always, without distinction, to those of all ages 
 in both sexes and between both sexes. Would that the 
 world could drop the belief that this union cannot exist, 
 and is not advisable between man and woman, boy and 
 girl. An earnest appeal goes forth to put aside this 
 wrong attitude toward life, which has too long turned 
 the world upside down and created abnormal relations' 
 between the sexes. May the boys and girls be taught 
 to let their souls flow freely to and from each other, 
 taught that they are necessary to each other's lives for 
 their truest and highest development. The girl or 
 woman with her gentleness will bring much to sweeten 
 the active business life of the boy or man, and, in return, 
 the boy or man will open to the girl or woman avenues 
 previously closed in her experience. Did this relation- 
 ship exist between young people, the happiness from 
 the marriage bond would be assured, because it would 
 be an outcome of a true, helpful service of soul to soul, 
 instead of a mere excited fascination, upon which so 
 many life unions are based, and which is often soon 
 over, burning to ashes in the midst of the responsibili- 
 ties of life. 
 
 290 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 There is much that could be said on the subject, 
 "but time for little. 
 
 As a tribute to her memory I would here speak of 
 a lovely young girl, now passed onward, who had been 
 taught to and did realize the possibilities of beautiful, 
 helpful friendships with those of her opposite sex. Her 
 marriage even did not put an end to them, and after 
 her early death two young men, calling on her mother, 
 with tears in their eyes and on bended knees, gave tes- 
 timony to what the daughter had been to them, saying 
 that they had never spent an evening in that parlor in 
 company with her and gone away without feeling puri- 
 fied. 
 
 Who would bear the sin of taking away these friend- 
 ships from "the pure in heart," and who would not 
 strive to keep his and her heart pure in order to enjoy 
 them? 
 
 From the sweetest thing which life has to give, we 
 shall turn to our last topic, work. It may lie in the 
 study of science, it may lie in the artist's studio, or in 
 the service of adding to the volumes of literature; it 
 may lie in the professional or business world, it may 
 even lie in the more quiet walks of life within our own 
 small family circle, ministering to the needs and pleas- 
 ures of our loved ones. Wherever it be, the field will 
 bear a harvest to those who follow the inward calling of 
 the Master — to those who seek the work which is in the 
 plan for them, to those who, unspotted from the taints 
 of impurity, see God face to face. Work then becomes 
 a joyful service wherein the heart is kept pure by read- 
 ing the hidden truths as they are revealed. 
 
 Summing up in a few words we find that the spirit- 
 ual ever governing the physical is the law which our 
 lives should follow — the Christ spirit within restraining 
 our feelings when they incline to rule us, making our 
 desires at one with the Father's and bringing every 
 thought into captivity to the obedience thereof. Then 
 will all the fruits of the garden grow and ripen in their 
 
 291 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 proper places, and in partaking of them life's actions 
 will prove only those upon which the Father's blessing 
 rests. The true and beautiful alone is countenanced — 
 only that literature which elevates the soul, only those 
 pleasures which are godly and healthful, only the com- 
 pany which stands for refinement, only that work which 
 reflects honor. 
 
 The world is yearning for these " living temples " 
 of the Lord who have heard and realize the glad tidings 
 and are willing to tell them unto others. Not only in 
 the far East, among the heathen nations ; not only in 
 the so called slums of the cities, among the lower classes ; 
 but, alas, in what is known as ' ' respectable " society, 
 among the higher classes, is there a glaring need for 
 earnest missionaries — "the pure in heart, " who clearly 
 and plainly reflect the image of Him in whose likeness 
 we are made. These are in His sight the " blessed " 
 ones of whom the Master spoke. Armed with the 
 breastplate of purity no occasion or circumstance could 
 cause even the suggestion of evil. The immorality of 
 the world they may realize, of the dark sins of their 
 fellow- men they may be conscious, but no plague shall 
 come nigh their dwellings, because they have made the 
 Most High their habitation. 
 
 292 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 
 
 
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 MARY TRA VILLA. 
 
 293 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 OUR DIVINE POSSIBILITIES. 
 
 By Mary Travilla. 
 
 In the paper just read our friend says, ' ' Thoughts 
 mould our characters. " How these words touch a key- 
 note in our mind and heart? For we know that when 
 we come unto the full realization that "the essence of 
 righteousness is right thinking," and thought always 
 seeks embodiment then in consciousness a new earth 
 and a new heaven is ours. And to all that are upward 
 bound this message must have a deeper, richer signifi- 
 cance. "Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
 things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, 
 think on these things." When this command is strictly 
 obeyed right action is the natural consequence. 
 
 If wrong thought will pull down and destroy, true 
 thought will build up and harmonize. We grant that 
 past thought has limited us in all directions, but by and 
 through the operations of the Divine spirit of truth and 
 progress we behold the dawn of a new era of thinking 
 and living. These words, "Blessed are the pure in 
 heart," fall upon us this golden autumn afternoon like 
 a sweet blessing, with a truer meaning and a clearer 
 perception than ever before. We see men more and 
 more freed from the ' ' chrysalis of self and arising on 
 the wings of faith and enlightened knowledge," know- 
 ing that all the spiritual forces in the universe are 
 working for good. 
 
 When we recognize the necessity of ' ' individual 
 thinking and individual effort for individual attainment 
 then will we endeavor to rouse and stimulate to re- 
 newed action the eternal individuality latent in every 
 soul." 
 
 294 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 This query arises within me: Do we accept the 
 truth of this statement that there is the eternal indi- 
 viduality latent in every soul? This incident comes 
 forcibly to my mind: One beautiful afternoon, while 
 riding in the cars of the city of Brotherly Love, feeling in 
 harmony with the inner melodies and in touch with the 
 beauty of nature, a woman seated herself opposite to 
 me and at once a blur came over the harmonious picture 
 of my thought as I gazed upon the mass of flesh and 
 beheld the repulsive countenance which gave forth no 
 signs of light and love, only dairkness and error re- 
 flected there. As I felt the truth of this Divine law, 
 "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he," so from 
 the radiation of her daily thinking and Uving I caught 
 the influence and it told its own story. It was of 
 a woman advanced in years, living off of the profits 
 of crime, responsible in a large measure for the down- 
 fall and degradation of the young. Then there arose 
 feelings within me that amounted almost to hatred for 
 that woman, not only for the sin but for the sinner, and 
 with these burning thoughts I longed to have the right 
 to give expression to them. 
 
 Then from the inner side of my real life and across 
 the silence of my heart I heard these words, " Oh, 
 child, child, where is thy professed faith now, in the 
 eternal individuality, latent in every soul? That 
 Divine spark of love and purity thee has ever 
 felt exists there, no matter how low in the scale of life a 
 child is found, nor how the pictured side of their lives 
 reveals unspoken horrors; here now is a practical test 
 for thee." Then it seemed as if a mighty rush of love 
 came on me, and I was enabled in the rest of the jour- 
 ney to behold not only now the distorted side of that 
 woman, but to feel that back and through all the sin 
 and its reflection that Divine pure self was there. God's 
 love never fails and ever expects and knows that some- 
 time, somewhere in the eternal plan, the consciousness 
 of every soul will awaken. 
 
 29s 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Here individual thinking and effort were demanded, 
 not alone for selfish individual attainment, but because 
 there was a growing recognition that when we fall into 
 line with the Divine laws of order and harmony, co- 
 operating therewith according to our growth and under- 
 standing, we are helping to clear the darkened, impure, 
 mental atmosphere, and bring forth into manifestation 
 more of light ; results may be very slow. ' ' What is that 
 to thee, follow thou Me." 
 
 God is tangible, quickening love. We must our- 
 selves be conscious of this Divine love and purity before 
 we can see it in others. 
 
 ' ' May the boy and girl be taught to let their souls 
 flow freely to and fro from each other, taught that 
 they are necessary to each others lives for their truest 
 and highest development." Then, again, "Who are 
 there amongst us who have not found in mingling 
 with one another the truest blessing which results 
 from life and love?" When these words fell upon my 
 ears how they touched the inner chord of my being, 
 seeing the golden possibilities folded up within them. 
 Think for a moment what it would mean if we were 
 always willing to look for the best in our friends, 
 knowing it is there whether they manifest it or not, 
 feeling we can speak with frankness and freedom from 
 heart to heart. Words not always essential, but by an 
 intuition a silent language is understood, new powers 
 are awakened by this truth and confidence in one 
 another. 
 
 ' ' Truth demands true living ; no swift condemning 
 of the evil nor the good should pass thy heart or lips. 
 Stop thy evil thinking ; speak of the pure and perfect, 
 of the beautiful and true." As an illustration of the 
 power of these words we give this true incident. A 
 mother visits a teacher in a secular school, and tells her 
 this story : ' ' My boy does not stay home from school 
 because I need him, but becau.se he is playing truant, 
 and associating with boys that are leading him away 
 
 296 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 from the right path. I am so worried and fearful for 
 the future. My husband is cross and out of heart. 
 Nothing but trouble and disappointment is mine. Now, 
 what sliall I do?" 
 
 "Are you willing to follow faithfully for a week this J 
 advice?" she replied. ' ' I will. " ' ' Every morning take a ( 
 half hour from your work, find a quiet spot in your home, 
 then enter into the silence of your heart. Think only \ 
 of the mother-love you have for your boy. Dwell on \ 
 the truth and beauty in his character, the pure and i 
 lovely, seeing him free from all error, refusing to think 
 about his wrong doing in that God given silence. Then '' 
 for your husband. Oh! dwell tenderly upon the early : 
 days of your love and marriage, seeing now the true * 
 nobility of his manhood awakening to his real self, then 
 giving unto you all that the heart craves for and that 
 which belongs to you. When they come home meet 
 them with a smile and kiss, a new trust and hope in 
 your heart, born out of that daily silence. Scold or ; 
 upbraid them not, but steadily expect the best. Come ! 
 to me the end of the week and tell me what success is * 
 yours. " 
 
 She came, and with a new light in her eyes and 
 a lightness in her step it told its own story of renewed 
 hope and courage, with a complete change. 
 
 The great, noble hearted, beloved friend to all, 
 Phillips Brooks, has said, "No man can do much for 
 others who is not much himself." By his glorious life 
 and example he has verified the truth of this statement. 
 Being lifted up himself he drew all men unto him. 
 
 When we think of these noble men and women who 
 are to-day giving their lives and service to the uplifting 
 of humanity, helping them to find their true kingship, 
 the Christ within, our heart overflows with thankfulness 
 for these willing messengers. Those who have borne 
 the heat and burden — the early pioneers of this great 
 movement — must rejoice for the promise and hope of 
 the future. 
 
 297 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ' ' Love and life go hand in hand, like the sunshine 
 and the sun — love the sun, and life the shine. 'Tis love 
 will break the bonds of wickedness and cruel condemna- 
 tion." 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MRS. ISABEL WING LAKE. 
 
 299 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 GRADED HOMES. 
 
 By Mrs. Isabel Wing Lake, of Chicago. 
 
 With such an interwoven network of impurity as 
 there is about us, it would almost seem as if any one 
 wolfish pitfall taken alone were enough to engulf the 
 young of our cities if it were not bridged at once, and 
 yet knowing as I do that this awful iniquity cannot be 
 stamped out at will by persuasion or force, I feel we 
 should move upon it with the utmost discretion and 
 keenest justice. Whether to strike at the heart and 
 reason that death at the extremities must of necessity 
 ensue or approach it from the outskirts and work into 
 the centre, placing sentinels at every outpost, is the 
 point for discussion. I do not consider that I can at all 
 benefit the handling of the subject, for I never knew so 
 little about the remedy as since I have these many years 
 studied the cause of this modern leprosy and its deadly 
 results. Three things I do know. The sorrow, the suf- 
 fering is here. Christ can and does redeem and He has 
 commissioned me to work to this end. What is the 
 best method to pursue ? 
 
 I cannot longer visit these poor, misguided girls in 
 their scarlet haunts, and not know that when I tell them 
 of my Jesus, I can show them His power to meet their 
 every need. They should at once get away from their 
 surroundings, old companions and temptations to sin. 
 Alas ! too often it is impossible to find the open door 
 for them to step into, a pure shelter, with loving and 
 tender care. I herewith submit this plan of Seven 
 Graded Homes, where there may be an opportunity for 
 every class of sinning women to return if they will, to 
 purer, truer, better things. I appeal to every true 
 hearted woman, every man of nobility and justice, as 
 
 300 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 to the wisdom of erecting a settlement of this kind on 
 one plat of ground or scattered in the suburbs some 
 distance one from the other. 
 
 plan of graded homes. 
 
 Large Difficulties Require Large Remedies. — 
 We plan to erect seven buildings, large and room.)', at 
 a cost of $200,000. This undertaking is built upon two 
 principles — preventive and redemptive. 
 
 1. Oak Cottage. — This building is to accommo- 
 date 100 girls, a dormitory of 25 cots and 30 sleeping 
 rooms, and will cost $6,000. 
 
 Purpose. — This is to be a temporary home for pure 
 women, those who in the desperate corapetition of life, 
 friendless, alone and unprotected, can find no employ- 
 ment and who need a place of refuge until an industrial 
 door opens to them. All the fearful needs involved in 
 this proposition cannot be portrayed here. Instruction 
 will be given in this building in Bible study and methods 
 of mission work in the field of labor we represent. 
 One thing can be safely said, this cottage will be no 
 abode for the idle, as there will be in connection with 
 each home some known industry. 
 
 2. Maple Lodge. — Will be a refuge for the be- 
 trayed girls ; she who by being suddenly snared through 
 drugs, deception or ignorance, cries out to us from her 
 despair for sheltering protection. It is not to be that 
 we, who with a stauncher craft and better pilotage, 
 have weathered the wild storms of life, coming safely 
 through, can refuse to heed the signals of distress from 
 those who have made shipwreck. They cling still 
 to the rigging, and plead to be taken off before a merci- 
 less sea pounds them into a total wreck. The industrial 
 department will furnish employment to those physically 
 capacitated so that they can pay, feel they are of ser- 
 vice in the home until other employment can be found. 
 This building and its equipments will accommodate 100 
 girls, and will cost about $6,000. 
 
 301 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 3. Elm Nook. — A haven for rescued women and 
 girls. Into this home will be gathered those who in 
 their delirium have left home with one they felt they 
 loved, under promise of marriage or some other decep- 
 tion, have been swept into the abyss, not knowing how 
 to climb out, have gone down deeper and deeper into the 
 mire. They swim against the tide to the great ship in 
 which we float, and cry up to us out of the deep— Let 
 down the lifeboat or we die. 
 
 This great building will only cost some one an 
 annual sacrifice of $700 in interest money, or a total in- 
 vestment of but $10,000. 
 
 We do believe there are those who, looking at an 
 income of $700 a year, derived from a good investment, 
 would prefer to reinvest this sum in the institution that 
 will provide a way of escape for these suffering ones. 
 Cost, 110,000. 
 
 4. Mother's Memorial Chapel. — In the centre of 
 our equipment will be the chapel to be built only by the 
 gifts of the mothers of our land, or by gifts in memory 
 of devoted mothers from grateful sons and daughters 
 to pay back their debt of gratitude. Surely it will be 
 a holy place with ever open doors to the great Father 
 heart of God. Cost, $10,000. 
 
 5. The Nest — for Our Babies. — We can make 
 no statement that will describe this cradle over which 
 the mother heart of this organization will brood. While 
 the unwavering principle must be to keep mother and 
 child together, still many will come under our care that 
 need our efforts, that we may benefit the homeless child 
 and the childless home. 
 
 The nest must be newly feathered, that these little 
 ones, tossed helplessly on the great tide of human life, 
 may move upward toward a home and purity of life, 
 rather than down into the abode of crime and vice. 
 Will this building that will shelter 200 of these little 
 ones until they can find homes be too expensive if it 
 cost $4,000 ? 
 
 302 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 6. The Hospital. — Like a great house of mercy, 
 •every brick laid and each cot spread by generous im- 
 pulses, this noble building will help untold multitudes. 
 
 1st Wing. — The convalescing shop girl may recup- 
 erate here, and this wing of the hospital will stand be- 
 tween the city hospital and the city brothel to intercept 
 the flow of a great stream of human life that dashes 
 down over this cataract. 
 
 3nd Wing. — That great army — slaves of drink or 
 inebriates of any nature — thinking to suicide thought, 
 or quiet the torture of physical pain, they stand at our 
 door — chained women — waiting for a liquor or opium 
 cure or a drunkard's grave. 
 
 3rd Wing. — Maternity Cases. — Forsaken, poverty 
 pinched and forlorn. This ward will protect the 
 mothers for a time. Rob the average midwife of a suf- 
 fering victim, stop the discharge in two days or two 
 weeks after confinement to desolate rooms, save the 
 little one, giving it opportunities for health and happi- 
 ness as God intended, and drive the procuress elsewhere 
 for girls, when we save the child mother from her 
 grasp. Can money be invested for eternity in a more 
 telling, far-reaching way ? 
 
 4th Wing. — Contagious Diseases. — ■ Sheltering 
 many who would, if thrown broadcast through our city, 
 ruin untold numbers. The hospital will be built with 
 four wings, the body of which will accommodate ordi- 
 nary diseases. 
 
 7. Dining Hall. — A two story building carrying 
 all the culinary equipments. Cost, $3,000. 
 
 the beehive. 
 
 A. — In this side settlement can be a sewing room 
 for some line of fancy work, or otherwise, some light 
 labor for those unable temporarily to perform arduous 
 work. 
 
 B. — A paper box factory. 
 
 C. — Steam laundry. 
 
 303 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 D. — Conservatory for winter roses, vegetables, &c. 
 E. — Raising of chicli;ens and all industries that a 
 woman can engage in. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL. 
 
 1st — Class in Physical Culture, Indian clubs, &c. 
 2nd — Class in Cooking. 
 
 3rd — Class in General Nurse Work or Kitchen. 
 Garten. 
 
 4th — Class in Kinder Garten. 
 
 5th — Class in Dressmaking. 
 
 6th — Class in Stenography and Telegraphy. 
 
 7th — Class in Typesetting. 
 
 8th — Class in Book Binding. 
 
 9th — Class in Photography and Retouching. 
 
 10th — Class in Designing and Carving. 
 
 11th — Class in Bookkeeping. 
 
 Help us help the helpless. 
 
 304 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 B. O. FLOWER. 
 
 305 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 SOME CAUSES OF PRESENT DAY IMMORAL- 
 
 ITY AND SUGGESTIONS AS TO 
 
 PRACTICAL REMEDIES. 
 
 By B. O. Flower, Editor of The Arena. 
 
 In the brief space assigned me, it would be impossi- 
 ble to touch upon the numerous complex and often subtle 
 causes of present day immorality. I shall, therefore, 
 only briefly notice a few of these wellsprings of death 
 which impress me as being fundamental in character. 
 These I would classify as follows: 
 
 I. Prostitution within the marriage bond, or a dis- 
 regard of the sacred right of the wife and child. 
 
 II. Prostitution without the marriage relation. 
 
 III. The influence of the liquor traffic. 
 
 IV. Unjust social conditions. 
 
 V. The lack of knowledge and the absence of high 
 ideals in the mind. 
 
 VI. The popular acceptation of the pernicious idea 
 of the "double standard of morals," which in effect 
 pollutes youth, leads to legislation fostering lust, and in 
 other ways proves a positive barrier to moral progress. 
 
 I. Prostitution Within the Marriage Bond. — 
 I place prostitution within the marriage bond, involving 
 the sacred rights of the wife and the child, and the obli- 
 gation to posterity which this evil comprehends, at the 
 opening of this discussion, because through ignorance 
 and thoughtlessness, perhaps, as much as to the su- 
 premacy of passion over man's sense of justice above 
 the voice of conscience, wifehood is being debased, 
 childhood is being poisoned, and the society of to-mor- 
 row is being corrupted, and this evil will continue to 
 exert a baleful influence until knowledge is forced upon 
 
 306 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 the attention of men and women, and a strenuous appeal 
 is made to the conscience of men in behalf of the wife 
 and the unborn. To me it appears that this phase of 
 the question is of paramount importance, because it em- 
 braces the powerful though subtle complex and inter- 
 blending influences of heredity prenatal, and, to a great 
 degree, postnatal causes, as they relate to the oncoming 
 generation, no less than the disregard for sound and 
 wholesome morality, necessarily injurious in influence to 
 the thought world and physical condition of the wife and 
 mother. So long as passion sways reason, and people 
 recklessly or thoughtlessly call little ones into the world, 
 we will find a large percentage of the oncoming gen- 
 eration children of lust rather than welcome offsprings 
 of love. They come into the world so strongly endowed 
 with passional instincts that the balance wheel of reason 
 is powerless to control them, and even the solemn voice 
 of conscience fails to arrest them when the sensual 
 nature is aroused. 
 
 I hold that until we recognize that woman has the 
 right of her body, and until parents are made to feel 
 that the bringing of an unwelcome child into the world 
 is a major crime, the work of social redemption will 
 necessarily progress at a lame and halting gait inas- 
 much as we will have allowed one of the greatest feed- 
 ers of immorality to remain in operation, and though, 
 like the man Christian beheld in "Pilgrim's Progress," 
 who continued to throw water on a fire only to see it 
 burn the brighter, our work will be largely disappoint- 
 ing, because the fires of sensualism will be constantly 
 fed from an untouched reservoir of death, precisely as 
 in the case in " Pilgrim's Progress" the flame was con- 
 stantly nourished by one behind the furnace who poured 
 oil on the fire. We must educate and agitate, we 
 must appeal to the conscience of the people, we must 
 demand in the name of the individual, of the nation and 
 of civilization, that the child of the future shall be well 
 born. 
 
 3°7 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 II. Prostitution Without the Marriage Bond. 
 — I have no sympathy with the threadbare, and, in my 
 opinion, thoroughly vicious plea, which urges that pros- 
 titution always has existed, always will exist, and, there- 
 fore, the best thing is to license and place it under the 
 supervision of medical oihcials. This cry that an evil 
 has ever existed and must, therefore, always prevail, 
 has been the slogan of the children of night in every 
 battle for the abolition of giant evils which man has 
 waged in the history of civilization. The overthrow of 
 chattel slavery, and, indeed, every victory for humanity, 
 has been won in face of this plea of a soul deadening 
 materialism, which ignores the very principles of human 
 progress, and seems to find in man nothing beyond the 
 animal. I know the claims which are advanced. We 
 are assured that by licensing this evil it can be confined 
 within certain bounds, and that wives and children will 
 stand a better chance of escaping the most loathsome of 
 diseases frequently contracted by married men who 
 patronize houses of ill fame. 'I'he premises on which 
 these assumptions are based are false, and the conclu- 
 sions deducted are no less erroneous, which will be seen 
 by a careful survey of the subject. We are assured 
 that by licensing prostitution we can restrict the evil to 
 certain locations, and better restrain it. Let us see. 
 We will suppose a certain colony of moral lepers is dis- 
 tricted off in one of our large cities. No one is allowed 
 to live there and ply her trade unless she has a clean bill 
 of health from the examining officer. Here is special 
 security granted by government to the adulterous 
 among the married men or the licentiously disposed 
 among the unmarried, but there is no protection afforded 
 the prostitutes which might shield them against those 
 whose blood is poisoned with the virus of the most loath- 
 some diseases. Hence, with each recurring week, 
 numbers of those unfortunates would be refused a 
 certificate, provided the officers observed their oath, 
 and, consequently, be legally prohibited from plying 
 
 308 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 their trade. These unfortunates would rapidly multi- 
 ply, as they have multiplied in Paris and other cities, 
 where the cause of sound morality has been surrendered 
 to sensual supremacy and a shortsighted expediency, 
 and in time they would necessarily find lodgment within 
 the poorer and more wretched parts of the city. Having 
 no other possible means of earning a livelihood, with 
 society constituted as it is at the present time, they 
 would be driven to plying their loathsome trade in a 
 clandestine manner, and thus the virus of disease would 
 rapidly be disseminated among the working classes and 
 the exiles of society, while the licensed colony would 
 be weekly recruited from above so as to fill the quota 
 required to gratify the rapidly increasing traffic in vice. 
 Any law which would license prostitution might well be 
 entitled a law for encouraging adultery and licentious- 
 ness. And just here let me point out another fact which 
 must be borne in mind. There is unquestionably a 
 large number of unmarried men who are restrained 
 from patronizing houses of prostitution from fear of one 
 of two things: (1) that the houses maybe raided by the 
 police and they dragged before the court, and thus be 
 disgraced, if not ruined in their social standing; (2) 
 they are restrained from fear of contracting disease; 
 but once license these houses and you relieve both these 
 restrictive influences, with the result that prostitution 
 would not only be increased and the demand for healthy 
 girls be greatly augmented, but also it would inevitably 
 increase the percentage of sexual maniacs among the 
 generations of to-morrow; for fathers thus polluted 
 from continual carnivals of lust and the accompanying 
 dissipation would necessarily, according to the inexora- 
 ble law of heredity, transmit, in a large number of cases, 
 an almost insatiable passion to their children. More- 
 over, the evil effects upon the young men would be im- 
 measurable. There are thousands upon thousands of 
 boys and youths who are thoughtless, and, to a degree, 
 reckless. They cannot be said to have " come to them- 
 
 309 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 selves " as yet ; but they have a wholesome dread of 
 contracting a disease as terrible and loathsome as 
 leprosy, and this fear unquestionably oftentimes restrains 
 them until they come to that time in life when moral 
 responsibilities appeal to them. Now, had the sensual 
 gained supremacy before this maturity- of soul life, they 
 would have been weakened in body, brain and spirit — 
 too weak in many instances to heed the warning voice 
 of conscience. 
 
 Moreover, we must remember the futility which 
 has attended the iniquitous attempts at licensing prosti- 
 tution. Dr. Arthur K. Stone, in a thoughtful address 
 recently delivered before the Boston Society for Medical 
 Improvement, gave some admirable facts collated from 
 recent authorities along this line. He called attention 
 to the fact that ' ' the Prefect of Police in Paris admitted 
 to Dr. Lassar, of Berlin, who had been sent by the 
 German government to investigate the methods of con- 
 trol in Paris, that there were fully one hundred thousand 
 prostitutes in Paris" although this estimate simply in- 
 cluded women who had no regular means of support 
 except their ill famed profession. Some very significant 
 facts in relation to the claim that licensing prostitution 
 would be in the interest of health are also given. The 
 eminent German physician, Dr. Blaschko, of Berlin, 
 stated, in the course of a very thoughtful paper, that 
 ' ' from the standpoint of public hygiene no benefit was 
 received whatever from the control as then practiced. 
 In Paris Dr. Vidal, of the Hospital St. Louis, which is 
 the centre of skin diseases of all Paris and France, states 
 that the number of syphilitic patients is daily increasing. 
 Professor Leon le Fort, of the Hospital du Midi, and 
 Professor Fournier and Dr. Mauriac all express the 
 same views." "Dr. Passavant, of Paris, is quoted as 
 saying that out of every hundred inscribed women thirty- 
 five to fifty per cent, have venereal disease. Dr. Fiaux 
 shows that in Belgium in 1S81-1889, one half of the in- 
 mates of the licensed houses had to be sent to the hos- 
 
 310 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 pitals for treatment with venereal disease, of whom 
 about fifty per cent, were syphilitic. " These facts are 
 exceedingly important, going far toward confuting the 
 strongest and most plausible claims which have been ad- 
 vanced in favor of licensing prostitution. Dr. Stone 
 also refers to the eminent French Minister, Guyot, who 
 has made an extensive study of this subject, and has 
 written an able work on prostitution. This savant has 
 reached the conclusion that abolition is the proper thing. 
 He urges that ' ' prostitution is a moral and personal 
 question, and there is no good reason why it should be 
 recognized by protecting law." Had I space I should like 
 to notice this question from the humanitarian point of 
 view, pointing out its essential inhumanity, and showing 
 how intimately it is connected with the old idea that 
 woman's rights and interests are thoroughly secondary 
 to man's; but I deem it far more important at the 
 present time to point out some facts which may prove 
 helpful in the pending conflict which I believe to be 
 inevitable. The voice which calls for the licensing of 
 prostitution issues from the black cave of sensual 
 materialism, and insults every divine impulse in man. 
 
 III. The Influence of Strong Drink. — A gentle- 
 man recently insisted that if the liquor traf&c could be 
 swept from our civilization, the tap root of prostitution 
 would be severed. But I am not prepared to accept 
 such a sweeping statement ; nevertheless, I am pro- 
 foundly convinced that the abolition of the sale of intoxi- 
 cants as bevera^eaJKOiild-4«sSliISiar-flJffl©st-incQ^ 
 able diminutiaa-ia--all-4be--±rain._ of evils_ which spring 
 from immorality-asjsLelljis crime ; and in this' connection 
 I desire to quote a recent utterance of the eminent 
 French physician. Dr. Motet, made in the Academy of 
 Medicine. In discussing the influence of strong drink 
 upon humanity, he affirmed that "the prison statistics 
 show that fifty-three per cent, of the murderers, fifty- 
 seven per cent of the incendiaries, seventy per cent, of 
 the beggars and tramps, fifty-three per cent, of those 
 
 311 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 convicted for crimes against morality, and ninety per 
 cent, of the men committed for assault are the victims 
 of alcoholism." A great number of prostitutes who 
 have been rescued have declared that the life they led 
 would have been impossible were it not for constant 
 stimulation afforded by wine and liquor; and it is a 
 known fact that libertines, as a rule, resort largely to 
 alcoholic stimulants to fire their passions. That with 
 the banishment of the saloon, prostitution and all kin- 
 dred phases of immorality would be greatly reduced, is 
 a fact about which there can be no question. But 
 how to attain this desirable end in face of the enor- 
 mous power wielded by the liquor interest, organized 
 as it is, and representing vast wealth, with its iron grasp 
 on the great political parties, and its influence more or 
 less obvious upon the press and the pulpit, is a problem 
 which calls for the serious attention of thoughtful peo- 
 ple, especially when we remember the slow progress — 
 if we may so term the record— of recent years made by 
 prohibition. To me it appears as though the liquor 
 power was becoming more firmly intrenched with 
 each succeeding election, while the growth of temper- 
 ance sentiment does not indicate that awakening of the 
 general conscience which must speedily take place if 
 the liquor interest is to be checked in its attempt to con- 
 trol and subvert the government. Therefore, I believe 
 that all thoughtful reformers should give serious atten- 
 tion to two proposed remedies which have been recently 
 advanced, and which would unquestionably destroy 
 "the rum power in politics," a result absolutely neces- 
 sary, in my judgment, before prohibition can be ren- 
 dered possible. These proposed remedies are (1) the 
 State control of the liquor traffic without profits; 
 (2) the Gottenburg plan, modified to suit our social and 
 political conditions, and shorn of any profits above a 
 minimum interest on the money invested. In each case 
 I would insist that all additional money accruing from 
 the sales of liquor be used in educating and disseminat- 
 
 312 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ing a knowledge of the evils of alcoliol upon the human 
 system, upon the brain and moral nature, and upon 
 society in general, and in the establishment of homes 
 for the cure of those who are already confirmed inebri- 
 ates. These propositions, I say, merit the attention of 
 thoughtful temperance people, because they are steps 
 that are distinctly in the direction of prohibition. I 
 should under no circumstances favor the governmental 
 control of the liquor traffic if the profits went to the re- 
 duction of taxes, as that would tend to fasten the system 
 permanently upon the government. Still, with the 
 proper safeguard thrown around the State control, or 
 the Scandinavian system properly modified so as to 
 eliminate all features which might tend to make it per- 
 manent, the result could not fail, in my judgment, to 
 destroy the liquor power as an organized evil, and after 
 its destruction the triumph of temperance would be as- 
 sured. I believe that the adoption of one of these 
 plans by temperance workers would result in bringing 
 about efficient prohibition many generations earlier than 
 it would be possible to effect it if we continue to pursue 
 our present course, and since the liquor traffic is a large 
 factor in producing immorality this question certainly 
 challenges the consideration of all persons interested in 
 social purity. 
 
 IV. Unjust Social Conditions. — Wherever we 
 find the slums of cities annually enlarging their borders 
 and poverty becoming diffused on the one hand and 
 great wealth being rapidly concentrated on the other, it 
 matters not whether it be through inheritance, unearned 
 increment, or any other form of special privilege, or 
 through gambling, we will find a condition which pro- 
 duces immorality at the nadir and zenith of society, and 
 from these extremes the poison rises from beneath and 
 percolates from above until it infects civilization through- 
 out all its ramifications. In precisely the proportion 
 that a people disregard the Golden Rule, ignore justice 
 and substitute a baleful artificiality for sturdy simplicity, 
 
 313 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 immorality increases. Extreme wealth produces too 
 frequently indolence, high living, the indulgence in wines 
 and liquors, all of which tend to deaden the conscience 
 and stimulate the sensual in man's nature, while the 
 poor, huddled together in overcrowded tenements, lose 
 to a great extent that refinement and modesty so neces- 
 sary to the development of virtue, and the multitudes of 
 poor girls who are forced to, make a living and who are 
 underpaid, too frequently find themselves at the mercy of 
 their employers or are driven through insufficient wages 
 to add to their earnings by yielding to the demands of 
 the men who possess means or influence. All this acts 
 as a poison upon society, subtle in its workings it may 
 be, but none the less fatal to any civilization which is so 
 blinded by selfishness as to silence the demands of jus- 
 tice, ignore reason and conscience for expediency or 
 policy. It is, therefore, clearly the duty of all social re- 
 formers to work for the establishment of an equality of 
 opportunities or the enthronement of altruism where 
 greed and selfism now prevail. 
 
 V. The Lack of Knowledge and the Absence 
 OF High Ideals in the Mind. — There is a profound 
 truth in the old scriptural saying, " As a man thinketh in 
 his heart, so is he." The imagination is the garden of 
 destiny and the ideals it receives and holds, together 
 with the influence of heredity and prenatal causes largely 
 determines whether the child is to become an honor or a 
 disgrace to himself and to society. It is difficult to esti- 
 mate the influence of ideals upon the j'oung during the 
 formative period when the mind is still plastic. A great 
 mistake, however, has been made by well meaning but 
 shortsighted people, who, fearing the dissemination of 
 wholesome and necessary knowledge, have not only at- 
 tempted to enforce the old time idea of silence in regard 
 to the diffusion of physiological facts of utmost import- 
 ance but have gone so far as to persecute high minded 
 persons who manifestly have been actuated only by the 
 highest possible impulses. These would be censors 
 
 314 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 frequeiitl)' so confuse the pure with the impure and es- 
 sential knowledge with evil or pernicious concepts that 
 a guilty silence which is passed current for modesty con- 
 tinues to foster that ignorance, which is a bulwark of 
 lust and which is diametrically opposed to the 
 sturdy morality bom of wholesome knowledge. I 
 hold that it is the duty of parents and teachers to in- 
 struct their children in regard to the sacred functions of 
 the sexual organism and the holy character of the re- 
 sponsibility devolving on them. This done let the chil- 
 dren be shown how vile a thing it is to debase that 
 which is sacred and holy. Let in the light of knowl- 
 edge, warn them of the pitfalls, and then show them 
 that it is their sacred duty to keep their mind filled with 
 the highest, purest and holiest ideals. They must be 
 shown that those who revel in low imaginings debase 
 their whole nature, weaken their conscience, enervate 
 their mind and sap the vitality of the physical nature, 
 while on the other hand those who dwell in the higher 
 realms of love and spirituality soon triumph over the 
 sensual propensities and come into the enjoyment of the 
 loftiest pleasures known to man, the pleasure which 
 flows from enjoyment of spirituality. If the parents or 
 trusted teacher, however, is silent or equivocates when 
 approached by the child upon the delicate questions 
 under consideration, he soon learns from base and un- 
 worthy sources half truths vilely put which color all the 
 thought images with sensualism. Knowledge and a 
 free discussion of a wholesome character is essential to 
 the highest morality, but great emphasis should always 
 be placed on encouraging and cultivating the purest 
 thoughts and noblest ideals. In this connection I wish 
 to say a word in regard to the danger of shortsighted, 
 arbitrary or partisan action of postal authorities, or 
 those who assume to guard pubhc morals, in regard to 
 the disseminating of literature supposed to come under 
 the postal law, because I believe in some instances the 
 cause of sound morality has been greatly retarded by 
 
 315 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 unwarranted action which, to say the least, outraged 
 the fundamentals of justice and seemed to take on the 
 aspect of persecution based on personal or political 
 spite or religious intolerance. I have time for but one 
 illustration, but it will serve to emphasize the point I 
 wish to make. Rev. Joshua Caldwell, the editor of the 
 Christian Life, a man whom from all I can gather is 
 noble minded, single hearted and engrossed with a de- 
 sire to elevate civilization by purifying morals at the 
 fountain head, in one of the issues of his paper pub- 
 lished a sermon by a Congregationalist clerygyman 
 dealing with marital purity. While this discourse would 
 probably prove unwelcome to many men who, while 
 prostituting their wives, are loud in their protestations 
 for social purity, it was nevertheless a noble plea by a 
 Christian clergyman for higher moral concepts in the 
 marital relation, a sermon which, in my judgment, 
 should be read by every married couple in the land. 
 Some time after this the Rev. Caldwell criticised the 
 postal department and some persons who had been par- 
 ticularly active in persecuting men who were single 
 hearted and were striving to elevate morals but who 
 had possibly come within the letter of the law by the 
 employment of coarse and repulsive terms. Then it 
 was that the editor of the Christian Life was arrested. 
 He plead in vain for clemency at the hands of his 
 persecutors — it was alleged that the sermon he had 
 printed eleven months before was obscene. Now it is a 
 fundamental principle of law that the intent of the ac- 
 cused should be taken into account, but this wholesome 
 and almost universally recognized demand of justice 
 was entirely ignored by the postal authorities and the 
 censors of morals who were implicated in this case, 
 though such ignoring of essential justice was inevitably 
 prejudical to sound morality. When the case came up 
 for adjudication it was promptly dismissed by the court 
 as not coming within the meaning of the law, but for 
 five months this poor clergyman had suffered the awful 
 
 316 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 suspense whicli a refined nature of this character would 
 necessarily undergo not knowing what the outcome of 
 the case might be. He was also compelled to spend his 
 little all in legal expenses in order to save him from the 
 fate of a felon, although his only offence ( ?) was a sin- 
 cere endeavor to elevate the standard of morals and a 
 frank criticism of the action of our would be censors of 
 public morals. This poor man had no redress for the 
 wrongs done him or for the financial injury he sustained, 
 while certainly the cause of morality, no less than the 
 fundamental principles of justice, suffered a positive in- 
 jury through the ill advised and arbitrary action of 
 those concerned in the case. I have cited this illustra- 
 tion to show how dangerous it is to entrust the moment- 
 ous problems of morality to persons who are lacking in 
 that broad and judicial quality of mind which lifts a 
 man above petty, personal spite, partisan bias, or the 
 unreasoning prejudice of dogma and creed. I am 
 thoroughly convinced that the cause of morality has, in 
 some instances, been greatly retarded during recent 
 years by the indiscriminate action of those in authority, 
 and the probability is that unless a more judicial, just 
 and discriminating spirit is exhibited in the future there 
 will be one of those tremendous reactions in public sen- 
 timent which will prove unfortunate in another way for 
 the cause of social purity. It is absolutely necessary 
 that a wholesome dissemination of knowledge regard- 
 ing the sexual functions and the dangers which beset 
 the young should accompany the insistence of high, 
 noble and inspiring ideals if sturdy morality is to take 
 the place of that vicious mock modesty which shrinks 
 from the august duty devolving upon all high minded 
 parents and teachers, and which comprehends the in- 
 structions in sexual morality. Purity through knowl- 
 edge, not innocence through ignorance, is the supreme de- 
 mand of to-day, and with that knowedge let us sow the 
 mind with the seeds of lofty spirituality, ever placing 
 before the young the highest ideals. 
 
 317 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 VI. The Double Standard of Morals is an- 
 other fundamental cause of present day immorality. 
 Generations after generations of men indulging in licen- 
 tiousness as a recognized prerogative of their sex, for- 
 getting that they tincture their offsprings with the poison 
 which colors their thought world and courses through 
 their veins, and that their daughters, as well as their 
 sons, must necessarily in time become morally enervated, 
 is responsible for much of the immorality which 
 flourishes on all sides to-day. It is from this false 
 though popular dictum, that is known as the double 
 standard of morals, which furnishes the cases upon 
 which the vicious ' ' wild oat theory " rests, and we find 
 our young men poisoning their imaginations, polluting 
 their souls, enervating their will power and corrupting 
 their blood by wild debauchery and unrestrained licen- 
 tiousness, after which, with the sanction of conventional 
 society, they marry virtuous girls and curse civilization 
 with morally tainted progeny. This same thoroughly 
 immoral idea is also responsible for legislation fostering 
 lust, such for example as the Age of Consent laws, and 
 for the lack of adequate statutory punishment for the 
 betrayal and seduction of the ignorant and innocent. I 
 am perfectly aware of the sophistry which is advanced 
 to support this wellspring of death, but like the pleas, 
 urged in advocacy of other evils which are essentially 
 unjust or immoral, it rests for its support upon preju- 
 dice and passion instead of reason, progress and the 
 right. We must demand one standard of morals and 
 that a "white life for two." 
 
 These are some of the principal or fundamental 
 causes of immorality against which it is important that 
 we direct our united energies, for I am convinced that 
 there are hard battles to be fought in the near future. 
 The forces of corruption are firmly entrenched and are 
 alarmed ; they will resort to all resources at their com- 
 mand and not infrequently will assume the livery of 
 conventional morality to prevent the progress of purity. 
 
 318 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 But the powers of light are with us, the conscience of 
 civilization is becoming awakened, and I believe that we 
 are entering on an era of moral regeneration which will 
 not only save our civilization but lift humanity to a 
 nobler plane than man has hitherto occupied. 
 
 319 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE RELATION OF THE PRESS AND THE 
 STAGE TO PURITY. 
 
 By Josiah W. Leeds, of Philadelphia. 
 
 I have often wondered at the singular inconsistency 
 of a great many people in condemning woman's appear- 
 ance in public as a preacher of the Gospel of salvation, 
 while at the same time welcoming her upon the theatre 
 boards to disport in immodest attire for their entertain- 
 ment. Yet it is only within the last two centuries— in 
 other words, since the time of the dissolute Charles the 
 Second, of England, and Louis the Fourteenth, of 
 France — that the public's sense of propriety has so far 
 weakened as to tolerate this degrading innovation of 
 woman's appearance as a stage dancer and actress. 
 
 Some years ago I asked the nominee for Mayor of a 
 large city, in view of the scandal arising because of cer- 
 tain impure stage spectacles which had recently been 
 given, whether he would not be willing (his election 
 being assured) to refuse licenses to the theatre and opera 
 companies which presented the ballet. He replied, in 
 effect, that the ballet was now a tolerated or recognized 
 performance in connection with the amusements of all 
 civilized countries, and he did not feel that he could with 
 propriety set himself against the practice. A little later 
 I noticed his name published as director of a theatre in 
 the city of which he was Chief Magistrate, and hence felt 
 sure that he would stand very firmly by the unencour- 
 aging opinion that he had privately expressed to me. 
 
 In India and the Orient generally it is only those 
 women who have lost their good name who will consent 
 to appear as actresses or dancers upon a public stage. 
 In Dr. Butler's " Land of the Veda " I find a paragraph 
 
 320 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 of information with appropriate comment upon this mat- 
 ter, which I here introduce. He says, in referring to 
 the Nautch Girls: 
 
 " No man in India would allow his wife or daughter 
 to dance, and as to dancing with another man, he would 
 forsake her forever as a woman lost to virtue and modesty 
 if she were to attempt it. In their observation of white 
 women there is nothing that so much perplexes them as 
 the fact that fathers and husbands will permit their wives 
 and daughters to indulge in promiscuous dancing. No 
 argfument will convince them that the act is such as a 
 virtuous female should practice, or that its tendency is not 
 licentious. The prevalence of the practice in ' Christian ' 
 nations makes our holy religion — which they suppose 
 must allow it — ^to be abhorred by many of them, and 
 often it is cast in the teeth of our missionaries when 
 preaching to them. But what would these heathens say 
 could they enter our opera houses and theatres, and see 
 the shocking exposure of their persons which our public 
 women there present before mixed assemblies ! Yet they 
 would be ten times more astonished that ladies of virtue 
 and reputation should be found there, accompanied by 
 their daughters, to witness the sight, and that, too, in the 
 presence of the other sex! But then, they are only 
 heathens, and don't appreciate the high accomplishments 
 of Christian civilization! Still, Heaven grant that the 
 future Church of India may ever retain at least this item 
 of the prejudices of their forefathers! " 
 
 So far. Dr. Butler, whose testimony and whose ar- 
 raignment of this stumbling product of our civihzation 
 was very lately strongly reinforced by the unflattering 
 criticisms of Nasrulla Khan, the rather unwelcome Af- 
 ghan visitor to England. So shocked was he at what he 
 deemed the disreputable reception apparel of the London 
 society ladies, that when he finally overcame his hesitancy 
 and entered the drawing room, he decUned to take in to 
 supper the titled lady assigned to his care because she 
 was in decollete dress. 
 
 321 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 And whence do these fashions that so please the 
 world generally, originate? "The Paris stage," said a 
 recent writer in speaking of some of the much affected 
 styles of female attire, "is the originator of fashions in 
 the female dress. The costumes of the actresses in the 
 Comedie Francaise are those usually copied by the society 
 leaders of Paris, and when these ladies adopt a style the 
 whole world follows suit. " 
 
 It may be remembered by some that a few years 
 ago a certain American Opera Company or National 
 Opera Company (I believe it was known by both of these 
 names) visited successively the large cities of the Union, 
 bringing out a pretentious but very imijioral class of 
 spectacular pieces, and becoming notoriously advertised 
 on that account. The managers of the Company, how- 
 ever, made out to overshoot the mark of indecency, its 
 would-be patrons apparently being ashamed to be seen 
 visiting so admittedly vile a show, so that the concern 
 was forced after a short career either to wind up its 
 affairs or to seek for patronage upon a somewhat less 
 shameless basis. Let it here be observed that there are 
 those rated high up in society who scruple not to attend 
 r. place of diversion where the character of the enter- 
 tainment is sensuous and highly demoralizing, provided 
 there is an abundance of respectability to keep them 
 company and in countenance, and to stand by them in 
 condoning the evil. When the fact of the badness becomes 
 notorious, and it may appear in "bad form " to attend, 
 considerations of mere expediency may then operate 
 with sufficient strength to keep a considerable percent- 
 age of these pleasure seekers away. But self respect, 
 force of example, loyalty to the Holy One, and bearing 
 His cross, do not seem to be taken seriously into the 
 account. 
 
 Now, when this ill famed National Opera Company 
 moved upon Philadelphia in the Winter of 1886-7, and 
 heralded its demoralizing entertainments as about to be 
 given at the Academy of Music, the writer of this paper 
 
 322 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 believed it his duty to call the attention of the several 
 Monday morning ministers' meetings to the coming of 
 the plague, and to ask their co-operation in withstanding 
 its spread. They all took action. Some of the news- 
 papers were not overmuch pleased at this interfer- 
 ence. A reporter of one of the papers, however, 
 had admitted that the spectacle was ' ' sensuous and de- 
 basing," and that the posturing, etc., of the dancers in 
 their immodest, scant attire, was "simply revolting." 
 Yet the leading editorial in another morning paper al- 
 luded to the representation as "a graceful and pleasing 
 exhibition, and not at all immoral in its nature and ten- 
 dencies, as Mr. Leeds imagined," and advised that he 
 and the ministers should view for themselves the enter- 
 tainment complained of. This advice was not followed ; 
 instead, the editor was confronted with his contemporary's 
 very damaging admission of the immoral character of 
 the play. 
 
 With the exception of the Journal of Commerce, of 
 New York, founded years ago by the philanthropic 
 Arthur Tappan, under the conditions that it issue no 
 edition on the first day of the week, and print no play- 
 house advertisements, I do not know of any daily paper 
 in our cities that does not issue the invitations to those 
 seductive resorts. Of one paper reputed amongst the 
 best (and such, I am free to say, it is), I can certify that 
 it nevertheless has printed year by year the advertise- 
 ments of theatres which make a specialty of bringing out 
 sensuous plays or spectacles. The Mail and Express, 
 of New York, is, in the main, a good paper, and it 
 assumes to be run on a Scripture basis of carefulness, 
 but when I read awhile ago its Bible text for the day — 
 it was that passage of Paul's Epistle to Timothy admon- 
 ishing to "flee youthful lusts "--while at the same time 
 the paper contained special notice of a spectacular stage 
 representation at which were to be troops of bewitching 
 young ballet dancers, I could but feel that the best of 
 books had been contemned, and the way had been indi- 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 cated toward indulgence in those "hurtful lusts which 
 drown men in destruction and perdition." 
 
 Neither of the papers above referred to publishes a 
 Sunday edition, but those that do this devote large 
 space, as we know, in the issues for that day, to theatre 
 news and to stage gossip and scandal. The advertising 
 is well paid for ; it constitutes a perennial source of in- 
 come to the papers' proprietors, and it will hardly be 
 given up for a mere scruple — not even for the scruple 
 of the editor, who may find it difficult at times to recon- 
 cile such advertising with his moral advice to the readers. 
 The eminent London preacher, Newman Hall, recently 
 said: "I know a gentleman who was the editor of one 
 of our leading daily papers, a goodly man. He re- 
 signed. I asked him why. He told me it was because 
 of the continual advertisements of the theatres, and the 
 favorable comment always made by the theatrical critic. 
 He could not stop the advertisements as editor, and 
 therefore he gave up a very lofty and lucrative position 
 because of the character of the theatres, and the way 
 they were advertised and praised in the London news- 
 papers." 
 
 ' ' My father in his youth, " Dr. Hall further says, 
 " frequently acted at theatres, and when he became a 
 Christian his whole soul revolted against the theatre as 
 he had known it. He then became the proprietor of 
 the best country newspaper in Kent, [but] would not 
 advertise the theatrical companies which came to Maid- 
 stone. It was a great sacrifice, for the theatres pay 
 very well." 
 
 Obviously the stage is well entrenched behind and 
 well protected by the daily papers — the popular maga- 
 zines, likewise, being in large degree its valuable sup- 
 porters. In the latter connection I recall that one day 
 last Summer, while waiting at the house of a clergy- 
 man for the latter to appear, I looked through three of 
 the magazines of the day that were on the parlor centre- 
 table, and they each contained an article about favorite 
 
 324 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 actresses, copiously illustrated, and in many cases sensu- 
 ously so. It must be acknowledged that in many clergy- 
 men's congregations a large proportion of the members 
 or communicants patronize the playhouse. Applicable 
 just here is the query of the prophet of old to unfaith- 
 ful Israel: ' ' And now what hast thou to do in the way 
 of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor ? or what has 
 thou to do in the way of Ass5Tia, to drink the waters of 
 the river?" 
 
 One of the most convincing statements that I ever " 
 read in proof of the position that the theatre is not a 
 safe school of morals, was furnished bj' an article upon 
 " Divorces of the Stage," written by a theatre goer who 
 had given a great deal of attention to the domestic life 
 of actors and actresses. Actuated by the wish to con- 
 tribute a very readable sketch, and yet not to appear to 
 decry the profession, he apologizes for his subject with 
 the remark, ' ' Don't think that I belie the profession. 
 I'll give you the cold, hard facts to prove that almost 
 every actress of note of the day has been separated or 
 divorced from a some-time lord and master. Tragedi- 
 ennes, comediennes, ingenues, soubrettes, chorus girls, 
 ballerine — few have escaped the contagious unconnubial 
 conditions of stage life. It has always been thus." 
 Then follow confirmatory facts concerning about one 
 hundred and twenty actresses of note of the several 
 classes above given. That was a truthful comment 
 certainly of the Pittsburg Gazette, that " as a furnisher 
 of grists to the divorce mill nothing has yet been dis- 
 covered equal to the stage. " 
 
 Mary Anderson has lately told the world that it was 
 the happiest day of her life when she quit the stage for- 
 ever. "The best thing," says Madame Janauschek^ 
 "for a young girl to do, no matter how great she ex- 
 pects to become, is to keep away from the theatre, and 
 do anything but go upon the stage. This is what I tell 
 them all." Indeed, it was but a little while ago that she 
 told the people of Baltimore that the key to success on 
 
 325 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 the stage at present was notoriety, no matter how in- 
 famously gained "Coarseness and sensuality," she 
 said, ' ' seem to he the views of our nineteenth century 
 life. The prize ring supplies the stage with its male 
 stars, and the divorce court supplies it with its female 
 stars. " And Frances Kemble sorrowfully wrote of the 
 occupation : "A business which is incessant excitement 
 and factitious emotion seems to me unworthy of man; a 
 business which is public exhibition is unworthy of a 
 woman." 
 
 While woman continues, as at present, that same 
 unworthy business of dancing and disporting upon the 
 public stage, the feeders of impure pictorial representa- 
 tions will thrive and their product increase. 
 
 It is the pictures of actresses and ballet dancers im- 
 modestly attired or postured, that form the staple supply 
 of the cigarette manufacturers' pictorial advertising. 
 One mother wrote me, with anguish, of finding such a 
 picture in her boy's jacket that she had taken up to repair, 
 yet such pictures are handed out, sent out, or exposed in 
 show windows, by the million, to the corrupting of other 
 mothers' boys. Again, it is generally the pictures of 
 actresses and ballet dancers that contaminate the pages 
 of a great deal of the illustrated periodical literature of 
 the day. Still further, it is the same class of lewd pic- 
 torial representations that appear as advertisement 
 posters of the theatres, and call forth constant protest 
 all the land over because of their libels upon decency and 
 piire womanhood. 
 
 Let every one claiming to be Christian or claiming 
 to be church member cease to thirst for the dark and 
 polluted waters of this Egypt and this Assyria, let them 
 stay away from every debasing entertainment even 
 though it be brought out on the boards of an Academy 
 of Music, and I am sure that the cause of purity will 
 witness a wonderful uplift, while paganism will no longer 
 confound a corrupted civilization with the pure precepts 
 and practice of the Christian religion. 
 
 326 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 DEBORAH C. LEEDS, 
 
 WHO READ TO THE CONGRESS THE PAPER BY JOSIAH 
 W. LEEDS. 
 
 327 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 SOCIAL PURITY— ITS RELATION TO THE 
 DEPENDENT CLASSES. 
 
 By Mrs. Frances E. W. Harper, Philadelphia. 
 
 Friends, I need not tell you that I belong to a race 
 whicla more than thirty years ago stood on the threshold 
 of a new era. A homeless race to be gathered into 
 homes, a legally unmarried race to be taught the sacred- 
 ness of the marriage relation, and learn to plant around 
 their firesides their strongest batteries against the sins 
 that degrade and the vices that demoralize. It has been 
 said that 
 
 " The precious things of life lie all around our feet, 
 It is the distant and the dim that we are sick to greet." 
 
 And I hold that no woman loves social purity as it 
 deserves to be loved if she only cares for the purity of 
 her daughters and not her sons ; for the purity of the 
 young girl sheltered in the warm clasp of her arms, and 
 not for the servant girl beneath the shadow of her home. 
 In your homes to-day are women in whose arms your 
 babes are nestling, who are holding up their baby foot- 
 steps on your pavements, and who are leaving the im- 
 press of their hands upon your children during the im- 
 pressible and formative period of their young lives ; and 
 when the degradation of one class is a menace to the peace 
 and welfare of the other, no mistress of a home should be 
 morally indifferent to the safety of any inmate beneath 
 her roof, however humble her position may be. As 
 crime has neither sex nor color, so its prevention and 
 remedies should not be hampered by either race or sex 
 limitations. Sometime since in one of the slums of our 
 city I found a woman who had drifted downward. I 
 went to a midnight Mission and asked if a colored girl 
 
 328 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 could be admitted, and was answered " no ; " and yet I 
 do not think there was a Charity in our city that talked 
 more religion in its advertisement than this one. At 
 another time I went to that same Mission with a de- 
 graded white girl whom I had found with one or more 
 colored persons; for her the door was opened and a 
 ready admittance given. Black and white could sin 
 together, but they could not be rescued in that home 
 together. It was as if two women were caught in the 
 quicksands, and the deadly sands were creeping up to 
 their lips, while other women stood on the shore with 
 lifelines in their hands; to one they threw out their 
 ropes of deliverance, but for the other there was not one 
 strand of salvation. In rescuing the perishing we need | 
 a religion which is a living power, and not a spent force. / 
 A religion clear sighted enough to look beneath the dark. 
 ened skin and see the human soul all written over with 
 the handmarks of Divinity and the i common claims of 
 humanity, which recognizes in every one who steps on 
 the threshold of life, the child of the King. While in 
 these days of religious unrest, criticism and investiga- 
 tion some are ready to relegate the story of the Annun- 
 ciation to the limbo of myth and fiction, but there is a 
 lesson in the story which could not be received aright 
 into the world's great heart without making life higher, 
 better and more grandly significant. Has not every | 
 prospective mother a right to ask for the overshadowing 
 of the same Spirit, and has not that Spirit been prom- 
 ised as freely as we give good gifts to our children ; and 
 what is the use of believing in one incarnation if we 
 do not believe that the same Spirit may be inborn 
 into every soul that is open to receive it? Had all the 
 mothers of the present generation, when a new life was 
 throbbing beneath their hearts, sought and dwelt be- 
 neath the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, would it 
 have been possible for slavery to have crushed us with 
 its crimes, or intemperance degraded us by its vices? 
 Would the social evil still have power to send to our 
 
 329 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Streets women whose laughter is sadder than their tears, 
 and over whose wasted lives death draws the curtain of 
 the grave and silently hides their sin and shame? Oh, 
 Christian women of America, God commits into your 
 hands great privileges and glorious opportunities. It is 
 for you to instruct the ignorant, warn the wayward and 
 guide the inexperienced. To write upon the hearts of 
 those who live within the range of your influence 
 thoughts that you will not blush to see read in the light 
 of eternity and printed amid the archives of heaven, 
 that the young may throw them as bulwarks around 
 their lives and bind them as amulets around their hearts, 
 that when they tread amid the snares and dangers of life 
 the voices from home may linger around their hearts 
 like angels of guidance around their steps. What 
 mother would permit her child to enter any section of a 
 city where the diptheria or cholera might be raging? 
 But are there not immoral conditions in all our large 
 cities "worse than fever, plague, and palsy and mad- 
 ness all combined," and yet are there not many mothers 
 who fail to warn their children against the danger of 
 gathering the flowers of sin that blossom around the 
 borders of hell, and of impressing upon them the intrinsic 
 value and true nobility of a life which shall be a moral 
 and spiritual force, a life hid with Christ in God 
 amid the sin, the sorrows and disorders of earth? 
 
 330 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MISS JESSIE A. ACKERMANN. 
 
 331 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 PLAN OF WORK ALONG SOCIAL PURITY 
 LINES. 
 
 By Miss Jessie A. Ackermann. 
 
 In this humanitarian, philanthropic age, when so 
 many men and women are giving their best thoughts to 
 the elevation of humanity and the redemption of the 
 world; when new methods of ejideavor are being de- 
 vised and the needs of the human race better under- 
 stood, it is little wonder that the Purity movement is 
 engaging the attention of some of the foremost reform- 
 ers of our day. The sentiment that now exists concern- 
 ing the standard of purity for man and woman is one 
 that has been handed down to us as a legacy from the 
 dark ages. The code of morals given to Moses, but 
 long before graven upon the human heart, has too often 
 been interpreted as a special command for woman and 
 the violation of those laws regarded as sin only when 
 offended against by woman. With this sentiment per- 
 vading all conditions of society, those who would be 
 reformers indeed must enter upon systematic effort to 
 overthrow a false idea concerning the relative position of 
 man and woman to the great question of Purity and build 
 up a new standard based upon justice to our sex, by 
 educating the public up to the great thought oi " A pure 
 life for two." To do this successfully new methods 
 must be devised and a wide departure from the usual 
 lines of reform entered upon. In all reforms in all 
 ages, special effort has been directed to the masses, and 
 little, if any, thoughts given to the classes, who really 
 stand in as great need of work along these lines as the 
 large numbers whom we are wont to call ' ' the common 
 people." 
 
 332 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 In the first place I am convinced, from an observa- 
 tion extending to every land and twice round the world, 
 that the standard of purity among the rich is no higher 
 than among the poor, the only difference being the 
 former are entrenched behind the mighty fortification^ 
 of wealth, where the only sin is in being found out. The 
 neglected rich are left to educate their own consciences 
 and form their own standards of purity. Braver than 
 any who have fought or died for principle must the 
 man or woman be who will make a departure from the 
 beaten lines of reform and enter upon a mission to the 
 neglected rich by trying to set up among them the new 
 standard of " a pure life for two. " 
 
 All reforms that must be brought about by the edu- 
 cation of public sentiment are of necessity of slow 
 ^owth, for we are prone to cling to the ideas of our 
 forefathers and walk in their ways. From time imme- 
 morial we have read of fallen and outcast women, forms 
 of speech used only in reference to our sex. To my 
 mind the time has now come when we should apply the 
 same term to sinful man, and not only apply the same 
 term but brand them with the same infamy with which 
 similar sins mark woman, and refer to them in the same 
 phraseology in which we speak of erring woman. Mark 
 man as an outcast and call him so. Let society grant 
 no license of conduct to man that it does not recognize 
 in woman, and for all violation of the laws of God by 
 him send him, fallen and an outcast, from our homes as 
 we have always done woman. 
 
 The greatest weakness of rescue work in the past 
 has been its onesidedness. It has busied itself in re- 
 claiming women, while men have been passed by. 
 Woman has always been regarded as the principal 
 offender. The two great exceptions are found in the 
 law of God, who, amid the thunderings of Sinai, gave 
 the "thou shalt not " to man as well as woman, and in 
 the action of our Lord, who refused to sanction the 
 
 333 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 stoning of the woman taken in adultery when no pro- 
 posal was made to punish the guilty partner. 
 
 We hail with joy and gladness a measure passed 
 some time since in England, a clause providing in con- 
 nection with the prosecution of the keepers of the 
 houses of ill repute, for the punishment of men found 
 there, and it is hoped the principle there introduced will 
 have a telling effect upon legislation in other lands. 
 
 Why not begin missions to fallen men? Why not 
 enter the houses of shame and try to rescue the men 
 first? Why not build rescue homes for men? Why not 
 form rescue bands and station them at well known 
 houses of ill repute in large cities to begin a mighty 
 effort in the interest of outcast men? What is the 
 Church doing for outcast men? Did Christ come only 
 to save woman? Have Christians no duty toward de- 
 bauched and degraded men? Save the fallen men and 
 there will be no such a thing in all the land as an im- 
 pure woman. If the energy and money put into rescue 
 work for women could be for one year directed toward 
 fallen men a wholesome public sentiment would be 
 created that would count immeasurably in the onward 
 march of this mighty movement. How I plead for 
 outcast, neglected, fallen men. No one to help them 
 up nor to tell them how utterly lost they are, and few 
 realizing what unfit companions these polluted creatures 
 are for pure women. The great cry of the hour, in- 
 deed, the demand, should be a mission to fallen men. 
 The only work of this kind on record so far as I know 
 is carried on by an officer of high rank in the army in 
 Holland. Imbued with the courage of the Cross, in- 
 spired by the Captain of his Salvation, this brave man 
 with a band of earnest workers starts out into the mar- 
 ket places of vice with the object of rescuing men. 
 Night after night in full dress uniform he confronts the 
 soldiers before they enter these pitfalls and entreats 
 them to turn from the haunts of shame. So well has he 
 succeeded that many houses of ill repute have been 
 
 334 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 closed. The only possible way to bring about a better 
 day for women, when they will one and all possess the 
 choicest gift of pure and unsullied life, is to begin with 
 men and try to elevate them to the standard of a better 
 manhood. 
 
 In connection with this a thought comes to me that 
 I urge upon the consideration of all who may chance to 
 read these lines. I speak now in defence of innocent 
 children, long ago branded by custom. A sweet, beau- 
 tiful child born into this world along the same lines of 
 law on which every other child has come, the only 
 legitimate lines prescribed by nature, but born out of 
 wedlock, has been stamped as illegitimate, when as a 
 matter of fact the only illegitimate factor is the father. 
 Upon the brow of innocence must rest the stigma that 
 rightfully should rest on the father. Let us wipe out 
 of our vocabulary the term illegitimate child ; there can 
 be no such thing. Let us begin to talk about illegiti- 
 mate fathers, and treat them as such. Then to the 
 pure and good, the true and brave, the leaders of fashion 
 and the trainers of the young, goes out a plea for help. 
 A great feature toward reform will be to arouse in the 
 heart of woman a sense of woman's loyalty to woman. 
 Ladies of society are in a great measure to blarae for 
 the pitiless manner in which erring woman is crushed 
 to the earth. The very sin that bars her from society, 
 from the home and hearthstone, the sin that locks and 
 bolts the door against her, too often forms a passport 
 through the portals of society for offending man. His 
 base life is viewed in the light of ' ' sowing his wild oats, " 
 and without even the virtue of a penitent heart he is 
 received on an equal footing with pure women. Let 
 every woman give men to understand that for purity in 
 herself she exacts the same in them ; that no license is 
 allowed because of sex ; that the eternal laws of God 
 that change not are alike binding upon men and women 
 Take that stand and men will soon be just what woman 
 demands of them. 
 
 335 
 
SEVENTH SESSION. 
 
 CHILD SAVING AND PROSTITUTION. 
 
 By Hon. Elbrtdge T. Gerry. 
 
 The consideration of juvenile prostitution, its 
 causes, extent, repression and cure, is one of the most 
 interesting branches of child-saving work. And yet 
 there is something in it so essentially painful, so abhor- 
 rent to purity and decency, so loathsome in its details, 
 that the philanthropist shudders when in the cause of 
 morality and Religion he is compelled to touch the 
 subject. For when we consider that little children are 
 the most beautiful images of God's Own Purity; that 
 they enter this world in absolute ignorance of the 
 meaning of the sexual relation ; that their development 
 depends very largely on the atmosphere by which they 
 are surrounded in early years ; and that too often their 
 growth in vice is due to the ignorance attending their 
 condition of innocence, we are almost tempted to 
 exclaim, in the query addressed to the Master of old, 
 ' ' Does the child sin, or its parents, that it is born 
 blind?" Then, on the other hand, side by side with 
 ignorance, which proverbially is the parent of vice, 
 comes what is still ^orse— partial knowledge ; for on the 
 subject of the sexual relation by children, partial 
 knowledge is almost as bad if not equally as strong 
 a factor as ignorance, in the creation and encourage- 
 ment of vice. The child who is ignorant discovers, 
 either accidentally by itself or by information imparted 
 from others, the existence of physical powers given it 
 for a specific purpose when it arrives at maturity. The 
 child, on the other hand, that receives an erroneous 
 impression on the subject from others of its age or 
 perhaps older, is apt in either event to end in the same re- 
 sult — either the commission of secret vice or premature 
 
 336 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 HON. ELBRIDGE T. GERRY. 
 
 337 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 indulgence in sexuai excess. In either case the factor 
 is ignorance or imperfect knowledge, coupled with the 
 existence of the child in a vitiated atmosphere ; and it 
 is worth while to pay a few moments' attention to these 
 two factors, in order to get at the root of the evil. 
 
 And first on the subject of ignorance. The unedu- 
 cated masses are frequently very slow to impart to the 
 children a correct knowledge of the purpose and the 
 meaning of the sexual relation. Left in ignorance, secret 
 vice is almost certain to ensue ; and in the Societies for 
 the prevention of cruelty to children, where medical 
 examinations are frequent in cases of outrage, or 
 in determining the physical condition of children found 
 in dens of vice, the number of those who practice secret 
 vice is found to be something perfectly appalling, 
 especially among the female sex. And on questioning 
 the unhappy little victims, in almost every case this 
 practice is found to be due to some local physical 
 irritation, is followed in ignorance of its danger or its 
 results, and almost certainly when so followed results in 
 prostitution at an early age. Again and again, as the 
 career of these little innocents— for such they were at 
 the commencement — shows, this steady growth towards 
 the final fall originated from causes of which they were 
 perfectly ignorant. And in hundreds of these cases, the 
 neglect of parents to properly inform their children at a 
 very early age, of the object and the meaning of the 
 sexual relation, has produced this, fatal and deadly 
 result. 
 
 Then again as to partial information. Very many 
 well-meaning parents seem to imagine that any real 
 statement of the facts is apt to create erotic ideas in the 
 mind of the child and perhaps enlighten it on subjects 
 where it should be kept ignorant. And hence either an 
 untrue answer is given to questions very properly put 
 by the child to its parent; or, as is frequently the case, 
 when the information is applied for by the child else- 
 where, the vicious or ignorant evade the questions,, 
 
 338 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 thereby stimulating its curiosity, or else make answer 
 in a form which simply produces directly the reverse 
 of the truth itself if properly stated. Then the mind of 
 the child begins to act upon the information received. 
 for the Devil is always ready to suggest thoughts of 
 impurity to the young or old, but especially to the 
 young. Then the child begins to communicate its ideas 
 to others older than itself, and is soon confirmed in 
 those views ; and lastly follows in natural sequence the 
 desire, the gratification and the result. 
 
 There is one very important factor in child prosti- 
 tution which it would be well for the philanthropist of 
 this age to consider. I refer to the inevitable result 
 among those who are not simply wretchedly poor, but 
 who by reason of the size of their families are 
 compelled to herd together in one room, with the 
 certain result of a sacrifice of feelings of decency and 
 modesty. Until the laws of the State regulating the 
 use of the tenement houses shall provide specifically the 
 number of each sex permitted to occupy the same room, 
 and absolutely preclude all members of a family, of 
 both sexes, herding together in the manner which is 
 now practiced in large cities as matter of necessity and 
 not from choice, the ruin of the children will still con- 
 tinue. Because if a child is placed in a condition in 
 which it cannot shut its eyes or ears to matters which 
 are goin^ on resulting from the marital relations of its 
 parents, or from physical contact with the persons of 
 other members of its own family of the opposite sex, it 
 is idle to suppose that its own innate sense of decency 
 will not suffer by the contamination. The laws in this 
 respect should be stringent. Decency should be pre- 
 served, even although the result be to engender additional 
 expense. Parents and children should not be permitted 
 to be grouped together, when the latter become of 
 a certain age, in the same bedroom and beds. And the 
 restrictions should be concise, definite and such as can 
 be understood and enforced. 
 
 339 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 The three grounds mentioned practically embrace 
 the sources and causes of the evil, because they include 
 contamination by information, contamination by obser- 
 vation and contamination from ignorance. Next is to be 
 considered the extent of the evil. 
 
 Few have the remotest idea of the enormous extent 
 to which sexual vice exists among children at the present 
 time in this country. I use the word "sexual vice" as 
 including both self-abuse and prostitution, the former 
 being known as the solitary, and the latter as the social, 
 evil; both equally soul and body destroying in their 
 result. The one necessarily leads to the other, and the 
 other becomes apparent only when it is discovered. 
 Nothing but the vigilance of parents and guardians can 
 detect the solitary vice, and hence statistics are very 
 difficult to obtain, excepting where the one vice leads 
 up to the other. But in the other case, the figures show 
 a frightful prevalence at the present time of juvenile 
 prostitution. True, under the stringent laws which 
 have been enacted in the various States of our Union, 
 at the instance of Societies for the prevention of cruelty 
 to children, those who utilize little children for the 
 simple gratification of lust are made to suffer a felon's 
 imprisonment ; and while the effect has been to prac- 
 tically denude the brothels of youthful victims, still the 
 vice exists, more especially among the lower classes, to 
 a degree hardly credible in this civilized country. A large 
 number of the brothels at the present time are replen- 
 ished by juvenile prostitutes rather than by those who 
 have fallen but once; and as the average life of the 
 professional prostitute is but five years, it is appalling 
 to think of the holocaust of victims thus immolated for 
 the purposes of lust. That the disease is spreading is 
 unquestioned, and indeed is not to be wondered at when 
 the present large component part of the American 
 People consisting of the foreign element imported from 
 all parts of the world is considered. Until educated to 
 pay a proper regard to the morals of their children, 
 
 340 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITV CONGRESS. 
 
 little improvement can be looked for among these 
 classes. The parents of the lower classes abroad do not 
 trouble themselves much about the matter, and as they 
 do not concern themselves about it to the extent they 
 should, it is not at all surprising that the children suffer 
 as the result of their indifference, inattention or ignor- 
 ance. Hence what is needed at the present time, more 
 than anything else, is the arousing of the minds of 
 parents of the middle and lower classes to their 
 responsibility. Those interested in the cause of purity 
 should speak in no uncertain language on the subject. 
 The evil should be fully and thoroughly explained to 
 parents, so that they will see the result of their apathy 
 and indifference; and when this is done the first step 
 will have been taken in the right direction for the 
 rescue of children from child-vice. 
 
 Then again, another difficulty is the neglect of 
 Religion. The apathy on religious subjects too often 
 exhibited by parents to their children deprives the child 
 of the light of Religion, and it gropes in the darkness 
 of this world with the same uncertainty as a mature 
 person in a dark room. Its ideas of objects are dis- 
 torted, it has nothing to hold it to the cause of purity — 
 for morality is not Religion, neither is it purity ; and the 
 Absence of Religion is almost invariably followed by the 
 'prevalence of immorality ; and infidelity on the part of 
 the parent invariably leads to immorality on the part of 
 the child. The two go hand in hand ; they cannot be 
 severed; they are congenial. Indifference to the one 
 begets indulgence in the other. And hence it is that 
 those who work in the cause of purity are compelled to 
 recognize the fact that only an adherence and loyalty to 
 the God of Purity can continue the reflection of that 
 purity in the soul of the human race of His creation. 
 
 Now parents too often consider that their religious 
 duties to their children are entirely fulfilled when they 
 send them either to the Church or to Sunday School, 
 and having done this, the matter of personal religion 
 
 341 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 does not seem to be any more their concern. The 
 result of this is, the children get simply a perfunctory 
 knowledge of religious duties ; because while the general 
 subject of purity is undoubtedly inculcated in a general 
 way by both those means of religious instruction, at the 
 same time in the large majority of cases only a parent 
 can personally instill into the mind of the child those 
 ideas of purity which are so essential for the formation 
 of its character in after life. Again the foe of ignorance 
 steps in, and the ignorance of the parent as to precisely 
 what should be taught the child very often indeed re- 
 sults in the child learning absolutely nothing on the 
 subject of Religion, especially in connection with the 
 subject of personal purity. However pure the parent 
 herself may be, she hesitates about conveying informa- 
 tion to the child, and in a vague sort of way supposes 
 that if the child is kept in ignorance it will necessarily 
 grow up pure. This is well worthy the attention of this 
 Convention to consider, because it strikes at the root of 
 the entire matter. The greatest safeguard that a child 
 can possibly have is a pure, religious parent. The 
 greatest blessing that such a parent can render her child 
 is to inculcate in it at the earliest possible age those 
 ideas of purity which the child should be taught to re- 
 vere, and the horror of impurity from which the child 
 should be taught to shrink. The sin of impurity is one 
 which cannot be parleyed with. The thought suggested 
 must at once be repressed. The story with a double 
 meaning is not to be applauded, but the ears stopped 
 which otherwise would listen to it ; else the touch with 
 the pitch defiles the childish mind ; then follows recur- 
 rence of the thought, then the evil suggestion, then the 
 opportunity, then the fall. There is an ancient Spanish 
 proverb that the Devil often lurks behind the Cross, 
 and too often even in the Sunday School corrupting in- 
 fluences are resorted to with the young, by their com- 
 panions, resulting in the ruin of the child. More than 
 one such case has come to the knowledge of the writer. 
 
 342 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRSSS. 
 
 One of the saddest was that of a wretch who util- 
 ized his acquaintance with a very young girl in 
 the Sunday School to accomplish her ruin. And 
 again it is suggested that it is of the iitmost 
 importance that parents should not be simply 
 awakened but aroused most thoroughly to a 
 sense of the danger of their little ones from 
 not being taught what to shun and how to 
 shun it. 
 
 The foul stream of prostitution is fed by countless 
 springs, each pouring in its vile contribution of poison, 
 from as many difiEerent sources. In other words, youth- 
 ful prostitution is frequently due to specific surround- 
 ings which lead to the result ; and it may not be out of 
 place to consider a few of these, as showing the primary 
 causes producing specific results and inevitably leading 
 to the ruin of the child. 
 
 Now in the first place, strange as it may seem, one 
 of the most prolific sources of child prostitution are the 
 schools. Not simply the public schools where miscel- 
 laneous acquaintances are formed, but too often schools 
 where confiding parents place their children in the hope 
 that they will be educated properly and under the best 
 of circumstances. And yet one single girl will fre- 
 quently corrupt a dozen, and you have only to listen to 
 the reports of that excellent man, Anthony Comstock, 
 the fearless champion and enforcer of the laws for the 
 protection of social purity, to learn how his Society for 
 the Suppression of Vice has unearthed the poison in some 
 of the best and most respectable educational institutions 
 in this country, to the horror and dismay of the 
 reputable persons who supposed that they were con- 
 ducting the same in a manner impervious to even the 
 suggestion of impurity. I will not dwell on the details 
 of this factor, but allude to it as only showing how 
 deadly and how masked are the avenues which lead to 
 child ruin. 
 
 And closely akin to the schools are the factories. 
 True, the law at the present time does in this respect to 
 
 343 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 a certain degree limit the age of employment of children 
 in factories, but the immorality which prevails there is 
 utterly beyond belief. Not only is the opportunity 
 great for one child to corrupt another, but the facilities, 
 for such corruption are very extended. Indeed, a care- 
 ful examination of many of the larger brothels in New- 
 York City will show the fact that the factories are looked 
 upon almost, so to speak, as mills from which are ground 
 out the material out of which youthful prostitutes are- 
 made. It is quite true that in our large cities, where 
 there are few factories, the evil is not so apparent ; but 
 in country towns and in factory towns, as they are 
 called, throughout the entire land, it will be found not 
 only that the temptations are numerous, but that the 
 falls are concurrent in number with the temptations. 
 Vanity, love of dress, desire to make money easily — all 
 these elements in the childish mind blunt the sense of 
 purity. The Tempter soon comes, in one way or the 
 other, and whichever the allurement, the result is the 
 same. 
 
 Another source, and unfortunately a very fruitful 
 one, of youthful prostitution is the Stage. I do not 
 refer here to what is known as the legitimate drama, 
 where children are incidentally only employed in a 
 theatre where the audiences are reputable, where every 
 care is taken to prevent anything like immoral in- 
 fluences, and decency is preserved, like order, as 
 essential to the reputation of the theatre. But the 
 atmosphere of the theatre is by no means the most con- 
 ducive to youthful morality, and most pernicious are the 
 exhibitions known as the "leg" drama. Again, the in- 
 sane propensities which now seems to exist almost 
 universally among modern playwrights, illustrating 
 forcibly their paucity of ideas, to exalt children in plays 
 as conspicuous characters, especially on the variety 
 stage, where the continual encore of their supposed youth- 
 ful talents simply flatters their vanity, and encourages 
 them on the downward path. It is absurd to say that 
 
 344 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 the mother pays attention to the child's morals and 
 guards carefully over the same. The mother does little 
 if anything of the kind. If the mother is herself on the 
 stage, too often she is occupied with her own stage 
 business; and whether on or off, her own vanity is 
 flattered and her pecuniary resources increased by the 
 exhibition of her youthful prodigy. Imitating, as it 
 unconsciously does, the exposure, the grimaces, the sug- 
 gestive attitude and accents of those older in the 
 business, before the child becomes a woman it loses all 
 idea of purity, and simply step by step descends to the 
 point where temptation offers and there is no motive for 
 resistance. The transition from an infant prodigy to a 
 young ballet girl and thence to a ' 'living picture, " is but 
 brief. When the last is produced, there is nothing left 
 but personal pollution. Even recently efforts have been 
 made to introduce children very extensively in this 
 living picture craze, but the vigilance and determined 
 resistance of the Societies, instituted for their protec- 
 tion, stamped it out. If any one were to talk for half 
 an hour with these wretched little children who love the 
 glare and glitter of the footlights, and who fancy that 
 they are going to become, as they express it, heads of 
 troupes and stars in the profession, and who too often 
 fill early graves from impaired health, caused by ex- 
 posure to draughts and overwork, they would learn 
 better than pen can describe how potent a factor is the 
 illegitimate drama of to-day in the luring of children 
 from the paths of purity. 
 
 Then there is another spring of impurity, known but 
 to few, and that is the utilization of young girls, often 
 long before they have become women, as nude models 
 for artists. Abroad, in the cities of Europe, the artists' 
 models are selected on account of their physical 
 symmetry and not necessarily for their beauty of face. In 
 almost every case they are fully developed women, in 
 age rtmning from seventeen to twenty-five years, and 
 almost invariably the mistress of some one of their em- 
 
 345 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ployers. Ttey avoid dissipation because that necessarily 
 ruins tiie figure and diminishes their marketable value. 
 They are not common, in the sense of being purchasable 
 at will by any one, but on the contrary occupy their il- 
 licit relations as a matter of choice. A child model is 
 almost a thing unknown. On the other hand, in this 
 country, and notably in some of our great cities, there 
 is hardly an artist's studio where the so called lover of 
 art does not hire young children to pose nude in order to 
 I enable him to cultivate his studies of art in nature. Not 
 ; very long since the attention of The New York Society 
 for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was invited to 
 a school of well known and reputable artists where 
 children were hired again and again for the express 
 purpose of so exhibiting themselves, and with the con- 
 sent of their parents, who could see no harm in it. 
 Several of these models described to the writer exactly 
 what they were expected to do for their money. The 
 children are stripped absolutely nude and placed like 
 jointed dolls in every conceivable pose. And when it 
 is considered that the students who viewed and studied 
 the details of their anatomy were men of various ages, 
 and that these exposures were constant, it may well be 
 understood what the blighting effect must have been 
 and was upon these unfortunate little children who were 
 obliged by their parents to make money in this way be- 
 cause, as the latter expressed it, ' ' they saw no harm in 
 it." To the credit of the school be it said, that on the 
 President calling the attention of its directors and 
 teachers to the matter, the request of the Society was 
 complied with and children under the prohibited age 
 are no longer permitted to be so utilized. 
 
 Then again, the utilization of children, especially 
 very young girls, in peddHng, under the pretext of sel- 
 ling newspapers, flowers and the like, has for years 
 been a prolific source of supply to the stream. This 
 the efforts of our Societies for the prevention of cruelty 
 have practically stamped out in our great cities ; but it 
 
 346 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 crops out every now and then, more particularly among 
 the foreign element, where the children are driven out 
 in the streets by their parents to beg or steal, or make 
 money in any way, and to obtain it or starve if they 
 ■come home without it. 
 
 And lastly but not least, are the picnics, dance 
 halls, dime museums and other places where an ap- 
 parent attraction is held out, and one child goes with 
 another child either to see the curiosities, to enjoy the 
 dance, or possibly because somebody else is going; and 
 there, parental vigilance being relaxed, vicious ac- 
 quaintances are made, opportunities are offered, and 
 the result follows. 
 
 And yet with all these elements conspiring to drag 
 ■down the unhappy children of to-day, still the result of 
 the enforcement of legislation shows that while the vice 
 has not been eradicated, it certainly has been stemmed. 
 America is not yet as bad as Europe. We have some 
 respect for law in this country. And if those who are not 
 ashamed to avow themselves as advocates of purity 
 persist in a vigorous demand not only for laws for the 
 protection of the young, but for their enforcement, they 
 will find, as the history of the past has shown, that lives 
 may yet be saved, vice prevented and children rescued ; 
 and that whatever may be the popular uproar at times 
 against what are called the cast-iron methods of pre- 
 serving personal purity, yet after all. Purity does and 
 -will prevail in the end. It is earnestly hoped that this 
 present Conference will vigorously discuss this matter, 
 and in no uncertain terms suggest wise and effective 
 methods to preserve the purity of the young and rescue 
 the unhappy little victims of sexual vice. 
 
 A word as to the horrible Hfe itself. When the child 
 prostitute becomes a professional it is either from 
 ignorance of the final end, shame and dread to return to 
 the parental roof, or vanity in being able to make money 
 rapidly in an easy way. Rarely does the element of 
 sexual passion enter into the case. Disease from 
 
 347 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ignorance of proper physical cleanliness usually in some 
 form assails the poor little victim early in her career. , 
 Before long the demon of drink gets in his fatal work 
 either to drown remorse or to stimulate the physical ex- 
 haustion which is incidental to the life. And the end 
 comes soon — five years is the average limit, and 
 another soul is numbered with the lost. Truly child 
 prostitution is a sight over which both men and angels 
 may well weep; and there can be no subject more 
 worthy of consideration by the lovers of purity than the 
 pitiful appeal of helpless, degraded childhood from such 
 a life and such a death. Surely this Conference will 
 consider it. 
 
 34'^ 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 PROF. ELI M. LAMB. 
 
 PRESIDENT BALTIMORE BRANCH AMERICAN PURITY ALLIANCE, 
 
 BY WHOM MR. GERRY'S PAPER WAS READ TO THE 
 
 CONGRESS. 
 
 349 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 EQUAL SUFFRAGE AS RELATED TO THE 
 PURITY MOVEMENT. 
 
 By Mariana W. Chapman. 
 
 It is a matter of some difficulty for an ardent 
 believer in the moral force of woman suffrage to take 
 hold of a proposition which it seems to her puerile to dis- 
 pute, and present for it an argument worthy the atten- 
 tion of thinking people ; but, with the chance that there 
 may be a few within hearing of my voice to whom the 
 solution is not affirmative, I venture to trespass upon 
 your time. Primarily it is admissible to suppose that 
 whoever uses a ballot will use it to protect themselves ; 
 and while men and women rise or fall together, woman 
 is unquestionably the greater sufferer in the social evil. 
 It is, therefore, no stretch of logic to infer that she will 
 labor more indefatigably to arrest its progress when her 
 choice in the matter of laws and lawgivers counts at the 
 ballot box. If any one desires to know how women 
 would vote in this direction, he has his object lesson in 
 the late history of a Kentucky campaign, where the 
 record of a Kentucky Congressman came to the knowl- 
 lege of the women of the State, and they determined 
 that Kentucky should not be so dishonored in the Con- 
 gress of the United States. No deposit of a piece of 
 white paper counted for them; they had only their 
 voices, and their pens, and their strength, but they arose 
 in their might and sent forth their protest. Throwing 
 aside the reserve which it is hard for a woman to drop, 
 they traveled, they held meetings, they had barbecues, 
 they urged, they warned, they besought the men of 
 Kentucky to stand for the honor of the State, and the 
 
 35° 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MRS. MARIANA W. CHAPMAN. 
 PRESIDENT BROOKLYN, N. Y., WOMAN'S CLUB. 
 
 351 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 men of Kentucky answered them nobly, and bravely 
 and well. But why, dear brothers, should it have been 
 so much harder for them than for you to work this 
 righteousness? I tell you truly such men cannot go 
 into our Legislatures when the women of this country 
 have the ballot in their hands. 
 
 Joseph Cook says : ' ' Woman's vote would be to the 
 vices in our great cities what the lightning is to the 
 oak." We hear it declared even by temperance advo- 
 cates that the woman's vote will not help that cause. 
 Why, then, do we find always and under all circum- 
 stances, wherever there is a movement for woman suf- 
 frage, the solidly united opposition of the saloon 
 element? Alice Blackwell says "it is because the chil- 
 dren of darkness are wiser than the children of light." 
 Most of you have read details of the traffic in young 
 girls carried on in the mining and lumber camps of the 
 Virginia mountains. Can we think this would continue 
 if the women of Virginia had an authoritative voice 
 in its Legislature? The women of Virginia are not be- 
 hind the women of Kentucky in moral atmosphere, 
 which is true of the women of every other State. The 
 man or woman who thinks otherwise insults our Ameri- 
 can womanhood. It is significant that the first bill ever 
 introduced by a woman into a State Legislature was one 
 for the protection of young girls. In California, when a 
 bill licensing social evil was about to pass, under the 
 plea of its imperative necessity to pubUc health, some 
 California women succeeded in having another intro- 
 duced which made the same provisions for all partici- 
 pants, and was clearly more consistent with the professed 
 purpose. The result was the one desired — neither 
 passed. 
 
 Those who have read " Drummond's Ascent of 
 Man " will remember that he places in the mother the 
 root of the struggle for the life of others. He con- 
 siders It the seed of all the altruism the world has ever 
 known. We can depend upon human nature to repeat 
 
 352 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 itself; and think you the time will ever come when 
 mothers in general will not struggle for the best sur- 
 roundings for their sons and daughters? A God-given 
 instinct will not desert the womanly nature. No man 
 changeth the laws of the universe. Over and over 
 again men who are opponents of woman's enfranchise- 
 ment have said, ' ' But there are so many bad women 
 who will vote," and we have answered, "We will take 
 care of the bad women if you will take care of the bad 
 men." The very large pioportion of these profligate 
 women or victims are under voting age, if we may rely 
 upon the statistics of those who have given the subject 
 careful attention, and who declare their average term of 
 life to be five years. The small proportion of those 
 past this age, if voting, would be instantly out of sight 
 in the other overwhelming majority of American woman- 
 hood. I once asked an Englishwoman "whether this 
 class troubled them at the polls in England." She said, 
 ' ' Oh, no ; they never come. I only wish they might, 
 for then they would come a little nearer to us, and we 
 could help them." Some of our opposers claim that 
 women would not use this power, but Wyoming records 
 show that there nine-tenths of the women vote and only 
 eight-tenths of the men. And De Witt Talmage wrote 
 from New Zealand : " I hereby report to the American 
 ladies now moving for the right of suffrage that New 
 Zealand is clear ahead of them, and that the experiment 
 has been made here successfully. Instead of the ballot 
 box degrading woman, woman is here elevating the 
 ballot box. . . . It is often said in America that if 
 women had the right to vote they would not exercise 
 it. For the refutation of that theory I put the fact that 
 in the last election in New Zealand, of 109,000 women 
 who registered 90,000 have voted, while of the 193,000 
 men who registered only 129,000 have voted. This 
 ratio shows that women are more anxious to vote 
 than men." Another authority in that country, J. W. 
 Copithorne, says: " The fears of the liquor interest were 
 
 353 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 justified, for the vote of women was cast almost solidly 
 against it, and a Parliament favorable to anti-liquor 
 legislation was chosen. The women also looked care- 
 fully to the personal character of the candidates, and 
 voted accordingly, so that it was shown that their in- 
 fluence was a purifying one in politics." Repeated ex- 
 periences of this kind will be our best object lessons, and 
 the best element of humanity will in time perceive the 
 helpful factor at their doors. 
 
 There is always a certain amount of helplessness 
 attendant upon a disfranchised element, and the further 
 that element is away from power the greater the 
 calamity. Not long ago an educated Hindoo woman 
 said, " My prayer and supplication are, ' O, God, let no. 
 more women be bom in India. ' " One easily divines 
 the reason for such prayers. A year ago a correspondent 
 of the London Methodist Times said, " The conception 
 of morality existing in Indian society is of the most un- 
 happy character. " They have no word in their language 
 to express the chastity of men. Three Brahman 
 gentlemen had written a handbook for boys' schools, 
 and one part of it was upon honesty, truthfulness and 
 chastity. One of our ministers asked them what word 
 they had used for the last. They mentioned a Tamil 
 word, and he said, ' ' But that does not refer to men at 
 all. What have you stated in this section?" They 
 replied that they ' ' had urged upon the boys the import- 
 ance of teaching their sisters and wives to lead pure 
 lives, but it had never occurred to them to suggest 
 purity for the boys themselves." 
 
 Wherever the gulf is greatest between the man- 
 hood and womanhood of any people, you have the lowest 
 moral condition of the human race. Where daughters 
 are bought and sold, and women look through masks 
 and blinds and ignorance at the outside world, you have 
 an enforced motherhood, with its sequel in sons who are 
 to-day burning, plundering and assaulting women and 
 children in Armenia. It is truth beyond cavil, and as. 
 
 354 
 
THU; JNATIONAL, PUKlTy CONGRESS. 
 
 old as the garden of Eden, that they whom God h^ 
 joined together no man should put asunder, whether it 
 be in school, church or State. 
 
 If there be those who hold that we are together in 
 the best way now, we say, " No, a thousand times no;" 
 not until we can make the laws of this country as strin- 
 gent upon men in the social world as they are upon 
 women, not until the polling places are open to us in 
 the same simple way as the street cars, or any public 
 hall where men and women go together, not until legis- 
 lation can feel directly the force of the woman thought. 
 We shall not equal the knowledge of men in finance, in~"^ 
 commerce and great business enterprises, but we shall ( 
 know what kind of schools we want for our girls and , 
 boys, we shall know whether we want saloons, whether ( 
 we will have other dens of iniquity, and what kind of 
 men or women we want for lawmakers. We are not 
 afraid of the polling places of America because we be- 
 lieve in our American manhood and, with Henry Ward 
 Beecher, "that if any venture to molest the crowd will 
 swallow him up as the whale swallowed Jonah!" George 
 William Curtis said: "The sphere of the family is not 
 the sole sphere either of men or women. They are not 
 only parents, they are human beings; they are also 
 members of the State, and from the very equality of the 
 parental function, which perpetuates the State, they are 
 equally interested in its welfare. Has the mother less 
 concern than the father in the laws that regulate the 
 great social temptations which everywhere yawn for 
 their children ; or in the general policy of the Govern- 
 ment which they are summoned to support?" And fur- 
 ther: " If women do not care about the question, it is 
 high time that they did, both for themselves and for 
 men. The spirit of society cannot be just nor the laws 
 equitable so long as half of the population are politically 
 oaralyzed. " 
 
 And here we strike the keynote of the thought 
 which must come to the women of every country before 
 
 355 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 their enfranchisement can be secured. Women must 
 care and increasingly they do. Thought of the national 
 welfare belongs to an advanced motherhood. A woman 
 unfit to vote is a woman unfit to be a mother. How 
 shall she teach what does not enter her perceptions or 
 her interests? If intelligent in outside matters she sees 
 easily that society surrounds her daughters with a pro- 
 tection not extended to her sons, whose young man- 
 hood may be lured into gilded halls aflame with gilded 
 vice. Happy are they if strong in the precious security 
 that comes from the absorption of a mother's moral 
 strength in early life ! Who is worthy of motherhood if 
 she throw not the whole of her best possessions into the 
 impressible nature of the dear young hearts about her, 
 which are the most sacred links that bind her to the 
 Father's work. Verily, " if ye have not done unto the 
 least of these, ye have not done it unto Me." 
 
 But when the nursery work is done and the mother 
 heart follows these tall young men and women across 
 the threshold to the outer world, the law steps in and 
 says, ' ' Hold ! you have nothing to do in these arrange- 
 ments ; your opinions shall not count here, you shall be 
 of no authority in the State.' One alarmist says: "It 
 might bring a union of Church and State," and cites 
 the strong influence of a Catholic priesthood; but no 
 class of women in America is taught to hold a higher 
 standard of purity than the women of the Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 We will venture to say that they_will_increasejthe 
 pro portion of that chu rch whose fi^ads are not juiddled 
 with liquor or clouded with tobacco smoke, and will, 
 therefore, help to make a c learer thinking, wiser _a iid 
 more prudent majority. 
 
 But the majority of women in this country is of 
 other faiths and not likely to be governed by clerical 
 influence in their political views. Women who are self 
 supporting can easily perceive the disadvantage involved 
 in their disfranchisement. The wage earning woman 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 needs more power to protect herself from unjust dis- 
 crimination, to demand equal pay for equal work, to 
 choose lawmakers who will make her as safe from injury 
 as the woman of the household. No class appeals to us 
 so strongly as the great army of wage earning girls, 
 who need all the help their older sisters can throw 
 about them, and for whom we could do more as an en- 
 franchised power. 
 
 We should ask it then, not only for the sake of 
 preserving social purity throughout this working world, 
 but in the name of justice, one of the highest and holiest 
 attributes of a perfect life. 
 
 So, at least, we have long been accustomed to re- 
 gard it, though a leading daily of New York stated some 
 weeks ago, in an editorial, that "at an earlier day in the 
 history of the republic abstract justice counted for a 
 great deal," but that " at the present time practical re- 
 sults outweigh every other consideration." This may 
 be a correct statement in regard to the present general 
 trend of thought, but if the righteousness of justice in 
 daily dealing is no longer one of the verities which are 
 eternal, we declare virtually that present practical re- 
 sults make principles for ordinary use. Most of us 
 would prefer to believe that the ten commandments are 
 still in force as the foundation of a solid white tower of 
 truth which is slowly building, the stones of which, after 
 much rubbing and wearing and trial by fire, go in at last 
 to stay, with the temple rising always toward the shining 
 light of heaven. Even with the belief that practical re- 
 sults will demonstrate the force of our argument for 
 suffrage without distinction of sex, we must see that 
 there is a larger view which has its influence among the 
 people and its sequence in the increasing desire to fur- 
 nish equal opportunities for the education of children 
 morally, mentally and physically. The simple direct 
 thought of people thus strengthened and enlightened 
 will lead toward the clearer perception of justice; and 
 though there will never be wanting those whose intellect 
 
 357 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 will bring forth tiiat serpentine reasoning of old which 
 resulted in "Cursed be Canaan," the great majority will 
 be so permeated with the larger light that an enfran- 
 chised womanhood will be the part not only of righteous- 
 ness but of expediency. 
 
 Even the fallen woman herself will quickly perceive 
 the shallow sophistry of so enlightened a philosopher as 
 Prof. Lecky when he calls her a priestess of society and 
 a preserver of home life. No twisted logic will make 
 her other, in her own eyes, than the victim of the insa- 
 tiate greed of this Moloch of humanity. 
 
 However people may dispute about the virtue of 
 vicarious suffering, they will never stand for the virtue 
 of vicarious sinning. But, inasmuch as all reform comes 
 through the Divine power moving in the hearts of men 
 with its outward expression in the world's work, I be- 
 seech you, brothers and sisters, to let no opportunity 
 pass that may help to place with the weaker half of 
 humanity the power of protection that lies in the ballot. 
 It is a principle for which strong men have given their 
 lives and suffered untold martyrdoms. 
 
 It does not change its virtue when a woman holds 
 out her hands and asks leave to help you to the higher 
 life 
 
 3S8 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 DR. EMILY BLA.CKWELL. 
 DR. EMILY BLACKWELL's ADDRESS APPEARS ON PAGES 72-80. 
 
 359 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ADDRESS BY MRS. MARY T. BURT, 
 
 President New York State W. C. T. XJ. 
 
 The hour is so late that it seems almost presump- 
 tuous for me to claim the attention of the audience for 
 even the briefest time, but my interest in the work for 
 which this Congress is convened, and profound pleasure 
 in its success, is my excuse for yielding to the invitation 
 of your presiding officer, so kindly given, to address 
 you. It is not often that laborers in moral vineyards are 
 privileged to see results, but surely the President of this 
 society must feel that his years of patient and devoted 
 labor are in a measure rewarded when he looks upon 
 this assembly of men and women, who, in their repre- 
 sentative capacity, voice the sentiments and the wishes 
 of the best elements of the country on the great ques- 
 tion of purity. And what advance the work has made ! 
 What friends it has called to its aid ! A few years ago 
 densest darkness surrounded the question. Prejudice 
 had built a wall about it that only those whose souls had 
 been deeply touched with the needs of the work cared 
 to scale. That which you discuss here, and to which 
 the press gives respectful attention and widest circula- 
 tion could not have been so publicly spoken then. 
 There were a few devoted men and women who realized 
 that when you put your finger on the purity nerve of 
 the human body you touched the spot that sensitized 
 the whole system. And what was true of the individual 
 life was true of the civil life as well. But truth works 
 its way and sheds its light through strongest prejudice 
 and doubt, and the agitation for purity during the past 
 few years has taken shape and definiteness in the socie- 
 ties organized throughout the country to promulgate the 
 Gospel of Purity — to proclaim one standard of morals 
 for men and women ; to wage war upon all forms of im- 
 
 360 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 #' 
 
 «»<*^ 
 
 MRS. MARY T. BURT. 
 
 361 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 purity ; in literature, in art, in the press, upon the stage, 
 whenever and wherever its deadly presence is seen or 
 felt, and to arraign with strongest protest the ' ' Age of 
 Consent" laws which now blot the statute books of the 
 nation. 
 
 In New York we feel we have made great pro- 
 gress the past winter in raising the "age of consent" 
 from sixteen to eighteen years. The Empire State is 
 one of the five States to take this advanced step this 
 year, and while we rejoice that this age limit has been 
 reached in New York for the protection of young girls, 
 we feel that friends of purity should not rest satisfied 
 until the State fixes the same age for the protection of 
 the person that it does for the purse, which is twenty- 
 one years ; and then, because we believe the ' ' age of 
 consent " laws are degrading to manhood, we would 
 have them abolished forever. I take this opportunity 
 of expressing to your President my appreciation of the 
 suggestions and kind helpfulness received from him in 
 my purity work for the New York State W. C. T. U. 
 It was the Society for the Prevention of State Regula- 
 tion of Vice, of which Mr. Powell was president, suc- 
 ceeding the revered Mrs. Abby Hopper Gibbons, that 
 first drew attention to the shocking ' ' age of consent " 
 laws in the various States ; and when the bill raising 
 the age from ten to sixteen years was pending in the 
 Legislature of New York, Mrs. Gibbons, then in her 
 eightieth year, went to Albany and plead before the 
 legislative committees for its success. It is such devo- 
 tion and such labors we are reaping the fruit of to-day. 
 To me this Congress is a joyous harbinger of what the 
 future holds for this great work. The banner of purity 
 which is set up here stands for a "white life for two," 
 and encircles with its folds the unprotected girlhood of 
 the nation. The truths it bears are vital truths, and 
 before its onward march impurity will flee away. The 
 heart and conscience of the people will be reached, and 
 in proper time, as the individual life becomes purified 
 
 362 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 and exalted, will the national life take upon itself the 
 same attributes and weave into the body politic the prin- 
 ciples and truths for which this Congress stands. 
 
 363 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 J/^^^^^aJ ^ (7/. (nfa^iJt^ 
 
 MRS. harper's address APPEARS ON PAGES 338-30. 
 
 564 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 LETTER FROM MRS. C. T. COLE. 
 
 Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, Oct. 11, 1895. 
 
 Dear Fellow Workers for Purity: 
 
 With deepest regret that I cannot be with you in 
 person, as I shall be in spirit during the days of your ses- 
 sions in Baltimore, I ask myself, in case I were with you 
 in the Congress assembled, with what message would 
 I fill the few moments which might be granted to me? 
 
 One point I would urge upon the leaders in this 
 movement is to seek to impress upon all workers whom 
 they may enlist the importance of looking at this sub- 
 ject — impurity in all its phases — and the remedies pro- 
 posed, in the large, in so far as possible from above. It 
 seems to me we are immensely helped by looking back- 
 ward as well as forward, by tracing this sinuous evil 
 through the history of the race, and comparatively in 
 different ages and stages of civilization. We are thus 
 guided in probing down to its taproot, and the sources 
 from which this root draws its nourishment. Thus shall 
 we be prepared to work wisely and well with less of 
 wasted zeal. 
 
 Another point I should like to emphasize is that of 
 individual responsibility in the great work before us of 
 creating sentiment for the one standard of purity fi r all 
 God's children. This is positive work, exceedingly 
 difficult, long deemed impossible— work that now calls 
 for every loving heart and loyal hand because the task 
 of removing the old, false, blasphemous Double Stand- 
 ard and planting for all time the Divine standard of 
 purity of heart and thought and life as the only condi- 
 tion of seeing God — is herculean. But, friends and fel- 
 
 365 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 low workers, do we not know that this work brings "its. 
 own exceeding great reward," because so evidently a 
 part of the Eternal Power and Purpose that "makes for 
 righteousness?" 
 
 One more thought seems to us of deep importance 
 in this present stage of the purity movement, viz. : that 
 in all the attempts to separate religion and morality we 
 recognize the fact that a truly religious life is impossible 
 without personal purity — purity not only of the external 
 life, "known and read of all men," but purity of heart, 
 and of the thought, and "the imagination of the 
 thought of the heart. " Hitherto there has seemed to be 
 no general comprehension of this deep, vital feature of 
 Christianity. Too much stress has been laid upon ex- 
 ternal observances, forms and ceremonies — the ' ' anise 
 and mint and cummin " of religion — and too little upon 
 this essential, indispensable feature. The inspiring 
 tread of the marching hosts of young people toward the 
 field of Christian work is not without its dangers as; 
 notably evident by the painful Durant trial now in pro- 
 gress in San Francisco. 
 
 As workers in this white harvest field we find too 
 many, in pulpit and pew, who need to have a vision like 
 that of Paul at Damascus, to see what God calls them to- 
 do. A single sentence from Mrs. Butler's letter as pub- 
 lished in the October Philanthropist, is in point: "A 
 good man, a spiritual man, a pastor and teacher, lately 
 confessed, after a successful ministry to souls, that when 
 brought face to face with this question with which we 
 are dealing, he felt — and God showed him — that he 
 needed to be reconverted." 
 
 Still one more caution should be extended to all 
 workers: it is not to allow attention and effort to be so 
 entirely directed to any special features of this hideous, 
 omnipresent evil until hope, and faith, and courage 
 shrivel and perish in its loathsome atmosphere. Rather 
 let us strive to maintain the attitude of the archangel, 
 with the dragon writhing beneath his firmly planted 
 
 366 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MRS. C. T. COLE. 
 
 367 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 foot, his two edged sword poised for death deahng 
 blows, but his face turned sunward, serene, though 
 tremulous. So let us but glance down at the dragon 
 while we keep our faces turned toward the Son of 
 Righteousness — ^the Beauty of Holiness — thus keeping 
 ourselves in harmony with the great uplift toward nobler 
 living. 
 
 And now let me add a sentence to bear testimony 
 to my deep appreciation of the work of the Philanthro- 
 pist, quiet, unpretentious, like the clear water of a 
 mountain rivulet coming to us from the heights. Will 
 not this Congress devise ways and means for sending 
 this water, so full of tonic, to every part of our land? 
 And the Arena, and its stalwart editor, who seems to us 
 a very Sir Gallahad in this conflict with darkness and 
 impurity. And among its contributors we think first of 
 Helen Gardener, not only for what her keen pen and 
 earnest brain have already accomplished, but for the 
 evident fund of reserved force to which we look with 
 hope and expectation for still grander work in the fu- 
 ture. 
 
 God grant that this Congress may prove a ' ' Mount 
 of Vision " to many who have not yet felt any sense of 
 responsibility in this great rising tide for purity, and 
 that its stimulus may be felt in every hamlet in our 
 land. 
 
 Yours Ever in the Work, 
 
 C. T. Cole. 
 
 368 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 PROF. JAS. STUART, M. P. 
 
 HONORARY SECRETARY INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR THE 
 
 ABOLITION OF STATE REGULATION OF VICE. 
 
 369 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 FLORENCE CRITTENTON MISSION RESCUE 
 WORK. 
 
 Remarks by Mrs. A. L. Prindle. Matron of Florence 
 Crittenton Mission. 
 
 Dear Friends: 
 
 I am here to day to represent the twenty-one Florence 
 Crittenton Missions for mothers' girls. 
 
 The people of God in all ages have been slow to- 
 learn His blessed will and wonderful love for the poor 
 outcast, friendless, homeless, unpitied and unloved 
 erring woman. 
 
 Every other class of sinners known in all the earth 
 has been looked after by the Church of God, save her, 
 who has had no helper, no place for repentance, though 
 she has sought it diligently with tears. The Church has- 
 been very deficient, as many of you know, in looking 
 after these lost ones and giving them help. Let the 
 Church of God cover her face with shame and cry out in 
 the eveningtide of this nineteenth century, " Hide thy 
 face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities, " for 
 Jesus' sake. 
 
 When the condition of these lost ones was first re- 
 vealed to me by the Spirit, I hastened to tell the fathers 
 and mothers how the children had been swept over the 
 precipice; how they were even now falling over the 
 cataract like drift wood, uttering a piercing cry for help- 
 as they fell. Yet but few listened to my story, so I fell 
 into hearty sympathy with the silver tongued prophet 
 when he asked, "Who hath believed our report? " 
 
 Later down the ages God hath raised up another 
 Isaiah, who, beholding the maelstrom and whirlpool 
 into which thousands of America's best womanhood. 
 
 370 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 MRS. A. T,. PRINDLE. 
 
 371 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 have fallen by the cruel, relentless hand of man, cried 
 out, "Save her! save her!" I refer to dear Brother 
 Charles N. Crittenton, whom to know is to love. He 
 commenced this work in New York City twelve or fif- 
 teen years ago, when the devil seemed to have his own 
 way. He went down into Baxter street and one dear 
 girl said to him: "Mr. Crittenton, I would leave this 
 place, but I don't know where to go; you would not 
 have me, nobody cares for me; my own mother has 
 shut the door against me." It was then he decided, 
 after much prayer and thought, that he would under- 
 take to work for the erring girl. How many times he 
 has been called a lunatic, because he has for his great / 
 object in Hfe to help the perishing girl ! 
 ^ You would be startled and alarmed by the enormity 
 of this sin if the real facts were revealed, one of which 
 I will give you. 
 
 A young man, now well saved, thank God, about 
 two years ago, after hearing me speak upon this subject 
 in the Gospel Tabernacle, came trembling and shaking 
 under the power of God, confessed to me most humbly, 
 tears streaming down his face, "that before his conversion 
 and marriage, in a distant city, he had been instrumental 
 in pushing one hundred mothers' girls over the preci- 
 pice into the dark waters of woe and despair." He said, 
 " Shall I go to heaven and those girls go to hell? God 
 forbid," said he, as he brought his hand down on the 
 desk. "Mother Prindle, will you go with me to that 
 city and help save them ? Will you go with me and 
 establish a Home through which these perishing ones 
 that I have destroyed and ruined may be helped to a 
 better life?" 
 
 Careless mothers, arouse yourselves, to save your 
 beautiful daughters from this terrible fate. You may, 
 indeed, hasten the coming of the Lord, who has all 
 power in heaven and earth, by preaching the Gospel to 
 all perishing ones, for then shall the end come. Praise 
 God, He is coming! 
 
 372 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 This modern Isaiah, our beloved Brother Critten- 
 ton, whose tongue is not only silver, but his words gold, 
 has consecrated every dollar to the uplifting of fallen 
 humanity. 
 
 The twenty-one Florence Crittenton Missions, under 
 the supervision of our beloved and honored brother, 
 Charles N. Crittenton, are scattered all through the 
 United States. They have of late been organized into 
 a National society. By the payment of one dollar a 
 year any person can be a member of this organized 
 body, and so aid in pushing the work. Circles will be 
 formed in all cities where missions have been estab- 
 lished, for the prevention of this terrible sin, as well as 
 the rescuing of those who have fallen mto it. 
 
 The Gospel Rescue Car, owned and fitted up by 
 our dear brother Crittenton, is the latest feature of the 
 work ; he has paid for this car with its furnishings, five 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 Through this channel, our dear young girls are res- 
 cued, and cold, dead Christians made alive. Circles 
 formed and public sentiment created, and money raised 
 in behalf of this cause, which is so near and dear' to the 
 heart of our coming King. 
 
 We are in confident expectation to belt the entire 
 globe with Florence Crittenton Missions. 
 
 When one of these wonderful Missions has been 
 planted in our own capital, Washington, D. C. , the plan 
 in embryo is, to move across the Atlantic, at our beloved 
 Lady Henry Somerset's special request, and plant a de- 
 lightful Home for the poor, ostracized English girls, for 
 whom my heart aches. 
 
 I saw all phases of London Hfe during my trip 
 abroad, but no scene touched my heart more tenderly 
 than those nightly witnessed of the hopeless condition 
 of the once noble, pure English girl. She is indeed, 
 according to the lines of Whittier, "hunted, outlawed, 
 held in thrall," whom nobody loves. 
 
 373 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Picadilly and Regent's Square are literally thronged 
 at midnight with this class of lost maidenhood. 
 
 Brother Coote and I stood upon the steps of Hugh 
 Price Hughes' glorious Mission, and witnessed the 
 wholesale traffic in mothers' girls, and for some reason 
 he is not able to gather in one of those dear ones, and 
 the ground seems to be covered with them. Such a 
 sight I never beheld in New York. I had a wonderful 
 heart-felt feeling with the prophet Jeremiah, as he ex- 
 claimed, "Oh, that my head were waters, and mine 
 eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night 
 for the slain of the daughters of my people." 
 
 I remained after my friends had rettirned to Amer- 
 ica, to awaken an interest in the hearts of the Saints of 
 God. Had personal interviews with the best Rescue 
 Workers at Lady Henry's request, such as William T. 
 Stead, Hugh Price Hughes, Mrs. Bramwell Booth and 
 many others, so that now a location is selected, and suf- 
 ficient interest created to establish this much needed 
 work in God's own time. 
 
 I was enabled to speak, through an interpreter, to 
 the poor perishing girls in Paris, where Arthur Booth 
 Clibbom and his devoted wife have done such a marvel- 
 ous work for our risen Christ. 
 
 I want to solicit the hearty co-operation of all God's 
 dear consecrated children, for the furtherance of this 
 most Christlike work, and for the ingathering of multi- 
 tudes of precious young girls, who, through the deceit- 
 fulness of sin, and the artfulness of wicked men, fall an 
 easy prey to the wiles of the devil. 
 
 After a long and interesting interview with William 
 T. Stead, he said, in parting, "For God's sake, go on 
 with your noble work, Mother Prindle." 
 
 I am pained at times by some remarks made by 
 professedly consecrated Christian workers, who have 
 said in the face of our reports that they ' ' did not believe 
 that one out of a hundred was saved in the Florence 
 Mission." On the contrary, I have been nearly six years 
 
 374 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 CHARLES N. CRITTENTON. 
 FOUNDER OF THE FLORENCE CRITTENTON MISSIONS. 
 
 375 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 in this lighthouse, and I know scores and scores of 
 girls who are filling honorable positions to-day, whose 
 dwelling once was in the Tombs, the slums and the 
 dives of our city. Many are at work in the Master's 
 vineyard, and many others give evidence of a bright and 
 glowing future; many of them have made happy 
 mothers. 
 
 I want to tell you that I never was prouder than I 
 am now of a class of women who are coming up out of the 
 depths of sin. They were mothers' lost daughters, but 
 they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. 
 
 I will just note one or two instances. One was a 
 Southerner, who came to us. Her father was a Metho- 
 dist minister. She went down into great wickedness; 
 her health was broken. One day in our Home she gave 
 her heart to God. She was washed in the blood of Jesus 
 Christ, and to-day she is the wife of a noble Christian 
 man, and they have a delightful home and a family 
 altar. 
 
 I want to speak of an older one. You say, " These 
 older ones you can do nothing with." Not so. It seemed 
 that nothing would rouse Mary to a sense of her con- 
 dition at first. I went into the dormitory, where she 
 was lying upon her bed, and said, " Mary, come down; 
 come down to the meeting. Do you know you are on 
 the brink of the precipice of eternal ruin? " She said, 
 " Do you mean I am going to hell?" I said, " That is 
 what I mean, unless you come to Jesus and be saved." 
 She arose and dressed herself and came down and knelt 
 in prayer with us, and she was wonderfully saved. I 
 put these four words on her fingers, " Thou, God, seest 
 me." She has been marching on toward heaven and 
 glory ever since. 
 
 I could tell joii of a great many missionaries 
 raised up from the Florence Mission. Our dear 
 Belle has gone to glory, and another has been ap- 
 pointed in her place. We have one in Pittsburgh, one 
 in Virginia, another in Gloversville, N. Y. We have 
 
 376 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 several in the Salvation Army, who make bright and 
 beautiful workers, good soldiers for Jesus. 
 
 I have been nearly seventeen years in the work, 
 and ' ' have not got weary yet." I want no other or better 
 evidence that Christ is coming soon, than that He is wak- 
 ing up the sleeping churches to a sense of their respon- 
 sibility for God on this line. 
 
 Christian mothers and wives, God help you to enter 
 into this work as never before. God help you and bless 
 you! 
 
 Praise God for this Social Purity Congress! Every 
 paper read and every word spoken in its interest are 
 like so many polished stones in the great building, the 
 architect of which is our Maker and our God. While 
 rescuing the perishing and caring for the dying, I most 
 fully realize the value of the old adage, that " an ounce 
 of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure;" 
 and so with tongue and pen I would cheer you on, dear 
 fellow workers, with the encouraging words of our Lord, 
 when He said to His disciples, "Ye shall reap in due 
 time if ye faint not." "The battle is not yours, but the 
 Lord's. " Glory to His holy name ! 
 
 377 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 ADDRESS BY MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE. 
 
 Mrs. Mary A. Livermore gave the closing address 
 of the Congress: 
 
 Any one who has passed much time in Europe cannot 
 help having noticed the baneful effects of the State regu- 
 lation of vice. I have seen so much of it and its effects 
 that it seems to me there is nothing more horrible, more 
 to be dreaded than its introduction into America. If a 
 woman walks along the streets of Paris, even if accom- 
 panied by her husband, she is insulted by a majority of 
 the eyes of the men that pass her. Their expression is un- 
 mistakable. 
 
 The reason for such a state of affairs is simpiy that 
 women are put below par by the universal regulation of 
 prostitution. Dealing in this vice is put on a level with 
 the sale of dry goods, cereals, or other marketable com- 
 modities. The law is made in such a way that man, and 
 not woman, gets the advantage. Its aim is to make sin 
 safe for men only. And they feel that, too. They 
 look upon woman as their prey. 
 
 Do we want that sort of thing in America, where 
 the women are free and the young girls go in and out 
 unattended and yet in perfect safety? They are safe 
 because they are under the protection of the American 
 man. And there is no other man like the American 
 man. Whatever woman may come to in the future her 
 best protection must always be in the heart of man. Do 
 we want vice regulated here? I cannot think of any- 
 thing more deplorable for America and I would rather 
 die than see it brought here. 
 
 Thus far we have been saved, but this Congress for 
 purity was not called a whit too soon. We have heard 
 the claims of a certain class of men that their morals 
 shall be just where they choose to put them, while they 
 
 378 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE. 
 
 379 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 put the standard of women up so high that angels can? 
 scarcely live up to it. That is why I say this Congress. 
 is needed. Let deceiit, chaste, highly moral, God fear- 
 ing, law abiding people speak out their denunciation of 
 this horrible immorality that is daring to plant its colors- 
 on our shores. 
 
 I have had an experience of many years m rescuing 
 fallen women, and it is my belief that even if there is. 
 reformation in these cases it is not possible to forget the 
 past. Those who have fallen can never regain their 
 pure, white souls. You know what a glorious work 
 John B. Gough did for temperance after he had given up 
 drink. Well, he told me that often when he was speak- 
 ing from the platform a ribald jest, an oath, a bad story 
 which he had heard in some saloon years before would 
 come to his lips and he would almost cry it out to the 
 crowd listening to him. 
 
 What we need most of all to establish is one stand- 
 ard of morality for both sexes. I think women, are 
 much to blame for the erection of this double standard 
 which now prevails. Sweet women have said to me, 
 ' ' You can't expect young men to be as careful as young 
 girls." I do expect it. I more than expect it; I de- 
 mand it. I don't believe boys would be impure if they 
 were properly trained at home by their mothers. 
 
 I marvel at the way mothers let their young girls 
 " scoot " about in large cities after dark. I have often 
 seen two or three of them on the street, gaily dressed, 
 laughing and making fun among themselves, but always- 
 attracting the attention of the hunters of human souls. 
 I wonder if the mothers are not fools to think that their 
 daughters can run loose without coming to ruin? This, 
 subject used to worry Wendell Phillips so that he wanted 
 a law passed forbidding boys and girls below a certain 
 age from being on the streets after a certain hour. 
 
 Our boys and girls come into the world with the ap- 
 peties and passions of humanity, which are meant to be 
 their servants, not their masters. These instincts are 
 
 380 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 full gfTOwn before we know it — long before the reason 
 and judgment are mature— and our young people are 
 ■confronted with outside temptations which have greatly 
 increased of late years. I in my youth never heard of 
 such things as my grandchildren have to meet. My married 
 daughter tells me the same. The forces of evil seem to 
 "be far sighted. They see that the temperance and 
 purity movement, starting often in weakness and unwis- 
 dom, is destined to grow and threaten their strongholds; 
 and they are preparing their forces to meet it. Petrol- 
 •eum V. Nasby has described to us the insidious and 
 ■carefully prepared temptations by which, while still a 
 mere boy, he was led into habits of drinking. The 
 same course is pursued in regard to the social evil. I 
 saw in front of my lawn the other day a group of boys 
 ten or eleven years old, intent on some small cards, 
 passing them around, and apparently playing a game 
 "with them. I said to my eight year old granddaughter, 
 "What are those boys so interested in?" She answered, 
 "They are playing with cigarette cards, so as to make 
 money out of them." "Cigarette cards!" I said. 
 "What are those?" "Oh, they are very bad, grand- 
 ma." "Have you seen them, then?" "I have seen 
 them once or twice, but mother told me I must not look 
 at them, nor let Johnny" (her younger brother). Later 
 some of those cards came into my hands, and I was 
 shocked. They were not all of them bad — at least, 
 some had nothing worse on them than the picture of a 
 prize fighter — but others were very bad indeed. Boys 
 make collections of hundreds of these cards, and the 
 seeds of impurity are thus implanted in their minds. A 
 Boston teacher lately wrote me a long letter telling me 
 how the little fellows in the schools were absorbed in 
 these cards and gambled with them, and the teachers 
 saw the evil effects. 
 
 Another thing: I am occasionally obliged to go to 
 my home in Melrose by a late train, and I am always 
 made uncomfortable by the number of young girls 
 
 381 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 going home unattendea, or attended by some boy of 
 their own age. What are their parents thinking about? 
 
 Another difficulty is the backwardness of women in 
 talking of these things. The women's clubs now have 
 a million members. In their meetings they could dis- 
 cuss ways of saving the boys and arousing the parents, 
 without any danger of their words appearing in the 
 paper next morning— the great bugbear of women in. 
 speaking of these subjects. 
 
 It is not safe for a mother to be out of her son's 
 confidence. Let her rear him with the same standard 
 of purity as for his sister, and she will save him from 
 things that in his after life he would give anything to 
 have undone. If the mother is backward and prudish, 
 I can tell her that there are other teachers right across 
 the road, at the drug store, the grocery store, the rail- 
 road station, who will give her boy lessons that he will 
 be sorry for later. People talk about sowing wild oats, 
 as if they never came to harvest. ' ' Whatsoever a man 
 soweth, that shall he also reap. " As if a young man 
 could smirch his soul and wash it all off as he might 
 wash his hands ! Nature never forgives. You cannot 
 jump from the gutter into heaven. 
 
 We must lay greater stress on early education. We 
 must not take it for granted that because children are 
 born in good homes they will turn out all right. If we 
 do not look after these matters we shall see our country 
 covered all over with the State regulation of vice. 
 While there is a great International Federation to break 
 down this evil system in Europe, constant attempts are 
 made to introduce it here. I meet things now in 
 America which remind me of Paris or Brussels. We 
 are getting Europeanized, and there is danger that all 
 the old standards will be swept away. A merely 
 material civilization, however superb, will crumble 
 down into rottenness, and nothing can save it. 
 
 To women I would say, the policy of reserve and 
 laisses faire will not do. The evils about us must be 
 
 382 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 met, and they can be met. We are asked, ' ' What are 
 you going to do about it? " Eliminate it, with the help 
 of God and of the decent people of America; and there 
 are a great host of them. When we join hands with 
 God to work for righteousness, we partake of His- 
 almightiness, and we shall win. 
 
 3«3 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE RESOLUTIONS OP THE CONGRESS. 
 
 The following resolutions, read by tlie President, 
 were unanimously adopted as voicing the sentiment 
 of the Congress: 
 
 That chastity, a pure, continent life alike for men 
 and women is consonant with the best condition of 
 physical, mental and moral health. 
 
 That prostitution is a fundamental violation of the 
 laws of health ; is degrading and destructive to the indi- 
 vidual, a menace to the home and to the nation. 
 
 That State or municipal regulation of prostitution 
 is morally wrong; is worse than a sanitary failure; is 
 cruel and unjust to woman ; creates a shocking traffic in 
 girlhood. 
 
 That all possible effort should be made to educate 
 public opinion and maintain a high, equal standard of 
 morals for both men and women. 
 
 That facilities should be provided for the treatment 
 of venereal diseases as readily as all other diseases in all 
 hospitals under the control of municipalities or other 
 public bodies, as well as in those supported by voluntary 
 contributions. 
 
 That homes should be everywhere established by 
 Municipal and State, as well as voluntary aid, as agen- 
 cies for the reclamation and rehabilitation of erring girls. 
 
 That the State should punish, by imprisonment 
 rather than fine, organized prostitution, procurism, the 
 keepers of houses of prostitution and the rental of houses 
 or other dwellings for such purposes. 
 
 That the congratulations of this National Purity 
 Congress are hereby extended to Josephine E. Butler 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 and her European co-workers of the International Fed- 
 eration for the abolition of State regulation of vice, upon 
 the encouraging progress of their crusade for the aboli- 
 tion of the odious system of State sanctioned debauchery 
 and the promotion of public morality. 
 
 That the hearty thanks of this National Purity Con- 
 gress are hereby extended to the Baltimore Meeting of 
 the Religious Society of Friends, Park Avenue, for the 
 use of its Meeting House kindly proffered for its sessions. 
 
 That the grateful acknowledgments of this Congress 
 are hereby expressed to the representatives of the press 
 of Baltimore for their excellent reports of the pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 38s 
 
SUPPLEMENTAR V. 
 
 PERSONAL AND SOCIAL PURITY. 
 
 By Rev. Joseph May. 
 
 I Cor. vi. 19: " Know ye notthat your body is the sanctuary 
 of the Holy Spirit which is in you? Glorify God, therefore, in your 
 body." 
 
 Of all the institutions of Providence in nature, 
 doubtless there is none more remarkable, ijiore inter- 
 esting or more important than that of sex. All through 
 the vegetable and the animal world, above the very low- 
 est biological forms, this law reigns with scarcely any ex- 
 ceptions, that the continuance of every species depends 
 upon the concurrence and co-operation of two parental 
 organisms. The flowers that deck the fields are 
 distinguished into types corresponding to the paternal 
 and maternal. The fishes of the sea swim in parental 
 pairs; the nest upon the bough, jewelled with its eggs, 
 is guarded by wedded mates in whom the distinction of 
 office begins to be clearly apparent in the external 
 features of either ; and while the mother bird sits 
 closely and diligently at home the father hovers about 
 to supply her with food, to regale her with song, until 
 the shells burst, the helpless little ones appear with 
 their hungry cries and the parent pair unite in cease- 
 less, self-forgetting care to feed and defend and finally 
 to train their infant brood. 
 
 Among the animal tribes the same touching drama 
 is repeated. The mother to bear and to rear, the father, 
 who begets, to maintain and to defend, and as we rise in 
 the scale, higher intelligence manifesting itself in ever 
 
 386 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 REV. JOSEPH MAY. 
 
 387 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 increasing assiduity, devotion, self sacrifice and parental 
 joy. 
 
 The highest example of this complex law of dis- 
 tributed functions, of union, and of parental co-opera- 
 tion, appears in the intelligent, voluntary association 
 of individuals of our own race in marriage. In man, 
 the characteristics of the sexes become highly differen- 
 tiated; their particular offices are markedly contrasted; 
 the necessity of the one to complement the other and of 
 the two to form a perfect one is especially obvious. 
 And in the moral relations of the two the necessity of 
 each to the other, the helpfulness of the reaction of each 
 type of character upon the other, the general purpose 
 and design of Providence in the institution of sex, dawn 
 clearly upon us. 
 
 That purpose obviously is — as every final aim of 
 the divine mind must be — moral. In the vegetable 
 world we doubtless see it to be so only symbolically; in 
 the animal it is real and unquestionable. Possibly we 
 can distinguish it when we study it in man. The prime 
 condition of moral life is the conquest of self. In this 
 there must be control of what is necessarily the strongest 
 original instinct of every organism — that of self-preser- 
 vation. This must not be extirpated, and the control 
 must be in the interest of a nobler element of being, 
 in the interest of character, which is only the shape and 
 condition of what we call man's spirit, what we believe 
 to be his eternal part. That this spiritual nature is also 
 to be attributed to what we have hitherto called the 
 brute creation, is the conclusion to-day of an increasing 
 number of serious thinkers. If we are not prepared 
 for that opinion (which makes all self-conscious 
 vitality a sign of spirit) we yet have an example in the 
 animals of the necessity of at least rudimentary moral 
 ideas to even the lowest forms of social life. The pre- 
 servation of species depends on the fierce traits of parent 
 beasts being controlled and impulses of tenderness and 
 care being developed, at least towards each other and 
 
 388 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 their young. Actually, a genuine moral training is re- 
 ceived by even brute natures in their social lives, and 
 for it in them, as in intelligent beings, one principle 
 was indispensable — the principle which should be 
 sufficient to conquer self without destroying it — and 
 that is the principle of love. The first form of such 
 moral development is that which arises in this wonder- 
 ful relation of sex. The theory of sex is obviously that 
 of two natures complementary to each other, of which 
 the one is needful to the wholeness, the perfectness of 
 the other. Out of this need arises the instinctive long- 
 ing in which the union of the sexes begins. In their 
 united relation the first demands begin to be made, in 
 every tribe, on the power of the moral nature to assert 
 itself and to dominate the animal. Something of self- 
 sacrifice must characterize the relations of the most 
 brutal pair ; and in the care of offspring a new instinct 
 awakes to add itself to the former. Among the human 
 race, the principle of love aroused by sex, developed by 
 the family relation, extends to others of their kind, and 
 so we have the beginnings of society, which is the 
 prime condition of human progress and ultimate civili- 
 zation. Somewhat thus, at any rate, we may trace the 
 workings of Divine creative thought in the constitution 
 of nature, and that moral purpose which, as it must 
 guide all else which God does, is also present in the in- 
 stitution of sex. 
 
 Certainly, in the case of man it is, as I have called 
 it, altogether the most remarkable and important fact 
 in our constitution, and the most influential, whether as 
 regards human happiness and welfare or the moral pro- 
 gress of our race. No relation of human beings ap- 
 proaches in depth and completeness that of the married 
 pair. In none does the essential spirituality of our nature 
 more distinctly reveal itself to consciousness than in 
 this when it is pure and noble. No form of joy ap- 
 proaches this, beginning in the ecstacy of awakening 
 love and continuing in the settled and perfect harmony 
 
 389 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 which becomes almost an identity of the two individu- 
 alities. 
 
 Since such is the importance of the relation of the 
 sexes, it is the fact, historically, that there is no 
 better test of the moral progress of social man 
 than the institution of marriage furnishes. The posi- 
 tion of woman, as the brute possession, as the domestic 
 slave, as the cherished companion, finally, as the ac- 
 knowledged moral and social peer of man, marks 
 accurately the advance of our race from animaUsm and 
 the sole sway of brute force, to the ascendency of the 
 spiritual nature and of moral principle. 
 
 And because of this high importance of the relation 
 of the sexes to earthly happiness and welfare, to moral 
 health and progress and to the development of the 
 spiritual nature, how can we adequately express the 
 sanctity of it, the reverence with which so peculiar 
 and precious a thought of God ought to be regarded 
 and the vigilance with which it should be defended in 
 the facts of social life, in the habits of the individual, 
 whether in marriage or out of it, and even, as Jesus 
 warned us, in the secret thoughts of the heart? 
 
 It is certain that up to this time society has not at- 
 tained to a self-consciousness sufficiently noble on this 
 point. I doubt if the young are so taught as justly to 
 feel the dignity, the holiness of the married relation. 
 Too much it is the subject of instinctive rather than 
 reflective and religious action. I cannot speak strongly 
 enough in rebuke of the levity with which it is often 
 treated in conversation, and in publications the only aim 
 of which is to make unworthy profit by catering to the 
 lower tastes of the ueonle In all this is genuine sacri- 
 lege. 
 
 And all treatment of the institution of sex and the 
 relation of marriage which is not dignified and reverent 
 ministers to distinct and vicious profanation. The 
 more elevated anything is, the more diligent the care 
 with which it must be cherished. And as it is of the 
 
 39° 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 mystery of this relation of sex that it involves not only 
 man's higher spiritual nature (which, I repeat, is the 
 essence of it), but co-ordinately his lower, the animal 
 nature, there is ever present the danger that it should 
 become a ministry to base and degrading passions in- 
 stead of to the noble traits and sentiments it is capable 
 of cultivating. The necessary exigency of the in- 
 stincts on which depends the perpetuation of the race, 
 lends them a power as subtle as it is great. The 
 spirit of marriage itself may be ignoble and debasing, 
 and the painful ineffectiveness and misdirection of the 
 moral training which, up to this time, society gives to 
 its members, are shown in nothing more glaringly than 
 by the wide persistence in this nineteenth century of 
 those debasing and destructive vices in which the sanc- 
 tity of the relation of sex is mocked and bestial in- 
 dulgence both destroys the body and corrupts to its 
 foundations the spiritual nature. 
 
 It is a healthful token of the times that these evils, 
 the extent of which has too long been cloaked by false 
 and injurious sentiments, are now being laid open to 
 the light of day ; that organized efforts are being made 
 to combat them, and especially to set in motion in society 
 the forces of a moral education which shall elevate in us 
 all conceptions and sentiments regarding the relations 
 of the sexes; which shall defend our youth from the 
 temptations of their own complex natures and from the 
 insidious evils of low standards, gross social maxims and 
 the myriad-fold enginery of vice. This cannot be 
 done too discreetly and delicately, but it must be done 
 effectively. Society has slept far too long in presence 
 ■of evils, often imperfectly known to those who should be 
 most ready to work for their correction, but the key to 
 which is apt to be rudely thrust into the hands of each 
 rising generation. Alongside the world of respectable 
 society in every Christian, as in the pagan ages, has 
 existed and exists this world of shame and sin, of cor- 
 ruption, of the most cruel slavery, of disease, despair 
 
 391 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 and death. Beneath the orderly and glittering surface 
 of society beams this foul and miry sea in which are for- 
 ever engulfed successive armies of the more helpless 
 sex, and in which the bodies and souls of the stronger 
 are often befouled beyond purification. It is the fact 
 that the fall of some of the greatest social structures of 
 the past was ' in very large measure wrought by the 
 vices which sapped the manhood of communities far ad- 
 vanced in civilization. Rome herself fell because she 
 could no longer recruit among her own sons, or even 
 from the nations she had admitted to her citizenship, 
 the armies needed to withstand the remoter barbarians 
 who pressed upon her in all the vigor of a semi-civiliza- 
 tion unenervated by luxury and vice. We have not 
 yet, we may trust, reached the point where political cor- 
 ruption, the effeminacy and self-indulgence of wealth, 
 disrespect for the sacredness of marriage, pervading 
 moral indifference, actual vice, shall make the return to 
 social health and safety hopeless ; but it is certain that 
 we are already reproducing in the ignobleness and venal- 
 ity of our public men, in the extravagance and luxury of 
 our wealthy class, in the freedom of divorce, not a 
 few of the features which preceded, as eificient causes, 
 the downfall of ancient civilizations. 
 
 Certainly we have forces of defence beyond those 
 possessed by any ancient society. The general whole- 
 someness of American home life is far from impaired. 
 Modern life has vastly more numerous interests than 
 ancient to occupy leisure and employ the vacant ener- 
 gies of men. The moral standards held up in preaching 
 and teaching are largely high and idealistic. Religion 
 has a powerful hold upon our communities. Multitudes, 
 even, who do not associate themselves with the churches 
 yet admit its influence as cherished in their own hearts. 
 Especially the growing influence of women is a saving 
 power among us, the value of which we are only begin- 
 ning to appreciate. 
 
 392 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 These forces we ought to utilize and direct to the de- 
 velopment of a newly enlightened principle and senti- 
 ment of personal and social purity. See exactly what this 
 work consists in. It is to be stated in exactly the 
 words in which you would define the whole work of re • 
 ligion. It is simply the conquest and control of the 
 flesh by the spirit. It is the regulation of physical ap- 
 petite and the thoughts of the heart by moral principle 
 in obedience to that self-respect which we owe ourselves 
 as beings convinced that we are of nature akin to God 
 himself. Interpret your nature as animal only and 
 you become the servant of its appetites and passions. 
 Convinced that the reality of your being is spiritual, 
 your loyalty goes out to that immortal principle which 
 is the rightful sovereign of this perishable body. 
 
 Self-respect is the basis of all virtue, and pre-emi- 
 nently it is the defense of purity against vice. All 
 yielding to physical appetite is dishonorable, degrading 
 to immortal man, be it that of the glutton, the drunk- 
 ard or the libertine We call those actions crimes, by 
 which other persons are injured or the peace of society 
 disturbed. Vice is the practice of anything which low- 
 ers or defiles our own nature. Vice is simply consent 
 to the animal, the beast within us. It is a condescen- 
 sion to the swine, the tiger, which lurks ever in man's 
 physical part and makes him, when he gives way to it, 
 the most terrible beast of all. The classic legend of 
 Circe was really a myth, full of instruction. When they 
 yielded to the solicitations of vice, incarnate in the 
 temptress, men simply abrogated the empire of their 
 moral part, and became the brutes their lower natures 
 resembled. 
 
 I heard lately of a strange disease, the essence 
 of which consists in a return to the features of the primi- 
 tive man. The brow recedes, the jaws protrude, the 
 hair becomes profuse and coarse, the hands become ape- 
 like, the eyes red-hued, and the whole shape simian 
 rather than human. Such is, morally, the man who 
 
 393 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 ogives himself up to vice. It permeates the whole na- 
 ture, to corrupt each instinct, to thwart all noble aspira- 
 tions, to pervert every thought of the heart. I have 
 known men, still young, and outwardly attractive, but 
 whose whole natures had been soiled throughout ; who 
 could no longer see one object with a cleanly and honest 
 -eye. To such the whole world is discolored. These 
 are the true penalties of sin, my friends — these, and not 
 fabled, after-death horrors. To be debased, vice-stained ; 
 to have all your instincts perverted, your tastes pol- 
 luted — this is your punishment, none the less heavy 
 and terrible though you do not realize it, but go on de- 
 lighting in the filth of your life. Yes, and there are 
 others, too, which must reach every soul of man at last : 
 the shame and pain of awakening out of all this; the 
 terrible effort which the soul must make to recover 
 health and sanity. I have heard of a youth who — to'o 
 late to save a life undermined by debauchery — yet awoke 
 to the sin and shame of it and put it from him ; but 
 though recovered in spirit, the now hateful memories of 
 the past, his very dreams, became like the furies who 
 -pursued Orestes, an awful scourge, hourly chastising his 
 redeemed soul, and driving him to his earthly grave, 
 exhausted in the contest. 
 
 Let us, by the grossness, the uncleanness, the 
 bestiality of all ^\zq, prejudice joyAhivX hearts against it; 
 not needlessly revealing the offensive forms it actually 
 takes in the world, but showing them the ignoble 
 quality of any yielding to the lower propensities which 
 beset us all. To the little child this choice may present 
 itself in many ways which are trivial only in form; and 
 a victory in some pettiest struggle between the animal 
 and the spiritual, to which parental care has contributed, 
 may mark the taking for all time of the better path. 
 Purity, moral refinement, the honor of the bodily frame 
 as the tenement of the immortal spirit, as the temple 
 of God, if kept worthy of His presence— let these breed 
 Jiot only fixed principles of character, but also deep- 
 
 394 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 seated taste for everything which is sweet and pure and 
 good. Cast character early in these moulds and the 
 youth will g-o out into the world with a triple shield be- 
 fore him. 
 
 And, from the first, my friends, every virtue should 
 be taught as absolute in itself ; therefore as the need, the 
 law and the grace of all human beings, irrespective of 
 physical distinctions. The moral law, the inevitable 
 needs and qualities of the spirit, are not in any way 
 modified by variety of physical functions, however im- 
 portant. No doubt the peculiar types of the male and 
 the female are ineffably contrasted. Vigor, force, 
 energy may more peculiarly mark the one ; grace, deli- 
 cacy, sensitiveness the other. But while either sex loses 
 something of its own power and beauty if its type is 
 m.etamorphosed into that of the other, yet, at the same 
 time, each must essentially incarnate the traits of the other, 
 or it will fail of its own perfection. The vigorous man 
 who really lacks delicacy, tenderness, sensitiveness, the 
 graceful woman who lacks self-reliance, courage, energy, 
 is distinctly felt to be a difficient example of the one 
 type or the other. It is a mistake, therefore, in dealing 
 with the young, to emphasize the distinction of sex. 
 Teach every virtue to both, and nature will take care of 
 the types. 
 
 Above all, let it be no longer possible in humane, 
 refined, enlightened society to distinguish between the 
 sexes as to the shamefulness of vice. The cruelty of 
 the world, its lingering barbarisms, are shown in nothing 
 more markedly than in the treatment hitherto of the 
 man and the woman who have united in a common sin. 
 Such a distinction is a simple relic of the period in 
 which woman was man's mere possession, when he 
 might do as pleased him, but her act of sin was an in- 
 fidelity to him as her master and lord. That the descent 
 to vice seems a longer path for the one than for the 
 other is also, only a token of the false moral education 
 which has involved that distinction between the sexes, 
 
 395 
 
THE NATIONA.L PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 against which I have just protested. The boy should 
 have been so taught that the downward step would be 
 as difficult for him as for the girl. But, if a distinction 
 is ever to be drawn, it is vastly more often in favor of 
 the woman, who has fallen, ten times to one, from over- 
 trustful affection, from poverty or from ignorance of 
 the world, where the man has yielded to the temptation 
 of his own passions, as for him almost the sole possible 
 impulse to vice. Nothing still contributes to perpetuate 
 licentious ways so effectively as the subtle influence of 
 a double standard of personal morality. So long as 
 ladies who would deem themselves besmirched by the 
 presence of a sinful sister-woman yet admit to their tables 
 and their firesides men habitually addicted to vice, 
 there is little hope for the moral regeneration of society 
 at this point. No possible influence could be worse for 
 young men than to see guilt tolerated in the one which 
 blasts beyond all hope the other. In the eye of all-pure 
 heaven all sin is one. The guilt, the shame, consists in 
 the submission of the higher nature to the lower, the 
 triumph of the flesh over the spirit ; and this is the same 
 whether the moral economy which condescends to vice 
 be associated with a masculine frame or a feminine one. 
 Here, most certainly, there is no respect of persons 
 with God. His holy finger writes but one standard for 
 all His children. It is that in the one and in the other 
 the spirit must reign and ,the flesh must serve. It is 
 that law in which Jesus summed up the whole moral 
 obligation of man, ''Be ye perfect, as God himself is 
 perfect." Yes, my friends, yes, young man, young 
 woman, equally, it is "the soul that sinneth, it shall 
 die." 
 
 396 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 397 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE RELATION OF POVERTY TO PURITY. * 
 
 By William Lloyd Garrison. 
 
 The growing scientific consideration of current 
 questions does not impair but strengthens the moral 
 and religious grounds upon which primarily all reforms 
 rest. It makes clearer the causes of evils, and suggests 
 practical methods of cure. It warns reformers against 
 wasting efforts on palliatives, urging them to stop the 
 endless pruning of branches which grow faster than the 
 shears can ply. 
 
 The warfare against a universal appetite is not like 
 a crusade to destroy a concrete wrong. Those who 
 put on the armor of temperance and social purity can 
 cherish no hope of seeing a triumph such as the aboli- 
 tion of slavery gave the Abolitionists. The enthrone- 
 ment of individual conscience and self control above 
 the merely sensual nature of man is essential to that re- 
 constructed society which is the dream and aim of all 
 who would leave the world better than they found it. 
 This implies the continued upward struggle of the 
 human soul, marking progress, but reaching no finality. 
 
 But the great advances made in civilization cheer 
 us on, and as the world grows wiser it is not unnatural 
 to think that the impetus towards good increases with 
 every generation. Progress goes forward on many 
 lines, all essential, and the reformers' difficulty is tO' 
 keep the true sense of proportion, the temptation being 
 for each to magnify unduly his special reform. I shall 
 hardly hope to escape the charge of disre'garding my 
 
 * A paper read at the Boston Conference of the American Purity Alliance. 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESfa. 
 
 own warning in treating the question now under discus- 
 sion, but in the few minutes allowed me I shall present 
 what seems to me the most remedial method of treat- 
 ing the problem of prostitution, which we euphemize as 
 the social evil. 
 
 We have been in the habit of ascribing poverty 
 chiefly to intemperance. It is now becoming clear that 
 we have mistaken a partial effect for an original cause. 
 Frances E. Willard, with that progressive wisdom 
 which is her noble characteristic, declares that until th& 
 conditions which now breed poverty are changed, the 
 temperance movement cannot fulfill the hopes of its. 
 advocates. 
 
 As with the temperance agitation, so with the work 
 of social purity. Until we trace effect to cause, and 
 find out the springs of licentiousness, we but beat the 
 air. The misdirected effort and waste of energy spent 
 on attempts to pluck a few brands from the burning is 
 deplorable. Fresh fuel is in ridiculous excess of the 
 brands withdrawn. Whence cpme the young and inno- 
 cent, in ever increasing numbers, to feed the fires of 
 the passions? Is it not from poor conditions of living, 
 unnecessary and avoidable, that the majority of the un- 
 fortunates are evolved? 
 
 It is easy and popular to treat the subject with 
 vagueness. It soothes the sensibilities and lightens in- 
 dividual responsibility when we persuade ourselves that 
 these evils are inevitable in the nature of things, that art 
 overruling power is largely accountable for them, and 
 that the only remedy is education and self control, 
 which means that we wash our hands of the botheration, 
 and take our thoughts from unpleasant things. 
 
 There are those, however, who see the misery and 
 who believe they see, also, its chief cause, as well as the 
 remedy which is its crying need. With that perception 
 and belief a personal responsibility for the wrong can- 
 not be evaded. Woe is me if, having the light, I da 
 not hasten to spread it! To be silent and satisfied with 
 
 399 
 
THE NA'IIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 alleviatives while the perishing classes swell their num- 
 bers in steadily progressing ratios with the victims of 
 social wrong and injustice is to be a sharer in the 
 responsibility. 
 
 As one of those who are convinced that the so 
 called social evil, like that of drunkenness, is largely 
 the direct product of man's inhumanity to man, I shall 
 try to show that poverty is the chief promoter of prosti- 
 tution. If the postulate is granted our quest must be 
 . for the underlying causes of poverty, especially of that 
 poverty which is not voluntary, and which society dis- 
 tinguishes as enforced poverty, consequent upon scarcity 
 of employment and unhealthy conditions of living. 
 
 Wendell Phillips once said, " Open to a man a fair 
 field for his industry, and secure to him its gains, and 
 999 men out of every 1,000 will disdain to steal. Open 
 to woman a fair field for her industry, let her do any- 
 thing her hands find to do and enjoy her gains, and 999 
 women out of every 1,000 will disdain to debase them- 
 selves for dress or ease." 
 
 Mr. Phillips was then arguing for the political 
 equality of women, and the better state of things was 
 predicted upon the opening of the industrial avenues at 
 that time closed to them. Since then a vast number 
 have been opened to the sex. 
 
 Everywhere women invade occupations once held 
 sacred to men, and society is safer and better for the 
 change. But new light has dawned upon the economic 
 world. It is evident that, if women should be granted 
 their unquestionable right of equal suffrage, if every 
 channel of trade or profession should open at their touch, 
 we should still have the ghastly problem of enforced 
 poverty, and its unending procession of recruits to the 
 ranks of women who are forced to make merchandise of 
 themselves. Why? Because something more is needed 
 than the equality of the sexes. The system that makes 
 and perpetuates poverty is in itself sufficient to account 
 for the degradation of both sexes. It closes to both a 
 
 400 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 fair field for industry ; it decrees that the gains of labor 
 shall not be secured to the laborer ; it sustains conditions 
 where women will continue to debase themselves for 
 dress or ease, yea, for the bare necessities of existence. 
 That system which stubbornly thrusts itself across the 
 path of every present social reform is the legalized 
 ownership and monopoly of land. 
 
 In spite of social progress, and notwithstanding the 
 vast increase of national wealth, poverty has kept an 
 equal pace, with its brood of poisonous evils. The 
 millionaire has grown to the multi-millionaire, and the 
 pauper of old days has been succeded by the tramp and 
 the slums, wherein lurk the greatest dangers to our civili- 
 zation. As Dean Farrar tersely puts it : ' 'When zones of 
 plethoric riches, of selfish luxury, of materializing egot- 
 ism, are conterminous with zones of squalid wretched- 
 ness and practical heathendom, such juxtaposition, as a 
 wise bishop has warned us, tends to produce cyclones. " 
 
 Wendell Phillips' utterance which I have quoted is 
 susceptible of a broader interpretation than he dreamed. 
 To-day it will be accepted as an admirable statement of 
 the fundamental reform which aims to restore to man- 
 kind the heritage of the earth, which has passed into 
 private and exclusive hands. "A fair field for industry, 
 'and a security of gains to the owner. " That sums .up 
 the whole contention, and it can only be realized when 
 the bounty of nature, the source of all wealth, is open 
 on equal terms to every child of humanity. Stated in 
 economic terms, it is " equal access to natural oppor- 
 tunity, and unhampered interchange of products." 
 
 I have no time to enlarge upon or explain the Single 
 Tax Reform, but I affirm its pertinency to the discussion 
 of social purity, and shall attempt to make clear my 
 meaning by illustration. 
 
 Poverty is the hotbed of impurity. In every city 
 the tenement house, with its crowded occupants and un- 
 healthy ventilation, with the impossibility of individual 
 privacy and delicate reserve, produces its natural fruit. 
 
 401 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 What makes tenement houses and human hives of misery 
 when there is inimitable space for homes of comfort? 
 Plainly it is the monopoly of land and speculation in 
 that element which no man made and upon which all 
 men must live and work. That the power over men 
 arises from ownership of land as well as from owner- 
 ship of bodies is growing more and more patent. Go 
 with me to the North End, or to the shady side of Bea- 
 con Hill, where the victims of landlordism are in daily 
 and painful evidence. Reckon the enormous percentage 
 of return that such investments yield. If you need 
 assistance consult Father Field, that faithful worker and 
 missionary among the colored poor. 
 
 The inevitable question that presents itself to think- 
 ing minds is: "How, with two thirds of the area of 
 Boston unoccupied, should it be necessary for human 
 beings to live in such closeness and squalor, for which 
 they are obliged to yield so much of their earnings? " 
 Surely not for the buildings they inhabit, some of which 
 are so vile that they are constantly threatened by the 
 Board of Health. The sole reason for the exorbitant 
 rents exacted is the artificial enhancement of land values, 
 made possible only by withholding from use the idle land 
 and putting it beyond the reach of labor. It is so much 
 opportunity for self employment subtracted from the 
 sum which would be more than enough for all. 
 
 Suppose two-thirds of the supply of flour in Boston 
 were locked up for speculative purposes, in order to in- 
 crease the price of the one-third on sale. How soon this 
 "corner "in an essential article of food would be de- 
 nounced! But its baneful effect would not be compara- 
 ble to the constantly existing corner in land which 
 exists in every centre of population. The artificial 
 scarcity of flour would at once cause thousands of bar- 
 rels to rush in and fill the vacuum. But land cannot 
 rush in to break the land monopoly. It is a fixed quan- 
 tity, and speculators can hold it with an iron grasp with 
 assured confidence. 
 
 402 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Given a paradise of a world, with superabundance 
 of opportunity for all the people that should ever in- 
 habit it, but retain the system of land ownership, the 
 permission for the few to monopolize its surface, and 
 ■compel men to pay for the privilege of living on the 
 planet, and it would need no prophet to foretell that in 
 a certain period, when the earth was privately owned, 
 •enforced poverty, with its attendant crime and misery, 
 intemperance and prostitution, must follow as the day 
 the night. If light and air could be as easily appro- 
 priated and sold as land, it would be done with equal 
 justice. 
 
 Insufficient wages is another mighty factor in the 
 social purity problem. Between the wages of sin and 
 the wages of the sweat shop, the simple wonder is that 
 so many women in need can hold to lives of chastity. 
 In Baltimore, recently, Mrs. Charlton Edholm, of Chi- 
 cago, a missionary for the rescue of fallen women, at- 
 tending the Purity Congress, went with others to visit 
 ■disreputable houses, and pray and sing to the inmates. 
 In one a girl of eighteen said : "I know you mean well 
 by coming here, but I don't know how much good it 
 will do. Instead of coming here you had better go 
 around to some of these factories and shops that grind a 
 poor girl down to $2 a week, and get them to pay better 
 'wages. It's no use; a girl can't live on what she gets. 
 You had better put in your efforts there. " At another 
 place Mrs. Edholm urged one of the inmates to leave 
 the place. ' ' I would like to, " she said, ' ' but I cannot. 
 I have two children that I have to support and pay for 
 their schooling. One is eleven and the other thirteen. 
 They are not in this city. My children are the purest, 
 sweetest things on earth. I wouldn't have them 
 know about me for the world. I want to leave this 
 life, but I cannot. You don't know how it is." 
 
 Ask yourselves what makes wages so low that 
 women are forced to lives of shame? Lack of employ- 
 ment, you say. Why should there be a lack of employ- 
 
 403 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ment in this country of superabundance? Is not all 
 wealth evolved from land by the application of labor, 
 not alone by agriculture but by trade, manufactures and 
 production of all kinds, every one of which is dependent 
 upon access to land? If, therefore, employment is, 
 scarce, it implies a scarcity of productive land, for 
 where such land is plenty and accessible, there never 
 has been and can never be enforced idleness. Until all 
 the desirable land of a new country passes into private 
 ownership, such a thing a^ complaint of lack of work is 
 never heard. The sole complaint is lack of workers. 
 
 This great and favored country is as yet a virgin 
 territory, its resources barely touched. It is ready to 
 respond lavishly to labor. It holds in its broad bosom 
 wealth ample to support in comfort and luxury many 
 times the present population. Yet we are here to dis- 
 cuss evils arising out of overcrowding and idleness en- 
 forced. Is it not pitiful? 
 
 O friends, look beneath the surface, and find the 
 real enemy which you are only fighting in its deceptive 
 and protean forms. Its essence is land monopoly. 
 
 Then waste no time on lesser foes 
 
 In strife unworthy freemen, 
 God lifts to-day the veil, and shows 
 
 The features of the demon . 
 
 At each end of the social scale your greatest diffi- 
 culties exist. I have dwelt upon the end of poverty, 
 and desire to affirm that the end which is typified by 
 bloated wealth is likewise a nursery of impurity. Who, 
 can compute the numberless maidens sacrificed annually 
 to the market sustained by profligate and gilded patron- 
 age? Excess of wealth implies luxurious pleasures and 
 vices, schemes to kill time, to banish ennui, to invent 
 new sensations of bodily excitement. Here extremes 
 
 meet. 
 
 Strange dance ! 'Tis free to Rank and Rags ; 
 
 Here no distinction matters; 
 Here Riches shakes its money bags, 
 
 And Poverty its tatters. 
 
 404 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 From the ranks of want come the sacrifices that 
 -wealth demands. The human soul is in the market, 
 and for sale with the body. 
 
 How comes this excessive opulence in few and 
 dangerous hands' Trace any of the well known for- 
 tunes of this country or Great Britain, and you will 
 find that their genesis is in the monopoly of land, or 
 some special and unjust privilege. Land ownership 
 is simply the power of excluding those who must use 
 the earth, except on terms that enrich him who ren- 
 ders no service, at the expense of him who renders 
 it all. 
 
 To nie the land reform seems most reasonable and 
 fundamental, and I beseech the friends of purity to 
 consider it, if they would put this reform upon a 
 practical and effective basis. 
 
 In the establishment of the single tax, to repeat 
 the words of Wendell Phillips, "nine hundred and 
 ninety-nine out of every thousand women will disdain 
 to debase themselves for dress and ease," and he 
 might have added "for necessity," because under jus- 
 tice such necessity cannot exist. 
 
 405 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 REV. WM. N. MCVICAR, D. D. 
 
 PRESIDENT PHILADELPHIA SOCIAL PURITY ALLIANCE. 
 
 LETTER ON PAGE 8. 
 
 406 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 PUBLIC BATHS AND PUBLIC COMFORT 
 
 STATIONS AS RELATED TO PUBLIC 
 
 MORALS. 
 
 By Wm. H. Tolman, Ph.D. 
 
 The Brooklyn Bridge was built in theory hundreds 
 of years ago, but only in our day has its roadway been 
 one important means of transportation between the two 
 cities. Likewise in the realm of morals, theories have 
 been promulgated all through the ages and some have 
 been realized in fact, because founded on the bedrock 
 of righteousness. The problem of the next century 
 will be that of the city, because the gregarious or social 
 instinct is strong. The city is therefore a storm centre, 
 and heated winds of passion, vice and crime are sweep- 
 ing in with cyclonic fury, leaving behind a track of ruin 
 and desolation. 
 
 The wisest work to-day is performed by those who 
 are studying the causes of social diseases with the same ■ 
 microscopic and scientific care that is used by the physi-' 
 cist in his laboratory, or the physician in his clinic. The 
 more causes are studied, the more pointedly is the con- 
 clusion driven home that .there is no one solution for the 
 vexed and vexing problems of the day. As a corollary 
 to this proposition, no one problem can be decided in- 
 dividually, it must be viewed in connection with all the 
 others. Social problems are to be solved by a recogni- 
 tion of the conscience, the physiology and the mentality 
 of each individual. If humanity could be tied up in 
 bundles like asparagus, the task of dealing with these 
 problems would be easier, but there is a vast amount of 
 humanity in each personality. 
 
 The theorists in Social Purity have been hard at 
 work, but I believe the time is now ready for determin- 
 
 407 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ing the location, building the piers and stretching the 
 cables of one bridge, which shall afford an escape from 
 a menaced immorality, with its attendant conse- 
 quences. 
 
 The matter of public baths is only now receiving 
 the attention of our American cities. The Continental 
 cities are centuries in advance of us, and were the 
 baths of Europe closed I believe a revolution would 
 follow. 
 
 In the selection of your home one of the first rooms 
 to receive your careful attention is the bathroom. You 
 must have those conveniences. The need of a bath for 
 comfort and cleanliness is axiomatic. East of the Bow- 
 ery and south of Fourteenth street is a population of 
 half a million, for the most part those who live in the 
 tenements. Two hundred and fifty-five thousand of 
 this number came under the personal investigation of 
 the Tenement House Committee of 1894 and it was as- 
 certained that out of the number only 306 have access to 
 bathrooms in houses in which they live ! But, you say, 
 they can get a bath at some other place. On general 
 principles if you want a bath you desire it with a certain 
 degree of regularity, and within walking distance of five 
 or six rooms at the outside. 
 
 If a man, woman or child living in the district above 
 wants a bath and cannot get it at the home they must go 
 to the Baron de Hirsch baths, Market and Henry streets ; 
 The People's Baths, 9 Centre Market Place, under the 
 care of the Association for Improving the Condition of the 
 Poor; the Demilt Dispensary, Twenty-third street and 
 Second avenue ; the Cathedral Mission, Stanton street, 
 or the Riverside Association, West Sixty-fifth street. 
 In thousands of cases, to avail oneself of these facilities, 
 a loss of time is involved, and the expense of car fare 
 is a deterrent force, particularly if the family is taken. 
 Surely the city of New York, the Empire City of 
 America, provides public baths for its inhabitants. 
 With the exception of the floating baths in Summer, 
 
 408 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY COKGRESS. 
 
 WILLIAM H. TOLMAN, PH.D. 
 
 409 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 there is not a single public bath provided for New 
 York, although it must be stated that his Honor, Mayor 
 Strong, recognizing the necessity and the duty of such 
 provisions, has appointed a Mayor's committee of three, 
 to take the whole matter under advisement. 
 
 There is not a single city in America which makes 
 suitable provisions for public baths and there are scores 
 of cities which make absolutely no provision. The 
 Continental cities provide them as a matter of course. 
 In 1894 the Committee of Seventy felt that it would 
 be recreant to its ante-election pledges if it failed to 
 realize them. Accordingly, sub-committees were ap- 
 pointed to take under advisement the platform pledges 
 regarding baths and lavatories. ' ' We favor the estab- 
 lishment of adequate public baths and lavatories for 
 the promotion of cleanliness and increased public com- 
 fort at appropriate places throughout the city," was one 
 plank in their platform. 
 
 The Committee were obliged to work up these 
 subjects from the beginning, as nothing has been done 
 in this line. A preliminary report was made to the 
 Committee of Seventy early in 1895. When the Com- 
 mittee of Seventy came to an end in June, 1895, the 
 existence of the sub-committees likewise terminated. A 
 unique but complimentary step was taken by Mayor 
 Strong, in recognition of the public spirit and practical 
 work of this sub-committee, by appointing them in July 
 a Mayor's Committee on Public Baths and Public Cons- 
 fort Stations. Plans for a public bath have been ac- 
 cepted by the Board of Health. Its cost, including the 
 lot, will be in the neighborhood of $150,000. It will be 
 located in the vicinity of Tompkins Square, a densely 
 populated neighborhood. It will have accommodations 
 daily for 2,500 bathers. This bath house will be the 
 first of a series of seven, located in the congested parts 
 of the city. In connection with the bath should be a 
 wash house, where the laundry work of the family may 
 be done away from the narrow limits of tenement house 
 
 410 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 home. It is calculated that one hour will suffice for the 
 laundry of a family of five. The charge increases for 
 each additional hour for the sake of discouraging pro- 
 fessional laundresses from using the wash house. 
 The following are the recommendations: 
 1. That the spray or rain water system of baths be 
 adopted, because, primarily, there is no waste of water; 
 and, in the second place, the cost of erection is very 
 moderate ; and lastly, it is characterized by cleanliness 
 and simplicity. 
 
 3. Bath houses at a moderate cost should be erected 
 in close proximity to those requiring them, rather than 
 the erection of two or three great bathing institutions 
 costing large sums of money. 
 
 3. That the bath houses should contain proper and 
 requisite divisions for the use of the cleanly and those not 
 clean; and that each should contain some system for 
 fumigating clothes when necessary. 
 
 4. That such public schools, where it may be practi- 
 cable, should be equipped in the basement with baths 
 similar to those in the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian 
 Asylum, with requisite divisions for women. This can 
 be done at a very small outlay, because the boilers al- 
 ready in use for heating the building will usually suffice 
 to heat the water for an 800-gallon tank. These baths 
 could be used by the women during the school hours 
 and by the school children after school hours and on 
 Saturdays, and would in no way interfere with the use- 
 fulness of the school buildings. 
 
 5. That the following six sites for public baths be 
 chosen : 
 
 a. The vicinity of Washington and Carlisle streets. 
 
 b. The vicinity of Chatham Square. 
 
 c. The vicinity of Essex Market. 
 
 d. The vicinity of Tompkins Square. 
 
 e. The vicinity of 58th street and 11th avenue. 
 /. The vicinity of 110th street and 3nd avenue. 
 
 411 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 This number of houses will give bathing facilities 
 for hot water baths for at least 15,000 people daily. 
 
 6. That in the tenement house districts public wash 
 houses be opened in connection with the baths, thereby 
 relieving many homes of one and two rooms of the un- 
 healthy conditions of laundry work. 
 
 By a public comfort station is meant the conven- 
 ience of a public water closet or urinal. The best types 
 are the underground lavatories, as they are called, al- 
 though it should be stated that, the lavatory really is 
 the provision of towels and soap for washing the hands 
 or face. Attendants keep the conveniences scrupulously 
 clean, and fees nearly defray the operating expenses. 
 The English and the Continental cities provide these 
 public comfort stations as a matter of course, and are 
 increasing the number. The same need exists in New 
 York as in other cities. What provision is made by the 
 metropolitan city of America for these conveniences? 
 Outside of the parks there is not a single public comfort 
 station, and those in the parks are totally inadequate and 
 unsanitary. 
 
 Health Department, Boston, 
 March 5, 1894. 
 
 I have to say that we have twenty-one public 
 urinals. 
 
 Department of Public Safety, Philadelphia, 
 
 February 17, 1894. 
 Regarding the number of public comfort stations in 
 Philadelphia, I beg to report : There are comfort stations 
 in each of the following squares: Independence, Frank- 
 lin, Washington, Penn, Treaty and Norris, with accom- 
 modations for five or six persons at a time. The largest 
 public retreat is at the City Hall. 
 
 Department of Public Works, Chicago, 
 February 17, 1894. 
 I have to inform you that the city of Chicago has 
 no public urinals or water closets. 
 
 412 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Mayor's Office, St. Louis, 
 November 3, 1894. 
 Dear Sir: — St. Louis has no public lavatories on 
 tbe street nor elsewhere except in the parks where the 
 Park Commissioner provides them. 
 
 Department of City Works, 
 Bureau of Local Improvements, Brooklyn, 
 November 21, 1894. 
 The city has no water closets, urinals or lavatories 
 for the public use except in the parks. 
 
 Surveyor's Department, City of Birmingham, 
 
 February 13, 1894. 
 
 The total number of urinals in the city is 96 and 
 the number of stalls therein is 437. Seventy-eight of 
 such urinals are cleansed once each day by hand, by 
 water delivered through a flexible hose, and by scrub- 
 bing with bass brooms. Fourteen urinals in class 2 are 
 flushed on face of divisions during the Summer season 
 by "means of a continuous water supply between the 
 hours of 6 A. M. and 11 P. M. Four urinals in class 3 
 are flushed by automatic delivery at intervals of forty- 
 five minutes, night and day. 
 
 The annual cost of maintenance for each stall, in- 
 cluding gas, water, cleansing and painting, is as under : 
 
 Class 1, £\ 2 10. Class 2, £\ 7 8. Class 3, £>l 5 10. 
 
 Liverpool, January 1, 1894. 
 
 The City Engineer concludes that public conven- 
 iences are referred to. There are 222 public urinals in 
 the city of Liverpool, with an aggregate number of 595 
 stalls. There are also three public water closets, and 
 these are provided in every case with an attendant. 
 Just recently three underground conveniences, and a 
 sum of £2>,h00 has been included in the estimates for 
 the current year for this purpose. 
 
 A few public conveniences are supplied by the De- 
 partment of Public Parks, but in order to ascertain the 
 
 413 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 approximate number the report of the Board of Excise 
 must be consulted, with this caution, that the numbers 
 as there furnished are the result of private enterprise, 
 and are not made possible by the public authorities. 
 From the report of the Board of Excise for the fiscal 
 year ending April 30, 1894, there were licensed 6,710 
 saloons for the sale of strong and spirituous liquors, and 
 537 saloons for the sale of ale and beer only, a total of 
 7,247. That is the approximate number of water closets 
 or urinals. In other words, what the city fails to pro- 
 vide for the convenience of its citizens the saloonist sup- 
 plies. This is done as a matter of business in order to 
 attract customers, for the liquor offered for sale is the 
 least attraction of the modern saloon. The lavatory 
 accommodations are as ample and as clean as it is possi- 
 ble for them to be built, and many of them will com- 
 pare very favorably with those in the finest appointed 
 hotels. With a knowledge of these facts it is no sur- 
 prise that the saloon is a power in politics, and de- 
 servedly so, because it provides for the welfare of a large 
 part of the community, and common decency will lead 
 a man to recognize in some way the man or the institu- 
 tion that does him a good turn. The saloonist, however, 
 recoups himself for his outlay in the increasing number 
 of patrons who frequent the place for the lavatory 
 accommodations solely, but in addition patronize the 
 bar, because large numbers of men have a feeling of 
 sneaking meanness in the thought of getting something 
 for nothing, hence a glass of beer, or whiskey, as the 
 •case may be, is bought. Illustrating this point by a 
 concrete case, from a letter received January, 1894: 
 
 "Being by no means an abstainer or temperance 
 man, but rather one of that vast crowd who do not drink 
 because of the want of the stimulant, but will not say no 
 when in company or at table, these people would, per- 
 haps, never enter a saloon from one end of the week to 
 the other, were it not for a factor far more powerful 
 than the average of good intentions, namely, ' nature's 
 
 414 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 demand, ' which will and must be recognized by all. In 
 this great city of ours we no doubt lack good govern- 
 ment, rapid transit, and who knows what all; but we 
 certainly do need public closets as much as we need 
 food and air. The writer knows, from personal experi- 
 ence, that the first glass of liquor, drank for no other 
 reason but simply as a means of compensating the 
 saloonkeeper for the use of his closet, has been the 
 direct cause of subsequent humiliation and misery, not 
 to mention the expenditure of money which would have 
 done much good elsewhere." 
 
 There is, therefore, no reason why the municipality 
 should not make ample provisions for water closets, 
 particularly in the tenement house district. This is a 
 matter which should be brought to the attention of 
 thoughtful people, in order that the action of such 
 legitimate demands should be backed up by such an 
 impact of public opinion in its favor, that the question 
 should be not "when," but "how and where." 
 
 What, accordingly, are the conveniences of water 
 closets and urinals in the tenement house district, where 
 there is the greatest density of population? From a 
 recent study made by the Church Temperance Society, 
 in forty-seven blocks in Houston, Stanton, Rivington, 
 Delancey and Broome streets, 55,357 persons lived in 
 5S9 houses. According to a recent sanitary census 
 the tenement house population is eighty-seven per cent, 
 of the district. In these forty-seven blocks, 213 families 
 lived in homes of one room, and 3,685 in homes of two 
 rooms. Of the total number of dwellers in the district 
 studied, 25,539 were children or young people. In this 
 district most of the houses are old-timers, and the sani- 
 tary accommodations correspond. In very few dwellings 
 are there water closets on each floor. The usual accom- 
 modations are a row of water closets in the courtyards 
 and a urinal in one corner. The conditions are again 
 complicated by the fact that the courtyard is also the pas- 
 sage way for the occupants of a rear tenement. Under 
 
 415 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 the very best conditions such arrangements are unsani- 
 tary, especially when used by ignorant or careless people. 
 But apart from any considerations like these, such, 
 accommodations are a constant obstacle to modesty and 
 refinement. All through the tenement house district 
 are shoals of children ; hence the more reason why the 
 community should interest itself in insisting that every 
 precaution conducive to morality and purity should be 
 taken in behalf of its growing citizenship. All through 
 this district the only conveniences are those provided by 
 the saloons. 
 
 If it be unquestioned that a lavatory offers a con- 
 venience which is demanded by the needs of the entire 
 body of the citizens, absolutely without exception, a 
 nineteenth century municipality is culpable in not itself 
 making suitable provisions for such accommodations, 
 and allowing a small part of the community to do so, 
 thereby deriving a revenue from the same, as is the case 
 of the saloonist. He exploits communal need for pri- 
 vate gain. 
 
 Regarding Public Comfort Stations, the Mayor's- 
 Committee recommends: 
 
 1. The duplication of the conveniences in the parks 
 and the enlargement of those already built. The en- 
 largement can be done at a comparatively small ex- 
 pense, as the extension of the plumbing will be a moder- 
 ate item. 
 
 3. The ample provision of conveniences for women 
 as well as for men, the former provision to be secured 
 by "ladies' chalets," that is, a convenience divided intO' 
 two parts — one for the sale of millinery or small notions, 
 and the other for the lavatory, the entrance of which 
 will be through the shop. 
 
 3. The opening of a sufficient number of under- 
 ground water closets at the entrance to the parks, for ex- 
 ample, at Fifty-ninth street and Eighth avenue and 
 Fifty-ninth street and Fifth avenue, and also near the 
 crowded thoroughfares, as Madison Square Park, Cooper 
 Union Park and Chatham Square. 
 
 416 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 4. The provision of a sufficient number of surface 
 water closets, in the front of which may be a barber 
 shop and bootblacking stands, with the lavatory in the 
 rear. 
 
 5. That all public buildings, as far as practicable, 
 which are the property of the city, should be provided 
 with lavatory accommodations on a generous scale, for 
 the use of the public. 
 
 Regarding both baths and public comfort stations, 
 the Committee would recommend : 
 
 1. That a certain part of each bath and convenience 
 should be free, in order that necessitous cases may be 
 relieved ; for the remaining part, a fee should be charged, 
 which sum will contribute towards the operating ex- 
 penses, and will enable the patrons of the establishment 
 to retain their self respect. 
 
 2. That the baths and water closets shall be in 
 charge of a sufficient number of paid attendants. 
 
 3. That the baths and water closets should be under 
 the jurisdiction of the Health Department, under a de- 
 partment to be known as the Bureau of Public Comfort. 
 
 The new social spirit is not commercial, but is 
 humanistic, believing that the claims of life precede 
 those of property. The city is the civic home of all its 
 inhabitants, and you should not rest content till New 
 York City affords the essentials of a well ordered home 
 to all the component parts of its citizenship. If the 
 city homes are so small that some of the essentials can- 
 not be there provided, they must be furnished outside. 
 Two of the essentials are public baths and public com- 
 fort stations, which should not be furnished free, but 
 should be paid for by those who use them. 
 
 The Mayor's Committee is devoting thought and 
 energy to providing the city with these two essentials of 
 right living, and it looks to you for that co-operation 
 which will form part of an enlightened public opinion 
 demanding these provisions immediately and in sufficient 
 numbers. 
 
 417 
 
 k k 
 
 u 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 DEMORALIZING LITERATURE.* 
 
 By Anthony Comstock. 
 
 For every effect there is first a cause. Before each 
 harvest a seed sowing or planting. 
 
 The carnage of battle makes the ambulance corps a 
 necessity. The ravages of intemperance makes impera- 
 tive the efforts of temperance reforms. Hospitals and 
 asylums are forced into existence by the inroads of dis- 
 ease, virounds and physical pain upon the human race. 
 The degradation of men and women has called into ex- 
 istence Rescue Bands, Magdalen Homes, Midnight Mis- 
 sions, Christian League Industrial Clubs and the Ameri- 
 can Purity Alliance. 
 
 In like manner the systematic corruption ot the 
 youth of this nation by means of demoralizing publica- 
 tions and articles for immoral use has made absolutely 
 necessary the work of the New York Society for the 
 Suppression of Vice, which society I have the honor to 
 represent here this afternoon. 
 
 The scattering over the land of a corrupt literature, 
 in thousands and millions of instances, has been the 
 seed sowing from which has come the harvest of crime, 
 squalor, misery and death which this Alliance is consid- 
 ering to-day. 
 
 An army in the field of active service is divided 
 into departments, divisions, corps, brigades, regiments, 
 companies, squads and details. Each soldier has an in- 
 dividual assignment either in the ranks or on detail ser- 
 vice. 
 
 * Abstract of a Paper read at the New York American Purity Alliance 
 Conference. 
 
 418 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ANTHONY COMSTOCK. 
 
 419 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 All march under one leader and fight for one object. 
 Upon the march the advance guard, pioneers, sappers 
 or miners go in advance, the rear , guard and ambulance 
 corps follow behind. 
 
 The American Purity Alliance to-day combines the 
 advance guard, pioneer and ambulance corps. The 
 latter in the army cares for the wounded and dying. 
 So the Magdalei;! Homes, Rescue Bands, Midnight Mis- 
 sions, Christian League Industrial Clubs and kindred or- 
 ganizations — the ambulance corps of the American 
 Purity Alliance — are seeking to rescue and save those 
 who have been wounded and degraded. They are deal- 
 ing with the effects of the devil's seed sowing of intem- 
 perance and demoralizing books and pictures. 
 
 The Society for the Suppression of Vice and that 
 noble band of White Ribbon women — the National 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union — represent a 
 work similar to the advance guard and the pioneer or 
 sappers and miners corps of the army. We are locating 
 worse than masked batteries, sunken mines and ambus- 
 cades. We are contending against dangers and foes 
 worse, a thousand fold worse, than any foe that simply 
 destroys life or blows the body into fragments. We are 
 assailing foes more to be dreaded and shunned than any 
 contagion that ever arose from sewer pipe or stagnant 
 pool. We are camped upon the trail of an insidious and 
 deadly foe ; one that not only wrecks the physical but 
 infects the moral nature, opening the door to spiritual 
 degradation and death. Corrupt publications are pesti- 
 lential blasts from the infernal region that wither and 
 sere holy aspirations in the soul. They are precursors 
 of evil, and only evil. They are practically the devil's 
 kindling wood with which he lights the fires of remorse- 
 less hell in the soul. 
 
 Once admitted into the chamber of imagery in the 
 heart of the child— into memory's storehouse — they are 
 employed by imagination and fancy, the re-imaging 
 faculties of the mind, as material from which seductive 
 
 420 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS 
 
 entertainment is furnished to lure the soul away from 
 God. The mind runs riot with sin. Once the re-imag- 
 ing faculties of the mind are linked to the sensual na- 
 ture by an unclean thought the forces for evil are set in 
 motion which rend assunder every safeguard to virtue 
 ■and truth. 
 
 A perpetual assault is made upon the citadel of 
 thought. Secret hours are spent dreaming over the 
 story of vice and crime. The receptive mind of youth 
 ■drinks in sensational, foul and criminal story with an 
 avidity that is fearful to contemplate. 
 
 To those who have seen the results of these worse 
 than the sting of asps, no surprise is felt, when in 
 after years is heard the moan of the aged person pray- 
 ing to be delivered from the sins of his youth. 
 
 The degrading of the youth of this nation by the 
 ■sickening details of loathsome crimes, the horrors of 
 blood and thunder stories, the dime and half dime novel 
 and paper, and the foul oozings of defiled minds in many 
 •of the weekly papers, to say nothing of the nameless 
 books and papers, is one of the highest crimes that can 
 be committed against the future of this nation. 
 
 These brutal assaults upon the native innocence of 
 youth and children is laying burdens upon the rising 
 generation which will be grevious to their future wel- 
 fare and heavy to be borne. 
 
 Alas ! that the greed for gain should turn the mighty 
 press of this land into engines of corruption. The de- 
 grading of our youth is a crying evil to day. It is a 
 seed sowing from which brothels, dives, prisons, peni- 
 tentiaries, asylums and early graves are fast being re- 
 cruited. 
 
 The report of the New York Society for the Sup- 
 pression of Vice, which is about completed for 1895, 
 while it shows gratifying results shows also cause for 
 alarm. 
 
 The matters destroyed are one thing. But the mat- 
 ters which are to-day at large (worse than ravenous 
 
 421 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 beasts or poisonous serpents), prowling about the coun- 
 try and trailing their slimy and venomous form among 
 the youth in our institutions of learning, is an entirely 
 different thing. 
 
 That report contains the arrest of 3,044 persons, 
 and the seizure of 63,139 pounds of books, 27,424 pounds 
 of stereotype plates for printing books, 836,096 obscene 
 pictures and 5,895 negatives for making the same. 
 Also 96,680 articles for immoral use, 1,577,441 circu- 
 lars, catalogues, songs and leaflets, 32, 883 newspapers, 
 1,102,620 names and post office addresses seized in handa 
 of dealers to which circulars were being sent. 
 
 422 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 423 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 EQUAL SUFFRAGE VS. PROSTITUTION.* 
 
 By Henry B. Blackwell. 
 
 Among the underlying causes of prostitution and 
 of the double standard of morals for men and women 
 out of which prostitution grows, the political disfran- 
 chisement of women is the greatest of all. The only- 
 cure for the social evil is by developing self reliance and 
 self respect among women, and respect for women 
 among men. But so long as a woman's opinion is not 
 considered worth counting in the great consensus of 
 public opinion, the annual election, so long men will 
 hold an exaggerated estimate of their own superiority, 
 and a contempt for the personality of women; while 
 women themselves will be depreciated in their own esti- 
 mation. A bright, intelligent woman said to me re- 
 cently: "There never was a woman who would not 
 prefer to be a man, and never a man who would prefer 
 to be a woman." If that be so, it is because women 
 have not a fair chance under existing social conditions. 
 
 Prostitution is the direct result of the exclusion of 
 women from public affairs. Nine-tenths of the outcast 
 women, we are assured, were corrupted and ruined by 
 some man before they reached the age of mental ma- 
 turity. In no single case have these men ever been 
 punished for their crime, while their partner in guilt 
 has been branded with lifelong infamy. Year after year 
 the suffragists have petitioned their State Legislatures 
 to raise the age of consent, as it is called — ^the age of 
 protection, as it should be called, so that no girl shall be 
 capable of giving her legal consent to her own degrada- 
 tion until she is capable of contracting to buy or sell 
 
 * A Paper read at the Boston American Purity Alliance Conference. 
 
 424 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS, 
 
 property or to make any other legal contract. That 
 age, in the case alike of men and women, is twenty-one 
 years. If any man having improper relations with a 
 girl not yet of age were, by our statutes, liable to the 
 penalty of rape, that single act of legislation, properly 
 enforced, would almost put an end to prostitution, and 
 would encourage honorable marriage. But it is almost 
 hopeless to secure such legislation by the votes of men 
 alone. 
 
 Next in importance as a cure for prostitution to the 
 establishment of legal majority, twenty-one years, as 
 the limit of the age of protection, is the suppression of 
 the dram shops. These establishments are potent 
 allies to sexual vice. They stimulate the passions of 
 men ; they separate men from the society of respectable 
 and self respecting women. But without the united 
 votes of women and men the dram shops cannot be sup- 
 pressed, and if drinking is to be, as the Boston Herald 
 asserted editorially last week, the permanent habit of so- 
 ciety, then we should adopt the German custom of hav- 
 ing the women and children go with the men to the beer 
 gardens and drink with them. To separate the sexes in 
 their social habits — to give the men a monopoly of 
 drinking and smoking, while making these enjoyments 
 discreditable in the case of women — is a violation of the 
 law of nature which decrees that "it is not good for 
 man to be alone. " But woman suffrage will be not only 
 a preventive of sexual vice, it will be its cure. By 
 arousing women to self respect and a public duty, it will 
 organize women as a class for self protection. Sexual 
 vice is the deadliest foe of the home. The outcast 
 woman is a direct menace to the virtuous woman as 
 maiden, as wife and as mother. "Women, when once 
 accustomed to exercise the rights and duties of citizen- 
 ship, will unite, in every town and in every ward of a 
 city, to reform, to protect, to redeem fallen women. 
 
 Women as voters will put an end to the useless and 
 cruel raids of the police, who spasmodically arrest and 
 
 425 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 make public, and degrade unfortunate women, often 
 without any evidence of criminality, while they conceal 
 and exempt from arrest and punishment the male asso- 
 ciates of these women. When good women, who are 
 more than ninety-five per cfent. of their sex, become 
 aware that God has made them responsible for their frail 
 and erring sisters, they will find means of giving every 
 woman an opportunity of living an honorable and re- 
 spected life. In short, suffrage will mean for women 
 precisely what it has meant for men. It will give 
 women position, power, freedom, incentive, opportu- 
 nity. It will open to them all useful and lucrative em- 
 ployments. It will remove from them the temptations 
 to mercenary marriages, which are the source of so 
 much lifelong misery to all concerned. It will give men 
 added respect for women, since power always commands 
 respect. As Col. Higginson has well said, it will mean 
 for women as a sex, self respect and self protection. 
 
 If I did not know from the political experience of 
 the human race the value of equal suffrage to every 
 class that has attained it, and resultant benefit to society 
 which has always followed every extension of political 
 power, I should despair of the Republic. The great 
 twin evils of licentiousness and intemperance can never 
 be extirpated by a political society of men alone. One 
 part of the woman's work in politics will be the extirpa- 
 tion of these curses. 
 
 426 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 PROTECTION FOR YOUNG WOMEN IN STORES, 
 FACTORIES, AND OTHER PLACES 
 OF BUSINESS.* 
 
 By Isaac H. Clothier, Philadelphia. 
 
 Because I have been an employer on a considerable 
 scale, of both men and women, for over a quarter of a 
 century, I have been asked to present some views to 
 this Conference regarding practical measures looking 
 toward increased safety for young women employed in 
 large mercantile and manufacturing establishments and 
 in other exposed business positions. 
 
 That my experience has been almost exclusively of 
 an administrative and executive character, and not in 
 the line of addressing public assemblies, is, perhaps, 
 the very reason I have been asked to treat the practical 
 subject which has been assigned me. 
 
 Let me preface the expression of the few thoughts 
 I have to offer on the present occasion, by frankly ad- 
 mitting that I have heretofore shared the general feel- 
 ing, that the less said on such a delicate subject as the 
 relation of the sexes the better. 
 
 It has been generally assumed that because of the 
 nature of the subject it should be avoided, and not even 
 mentioned in mixed assemblies of men and women, on 
 the ground that there was danger therein, and that true 
 manliness and womanliness held themselves above the 
 suspicion of dwelHng in thought on such subjects, or 
 on any subject unworthy of the true manly and true 
 womanly nature. 
 
 The whole matter is admittedly one of great deH- 
 cacy, and most difficult to deal with satisfactorily. So 
 delicate is it that those who have been first stirred t& 
 
 * A Paper read at the Philadelphia American Purity Alliance Conference. 
 427 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 call attention to the subject have sometimes been char- 
 terized by most worthy people as morbid or unhealthy 
 in their imaginings or oversensitive in their feelings. 
 While the extent of the evil is conceded, it has been be- 
 lieved that there was more or less danger in discussing 
 impurity or social evils, and the good to be secured 
 would not offset the demoralization incurred by dealing 
 openly with such unsavory themes. Sharing this view 
 heretofore and measurably now, I have been led to be- 
 lieve that it is in some respects erroneous, and that the 
 great and terrible evil of impurity stalks abroad in this 
 professedly Christian land, secretly revelling in the fact 
 of its security, partly because Christian men and women, 
 whose skirts individually are clean, hesitate to discuss 
 and denounce it, because of the peculiar character of its 
 wickedness and wantonness. 
 
 For the reason that it is a delicate subject, it would 
 seem to be all the more obligatory that it be met as its 
 nature and importance demand, and especially with 
 regard to its far reaching consequences. But it should 
 be constantly remembered that the whole matter needs 
 to be treated with the greatest care, delicacy and tact, 
 without undue zeal or unnecessary expression. The 
 Purity Congress of Baltimore, the proceedings of which 
 I read with interest, has led in the movement toward 
 awakening and influencing the public mind on this im- 
 portant subject, and in arousing the sleeping consciences 
 of the men and women of the nation to their deficien- 
 cies, in thus practically ignoring a subject which is one 
 of the most important that this age has before it for con- 
 sideration, and which cannot be ignored without danger 
 to the community and to future generations. And the 
 poison does not descend only, but must inevitably widen 
 on either side, corrupting the community in ever in- 
 creasing measure, unless the fierce light of public 
 reprobation is turned upon it. 
 
 Believing as I do that the work indicated by the 
 Baltimore Congress should grow and increase with wide 
 
 428 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 and beneficent effect, I felt willing to aid, in ever so 
 small a measure, by complying with the request made of 
 me, not because I have any specially practical measures 
 to recommend to my brother merchants, whose ranks I 
 have only just left, but that as one of them for almost a 
 generation I have at least the right to commend the 
 subject to their considerate judgment. While I trust I 
 have been interested in all measures tending to the gen- 
 eral comfort and well being of employees, both men 
 and women — and for the latter more than the former, 
 because of their greater need — I cannot claim to have 
 given this particular subject the close personal attention 
 which its nature and importance demand, nor to have 
 had, during the years of close absorption in business 
 cares and responsibilities, the real concern which should 
 have led me to adopt every safeguard which could pos- 
 sibly be adopted to further the object desired. The firm 
 of which I was an active member up to the beginning 
 of the present year, employed, perhaps, a thousand 
 women in the various capacities of saleswomen, cash- 
 iers, typewriters, sewing women, etc., etc., and an 
 approximate number of men. It has always been our 
 aim to employ the better class of young women rather 
 than those which could be had at the lowest rate of 
 wages, believing it to be good business policy to possess 
 service of the best and most intelligent character. It is 
 believed that success attended our efforts in this respect, 
 and one reason therefor, and for the comparatively high 
 morale of the force, is the fact that the engagement of 
 the help has always been done either by a member of 
 the firm, or by those in whom we had the fullest con- 
 fidence as respects moral character and their treatment 
 of those with whom they were brought into contact, es- 
 pecially young women. There can be no doubt that 
 wrong has been done to young and innocent girls by 
 unprincipled men to whom has been entrusted the en- 
 gagement of the force of employees in large establish- 
 ments. By this I do not refer to actual or direct ruin, 
 
 429 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 "but to a loose and coarse disregard of the respect due 
 from all men to all women, and especially from those in 
 authority to young women forced by the pressure of 
 circumstances to place themselves in positions almost of 
 supplication and dependence, from which their natxires 
 often shrink, but which they are compelled to assume 
 in obedience to the necessity which knows no law. 
 From the rude stare, the coarse remark, the lewd joke, 
 perhaps the familiar and at first repulsive touch, they 
 have absolutely no appeal, except to throw up their 
 means of livelihood, and the first step is often thereby 
 quite involuntarily and unconsciously taken toward a 
 lowering of self respect, and of that fine instinct of 
 womanhood which more or less dwells in every woman, 
 and is at once the charm and preservation of the sex. 
 
 The great body of women who have succeeded 
 to an inheritance of purity and refinement, and who 
 from infancy have been tenderly matured and guarded 
 from every unworthy influence, can scarcely realize or 
 believe possible the conditions under which their less 
 fortunate sisters are forced to exist and battle for a bare 
 subsistence. With a natural feeling of horror they 
 would shrink from any treatment which in the slightest 
 savors of disrespect or familiarity, and even regard with 
 aversion those who had been subjected thereto, with the 
 belief, natural in their cases, that every woman should 
 be surrounded with an atmosphere of purity, which un- 
 consciously to herself preserves her from all contami- 
 nating influences, innocently, but surely repelling 
 the first intimation of familiarity. This we know, of 
 course, to be the case with the women with whom we 
 mingle in our daily lives. 
 
 I would here bear cordial testimony that the women 
 whom I have met on a business plane for many years, 
 the great body of employees of our house, were as re- 
 fined in feeling, as self-respecting, and as far above all 
 unworthy influences as any class of women in the com- 
 munity. And I would add that many of these women 
 
 43° 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 have personally exemplified in their characters and 
 lives the dignity, the strengthening effect, I might say 
 the refining influence of labor, which is God's great 
 boon alike to man and woman. 
 
 The community of women to whom I have referred 
 as lacking business experience and as being entire 
 strangers to many actual and sad phases of life, can 
 scarcely conceive the defencelessness of their young 
 sisters under circumstances such as I have briefly in- 
 dicated, in quest of employment, scarce because of the 
 over-demand, and therefore hard to obtain, and dis- 
 pensed sometimes by unprincipled men with little or no 
 respect for all that is fine and best in womanhood. 
 Under such harrowing circumstances, with actual ne- 
 cessity compelling them to remain and receive the 
 miserable pittance of wages which stands between them 
 and utter destitution, is it strange that the finer instincts 
 of many inexperienced girls are liable to become callous, 
 their tastes vitiated, and the way prepared in many 
 cases for absolute ruin ? That instances such as I have 
 referred to are comparatively rare is to be sincerely 
 hoped, but that they do exist can, I believe, be easily 
 attested. I have been assured on good authority that 
 an employment representative of a mercantile establish- 
 ment, when told by young girls that they could not 
 possibly exist on the small wages offered, was in the 
 habit of asking in reply whether they had not gentle- 
 men friends who would help, and that nothing was 
 easier than thus to have their wages amply enlarged. 
 
 For the sake of human nature let us trust that such 
 cases are rare, but while one such instance exists let us 
 not shut our eyes to the terrible possibilities involved. 
 What is needed, perhaps, is not so much to dwell on ex- 
 treme cases as to call the attention of employers and of 
 the great community which stands back of and influences 
 •employers, to the exposed condition of young women, 
 ■even under the most favorable circumstances, and to 
 urge them to adopt every measure that may be prac- 
 
 431 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 ticable for their protection, not alone from absolute ruin, 
 but from a deterioration of the moral sense and pure 
 womanly nature which low and coarse surroundings 
 inevitably induce. 
 
 I wish it were in my power to suggest some more 
 practical measures for increased protection. From the 
 nature of the case the suggestions must be general, not 
 specific. Let the employing agents be most carefully 
 selected, as well as all men in authority over young 
 women, and let it be well understood that any proven 
 breach of propriety or undue familiarity will be visited 
 by swift and ignominious discharge. Of course injustice 
 must never be done on the other side, but what is 
 needed is the prevalence of a moral sentiment crystal- 
 lized into law-upholding respect for womanhood, and 
 asserting that any familiarity is indeed the unpardonable 
 sin 
 
 In a city like Philadelphia, with the high per- 
 sonal character of its leading merchants, it is certain 
 that every reasonable precaution would be by them 
 most cordially approved and adopted if brought to their 
 attention. But the keen competition of the times and 
 the cares and responsibilities of business lead to every- 
 thing being placed upon a business basis, and, without 
 a pronounced and increasing public sentiment upon the 
 subject, it is not unlikely that the care and precautions 
 which should be adopted might be overlooked or post- 
 poned by the best-intentioned employer. I do not at 
 this time venture to suggest to those who are as well 
 informed as myself regarding the subject any other 
 practical measures of reform than those which will com- 
 mend themselves to every employer when the subject is 
 considered. I would however suggest that not only meas- 
 urably to remove temptation should reasonably good wages 
 be paid to young women, but that as a measure of sound 
 business policy it at least pays its way in the sure better- 
 ment of the service, an important step toward financial 
 success. But I would place the subject on higher ground. 
 
 432 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 I ask employers to consider their peculiar and solemn 
 responsibility toward these defenseless children entrust- 
 ed to their charge. In this age of wondrous strides in 
 material advancement shall not Christian enlightenment 
 prevail and increase, in humane methods of transacting 
 business and in the care of those who perform, each her 
 humble but important part of the service which animates 
 these great hives of human industry ? Perfected organ- 
 ization seems almost to have reached its limit. The 
 next step should certainly be the humane care and safety 
 of the force, especially those who need it most. And 
 public sentiment now being gradually awakened will 
 powerfully aid in the blessed consummation of this 
 Christian hope. 
 
 Since this paper was prepared I have been asked by 
 a leading woman and housekeeper of this city to intro- 
 duce into it that which is somewhat germane to the sub- 
 ject — a plea to young American women to engage in 
 household service instead of store or factory work. 
 
 I wish it were in my power to aid in so desirable a 
 consummation, and that a sentiment could be awakened 
 among the young women of the nation leading them to 
 seek positions where there is to-day so great a need for 
 intelligent service, where they would be safe from dan- 
 ger, where their surroundings might be elevating and 
 congenial, and their occupation not only unobjectionable 
 but desirable in every sense. There are tens of thous- 
 ands of comfortable homes scattered all over our land, 
 thousands of them refined and cultured homes, needing 
 intelligent, competent service, that tens of thousands of 
 young women could render with great reciprocal advan- 
 tage who are now overcrowding the labor market with 
 danger, discomfort, and almost starvation to themselves 
 and their competitors, in the fierce race for subsistence. 
 
 There is no more honorable or self-respecting ser- 
 vice than that of the household. The science of cookery 
 
 433 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 for instance, as taught to-day by the Drexel and other 
 kindred institutes, is as elevating in the acquirement 
 and practice as any other art or industry. The same 
 may be said of other duties of the household properly 
 performed. I know the reputation of the service suffers 
 from the ignorant and inferior character of too many of 
 those who have engaged therein. I know, too, the dif- 
 ficulties of the situation, and that the responsibility of 
 the present position lies not alone on one side. Em- 
 ployer as well as employed, mistress and maid alike 
 need to be educated to an appreciation of those difficul- 
 ties and the remedy. Let the character, dignity, and 
 independence of household service be recognized by 
 the housekeepers of the land, and then properly set be- 
 fore our young women, and a vast, new avenue of self- 
 respecting, useful, and well paid occupation lies before 
 them. 
 
 With some comparative knowledge of the subject 
 and distinct convictions thereon, I simply present the 
 matter and invoke in its behalf that enlightened public 
 sentiment which, once fully aroused, is all powerful. 
 
 434 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 r 
 
 c&M.^ ^^mf. ^-^ ^LiA.t' 
 
 435 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 LETTER FROM MRS. LAURA ORMISTON 
 CHANT. 
 
 Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant, who had recently ar- 
 rived in Boston from London, was invited to address 
 the Congress, but prevented by prior engagements. 
 The following letter was read by the President : 
 
 Boston, Mass., Oct. 11, 1895. 
 My Dear Mr. Powell: 
 
 I am indeed grieved that engagements here pre- 
 vent my being able to be present at the National Purity 
 Congress, in Baltimore. 
 
 There is tough work on hand in Massachusetts in 
 view of the referendum on municipal suffrage for 
 women, and I am glad to be able to help a little. If 
 only the comfortable women of the United States knew 
 how awful a shadow of legalized vice hangs over and 
 menaces the future of their country, they would compel 
 men to give them at least the same power of protecting 
 their sex against unequal and unholy legislation, as men 
 possess. 
 
 The right to express their convictions through the 
 orderly but effectual medium of the ballot may one day 
 be the only barrier between the women of America 
 and the supreme, unutterable degradation of continent- 
 al Europe. Anyhow registration for the vote on the 
 referendum ends on October 16th, and on that day I 
 start for Baltimore — only to miss the National Purity 
 Congress. I am, as I said, very sorry, but will do my 
 best to atone on the 18tb. Affectionate wishes for your 
 success. Yours sincerely, 
 
 L. Ormiston Chant. 
 
 436 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE CANADIAN LAW FOR THE PROTECTION 
 OF WOMEN AND GIRLS, WITH SUGGES- 
 TIONS FOR ITS AMENDMENT AND 
 FOR A GENERAL CODE. 
 
 By D. a. Watt. 
 
 What modicum of truth formerly pertained to the 
 ancient adage, that the ballads of a people were more 
 important factors in the formation of national character 
 than their laws,* has long ago ceased. The rule now is 
 that the public conscience is, for the most part, created 
 and maintained by statute law, and by scarcely anything 
 else. The slave trade may be quoted by way of illus- 
 tration. So long as that infamy remained a legal and 
 lucrative occupation, persons presumably reputable and 
 Christian engaged in it with the approval of the world 
 and even of the church, but so soon as it was stigma- 
 tized by law as felony, it speedily became odious. 
 Hence the importance of having laws which make for 
 righteousness, and not, actively or passively, for vice 
 and crime. 
 
 At the outset we may enquire what are the limits 
 within which the law may reasonably enforce righteous- 
 ness and protect rights, in connection with what is some- 
 what loosely termed social morality? As defined by the 
 late William Shaen, an eminent English jurist, these 
 are, at their minimum, (1) the protection of minors 
 absolutely; (3) the protection of majors from force or 
 fraud or falsehood, or intimidation of any kind; and (3) 
 the protection of the community from public scandal. 
 
 It goes without saying that the law should rebuke 
 the double standard of morals currently held, and should 
 
 *" Let me make the ballads, and who will may make the laws.' 
 
 437 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 deal impartially with all persons, be they men or women,, 
 rich or poor. 
 
 Legal provisions protecting the rights of women and 
 girls may be civil or criminal, either or both. In Canada 
 matters civil belong chiefly to the Provincial legislatures, 
 and matters criminal to the parliament of the Dominion. 
 
 THE CIVIL CODE OF QUEBEC. 
 
 The civil code of this Province is, in effect, the 
 Code Napoleon, amended from time to time by the 
 legislature, and subject to further amendment by the 
 same authority. In theory the rights of minors, 
 widows, and other dependent persons, are carefully 
 conserved by its provisions, but in practice we have 
 found much to be desired. Mr. Shaen's requirements 
 in substance are: (l) The father and the mother of a 
 child are jointly and respectively liable to each other, 
 to the child and to the State, for the suitable mainten- 
 ance and education of said child; (2) if the parents are 
 married they are jointly and severally guardians of such 
 child; (3) if the parents are not married the guardian- 
 ship remains with the mother alone ; (4) all minor chil- 
 dren without guardians (or having such are out of their 
 possession) are ipso facto wards of the State; (5) 
 breaches of trust, slanders, libels and such like, as well 
 as all crimes, to be subjects of a civil action for ex- 
 emplary damages in favor of the victim, as well as of 
 criminal indictment ; (6) to which I would add that 
 every child should be legitimate of its mother. 
 
 The code's estimate of the crime of adultery may 
 be judged from two of the articles dealing with causes 
 of action for " Separation de corps" (sic): 
 
 " 187. A husband may demand the separa- 
 tion on the ground of his wife's adultery. 
 
 "188. A wife may demand the separation 
 on the ground of her husband's adultery, if he 
 keeps his concubine in their common habita- 
 tion. " 
 
 438 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Legislation respecting marriage and divorce have, how- 
 ever, been reserved for the Dominion Parliament. 
 
 THE CRIMINAL CODE OF THE DOMINION. 
 
 The criminal law of the Dominion is the common 
 law added to and amended by British and Canad- 
 ian legislation and by "case" law, so called. The 
 statutory provisions have recently been gathered 
 together into one bill entitled " The Criminal Law Act 
 of 1893," and the references below are to the sections of 
 this enactment. The titles under which the crimes 
 under consideration have been grouped are — (1) Of- 
 fences against morals, and (2) against parental and con- 
 jugal jights; (3) Nuisances; (4) Vagrancy; (5) Assaults; 
 (6) Rape* and Abortion; (7) Bigamy, and (8) Abduction. 
 For convenience sake I range them under somewhat 
 different headings, confining myself within the limits 
 assigned to me, to wit, the protection of women, and 
 especially of girls. 
 
 Following Mr. Shaen's dicta more or less closely, it 
 IS assumed that the criminal law of all countries ought 
 to protect — 
 
 (1) minors from incitement to vice or immorality 
 absolutely, that is, the age of so called consent for both 
 sexesf should be the age of majority, whatever that may 
 be; and 
 
 * In respect of this crime Canada lias, for the first time, I believe, in British 
 legislation, enacted into statute law the revolting dictum that a husband may 
 force his wife without being punishable. Stephen is much less emphatic. He 
 says of England (Digest, 1894, p. 208) : " A husband, it is said, cannot commit a 
 rape upon his wife * * * (Hale P. C, 629). Hale's reason is that the wife's 
 consent at marriage is irrevocable. It may be doubted, however, whether the 
 consentisnot confined to the decent and proper use of marital rights. If a man 
 used violence to his wife under circumstances in which decency or her own health 
 or safety required or justified her refusing her consent, I think he might be con- 
 victed at least of an indecent assault." In Canada, however, a man may use vio- 
 lence upon his wife irrespective of her condition and of his, and may injure and 
 infect her and her unborn child, and be within his rights as here defined. In a re- 
 cent case in India a husband did to death his child wife, and was punished with 
 twelve months imprisonment. 
 
 + See Article 334 of the French Criminal Code, which reads as follows : 
 " Quinconque aura attent^ aux mceurs en excitant, favorisant, ou facilitant 
 habituellement, la d^bauche ou la corruption de la jeunesse de I'un ou de I'autre 
 sexe au-dessous de I'age vivgt-et-un ansy sera puni d'un enprisonnement de six 
 mois ^ deux ans, et d'une amende de cinquante francs ^ cinq cents francs." 
 
 439 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 (2) majors from such incitement by means of false- 
 hood or fraud or intimidation, of any kind; and 
 
 (3) majors and minors alike and especially, from 
 their relations, and from persons in authority over them, 
 or who are in positions of any form of trust or responsi- 
 bility towards them or towards the public ; and also 
 
 (4) from procurors or other infamous trafEcers in 
 vice, whether for the home trade or for exportation. 
 All these propositions are in general accord with the 
 laws respecting property. To this I would add a fifth : 
 
 (5) That the crime of adultery be constituted a fel- 
 ony, punishable as perjury now is, to which crime it is 
 akin. 
 
 That the Canadian law comes very far short of 
 these reasonable requirements is shown by the following 
 synopsis : 
 
 ABDUCTION 
 
 This crime is commonly named in extradition 
 treatises and, as defined in our code, is as follows : 
 
 281. "Every one who * * with intent 
 * * takes away or detains any woman of any 
 age against her will " or 
 
 282a. In event of such woman being an 
 heiress or ' ' presumptive next of kin, from 
 motives of lucre " ; or 
 
 282b. In event of such heiress being a minor 
 (i. e., under 21 years of age) then "out of the 
 possession and against the will " of her parent or 
 guardian: is subject to fourteen years' imprison- 
 ment; and 
 
 283. If the girl be under 16 years and be 
 not an heiress the mere taking of her "out of 
 the possession," etc., is punishable with five 
 years' imprisonment; and 
 
 284. If the girl be under 14 years and the 
 intent be to steal her or her clothing the punish- 
 ment is seven years' imprisonment. 
 
 44° 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 It will be seen that the already protected minor 
 heiress is further well protected up to the full age of 21 
 years ; that the non-heiress is less well protected and up 
 to the age of only 16 years; and that, if she be a non- 
 heiress, the child's clothing is deemed more worthy of 
 mention than her chastity. In this respect the British 
 and Canadian laws are alike. In no other code that has 
 come under my notice, is the protection given to girl- 
 hood, between the ages of consent and majority, made 
 to depend on the wealth of the victim, although this 
 factor might very properly be taken into account when 
 awarding punishments. A reasonable provision res- 
 pecting abduction might read somewhat as follows : 
 
 Every one who, without lawful authority or 
 excuse, takes, harbors or detains a woman or 
 girl 
 
 (1) Being a major, by force or otherwise 
 than with her consent, free-will and conscious 
 permission; or 
 
 (3) Being a minor under 21 years of age 
 (a) For an unlawful purpose consummated 
 or attempted or with unlawful intent, or 
 
 (i>) For a lawful purpose without the consent 
 of her parent or guardian 
 — is guilty of abduction. 
 It is of course assumed that the general provisions 
 of the law will otherwise provide that certain women, 
 lunatics and others, are incapable of giving consent; 
 that consent procured by falsehood or fraud is no con- 
 sent at all ; that attempts are punishable as well as the 
 completed offence ; and aiders and abbettors as well as 
 principals. Also that punishment is graduated accord- 
 ing to the degree of guilt, and the power or authority 
 of the criminal over the victim, and also according to 
 her youthfulness and helplessness. 
 
 One pecuUarly fotil example of this crime that 
 goes all unpunished in Canada, is the common instance 
 of the criminal who elopes with a girl from an adjoining 
 
 441 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 State, and who escapes punishment on the plea that 
 both the abduction and the seduction were compassed 
 outside the Dominion. Under Article 355 those who 
 "bring stolen property into or have it in possession in 
 Canada " are liable to seven years' imprisonment, while 
 those who bring stolen girls are unpunishable by her 
 laws. 
 
 THE TRAFFIC IN VICE. 
 
 The import and export traffic in women to replenish 
 brothels is fairly well met in Section 185 of the law, 
 which is in part copied from the British Act of 1885 of 
 notable memory. The procuration clauses have, how- 
 ever, proved ineffective, inasmuch as intent of prostitu- 
 tion has to be proved, whereas intent of defilement 
 ought to suffice, at least until the crime of abduction is 
 more stringently defined. But within our own country 
 the traffic goes on all unchecked. The spasmodic arrest- 
 ing, fining and again letting loose on society of brothel- 
 keepers, brothel-owners, and brothel-mongers generally, 
 serves merely as an advertisement of their infamous re- 
 sorts ; and as a license fee, good until the time comes 
 round to make the next raid. Those vile trafficers in 
 vice, with their equally atrocious touts, bullies, placeurs, 
 and souteneurs, all living for the most part on the avails 
 of prostitution, ought to be universally dealt with as 
 felons, and as the common enemies of mankind. Their 
 occupation is akin to piracy and the slave trade. Mean- 
 while they are all too leniently dealt with everywhere. 
 Recently in India a placeur was prosecuted for selling 
 one of his imports, an Austrian girl, to a rich lecher, 
 but the English judge (Mr. Pigott) acquitted the 
 criminal on the ground that the girl was sold for con- 
 cubinage, which was no offence, and not for prostitution, 
 a sale for which would have been an offence. 
 
 Girls over 14 and under 16 are, under section 187, 
 forbidden to be harbored in a brothel on pain of two 
 years' imprisonment, but when of or over 16 they are 
 without this protection unless they be heiresses, in which 
 
 442 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 case the harboring keeper (282) is liable to fourteen 
 years' imprisonment if the girl be under 21 years old. 
 We do not complain of the protection thus given to the 
 rich and guarded heiress; all that we have asked, and 
 hitherto in vain, is that equally effective protection be 
 given to her poor and friendless sisters. 
 
 BREACH OF TRUST. 
 
 This crime is universally recognized as heinous in 
 matters relating to property, but scarcely at all recog- 
 nized in dealing with offences against the person. For 
 long years we have been seeking to remedy this effect, 
 but until the late Sir John Thompson took charge of the 
 Department of Justice, little progress was made. In 
 1890 he introduced to Parliament a bill, one section of 
 which was to protect dependent women against their 
 relations and another against their employers. In both 
 cases the clauses were so "amended "in their passage 
 through Parliament as to greatly minimize their scope, 
 leaving them alrnost valueless for protective purposes. 
 
 The clause respecting relations (176) as introduced, 
 protected a woman from defilement by persons more 
 nearly related to her, by consanguinity or affinity, than 
 the fourth degree of civil law.* As passed it applies 
 only to the grandfather, father and brother, and to mar- 
 riage as well as defilement. 
 
 The clause respecting employers is as follows, the 
 interpolations being printed in italics: "183. Every 
 one is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to two 
 years' imprisonment, who, being a guardian, seduces or 
 has illicit connection with his ward, and every one who 
 seduces or has illicit connection with any woman or girl 
 of previously chaste character (and under the age of twen- 
 ty-one years) who is in his employment {in a factory, 
 mill or workshop), or who, being in a common employ- 
 ment with him (in such factory, mill or workshop)^ is 
 
 ♦ In New York a iudge may not sit on a case when either litigant is related 
 to him " within the sixth degree of affinity or consanguinity." 
 
 443 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 tinder or in any way subject to his control or direction. " 
 Instead of covering all dependent women, the protection 
 is now limited, to factory operatives who are chaste 
 minors. 
 
 By another clause (186) the parent or guardian who 
 procures or is party to the defilement of a woman is 
 punishable ; but the husband, brother, uncle, or other 
 relation is not punishable ; in doing so they are within 
 their legal rights. Clause (185) punishes the giver of 
 "any drug, intoxicating liquor, matter or thing with 
 intent," but if the defiler be another person he is free 
 under the clause. 
 
 Another class of breaches of trust which the Dom- 
 inion leaves untouched has been dealt with by an act of 
 the Ontario Legislature, passed in 1887, "for the pro- 
 tection of women in certain cases." It enacts that "no 
 person shall at any time or place within the limits of 
 any institution to which the prison and asylum act ap- 
 plies, unlawfully know any female, who is capable in 
 law of giving her consent, while she is a patient or is 
 confined in such institution. " The benefits of this law 
 are applicable only to the gaols, prisons, etc., of that 
 province, and we have no equivalent law for this 
 province, the legislation is probably as ultra vires, the 
 provincial legislature. The only persons who are judged 
 to be incapable of giving consent are (189) "a female 
 idiot or imbecile, and an insane or deaf-and-dumb woman 
 or girl;" also conditionally an heiress under twenty-one 
 and a non-heiress under sixteen ; and absolutely any girl 
 under fourteen, as noted herein. 
 
 These provisions come very far short of the third 
 requirement mentioned above, but they are all that 
 most persistent efforts have hitherto obtained from the 
 Dominion Parliament. 
 
 DEFILEMENT. 
 
 The age of consent in Canada (sec. 269) is 14 years, 
 of and over which the unguarded non-heiress may be 
 
 444 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 said to be an open prey. Nevertheless she may not 
 (181)be "seduced," if " of previously chaste character," 
 nor (187) harbored in a brothel, if she be under 1 6 ; and 
 (183) if seduction be compassed by a promise of mar- 
 riage, and the criminal be himself ove?- 21, then she is 
 protected up to 31. By (184) "illicit connection with 
 any female passenger " is forbidden to any ' ' person em- 
 ployed on board of any vessel " on pain of fine and im- 
 prisonment for one year. A conspiracy (188) " to in- 
 duce any woman to commit adultery or fornication " is 
 criminal provided that false pretences be used, the pro- 
 viso being a change for the worse in the common law. 
 
 What is usually termed "ordinary immorality," 
 that is, unlawful relations, whether permanent or casual, 
 between a man and a woman, being majors, with no 
 element on either side of relationship, incest, adultery, 
 or bigamy, or of fraud, falsehood, public scandal, or 
 what not, is meanwhile assumed to be without the scope 
 of criminal law. 
 
 INDECENT ASSAULTS. 
 
 The low or high tone of public morals, especially 
 among the governing classes of a community, may be 
 accurately gauged by the legal procedure respecting the 
 odious crimes against girlhood commonly ranged under 
 this head. Two recent cases occur to me from the high 
 court of this city. In one an uncle, a family man of 
 mature years, assaulted and foully diseased his own 
 child-niece of tender years ; his punishment was eighteen 
 months' imprisonment. In the other, a burly ruffian, 
 who waylaid and assaulted a little girl on her way from 
 school under circumstances of exceptional brutality, was 
 similarly punished. In England matters are much worse. 
 Judging from the proceedings of the courts presided 
 over by Judges Granthan, Hawkins and others, the crime 
 of rape has been aboHshed there when the victim is a 
 child. These judges award three and six months' 
 imprisonment to criminals like the foregoing, while 
 
 445 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 sending others to years of penal servitude whose offence 
 is trivial thieving. In all this they doubtless adequately 
 reflect the sentiments of the community within which 
 they live and move and have their being.* If stripes 
 are proper anywhere it is in cases of revolting crimes 
 such as these. There is, however, but one adequate and 
 proper penal consequence, and that is the castration of 
 the habitual criminal, as well in his own interests as in 
 the interests of the community and of posterity. 
 
 ADULTERY. 
 
 Edward Livingston, the eminent American jurist, 
 in his work, "A System of Penal Law for Louisiana," 
 at page 173, says of adultery: " As far as lam informed 
 it figures in the penal law of all nations, except the 
 English, and some of their most celebrated lawyers 
 have considered the omission as a defect. Neither the 
 immorality of the act nor its injurious consequences on 
 the happiness of women, and very often on the peace of 
 society and the lives of its members, can be denied. 
 The reason then why it should go unpunished does not 
 seem very clear. . . . Where the law refuses to 
 punish this offence the injured party will do it for him- 
 
 * Indecent assaults on little girls and aggravated assaults on wives and 
 children are, perhaps, the most rampant forms of crime in English life. In Scot- 
 land they are less so, and scarcely at all in Ireland. Moreover the supine indif- 
 ference to these phases of crime on the part of the community id phenomenal. 
 At a large congress of religious and temperance women held last Summer in Lon- 
 don, a principal subject of debate was the casual outbreak of lynching in the 
 Southern United States, while these infamous and brutal offences, being contin- 
 ually committed under their own eyes, were not even mentioned. Nor did the 
 good people see anything incongruous in this action; the parable of the mote and 
 the beam did not even occur to them. 
 
 Here is a clipping from a weekly English newspaper, "Truth'': William 
 Rolfe, an elderly man, who had been in court for the same offences before, was 
 convicted of assaulting two little girls of seven and eight years old, and sent to 
 prison for one month. Isaiah Burron, 65 years old, was convicted of assaulting 
 a little girl of five years old, having first taken her to a public house and dosed 
 her with rum. He also got one month. George Holland's victim was also five 
 years old, and he also got one month. 
 
 The editor, one of the very few who notice such travesties of justice at all, 
 comments thus: — " It is of course something that the judges imposed any im- 
 prisonment for, as I show everj^ week, it is quite a common practice to allow 
 offenders convicted of the most ruffianly assaults orthe grossest cruelty to escape 
 with a mere firie." 
 
 446 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 self; he will break the public peace and commit the 
 greatest of all crimes, and he is rarely or never 
 punished." 
 
 The stigma still rests on English law, and on the 
 laws of most of her colonies, as well as of those com- 
 munities (including the State of New York) who have 
 taken their jurisprudence from England. To this day 
 the crimes of incest and adultery are in that country 
 mere eclesiastical offences, unpunishable at common 
 law. The tendency of all English speaking communi- 
 ties to square themselves in respect of their morals 
 down to or below the level of their statute law is well 
 exemplified in England, where, among no inconsidera- 
 ble section of the people, adultery is scarcely esteemed 
 to be a crime at all. 
 
 Apart altogether from moral considerations, adul- 
 terous connections are, perhaps, the most fruitful source 
 of ruined homes, brutality to children, and even of child 
 murders. 
 
 GENERAL. 
 
 The sections of the code which relate to Bigamy, 
 Marriage, Mock Marriage, Vagrancy, and so forth, do 
 not call for special mention, save that in vagrancy cases 
 the girls and women are commonly punished with vin- 
 dictive ferocity, six or twelve months in gaol, and some- 
 times four or five years in a so called reformative prison, 
 while the male criminals are as commonly let off with a 
 trivial fine. The double standard of guilt, with its ac- 
 companying low standard of public morality, holds full 
 sway in this community. 
 
 The sections respecting polygamy have been 
 phrased so as to include every form of that offence as 
 formerly practiced in Utah and elsewhere abroad, and 
 to exclude, with a dexterity that is Satanic, the forms 
 practiced at home. 
 
 The Dominion is without divorce laws and divorce 
 courts. An aggrieved innocent spouse may, however, 
 petition the Dominion Parliament. A committee of the 
 
 447 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 Senate inquires into the case, and, if satisfactory proof 
 be forthcoming, reports a bill for the applicant's relief, 
 which Parliament usually passes. Speaking broadly,, 
 the woman and the man are dealt with equally. 
 
 THE child's charter. 
 
 The Imperial Parliament, first during the session 
 of 1889, and subsequently in 1894, passed legislation 
 that has been fittingly termed Tlie Child's Charter, 
 under which cruel treatment will be m.ore easily pre- 
 vented than hitherto, and the unhappy lot of the " child 
 of the English savage " greatly mitigated. 
 
 The law is in two divisions, the first dealing with 
 the ill treatment of children, and second with their em- 
 ployment and labor. The age has been assimilated to 
 the age of control, to wit : sixteen years for both girls 
 and boys. To ill treat or neglect a child or youth under 
 sixteen is now a direct offence, and if the ill treated 
 child's life was insured, or if any money would come to 
 its guardian at its death, the punishments are doubled. 
 Any one who has the care or custody of a child is re- 
 quired to see that it is well treated, and is himself 
 responsible for its ill treatment by others. When a 
 child "is found wandering," it is no longer the child 
 who will be arrested and sent to gaol, but the unfaith- 
 ful guardian. Moreover, those who cause or procure a 
 child to be ill treated or neglected are equally culpable ' 
 with those who do the evil deeds. 
 
 So far as the act deals with child labor it may be 
 esteemed an extension of the Factory Acts. As regards 
 such offences as begging, it is not the child beggar who 
 is arrested and gaoled, but the person who sends it out. 
 Street hawking is left to be dealt with by the local au- 
 thorities; but here, too, it is not the child hawker that 
 can be punished, but the person who profits by its 
 work. The law does not in express terms recognize 
 the great heinousness of cruelty when committed by 
 persons in power and authority over the suffering victims^ 
 
 448 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 but it is a step in that direction, although in England 
 ruffians continue successfully to plead their "owner- 
 ship" of the victims in instigation of punishment. We 
 have not yet obtained similar legislation for the 
 Dominion, but the Province of Ontario has a somewhat 
 similar law, the enactment of which is probably beyond 
 its constitutional powers. 
 
 Baby farming, with its fearful mortality, is a more 
 passive form of cruelty somewhat rampant in Canada, 
 especially in our cities. What appears to be wanting is 
 a more stringent law to induce, and, if need be, compel 
 the mother to care for and nurse her child, whenever 
 she is physically capable of doing so. 
 
 THE C. D. ACTS. 
 
 These unmentionable acts are nominally upon the 
 Canadian Statute book. Shortly after their enactment 
 in Britain, at the time when brotheldom held sway in 
 the governing circles of that country, some of the gov- 
 ernmental departments entered upon a propaganda to 
 procure similar enactments throughout the colonies and 
 dependencies of the Empire. These missionary efforts 
 for the propagation of vice were remarkably successful, 
 over twenty different colonial governments having 
 yielded to the imperial solicitations. 
 
 The Canadian Act was passed in 1865. A final 
 clause, inserted by the Canadian Prime Minister, read — 
 (23) "This Act shall continue in force for five years 
 from the passing thereof and no longer." No steps 
 were taken to put the act in force, and in the year 1870 
 it expired by efflux of time and disappeared from the 
 Canadian Statute book. 
 
 In 1886 the Imperial Parliament repealed all the 
 acts in force in the mother country, and since that time 
 many of the colonies have done Hkewise. During recent 
 years the principle of the acts is everywhere more or 
 less discredited. It is no longer held that state medical 
 inspection can by any possibility make vice innoxious. 
 As a mere matter of fact it has been proved to a demon- 
 
 449 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 stration that the system increases vice, stimulates hist, 
 and multiplies and intensifies disease, so that apart alto- 
 gether from moral considerations its hygienic failure 
 suffices to condemn it. 
 
 GOVERNMENT BY POLICE. 
 
 The most serious blot on the common methods of 
 enforcing the laws for the protection of girlhood and the 
 conservation of public morals is the holding aloof there- 
 from of the reputable and law-abiding sections of the 
 community, and the devolution of the duty on the police. 
 The only duties proper to a police force are to protect 
 the public in person and property, to pursue criminals 
 and bring them to justice, to maintain public order, and 
 to execute warrants. The Magna Charta provided that 
 no freeman was to be "put to his law " on the uncor- 
 roborated testimony of the police, but in respect of 
 morals we have changed all that. Now-a-days the 
 police trepan, arrest on view, complain and witness; 
 whereupon a police justice judges, and condemns. It is 
 the police and nothing but the police all through. A 
 police-ridden community does not live under law, but 
 under mere police discretion. Whom they will they 
 prosecute, whom they will they refrain from prosecuting 
 and the motives in both cases are sufficiently notorious 
 to leave unmentioned. If the duty be laid on the police 
 ' ' to detect crime " they will justify their existence by 
 the easier process of manufacturing crime. Those 
 periodic raids and woman-hunts with which we are so 
 familiar are akin to the slave-hunts of former days, and 
 like them serve but to degrade the victims, to corrupt 
 the agents, and to demoralize the body politic. A truth 
 which of all others moral reformers should keep contin- 
 ually before them is the unalterably inherent vileness of 
 government by police. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The Stock objections which are constantly urged 
 against legislation of this character may be summed up 
 
 450 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 in the word "blackmail." When the British age of 
 consent was raised from 10 to 13 years, and again from 
 13 to 16 years, brotheldom shouted "blackmail." And 
 so also in many of the States. In 1887 New York 
 raised the age from 10 to 16 years, and more recently to 
 18 years, in the face of similar opposition. But even 
 were the objections valid they are inconclusive seeing it 
 is not a proper function of law to afford men protection 
 in the commission of vice and crime. Experience how- 
 ever has shown the objections to be baseless. The 
 existing laws of all civilized countries bristle with 
 opportunities for the bringing of false accusations, and 
 yet such are of rare occurence. Moreover should the 
 feared results follow they may easily be counteracted by 
 other penal enactments. 
 
 While unprepared to assert that too much philan- 
 thropic attention is being given to reclamation, certain 
 it is that too little has heretofore been given to preven- 
 tion. Of all preventable agencies nothing can equal a 
 decent, reputable and moral criminal code, not so much 
 in its punitive character as in its deterrent, and espe- 
 cially in its educative character. Now, as in Apostolic 
 days, the law is a most effective schoolmaster in morals, 
 for evil or for good. 
 
 I suggest that a committee of Jurists be named by 
 the Alliance to formulate a code of law, and thereafter 
 to press its acceptance on all legislative bodies within its 
 sphere. 
 
 451 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 THE REGULATION OF VICE. 
 
 Miss Harriet A. Shinn, representing the Civic 
 Federation of Chicago, asked a series of questions at the 
 close of one session of the Congress, and brief, informal 
 answers were given by several delegates. These were 
 summarized by Miss Shinn as follows : 
 
 1. What is the result of the license system in the 
 United States, and is it to be recommended for a city 
 like Chicago ? 
 
 A. There is no formal avowedly license system in 
 the United States. There was one experiment, that 
 was St. Louis; it was a failure in sanitary, restrictive, 
 and in every possible sense. In Berlin, where the 
 license system is and has been in practice it is shown by 
 actual figures that in five years prostitution increased 
 50 per cent. ; the numbers licensed increased, and disease 
 increased to an alarming extent; that the examinations 
 were practically worthless, as the naked eye can detect 
 only about one in five cases ; that even if an examina- 
 tion were made every day — and the law called for ex- 
 amination twice a week — ^it would still be impossible to 
 detect disease, as it is as likely to manifest itself first in 
 the deep recesses of the body as elsewhere ; that upon a 
 bacteriological examination 40 per cent, of those pro- 
 nounced healthy were found to be diseased; and that one 
 out of every ten of the male population of Berlin was 
 found to be infected. Paris showed a larger per cent. 
 The result of license is always bad, and safety from in- 
 fection cannot be had by medical examination. 
 
 %. Is it practicable to suppress prostitution ? 
 
 A. There must first be the foundation laid by the 
 right training before it can be totally suppressed. In- 
 vestigations made in Paris, as well as Berlin and other 
 cities, have shown that while large numbers of prosti- 
 
 452 
 
THE NATIONAL PURITY CONGRESS. 
 
 tutes have been driven from the streets by attempts to- 
 regulate vice, yet the effect has been to largely increase 
 clandestine prostitution. That it can probably never 
 be wholly suppressed, but it can by wise laws well en- 
 forced be reduted to a minimum, just as thievery and 
 murder are reduced to a minimum. 
 
 3. What is the practical way to deal with it? 
 
 A. The aid of the police must be secured, and such 
 men only must be put in office as will conscientiously 
 and faithfully perform their duty; for it is useless to 
 attempt the enforcement of law by officers who are 
 themselves in sympathy with and friends of the in- 
 mates of such houses. That politics enters into this 
 question, and without political aid the subject cannot be 
 properly dealt with. That the ballot in the hands of 
 women would do much toward its practical solution. 
 
 4. Would it be advisable to enforce existing ordi- 
 nances, and throw inmates of such houses into the 
 street? 
 
 A. If any one commits murder the question is not 
 asked, " Shall we enforce the ordinance?" And neither 
 should we hesitate to enforce ordinances against prosti- 
 tution. That while there should be no interference with 
 private personal freedom, yet the official recognition of 
 such vice is no more to be permitted than murder and 
 theft. That some provision should be made by the city 
 to put these inmates into rescue or other homes, and 
 that harshness towards them should be avoided. 
 
 5. Is it better to confine such houses to certain dis- 
 tricts in a city? 
 
 A. No ; emphatically no. It is bad enough to have 
 tolerated vice, but it is infinitely worse to have vice 
 legalized, sanctioned and encouraged by municipal 
 authority. As far back as in Rome the experiment was 
 tried, and it was an utter failure. 
 
 453 
 
PRESIDENT: 
 
 AARON M. POWELL. 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENTS : 
 
 Rev. WM. N. McVICKAR, D. D., Pa , ...Mks. JULIA WARD HOWE, Mass. 
 
 Rev. WM. T. SABINE, D. D., N. Y Rev. S. S. SEWARD, N. V. 
 
 Mrs. MARY A. LIVERMORE, Mass. ...Rev, SAMUEL MAY, Mass. 
 
 Rev. S. H. VIRGIN, D. D., N. Y Dr. O. EDWARD JANNEY, Md. 
 
 Rev. JOSEPH MAY, Pa Rev. CHARLES ROADS, Pa. 
 
 B. O. FLOWER, Esq., Mass Mrs. JULIA R. CARPENTER, N.H. 
 
 JOSHUA L. BAILY, Pa Rev. ANNA GARLIN SPENCER, R.I 
 
 Rev. EDWARD BRYAN, Wis Rev. A. H. LEWIS, D. D.,N. J. 
 
 Mrs. MIRIAM HOWARD DuBOSE, Ga.J. W. WALTON, Esq., O. 
 
 ALICE C. ROBINSON, Md Mrs. KATHERINE M. PHILLIPS, Pa. 
 
 Prof. H. H. WRIGHT, Tenn JONATHAN W. PLUMMER, 111. 
 
 Mrs. C. T. COLE, la ANNA M. STARR, Ind. 
 
 MARTHA SGHOFIELD, S. C Mrs. C. A. F. STEBBINS, Mich. 
 
 JOSIAH W. LEEDS, Pa FRANCIS J. GARRISON, Mass. 
 
 Rev. W. C. GANNETT, N. Y CAROLINE M. SEVERANCE, Cal. 
 
 J. H. KELLOGG, M. D.. Mich Mrs. S. G. HUMPHREYS, Ky. 
 
 HANNAH J. BAILEY, Me. 
 Rev. ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL, N. J. 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 EMILY BLACKWELL, M. D WILLIAM M. JACKSON. 
 
 ■ ANNA LUKENS, M. D.... Mrs, MARTHA MOTT LORD. 
 
 ANNA M. JACKSON Mrs, WILLIAM EMERSON, Jr. 
 
 Mrs. C. D. ANGELL SAMUEL C. BLACKWELL. 
 
 _i Mrs. H. J. LAPHAM. 
 
 RECORDING SECRETARY. 
 
 Mrs. NAOMI LAWTON DAVIS 576 Lexington Avenue, New York. 
 
 CORRESPONDINQ SECRETARY: 
 
 ANNA RICE POWELL, 243 East 6th St., Plainfield, N. J. 
 
 TREASURER: 
 
 ELIZABETH GAY, West New Brighton, N. Y. 
 
 GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 GRACE H. DODGE, N. Y Mrs. ELIZABETH JUSTICE MAY, Pa. 
 
 HANNAH A. PLUMMER, 111 SARAH C. FOX, O. 
 
 ARRIA S. HUNTINGTON, N. Y Mrs. M. T. LEWIS GANNETT, N.Y. 
 
 SUSAN W. HILDRETH, N. Y Mrs. EVA W. COLLIER, Montana. 
 
 ANDREW J. GAVETT.N.J THOMAS W. WOODNUTT, 111, 
 
 Mrs. charlotte S. LEWIS, Pa SARAH H. PIERCE. Pa. 
 
 ELIZA M. MOSHER, M, D., N. Y EMILY HOWLAND, N. Y. 
 
 ANNA M.VAUGHAN, Ind Mrs, M. L. BOGUE, Ct. 
 
 ALLEN J. FLITCRAFT, 111 CORNELIA A. GAVETT, N. J. 
 
 ISAAC ROBERTS, Pa LAURETTA H. NICHOLS, Ind. 
 
 Mrs. L. M.DODGE. Ky Mrs. A. L. PRINDLE, N. Y. 
 
 MARY G. SMITH. Ill Mrs, DEBORAH C. LEEDS, Pa. 
 
 Mrs, SARAH B. STEARNS, Minn PAULINE W. HOLME, Md. 
 
 ELIZABETH POWELL BOND, Pa ....MARCIA C. POWELL, N. Y. 
 
 ELIZABETH H, COALK, 111 SARAH T. MILLER, Md. 
 
 ANN B, BRANSON, Va E. H. THOMPSON, Ark. 
 
 ANGIE S. HULL, Ark Mrs. E. G. UNDERBILL, N. Y 
 
 MARTHA G. RIPLEY, M. D., Minn BENJAMIN F, NICHOLS, Ind. 
 
 Mrs. J. H. KELLOGG, Mich. 
 LAURA H. SATTERTHWAITE. M. D., N. J. 
 
ALLIANCE MEMBERSHIP AND A UXILI ARIES 
 
 The objects of the American Purity Alliance are stated in 
 its constitution as follows : 
 
 Article II, The objects of this Alliance are the repression 
 ot vice, the prevention of its regulation by the State the better 
 protection of the young, the rescue of the fallen, the extension of 
 the White Cross among men, and to maintain the law of purity 
 as equally binding upon men and women. 
 
 The conditions of membership in the Alliance are as follows: 
 
 Article III. Any person who consents to the principles of 
 
 this constitution, and who contributes annually one dollar or more 
 
 to Its funds, may be a member of this Alliance, and shall be 
 
 entitled to a vote at the meetings. 
 
 Provisions are made for auxiliaries as follows : 
 Article VIII. Any Parity or White Cross association founded 
 on the same principles may become auxiliary to this Alliance, by 
 contributing annually the sum of five dollars to its treasury. The 
 officers of each auxiliary association shall be ex-ofBcio members of 
 this organization, and shall be entitled to deliberate and vote in 
 the transactions of its concerns. 
 
 Any one consenting to the principles of the Alliance may be- 
 come a member by the payment of one dollar or more annually to 
 its treasury, and be entitled to vote at its meetings, and receive 
 a copy of its Annual Report. 
 
 The necessary legal requirements of corporation, to enable 
 the Alliance to receive bequests, having been complied with, we 
 give herewith the following as a suitable form to be incorporated 
 in the will of anyone desiring thus to aid and perpetuate its 
 important work for the promotion of purity, and the better protec- 
 tion of the young of both sexes : 
 
 Form of Bequest. 
 I give and bequeath to "The American Purity Alliance, 
 ncorporated in the year 1895, under the Laws of the State of 
 
 New York, the sum of -•- - Dollars, 
 
 to be used for the purposes of said Alliance, and under its 
 direction. 
 
 The Philanthropist. 
 
 Published monthly for the Promotion of Social Purity, the Better 
 
 Protection of the Young, the Repression, of Vice, and the 
 
 Prevention of its Regulation of the State. 
 
 AARON M. POWELL, i Rrtitnri 
 
 Mks. ANNA RICE POWELL. j-J^-aitors. 
 
 OCCASIONAL CONTRIBUTORS .* 
 
 EMILY BLACKVV^ELL, M. D. Rev. A. H. LEWI.S, D. D. 
 
 Rev. B. F. De COSTA, D. D. M. L. HOLBROOK, M. D. 
 
 Mrs. ELIZAHETH P. BOND, and others. 
 
 SUBSCRIPTION PRICE. 
 SLOO a year. Three copies, a year, $3. .50. Five copies, a year, $.'i.7S. 
 
SOCIAL PURITY LEAFLETS. 
 
 THE PHILANTHROPIST SERIES. 
 
 The following leaflets of the Philanthropist Series have been published ; 
 1. — •• Legal Protection for Young Girls," by Aaron M. Powell. 
 3. — " The State and Girlhood," by Emily Blackwell, M. D. 
 3. — " Save the Boys," by Rev. J. P. Gledstone, 
 4. — " Social Purity the Latest and Greatest Crusade," eight 
 
 pages, by Frances E. Willard. 
 5. — "The Sacredness of Motherhood," by Mrs. Elizabeth P. Bond. 
 6.—" The White Cross," by the Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter D. D. 
 
 Bishop of Nev^ York. 
 7.—" Mrs. Butler — The New Moral Crusade," with portrait, 
 
 eight pages, reprinted from The Chtistian, London. 
 8. — " The Double Standard of Morality," by Mrs. J. E. Butler. 
 9. — " Clean Lips," by Rev. J. P. Gledstone. 
 10. — " How to Organpze the White Cross — Its Objects and 
 
 Mbthods," eight pages, by Rev. B. F. De Costa, D. D. 
 11. — '■ The Sacrbbnbss of Fatherhood," by Rev. A. H. Lewis, D.D 
 12. — " Guarding the Young," by Mrs. Elizabeth Powell Bond. 
 18. — "Age of Consent" Legislation, by Rev. A. H. Lewis, D. D. 
 14. — " Need of Combination among Women for Self-Protection, 
 
 eight pages, by Emily Blackwell, M. D. 
 15. — "The Sin of Impurity," 8pp., by Rev. Canon Wilberforce, A.M. 
 16. — "Drink and Vice," by Aaron M. Powell. 
 17. — "Wages and Vice,' by Rev, A. H. Lewis, D. D. 
 18. — -"High Ideals of Purity." eight pages, by Anna Rice Powell. 
 19. — "Law and Immorality," by Rev. A. H. Lewis, D. D. 
 20. — "Social Vice AND National Decay," 8pp. by Rev. W. T. Sabine. 
 31. — "Girlhood and Purity" — A Portion of a Private Letter 
 
 to Girls, eight pages, by Grace H. Dodge. 
 22. — "Regulation Fallacies" — Vice not a "Necessity," — eight 
 
 pages, by Emily Blackwell, M. D. 
 23. — "The Need for Work to Promote Social Purity," — eight 
 
 pages, by Elizabeth Powell Bond. 
 24. — " An Earnest Appeal to Young Women," by a Friend. 
 35. — "The White Cross in Education," 8pp., by F. E. Willard. 
 26. — "A Mother's Letter to Her Son," by Mrs, Mary Clement 
 
 Leavitt. 
 37. — -"Message to Young Men — Wild Oats," eight pages, by 
 
 Rev. J. P. Gledstone. 
 28 — "Social Purity— The Right Training of Children," eight 
 
 pages, by Edward B, Rawson. 
 
 39. — "Medical Declaration Concerning Chastity," eight 
 
 pages, signed by many Physicians. 
 
 They will be mailed, post paid, to any address, at ten cents a dozen ; fifty cents 
 
 a hundred. No. 4, No. 7, No. 10. No. 14, No. 15, No. 17, No. 18, No. 80, No, 21, 
 
 No. 22, No. 23, No. 25, No, 27, No. 28 and No. 29, eight pages, twenty cents a 
 
 dozen, one dollar a hundred. 
 
 WHITE CROSS PLEDGES. 
 
 I. — White Cross Pledge for men. 
 
 11. — Silver Cross for boys. 
 III. — Woman's Pledge for Purity. 
 IV. — Daughters of the Temple (pledge for girls). 
 
 Price, post paid, one cent each, ten cents a dozen, fifty cents per hundred. 
 
 Address The Philanthropist Publishing Co. 
 
 United Charities Building, 
 Fourth Avenue, and Twenty-Second St., New York.