DEVELOPMENT OF OUR YOUNG WOMEN. 221 



That perfect innocence disarms impurity, even among those who 

 have fallen far below the ordinary standards of virtue, I gladly 

 admit. None but brutish men can resist the exquisite, oftentimes 

 unconscious pleadings of things intrinsically beautiful — whether 

 in the form of a mother's love, a hero's exaltation of spirit, a 

 maiden's sweetness, or 



" The fair pure soul of a little child 

 Opened wide to the light of day." 



Such things must touch, for the time being, the hearts of the 

 hardened ; but, alas ! they are so seldom far-reaching in effect or 

 enduring in result. In very rare instances, in the cloistered nun, 

 possibly in a jealously guarded daughter, does complete innocence 

 now exist. And an opening flower can not go back again to the 

 constricting clasp of its budding life without violating the law of 

 its natural development. Shall we surround it with artificial bar- 

 riers, thereby restraining and delaying its blooming, or shall we 

 encourage it to unfold and thrive in the air in which God has 

 placed it ? No young woman, properly impressed with the noble 

 dignity of her calling, equipped with wholesome views of life and 

 fearless in purpose, can fail to command the respect and admira- 

 tion of all who cross her path. A licentious or loose-lipped man 

 would cower before her earnest eyes as certainly as before the 

 appealing innocence of a child-woman, nor ever attempt to break 

 down the barriers with which nobility of purpose always encircles 

 our most womanly young women. 



I am glad to see that many are now awakening to the neces- 

 sity of abandoning the limitations of an old method which, while 

 throwing a halo of romance around the barbarous and superficial 

 chivalry of our knightly ancestry, in reality fostered the growth 

 of a system of license whose many ramifications are to-day un- 

 dermining the very foundations of our social structure. The 

 latest work of our greatest English novelist portrays, as only his 

 master-hand can portray, the need of woman's thorough compre- 

 hension of and co-operation in the treatment of this gravest moral 

 problem of the age. 



Just how a young woman may work in this field I can indicate 

 merely in a general outline, which the tact, native ability, and 

 earnest judgment of those interested will fill out as circumstances 

 permit. For the proper carrying out of this work, integrity of 

 purpose is the primal requisite. Eliminate that, and I unhesitat- 

 ingly concede to the mediaeval, convention-ridden methods the 

 undisputed right of way. 



In many of our cities our college-bred and working young 

 women are at the head of little bands whose foremost aim is to 

 gather in the children from the streets ; for in this, as in every 



