222 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



reform, the root of the matter lies with the children. By the cir- 

 culation of healthful books and papers, much is done to counter- 

 act the baleful influence of that vile printed matter which system- 

 atically inundates our public schools. Kindly, sympathetic talks 

 are given, rarely bearing directly on these matters, but stimulat- 

 ing the indifferent to take advantage of all opportunities of self- 

 improvement, and all making for the uplifting of a sin-burdened 

 world. Care is taken, as these children grow older, to secure for 

 them honest positions, to teach the unsuspecting to avoid those 

 glittering pitfalls where the largeness of the salary offered is 

 compensation in part only for service rendered — in reality is a 

 premium upon loss of character and self-respect ; to provide tem- 

 porary homes for young women-immigrants landing helpless in 

 strange cities, until suitable positions can be obtained for them ; 

 and, most important of all, care is taken to impregnate the work- 

 ing-girl element with the sense of responsibility devolving upon 

 every woman as a person of influence, urging the dissemination 

 of this thought throughout all their home work in some such 

 ways as these. By urging the discipline of self-reliance and self- 

 restraint, and the highest standard of purity, delicacy, and 

 strength, equally on brothers and sisters; by discouraging the 

 witnessing of certain popular but none the less indecent plays ; 

 by watching carefully over the reading of the younger members 

 of the family, discountenancing the perusal of our so-called town 

 papers by the boys as well as the girls (for no one can touch pitch 

 and remain undefiled) ; by setting the example of avoiding the 

 reading of details of popular divorce scandals ; especially by guard- 

 ing against that ubiquitous erotic literature which, masquerading 

 in the attractive, fantastic garb of beautiful illustrations, claim- 

 ing the prestige of realistic or classic origin, when divested of all 

 its false trappings is, in all its hideousness, but a powerful excit- 

 ant, stimulating the prurient imagination of the inexperienced, 

 thereby starting many a child on the treacherous path down 

 which it is so pitifully easy for the untaught to slip, and whose 

 starting-point it is all but impossible to regain. This form of 

 reading-matter is the most successful of all the recruiting officers 

 from the vast army of the shameless. 



To carry this work on helpfully and practically, to gain a 

 positive algebraic sum from these many efforts, must not our 

 young women " know of the existence " of fallen men and women ? 

 Could they increase their power, here or in their home-influence, 

 by " seeming to be ignorant of the existence of such people " ? 



Ah ! these young women are to be the mothers of our race : 

 shall we not arm them with the knowledge wherewith to breast 

 the future ? Will not this knowledge in the average intelligent 

 young woman, combined with the unsullied heart which is her 



