A CHAPTER FOR OLD MEN" 431 



''"WTien a young man, without any redeeming qual- 

 ities, has run through a career of debauchery, when his 

 adult age is but a new lease of similar associations, the 

 necessity for additional excitement appears to goad 

 him on. Fictitious desires increase, until it is impos- 

 sible to say where shall be his acme of debauchery, or 

 what devices may be invented by those in his pay 'to 

 minister to a mind diseased.' This is particularly the 

 case when such a pampered, ill-directed, unrestrained 

 will is accompanied by unlimited wealth. For such a 

 one, youth, innocence, and beauty soon cease to have 

 attraction. "Well has it been said of him, that 'the 

 beast has destroyed the man,' Variety may for a 

 time satisfy or stimulate his failing powers, but not 

 for very long. Local stimulants are tried, and, after 

 a short repetition, these also fail. As a last resource, 

 unnatural excitement is brought to bear, and now pub- 

 lic decency is forgotten, and we probably find that the 

 first check to the lust of the opulent satyr is his find- 

 ing himself the hero of some filthy police case,— then, 

 maybe, a convict or a voluntary exile. 



**As schoolboys, we may have been accustomed to 

 laugh at the fables of the grotesque sylvan monsters of 

 antiquity, ignorant of what hideous truths of human 

 nature their half-animal forms were the symbols. Even 

 after sad experience has enlarged our knowledge of the 

 possibilities of vice, few of us, happily, have any idea of 

 how completely these bestial forms of ancient art rep- 

 resent the condition of the satyrs who so notoriously 

 affect the seclusion and the shade of the parks and 

 gardens in modern cities. I question if a prison is the 

 proper place for such debased individuals. As far as 

 I have noticed their organization, I should say an un- 

 controlled giving way to the sexual passion has used 



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