452 PLAIN FACTS FOE OLD AND YOUNG 



of the best qualities wliich any young lady can pos- 

 sess. A young woman who lacks modesty, who mani- 

 fests boldness of manner and carelessness in deport- 

 ment, is not only liable to have her virtue assailed by 

 designing and unscrupulous men, but is herself likely 

 to fall before the temptation to indulge in secret sin, 

 which is certain to present itself in some way sooner 

 or later. 



This invaluable protection of modesty is speedily 

 lost by the girl who abandons herself to secret vice. 

 The chances are very great, also, that by degrees her 

 respect and love for virtue and chastity will diminish 

 until she is open to temptations to indulge in less secret 

 sin; and thus she travels down the road of vice until 

 she finds herself at last an inmate of a brothel or an 

 outcast wanderer, rejected by friends, and lost to vir- 

 tue, purity, and all that a true woman holds most 

 dear. 



A Few Sad Cases.— We do not believe it right to 

 harrow the feelings of those who have sinned and suf- 

 fered, rehearsing sad cases when no good can be ac- 

 complished by such accounts, but we deem it just that 

 those who are not yet entangled in the meshes of vice 

 should have an opportunity of knowing the actual 

 results of sin, and profiting by the sad experience of 

 others. It is for this purpose that we mention a few 

 cases which have come under our observation, taking 

 care to avoid what might lead to identification, as the 

 facts we shall use were, many of them, received in 

 strict confidence from those who were glad to unbur- 

 den their hearts to some one, but had never dared to 

 do so, even to their friends. 



A Pitiful Case. —Several years ago we received 

 a letter from a young woman describing her case as 



