Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners Part 57

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The Road to Shame.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SUICIDE LAKE.]

1. INSULT TO MOTHER OR SISTER.--Young men, it can never under any circ.u.mstances be right for you to do to a woman that, which, if another man did to your mother or sister, you could never forgive! The very thought is revolting. Let us suppose a man guilty of this shameful sin, and I apprehend that each of us would feel ready to shoot the villain. We are not justifying the shooting, but appealing to your instinctive sense of right, in order to show the enormity of this fearful crime, and to fasten strong conviction in your mind against this sin. {431}

2. A RUINED SISTER.--What would you think of a man, no matter what his wealth, culture, or gentlemanly bearing, who should lay himself out for the seduction and shame of your beloved sister? Her very name now reminds you of the purest affection: think of her, if you can bear it, ruined in character, and soon to become an unhappy mother. To whom can you introduce her? What can you say concerning her? How can her own brothers and sisters a.s.sociate with her? and, mark! all this personal and relative misery caused by this genteel villain's degrading pa.s.sion.

3. YOUNG MAN LOST.--Another terrible result of this sin is the practical overthrow of natural affection which it effects. A young man comes from his father's house to Chicago. Either through his own l.u.s.t or through the corrupt companions that he finds in the house of business where he resides, he becomes the companion of lewd women. The immediate result is a bad conscience, a sense of shame, and a breach in the affections of home.

Letters are less frequent, careless, and brief. He cannot manifest true love now. He begins to shrink from his sister and mother, and well he may.

4. THE HARLOT'S INFLUENCE.--He has spent the strength of his affection and love for home. In their stead the wretched harlot has filled him with unholy l.u.s.t. His brain and heart refuse to yield him the love of the son and brother. His hand can not write as aforetime, or at best, his expressions become a hypocritical pretence. Fallen into the degradation of the fornicator, he has changed a mother's love and sister's affection for the cursed fellows.h.i.+p of the woman "whose house is the way to h.e.l.l." (Prov.

VII. 27.)

5. THE WAY OF DEATH.--Observe, that directly the law of G.o.d is broken, and wherever promiscuous intercourse between the s.e.xes takes place, gonorrhoea, syphilis, and every other form of venereal disease is seen in hideous variety. It is only true to say that thousands of both s.e.xes are slain annually by these horrible diseases. What must be the moral enormity of a sin, which, when committed, produces in vast numbers of cases such frightful physical and moral destruction as that which is here portrayed?

6. A HARLOT'S WOES.--Would to G.o.d that something might be done to rescue fallen women from their low estate. We speak of them as "fallen women".

Fallen, indeed, they are, but surely not more deserving of the application of that term than the "fallen men" who are their partners and paramours. It is easy to use the words, "a fallen woman", but who can apprehend all that is involved in the {432} expression, seeing that every purpose for which G.o.d created woman is prost.i.tuted and destroyed? She is now neither maiden, wife, nor mother; the sweet names of sister and betrothed can have no legitimate application in her case.

7. THE PENALTIES FOR LOST VIRTUE.--Can the harlot be welcomed where either children, brothers, sisters, wife, or husband are found? Surely, no. Home is a sphere alien to the harlot's estate. See such an one wherever you may--she is a fallen outcast from woman's high estate. Her existence--for she does not live--now culminates in one dread issue, viz., prost.i.tution.

She sleeps, but awakes a harlot. She rises in the late morning hours, but her object is prost.i.tution; she washes, dresses, and braids her hair, but it is with one foul purpose before her. To this end she eats, drinks, and is clothed. To this end her house is hidden and the blinds are drawn.

8. LOST FOREVER.--To this end she applies the unnatural cosmetique, and covers herself with sweet perfumes, which vainly try to hide her disease and shame. To this end she decks herself with das.h.i.+ng finery and tawdry trappings, and with bold, unwomanly mien essays the streets of the great city. To this end she is loud and coa.r.s.e and impudent. To this end she is the prost.i.tuted "lady," with simpering words, and smiles, and glamour of refined deceit. To this end an angel face, a devil in disguise. There is one foul and ghastly purpose towards which all her energies now tend. So low has she fallen, so lost is she to all the design of woman, that she exists for one foul purpose only, viz., to excite, stimulate, and gratify the l.u.s.ts of degraded, unG.o.dly men. Verily, the word "prost.i.tute" has an awful meaning. What plummet can sound the depths of a woman's fall who has become a harlot?

9. SOUND THE ALARM.--Remember, young man, you can never rise above the degradation of the companions.h.i.+p of lewd women. Your virtue once lost is lost forever. Remember, young woman, your wealth or riches is your good name and good character--you have nothing else. Give a man your virtue and he will forsake you, and you will be forsaken by all the world. Remember that purity of purpose brings n.o.bility of character, and an honorable life is the joy and security of mankind.

{433}

The Curse of Manhood.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GREAT PHILANTHROPIST.]

1. MORAL LEPERS.--We cannot but denounce in the strongest terms, the profligacy of many married men. Not content with the moderation permitted in the divine appointed relations.h.i.+p of marriage, they become adulterers, in order to gratify their accursed l.u.s.t. The man in them is trodden down by the sensual beast which reigns supreme. These are the moral outlaws that make light of this scandalous social iniquity, and by their d.a.m.nable example encourage young men to sin.

2. A SAD CONDITION.--It is constantly affirmed by prost.i.tutes, that amongst married men are found their chief supporters. Evidence from such a quarter must be received with considerable caution. Nevertheless, we believe that there is much truth in this statement. Here, again, we lay {434} the ax to the root of the tree; the married man who dares affirm that there is a particle of physical necessity for this sin, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Whether these men be princes, peers, legislators, professional men, mechanics, or workmen, they are moral pests, a scandal to the social state, and a curse to the nation.

3. EXCESSES.--Many married men exhaust themselves by these excesses; they become irritable, liable to cold, to rheumatic affections, and nervous depression. They find themselves weary when they rise in the morning.

Unfitted for close application to business, they become dilatory and careless, often lapsing into entire lack of energy, and not seldom into the love of intoxicating stimulants. Numbers of husbands and wives entering upon these experiences lose the charm of health, the cheerfulness of life and converse. Home duties become irksome to the wife; the brightness, vivacity, and bloom natural to her earlier years, decline; she is spoken of as highly nervous, poorly, and weak, when the whole truth is that she is suffering from physical exhaustion which she cannot bear. Her features become angular, her hair prematurely gray, she rapidly settles down into the nervous invalid, constantly needing medical aid, and, if possible, change of air.

4. IGNORANCE.--These conditions are brought about in many cases through ignorance on the part of those who are married. Mult.i.tudes of men have neither read, heard, nor known the truth of this question. We sympathize with our fellow-men in this, that we have been left in practical ignorance concerning the exceeding value and legitimate uses of these functions of our being. Some know, that, had they known these things in the early days of their married life, it would have proved to them knowledge of exceeding value. If this counsel is followed, thousands of homes will scarcely know the need of the physician's presence.

5. ANIMAL Pa.s.sION.--Common-sense teaches that children who are begotten in the heat of animal pa.s.sion, are likely to be licentious when they grow up.

Many parents through excesses of eating and drinking, become inflamed with wine and strong drink., They are sensualists, and consequently, morally diseased. Now, if in such conditions men beget their children, who can affect surprise if they develop licentious tendencies? Are not such parents largely to blame? Are they not criminals in a high degree? Have they not fouled their own nest, and transmitted to their children predisposition to moral evil?

6. FAST YOUNG MEN.--Many of our "fast young men" have been thus corrupted, even as the children of the {435} intemperate are proved to have been.

Certainly no one can deny that many of our "well-bred" young men are little better than "high-cla.s.s dogs" so lawless are they, and ready for the arena of licentiousness.

7. THE PURE-MINDED WIFE.--Happily, as tens of thousands of husbands can testify, the pure-minded wife and mother is not carried away, as men are liable to be, with the force of animal pa.s.sion. Were it not so, the tendencies to licentiousness in many sons would be stronger than they are.

In the vast majority of cases suggestion is never made except by the husband, and it is a matter of deepest grat.i.tude and consideration, that the true wife may become a real helpmeet in restraining this desire in the husband.

8. YOUNG WIFE AND CHILDREN.--We often hear it stated that a young wife has her children quickly. This cannot happen to the majority of women without injury to health and jeopardy to life. The law which rendered it imperative for the land to lie fallow in order to rest and gain renewed strength, is only another ill.u.s.tration of the unity which pervades physical conditions everywhere. It should be known that if a mother nurses her own babe, and the child is not weaned until it is nine or ten months old, the mother, except in rare cases, will not become enceinte again, though cohabitation with the husband takes place.

9. SELFISH AND UNNATURAL CONDUCT.--It is natural and rational that a mother should feed her own children; in the selfish and unnatural conduct of many mothers, who, to avoid the self-denial and patience which are required, hand the little one over to the wet-nurse, or to be brought up by hand, is found in many cases the cause and reason of the unnatural haste of child-bearing. Mothers need to be taught that the laws of nature cannot be broken without penalty. For every woman whose health has been weakened through nursing her child, a hundred have lost strength and health through marital excesses. The haste of having children is the costly penalty which women pay for s.h.i.+rking the mother's duty to the child.

10. LAW OF G.o.d.--So graciously has the law of G.o.d been arranged in regard to the mother's strength, that, if it be obeyed, there will be, as a rule, an interval of at least from eighteen months to two years between the birth of one child and that of another. Every married man should abstain during certain natural seasons. In this periodical recurrence G.o.d has inst.i.tuted to every husband the law of restraint, and insisted upon self-control.

11. TO YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE MARRIED.--Be exceedingly careful of license and excess in your intercourse with {436} one another. Do not needlessly expose, by undress, the body. Let not the purity of love degenerate into unholy l.u.s.t. See to it that you walk according to the divine Word, "Dwelling together as being heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered."

12. LOST POWERS.--Many young men after their union showed a marked difference. They lost much of their natural vivacity, energy, and strength of voice. Their powers of application, as business men, students, and ministers, had declined, as also their enterprise, fervor, and kindliness.

They had become irritable, dull, pale, and complaining. Many cases of rheumatic fever have been induced through impoverishment, caused by excesses on the part of young married men.

13. MIDDLE AGE.--After middle age the sap of a man's life declines in quant.i.ty. A man who intends close application to the ministry, to scientific or literary pursuits, where great demands are made upon the brain, must restrain this pa.s.sion. The supplies for the brain and nervous system are absorbed, and the seed diverted through s.e.xual excesses in the marriage relations.h.i.+p, by fornication, or by any other form of immorality, the man's power must decline: that to this very cause may be attributed the failure and breakdown of so many men of middle age.

14. INTOXICATING DRINKS.--By all means avoid intoxicating drinks.

Immorality and alcoholic stimulants, as we have shown, are intimately related to one another. Wine and strong drink inflame the blood, and heat the pa.s.sions. Attacking the brain, they warp the judgment, and weaken the power of restraint. Avoid what is called good living; it is madness to allow the pleasures of the table to corrupt and corrode the human body. We are not designed for gourmands, much less for educated pigs. Cold water bathing, water as a beverage, simple and wholesome food, regularity of sleep, plenty of exercise; games such as cricket, football, tennis, boating, or bicycling, are among the best possible preventives against l.u.s.t and animal pa.s.sion.

15. BEWARE OF IDLENESS.--Indolent leisure means an unoccupied mind. When young men lounge along the streets, in this condition they become an easy prey to the sisterhood of shame and death. Bear in mind that evil thoughts precede evil actions. The hand of the worst thief will not steal until the thief within operates upon the hand without. The members of the body which are capable of becoming instruments of sin, are not involuntary actors.

l.u.s.tful desires must proceed from brain and heart, ere the fire that consumes burns in the member.

{437}

A Private Talk to Young Men.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Young Lincoln Starting to School.]

1. The most valuable and useful organs of the body are those which are capable of the greatest dishonor, abuse and corruption. What a snare the wonderful organism of the eye may become when used to read corrupt books or look upon licentious scenes at the theatre, or when used to meet the fascinating gaze of the harlot! What an instrument for depraving the whole man may be found in the matchless powers of the brain, the hand, the ear, the mouth, or the tongue! What potent instruments may these become in accomplis.h.i.+ng the ruin of the whole being for time and eternity!

2. In like manner the organ concerning the uses of which I am to speak, has been, and continues to be, made one of the chief instruments of man's immorality, shame, disease, and death. How important to know what the legitimate uses of this member of the body are, and how great the {438} dignity conferred upon us in the possession of this gift. On the human side this gift may be truly said to bring men nearer to the high and solemn relations.h.i.+p of the Creator than any other which they possess.

3. I first deal with the destructive sin of self-abuse. There can be little doubt that vast numbers of boys are guilty of this practice. In many cases the degrading habit has been taught by others, e.g., by elder boys at school, where a.s.sociation largely results in mutual corruption. With others, the means of sensual gratification is found out by personal action; whilst in other cases fallen and depraved men have not hesitated to debauch the minds of mere children by teaching them this debasing practice.

4. Thousands of youths and young men have only to use the looking-gla.s.s to see the portrait of one guilty of this loathsome sin. The effects are plainly discernible in the boy's appearance. The face and hands become pale and bloodless. The eye is dest.i.tute of its natural fire and l.u.s.tre. The flesh is soft and flabby, the muscles limp and lacking healthy firmness. In cases where the habit has become confirmed, and where the system has been drained of this vital force, it is seen in positive ugliness, in a pale and cadaverous appearance, slovenly gait, slouching walk, and an impaired memory.

5. It is obvious that if the most vital physical force of a boy's life is being spent through this degrading habit--a habit, be it observed, of rapid growth, great strength, and difficult to break--he must develop badly. In thousands of cases the result is seen in a low stature, contracted chest, weak lungs, and liability to sore throat. Tendency to cold, indigestion, depression, drowsiness, and idleness, are results distinctly traceable to this deadly practice. Pallor of countenance, nervous and rheumatic affections, loss of memory, epilepsy, paralysis, and insanity find their princ.i.p.al predisposing cause in the same shameful waste of life. The want of moral force and strength of mind often observable is youths and young men is largely induced by this destructive and deadly sin.

6. Large numbers of youths pa.s.s from an exhausted boyhood into the weakness, intermittent fevers, and consumption, which are said to carry off so many. If the deaths were attributed primarily to loss of strength occasioned by self-pollution, it would be much nearer the truth. It is monstrous to suppose that a boy who comes from healthy parents should decline and die. Without a shade of doubt the chief cause of decay and death amongst youths and young men, is to be traced to this baneful habit.

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7. It is a well-known fact that any man who desires to excel and retain his excellence as an accurate shot, an oarsman, a pedestrian, a pugilist, a first-cla.s.s cricketer, bicyclist, student, artist, or literary man, must abstain from self-pollution and fornication. Thousands of school boys and students lose their positions in the cla.s.s, and are plucked at the time of their examination by reason of failure of memory, through lack of nerve and vital force, caused mainly by draining the physical frame of the seed which is the vigor of the life.