From these bought women come those enemies of social progress, who enslave our young men of the higher classes, our future statesmen, those who should be the leaders of the nation. From Skittles to Cora Pearl, our generation has witnessed the enslaving power of these tyrants of lust. They have dried up the generous enthusiasm of our youth, and destroyed those principles of trust, freedom, and sympathy which should guide our domestic and foreign policy. Who is guilty of this appalling conversion of women into demons, this contagion of evil which in ever-widening circles is destroying our moral health, and injuring the modesty, freedom, and dignity of all womanhood? The immediate cause is the man, whether prince or peasant, who purchases a woman for the gratification of lust. It is this purchase which draws women into the clutches of a godless, money-making machine, which never loosens its hold of the feeble creature until the essential features of womanhood are crushed out of recognition. The irresponsible polyandry of prostitution, with its logical acceptance and regulation of brothels, has replaced in the West the polygamy of the East. In both, degradation, discouragement of marriage, and injustice to women create a fatal barrier to permanent national progress. But there is a more insidious source of evil than the direct purchaser. The conversion of women into merchandise, whilst it produces a dangerous deterioration of female character, unavoidably reacts upon male character. This evil tends in women to produce the vices of the slave--deceit, falsehood, and servility; in men it tends to foster the vices of the slave-holder--arrogance, selfishness, and cruelty. In both it engenders that deadly sin--hypocrisy.