Searchlights on Health: The Science of EugenicsJefferis, B. G. (Benjamin Grant)
Philosophy
Searchlights on Health: The Science of Eugenics
Jefferis, B. G. (Benjamin Grant)
Eugenics; Hygiene; Marriage; Medicine, Popular; Sexual ethics
9. A STARTLING FACT.--Startling as it may seem to some, it is a fact
in our large cities that there are many girls raised by parents with
no other aim than to make them harlots. At a tender age they are sold
by fathers and mothers into an existence which is worse than slavery
itself. It is not uncommon to see girls at the tender age of thirteen
or fourteen--mere children--hardened courtesans, lost to all sense
of shame and decency. They are reared in ignorance, surrounded by
demoralizing influences, cut off from the blessings of church and
Sabbath school, see nothing but licentiousness, intemperance and
crime. These young girls are lost forever. They are beyond the reach
of the moralist or preacher and have no comprehension of modesty and
purity. Virtue to them is a stranger, and has been from the cradle.
10. A GREAT WRONG.--Parents too poor to clothe themselves bring
children into the world, children for whom they have no bread,
consequently the girl easily falls a victim in early womanhood to the
heartless libertine. The boy with no other schooling but that of
the streets soon masters all the qualifications for a professional
criminal. If there could be a law forbidding people to marry who have
no visible means of supporting a family, or if they should marry, if
their children could be taken from them and properly educated by the
State, it would cost the country less and be a great step in advancing
our civilization.
11. THE FIRST STEP.--Thousands of fallen women could have been saved
from lives of degradation and deaths of shame had they received more
toleration and loving forgiveness in their first steps of error. Many
women naturally pure and virtuous have fallen to the lowest depths
because discarded by friends, frowned upon by society, and sneered at
by the world, after they had taken a single mis-step. Society forgives
man, but woman never.
12. IN THE BEGINNING of every girl's downward career there is
necessarily a hesitation. She naturally ponders over what course
to take, dreading to meet friends and looking into the future with
horror. That moment is the vital turning point in her career; a kind
word of forgiveness, a mother's embrace a father's welcome may
save her. The bloodhounds, known as the seducer, the libertine, the
procurer, are upon her track; she is trembling on the frightful brink
of the abyss. Extend a helping hand and save her!
13. FATHER, if your daughter goes astray, do not drive her from your
home. Mother, if your child errs, do not close your heart against her.
Sisters and brothers and friends, do not force her into the pathway of
shame, but rather strive to win her back into the Eden of virtue, an
in nine cases out of ten you will succeed.
14. SOCIETY EVILS.--The dance, the theater, the wine-cup, the
race-course, the idle frivolity and luxury of summer watering places,
all have a tendency to demoralize the young.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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