The Press and Indocency

Observer, Volume 9, Issue 57, 18 January 1890, Page 3

The Press and Indocency

A VOICE FROM " THE CONVENT."

By way of reply to the leading article in last week's Observes, we have received the following letter, purporting to be written by a li( fallen sister" : —

Nelson-street, 14th January, 1890,

Sir, —l am unfortunately one of the class referred to in your article in la3t week's Observer, and I owe the position in which I am now placed to the treachery oi hd-j of your sex. We pirls have much to tn iak y..>i men for. You juin v • and then you spurn Ud and call us all manner of names. You kick us into the mire and then preach to us how terrible our position is, and ask us to drag ouivylvs nwn.y from the surroundings which have umuMed u< into what we are. Is this manly? No^, Kir, I know something about this question, and i have had a few.advantages in the way ofedueation beyond others of my class, and I pay deliberately that you will never root out this evil by suppressing it. If you would only _ usa your ability, which I do not deny, and give expression to your holy indignation, which may or may not be sincere and genuine, in order to expose those of your own sex whose principal business in life appears to be to debauch young girls, out of which they manufacture female devil« such as I am, your efforts would strike at the root of of this evil and might be crowned with a measure of success. But once manufactured no power of man can stay its progress. You may divert the channels in which it runs, but you cannot destroy it. You may prosecute and persecute us for plying our calling, but you will never extinguish the evil in this way.

Prevention is better than cure. Get at the root of the matter. Expose those men in the community of Auckland, whether they be single or married men, whose business it is to ruin young women, and some of whom, now sick to satiety, have sunk below the level of the brute. I can give you the addresses of a few so-called gentlemen whose glory it is to ruin young girls. There is one brazen-faced blackguard in Short-land-street who has been the cause "of more misery than all the abandoned girls.

One would fancy from the way some people write and talk, that we women were of a different order of being altogether, and must be treated like the foxes which were proposed to be introduced to this colony the other day. But although men have deprived us of all sense of shame by their dastardly deceptions and loathsome lusts, they cannot deprive us of the privileges of citzens or of the right to make money out of those who have qualified us in our (to most of us) disgusting occupation. So long as we do not interfere with our neighours or transgress the laws prescribed by the Government of this country we surely have a right to live. In France, where I resided for some time, they license us. Here it is the public house and totalisator you license. Will you tell me, Mr Editor, which of the three evils causes most misery ?

Men in their great wisdom think us a necessity, otherwise we would not exist. It is the same in every town in the civilised world. When men cultivate the tender passion and cease to be brutes, a change may take place, but not until then. The remedy is in the hands of you men and not with us poor fallen devils. We must live now that we are what we are by man's working, and on whom are we to prey ? On you men who have been the cause of all our wretchedness. You may fancy that we are gay and jolly and delight in your society, but all the while there is a canker in our breasts, and when you turn your backs we despise and loathe you.

In conclusion, let me ask you to be brave and tackle the men who support us. Like the publican, we could not live unless we had customers. It is, I think, unworthy of the true nobility which goes to make a man and more especially an Editor to come down upon us poor unfortunates. Fight it out amongst yourselves, and when you have resolved to lead pure and good lives such as I should like to see my own brother living— although I am depraved— then we will cease to esist- We die as a rule now of excessive drinking ; then we would all soon die of starvation.— l remain, sir, yours truly, A.P.H.

[Our correspondent has not watched the general policy of the Observer, or she would know that our aim has always been to strike at the root of the matter, and expose the ruffians who primarily are the cause of the existence of abandoned girls. Our last week's article was a protest against the way in which public opinion winks at existing evils and punishes the press when it attempts to expose them. For example, we know the Bhortland-street scoundrel to whom reference is made in the above communication, and are fully cognisant of his doings. He is a lawyer ; but if we were to be more specific in describing him, as for instance by saying that he is tall and thin, or has light blue eyes, we should find ourselves in gaol in a jiffy, charged with criminal libel, and as likely as not a jury of our countrymen would give us a long term on bread and water, and would sympathetically assure the low ruffianly lawyer that there v/as not a stain on his character ! However much we may desire, therefore, to expose the authors of female misery, we cannot do so until public sentiment and legislation become more advanced. Under proper laws, these brutal men would either be confined in asylums, or subjected to surgical treatment. Our correspondent ought also to see that there is a distinction between the trade of prostitution and the unfortunates engaged in it. While we have every sympathy for the victims of the system, and indignation against the barbarous social ethics which render that system possible, we are firmly persuaded that the lav/ should, lend no countenance or toleration to it. The immoral traffic should be repressed with Spartan severity, even to the "respectable" houses of assignation and sly lollie-shops, etc. ; but those who are the victims should be gently cared for, reclaimed, and made useful members of, society. We hope tho Social Purity Committee may soon justify its name by taking steps to educate the public on this great question. — Ed. Observes.]