Whose Daughter?

White Ribbon, Volume 1, Issue 13, 1 July 1896, Page 1

Whose Daughter?

BY V. A. LEWIS.

Cheat and awful truths of human life and experience are set forth in mythological form with increase, and loss, of power. The legend of the Minotaur half human and half beast, the creation and product of unbridled passion which lives but to destroy and devour, teaches plainly that indulgence in gross passion always leads to the production of savage, brutish and insatiable appetite for more evil. There exists in this land at the present time a demon ten thousand times more cruel and destructive than the Minotaur; it is the demon of licentiousness. The roll ot lost ones in the land contains the names of daughters that have been sacrificed by the tens of thou* intis. Nor do they perish alone, for by the nature of this evil the sons of the land perish with them in the moral death. As in the Greek legend, the sons and the alike are demanded by the demon. This fact is ignored by the multitude, as shown in a discussion by a party of men. They had been thrown together in the fellowship of several days’ travel, and, after talking of many other subjects, began to discuss the social evil. They laid down as the foundation principle the of'(hr K^ll arising from the physical nature of nian > and claimed that if opportunity

I were not afforded men in houses of ill-fame for the gratification of their passions, there would he no safety for our daughters, as lust and rape would, as demons, ravage the land. They therefore assumed that the only points to be considered in such a I discussion were the questions of so regulating the evil that it should he confined to one quarter of the city, and be prevented from thrusting its degrading presence and influence among our homes, and that, by efficiei t medical supervision and periodic examination and certificate and license, men should be protected in the indulgence of their passions and sin. Some of the party quoted from their observation and experience in the cities of the Old World, continental cities that as they 1 claimed had grown wise in experience with the evil. They eulogised tile licensed quarters of those cities as llein;; «*<• Salr under the police surveillance, that a man could enter and lodge in those places of sin as free from danger of violence or robbery as in the most fashionable hotels, and, further, that as the result of the medical inspection and certificate, he would he equally assured of freedom from any danger of disease as the result of his indulgence. These men grew eloquent in their eulogies of the system as it exists in the Old World and as eloquent in their denunciations of so-called

puritanical restraint and prohibitory efforts. Then turning to the only one of their party who had not taken any part in the discussion, they asked for his opinion. “ Having assumed,’ he replied, “ the necessity for the existence of the social evil, you have most assuredly presented a way in which sin on the part of men may have free course in apparent safety. But in this discussion you have also assumed, as a matter of necessity and as something that you have a perfect right to do, the sacrifice to a living death and an eternal hell of my daughter, or what is the same, of Xmiirhod)'*! for the gratification of the sinful lust and passion of your son. You argue that, if there were no houses of prostitution, then no one’s daughter would be safe on the street, and so you would sacrifice with legal ceremonies some of the daughters that the others may he >afe. If you mean that our daughters would be in danger of unbiidled assault from all men —from your sons then you present such a degraded view of the human race as to make its annihilation the heart prayer of all good men and women. If you do not consi ler the sinful indulgence of his passions a great crime on the part of man, hut a physical necessity, and therefore maintain the views you have expressed as to the best methods of meeting that necessity with the greatest safety—then I meet

your argument with these two words, “ Whose daughter ? ” If you deliberately assert that your son in his coming to manhood can not restrain himself, but that somebody’s daughter must be sacrificed to his lust, lask, \\ lio*»r hnuglitiT f' In this removal of restraint from his path it may be my daughter who will be swept away to perdition, as thousands upon thousandsofdaughters have been swept. Hut, gentlemen,” he said, rising to his feet and looking each one of them in the eye, “ I have a dear, loving, beautiful daughter, and if I knew that one of you were purposing in his heart to sacrifice her for the gratification of the passions of your son, I would bury you and your son in the dishonoured grave you would deserve, calling upon God to help me to do my righteous duty in preserving my lovcu daughter from hellish hir>t and damnation. “ Hut if you say that of course you had no thought of sacrificing my daughter, then I ask, ‘Whose daughter ? ’ For if I would put forth my life without question or hesitation to defend the honour of my daughter, would it be possible for me to agree in cold blood to a system that is based upon the sacrifice of some other man’s daughter? My one answer to all your arguments is, ‘ Whose daughter ? ’ I do not admit your assumption that the existence of the social evil is a necessity, for the Word of God reveals the high ideal of a pure manhood that shall make the

* liilr l.iflV lor Two * the shining of the Divine Presence in the earth home, and make its pure love and unalloyed happiness a crown of glory upon the ch. ste life. No sin is a necessity, for into the life may be received the Divine Presence anti help by which we overcome all sin. As the father l<x)ks into the sweet trusting face of his little girl, the mere statement of such

propositions as you have advanced makes the hot blood rush into his veins, and a true fatherhood stands ever ready to smite to the earth and to death the one that would offer the sweet grl life on the altar of lust on the false plea of necessity. To all comes the question that should place every one on the side of purity for ever— Whose daughter shall be sacrificed ? Whose daughter shall be destroyed for ever ? ” —“ Union Signal."