Plain Facts for Old and Young

by John Harvey Kellogg

[The Remedy.]—Whether this gigantic evil can ever be eradicated, is exceedingly doubtful. To effect its cure would be to make refined Christians out of brutal sensualists; to emancipate woman from the enticing, alluring slavery of fashion; to uproot false ideas of life and its duties,—in short, to revolutionize society. The crime is perpetrated in secret. Many times no one but the criminal herself is cognizant of the evil deed. Only occasionally do cases come near enough to the surface to be dimly discernible; hence the evident inefficiency of any civil legislation. But the evil is a desperate one, and is increasing; shall no attempt be made to check the tide of crime and save the sufferers from both physical and spiritual perdition? An effort should be made, at least. Let every Christian raise the note of warning. From every Christian pulpit let the truth be spoken in terms too plain for misapprehension. Let those who are known to be guilty of this most revolting crime be looked upon as murderers, as they are; and let their real moral status be distinctly shown.

All of these means will do something to effect a reform; but the radical cure of the evil will only be found in the principles suggested in the section devoted to the consideration of "Marital Excesses." The adoption of those principles and strict adherence to them would effectually prevent the occurrence of circumstances which are the occasion of abortions and infanticides.

[Murder by Proxy.]—"There is, at the present time, a kind of infanticide, which, although it is not so well known, is even more dangerous, because done with impunity. There are parents who recoil with horror at the idea of destroying their offspring, although they would greatly desire to be disembarrassed of them, who yet place them without remorse with nurses who enjoy the sinister reputation of never returning the children to those who have intrusted them to their care. These unfortunate little beings are condemned to perish from inanition and bad treatment.

"The number of these innocent victims is greater than would be imagined, and very certainly exceeds that of the marked infanticides sent by the public prosecutor to the Court of the Assizes."

[THE SOCIAL EVIL.]

Illicit intercourse has been a foul blot upon humanity from the earliest periods of history. At the present moment, it is a loathsome ulcer eating at the heart of civilization, a malignant leprosy which shows its hideous deformities among the fairest results of modern culture. Our large cities abound with dens of vice whose habitués shamelessly promenade the most public streets and flaunt their infamy in the face of every passer-by. In many large cities, especially in those of Continental Europe, these holds of vice are placed under the supervision of the law by the requirement that every keeper of a house of prostitution must pay for a license; in other words, must buy the right to lead his fellow-men "down to the depths of hell."

In smaller cities, as well as in large ones, in fact, from the great metropolis down to the country village, the haunts of vice are found. Every army is flanked by bands of courtesans. Wherever men go, loose women follow, penetrating even to the wildness of the miner's camp, far beyond the verge of civilization.

But brothels and traveling strumpets do not fully represent the vast extent of this monster evil. There is a class of immoral women—probably exceeding in numbers the grosser class just referred to—who consider themselves respectable; indeed, who are considered very respectable. Few are acquainted with their character. They live in elegant style and mingle in genteel society. Privately, they prosecute the most unbounded licentiousness, for the purpose of gain, or merely to gratify their lewdness. "Kept mistresses" are much more numerous than common prostitutes.

The numerous scandal and divorce suits which expose the infidelity of husbands and wives, are sufficient evidence that illicit commerce is not confined to the unmarried; but so many are the facilities for covering and preventing the results of sins of this description it is impossible to form any just estimate of their frequency. The incontinence of husbands and the unchastity of wives will only appear in their enormity at that awful day when every one shall "stand before the judgment-seat" and hear the penalty of his guilty deeds.