259

NO NEED OF PROSTITUTION

Mrs. Peattie Refuses to Accept the Claim That the Wanton Is a Necessity.

A Powerful Arraignment by a Woman of the Plea That Women Must be Debauched.

This is a law-abiding state. Of course. Do we not hasten to arrest the freezing man who steals coal, or the shivering woman who steals clothes? We must do this or the foundation fo the law will crumble.

But we were nevertheless convulsed with amazement when the mayor of Lincoln suggests that a certain law on the statute books be enforced.

Nor are we alone in our amazement. The rest of the world looks with equal surprise and not a little amusement at this extraordinary man, who proposes to see to the enforcement of the statues of his state and the ordinance of his city providing against professional prostitution.

That anarchy is not necessarily so unpopular among men as it is commonly held up to be whenever a redistribution of property is suggested is evidenced by the fact that we have been living in anarchy all along and never noticed it. For if it is not anarchy to disregard a law, then what is it? And the form of anarchy in which we have been so openly indulging appears not alone to have been encouraged by common citizens, but to have been encouraged and supported to the utmost by the makers of the law themselves, the legislators at Lincoln.

Ray Cameron, who has the reputation of being one of the most charming and witty cyprians in Nebraska, says, "I predict that my girls will continue their work secretly until the legislature opens. Then they will come back to their quarters as usual. There is too much money in circulation during legislative sessions for them not to take some risks."

It is incidentally understood that the business interests of Lincoln are likely to suffer greatly from this order of Mayor Weir's and that the business men feel that the order should not be enforced at a time so financially stringent. I have lived in the west too long to underestimate the necessity of systematic "booming" and am tremendously impressed with the last argument; feeling that the continuance in crime of 200 sister women is the merest trifle compared with the dividends which Lincoln merchants will receive as the outcome of flush pocketbooks in the demi-monde. But setting aside for a moment the embarrassment in trade, which must naturally result from the failure of 200 women to offer their bodies daily for sale (immortal [?] thrown in, as a cap to the bargain). I am obliged to confess that I see no reason why Mayor Weir's direction to the chief of police to enforce a law should awaken any discussion. Once before and quite recently has a similar effort been made. That was in Pittsburg, but the authority of the mayor went for nothing; the majesty of the law was scoffed at as if it were no more than the majesty of a king of carnival. Trade reasserted itself, and men continued to break the laws which they themselves had enacted.

It passes my comprehension to understand why the legislature of every state should go to the trouble to enact laws which do not respect themselves nor which they do not respect themselves nor anticipate that others will respect. Can it be that they merely put these statutes on their books to [?] posterity? Or is a fact that society unites in holding up before its composite eye a colossal image of fictitious virtues?

However that may be the 200 prostitutes of Lincoln are told to move on, and move on they will to Omaha, Kearney, Beatrice and Hastings. They will stay away for a brief time, until the vigilance of the police is relaxed, and then they will return. Everyone seems to recognize the fact that they must be back in time for the legislative session. Real politics appear to have difficulty in proceeding without the aid of prostitution.

Men and women who do not believe in innocence are apt to denominate themselves men and women of the world, and they appear to think that by this open confession of their sophistication they have made sufficient apology to society for any vicious views that they may hold, and any overt actions they may commit.

Men and women of the world have often assured me that prostitution is a necessity. I know the queen of England thinks it is. And I am acquainted with a great many wives who assure me that they believe so, and that if professional prostitution were not permitted, it would not be safe for any pure woman to walk the streets alone. I always wonder what sort of personal experience these women must have had to give them such an idea of the brutishness of man. I have noticed, too, that women who tell me that they think such institutions as the Florence Crittenton homes, or the Open Door, immoral. And when they assure me that they consider it injudicious to restrict men in their vices, and immoral to rescue the women these men have ruined, then, indeed do I look upon them with the eyes of pity, knowing that a black leaf of shame lies in their life's book. Only the last great heart sacrifice that a woman can make will cause her to become so indecent in her mode of thinking. When a pure woman thus condones sin it is because her husband or her son is a sinner, and she had to do one of two things--disapprove of the sinner or approve the sin.

NO NEED OF PROSTITUTION

Mrs. Peattie Refuses to Accept the Claim That the Wanton Is a Necessity.

A Powerful Arraignment by a Woman of the Plea That Women Must be Debauched.

This is a law-abiding state. Of course. Do we not hasten to arrest the freezing man who steals coal, or the shivering woman who steals clothes? We must do this or the foundation fo the law will crumble.

But we were nevertheless convulsed with amazement when the mayor of Lincoln suggests that a certain law on the statute books be enforced.

Nor are we alone in our amazement. The rest of the world looks with equal surprise and not a little amusement at this extraordinary man, who proposes to see to the enforcement of the statues of his state and the ordinance of his city providing against professional prostitution.

That anarchy is not necessarily so unpopular among men as it is commonly held up to be whenever a redistribution of property is suggested is evidenced by the fact that we have been living in anarchy all along and never noticed it. For if it is not anarchy to disregard a law, then what is it? And the form of anarchy in which we have been so openly indulging appears not alone to have been encouraged by common citizens, but to have been encouraged and supported to the utmost by the makers of the law themselves, the legislators at Lincoln.

Ray Cameron, who has the reputation of being one of the most charming and witty cyprians in Nebraska, says, "I predict that my girls will continue their work secretly until the legislature opens. Then they will come back to their quarters as usual. There is too much money in circulation during legislative sessions for them not to take some risks."

It is incidentally understood that the business interests of Lincoln are likely to suffer greatly from this order of Mayor Weir's and that the business men feel that the order should not be enforced at a time so financially stringent. I have lived in the west too long to underestimate the necessity of systematic "booming" and am tremendously impressed with the last argument; feeling that the continuance in crime of 200 sister women is the merest trifle compared with the dividends which Lincoln merchants will receive as the outcome of flush pocketbooks in the demi-monde. But setting aside for a moment the embarrassment in trade, which must naturally result from the failure of 200 women to offer their bodies daily for sale (imortal