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Mason Long
PREFACE.
We hear of reformed men on all sides; there are reformed criminals of every kind in the pulpits, on the rostrums, in the church, telling the story of their past lives, that all who hear may heed the terrible warning and profit by the example; but we hear little or nothing of "reformed women." Efforts are constantly being made to elevate and save degraded men, but degraded women are left by the wayside to perish. The author has long pondered over this subject, and wondered why a lost woman isn't just as well worth saving as a lost man, and why she can not be as easily reached as he. In this little volume, I have endeavored, in my humble way, to plead the cause of these wretched outcasts, and present their claims for consideration. Fully aware that the subject I have discussed is a most delicate one, I have endeavored to handle it in such a manner that no right minded person can take any offense. The book might better have been written by some abler pen than mine, but one thing I beg to say: that no word in page: 6[View Page 6] it has been penned with any motive save that of doing good. If my humble efforts direct the attention of all good people to our erring sisters, and lead them to hold up the hands of their clergymen in efforts to save these wretched beings, I shall feel my book has accomplished its object—that my labor has not been in vain.
MASON LONG.
FORT WAYNE, IND., August, 1880.
page: [7][View Page [7]]TABLE OF CONTENTS
- PREFACE5
- CHAPTER I.
A Page from Real Life—Introductory, 9 - CHAPTER II.
The Principal Causes of the Social Evil, 32 - CHAPTER III.
The Evils of Dancing—Sad Results of a Public Ball, 50 - CHAPTER IV.
A Lost Woman Saved Through her Mother's Love—
How a Girl was Snatched From the Verge of a Precipice, 108 - CHAPTER V.
The Perils of Poverty—Pitfalls for the Working
Girls—How They are Led to Destruction, 133 - CHAPTER VI.
Some Temptations of City Life—The Theater—The Race Course—Street Flirtations, etc., 175 - CHAPTER VII.
The Life of a Fallen Queen—From a Palace to an Alley, and then to an Insane Asylum, 199 - CHAPTER VIII.
Society Buying a Slave—The Fate of the Outcast—Fashionable Immorality—Marital Infidelity—"A Harp for the Magdalens." 217 - CHAPTER IX.
How to Save Our Erring Sisters—Duty of the Church—What has been Done in this Field, 233
