4.  THE QUESTION.—­Why does society wonder at the increase of prostitution, when the public balls and promiscuous dancing is so largely endorsed and encouraged?

5.  WORKING GIRLS.—­Thousands of innocent working girls enter innocently and unsuspectingly into the paths which lead them to the house of evil, or who wander the streets as miserable outcasts all through the influence of the dance.  The low theatre and dance halls and other places of unselected gatherings are the milestones which mark the working girl’s downward path from virtue to vice, from modesty to shame.

6.  THE SALESWOMAN, the seamstress, the factory girl or any other virtuous girl had better, far better, die than take the first step in the path of impropriety and danger.  Better, a thousand times better, better for this life, better for the life to come, an existence of humble, virtuous industry than a single departure from virtue, even though it were paid with a fortune.

7.  TEMPTATIONS.—­There is not a young girl but what is more or less tempted by some unprincipled wretch who may have the reputation of a genteel society man.  It behooves parents to guard carefully the morals of their daughters, and be vigilant and cautious in permitting them to accept the society of young men.  Parents who desire to save their daughters from a fate which is worse than death, should endeavor by every means in their power to keep them from falling into traps cunningly devised by some cunning lover.  There are many good young men, but not all are safe friends to an innocent, confiding young girl.

8.  PROSTITUTION.—­Some girls inherit their vicious tendency; others fall because of misplaced affections; many sin through a love of dress, which is fostered by society and by the surroundings amidst which they may be placed; many, very many, embrace a life of shame to escape poverty While each of these different phases of prostitution require a different remedy, we need better men, better women, better laws and better protection for the young girls.

[Illustration:  A RUSSIAN SPINNING GIRL.]

9.  A STARTLING FACT.—­Startling as it may seem to some, it is a fact in our large cities that there are many girls raised by parents with no other aim than to make them harlots.  At a tender age they are sold by fathers and mothers into an existence which is worse than slavery itself.  It is not uncommon to see girls at the tender age of thirteen or fourteen—­mere children—­hardened courtesans, lost to all sense of shame and decency.  They are reared in ignorance, surrounded by demoralizing influences, cut off from the blessings of church and Sabbath school, see nothing but licentiousness, intemperance and crime.  These young girls are lost forever.  They are beyond the reach of the moralist or preacher and have no comprehension of modesty and purity.  Virtue to them is a stranger, and has been from the cradle.