of love of the pure-minded sister.  For the harlot’s mess of meat some listening to me have spent scores of hours of invaluable time.  They have wearied the body, diseased and demoralized the mind.  The pocket has been emptied, theft committed, lies unnumbered told, to play the part of the harlot’s mate—­perchance a six-foot fool, dragged into the filth and mire of the harlot’s house.  You called her your friend, when, but for her mess of meat, you would have passed her like dirt in the street.

10.  SEEING LIFE.—­You consorted with her for your mutual shame and death, and then called it “seeing life.”  Had your mother met you, you would have shrunk away like a craven cur.  Had your sister interviewed you, she had blushed to bear your name; or had she been seen by you in company with some other whoremaster, for similar commerce, you would have wished that she had been dead.  Now what think you of this “seeing life?” And it is for this that tens of thousands of strong men in our large cities are selling their birthright.

11.  THE DEVIL’S DECOYS.—­Some may be ready to affirm that physical and moral penalties do not appear to overtake all men; that many men known to be given to intemperance and sensuality are strong, well, and live to a good age.  Let us not make any mistake concerning these; they are exceptions to the rule; the appearance of health in them is but the grossness of sensuality.  You have only carefully to look into the faces of these men to see that their countenances, eyes, and speech betray them.  They are simply the devil’s decoys.

12.  GROSSNESS OF SENSUALITY.—­The poor degraded harlot draws in the victims like a heavily charged lodestone; these men are found in large numbers throughout the entire community; they would make fine men were they not weighted with the grossness of sensuality; as it is, they frequent the race-course, the card-table, the drinking-saloon, the music-hall, and the low theaters, which abound in our cities and towns; the great majority of these are men of means and leisure.  Idleness is their curse, their opportunity for sin; you may know them as the loungers over refreshment-bars, as the retailers of the latest filthy joke, or as the vendors of some disgusting scandal; indeed, it is appalling the number of these lepers found both in our business and social circles.

[Illustration:  PALESTINE WATER CARRIERS.]

* * * * *

POISONOUS LITERATURE AND BAD PICTURES.

1.  OBSCENE LITERATURE.—­No other source contributes so much to sexual immorality as obscene literature.  The mass of stories published in the great weeklies and the cheap novels are mischievous.  When the devil determines to take charge of a young soul, be often employs a very ingenious method.  He slyly hands a little novel filled with “voluptuous forms,” “reclining on bosoms,” “languishing eyes,” etc.

2.  MORAL FORCES.—­The world is full of such literature.  It is easily accessible, for it is cheap, and the young will procure it, and therefore become easy prey to its baneful influence and effects.  It weakens the moral forces of the young, and they thereby fall an easy prey before the subtle schemes of the libertine.