5.  DAILY PRESS.—­The daily press has not had the moral courage to say one word; the quality of demoralizing novels such as have been produced from the impure brain and unclean imaginations; the subtle, clever and fascinating undermining of the white-winged angel of purity by modern sophists, whose purient and vicious volumes were written to throw a halo of charm and beauty about the brilliant courtesan and the splendid adulteress; the mixing up of lust and love; the making of corrupt passion to stand in the garb of a deep, lasting, and holy affection—­these are some of the hidious seedlings which, hidden amid the glamor and fascination of the seeming “angel of light,” have to so large an extent corrupted the morality of the country.

6.  NIGHTLY EXHIBITIONS.—­Some of you know what the nightly exhibitions in these garlanded temples of whorish incentive are.  There is the variety theatre with its disgusting ballet dancing, and its shamelessly indecent photographs exhibited in every direction.  What a clear gain to morality it would be if the accursed houses were burnt down, and forbidden by law ever to be re-built or re-opened; the whole scene is designed to act upon and stimulate the lusts and evil passions of corrupt men and women.

7.  CONFIDENCE AND EXPOSURE.—­I hear some of you say, cannot some influence be brought to bear upon this plague-spot?  Will the legislature or congress do nothing?  Is the law and moral right to continue to be trodden under foot?  Are the magistrates and the police powerless?  The truth is, the harlots and whoremongers are master of the situation; the moral sense of the legislators, the magistrates, and the police is so low that anything like confidence is at present out of the question.

8.  THE SISTERHOOD OF SHAME AND DEATH.—­It is enough to make angels weep to see a great mass of America’s wealthy and better-class sons full of zeal and on fire with interest in the surging hundreds of the sisterhood of shame and death.  Many of these men act as if they were—­if they do not believe they are—­dogs.  No poor hunted dog in the streets was ever tracked by a yelping crowd of curs more than is the fresh girl or chance of a maid in the accursed streets of our large cities.  Price is no object, nor parentage, nor home; it is the truth to affirm that hundreds and thousands of well-dressed and educated men come in order to the gratification of their lusts, and to this end they frequent this whole district; they have reached this stage, they are being burned up in this fire of lust; men of whom God says, “Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease sin.”

9.  LAW MAKERS.—­Now should any member of the legislature rise up and testify against this “earthly hell,” and speak in defence of the moral manhood and womanhood of the nation, he would be greeted as a fanatic, and laughed down amid derisive cheers; such has been the experience again and again.  Therefore attack this great stronghold which for the past thirty years has warred and is warring against our social manhood and womanhood, and constantly undermining the moral life of the nation; against this citadel of licentiousness, this metropolitan centre of crime, and vice, and sin, direct your full blast of righteous and manly indignation.