know it used to be considered vulgar to talk about the stomach and
other organs which God gave us for the maintenance of life. But when
folks began to realize that two-thirds of the sickness in the world,
contagious and otherwise, resulted from trouble with the stomach, that
false modesty had to give way. Consequently to-day we have fewer
epidemics, much better general health, because men and women understand
how to cure many of their own ailments with prompt action and simple
methods.

"The vice problem is one which reaps its richest harvest when it is
protected from the sunlight. Sewers are not pleasant table-talk, but
they must be watched and attended by scientific sanitary engineers. A
cancer of the intestines is disagreeable to think about. But when it
threatens a patient's life the patient should know the truth and the
doctor should operate. Modern society is the patient, and
death-dealing sex crimes are the cancerous growth, which must be
operated upon. Whenever we allow a neighborhood to maintain houses of
prostitution, thus regulating and in a way sanctioning the evil, we are
granting a sort of corporation charter for an industry which is run
upon business methods. And business, you know, is based upon filling
the 'demand,' with the necessary 'supply.' And the manufacturers, in
this case, are the procurers and the proprietresses of these houses.
There comes in the business of recruiting--and hence the traffic in
souls, as it has aptly been called. No, my boy, government regulation
will never serve man, nor woman, for it cannot cover all the ground.
As long as women are reckless, lazy and greedy, yielding to temporary,
half-pleasant sin rather than live by work, you will find men with low
ideals in all ranks of life who prefer such illicit 'fun' to the
sweetness of wedlock! Why, Burke, sex is the most beautiful thing in
the world--it puts the blossoms on the trees, it colors the
butterflies' wings, it sweetens the songs of the birds, and it should
make life worth living for the worker in the trench, the factory hand,
the office toiler and the millionaire. But it will never do so until
people understand it, know how to guard it with decent knowledge, and
sanctify it morally and hygienically."

The old doctor rose and knocked the ashes out of his briar pipe. He
looked at the eager face of the young officer.

"But there, I'm getting old, for I yield to the melody of my own voice
too much. I've got