sm or being denied the happiness of having a home and
children.

These are only a few of the many letters I have received, but they serve
to show the great need of early instruction of girls on these much
neglected subjects. Every girl, soon after she enters school if not
before, learns where babies come from. She too often is led by older
children, both boys and girls, to do things she may regret later. It has
been said that "sin is but ignorance." This is true in the great
majority of cases of immoral practices among girls as well as among
boys. The remedy for these sins, then, is to do away with the ignorance
by proper instruction of children. Children are reasonable beings and if
they understood the _why_ would not do wrong.

If girls go wrong through ignorance the parents are to blame; for at the
present time there is no excuse for a parent not giving the necessary
instruction. If, on account of her own lack of knowledge, the mother
feels incapable of instructing her daughter, there are others ready and
willing to aid her; also, there are books especially prepared for her
help, which will definitely point the way.

CHAPTER XV

WHY GIRLS GO ASTRAY

Not long ago an estimable young woman in speaking of the unfortunate
girls in the world said, "I cannot see how any refined girl could get
into trouble. I cannot conceive of any circumstances which would permit
any self-respecting girl to allow the familiarities necessary for such a
condition." That is the attitude assumed by many intelligent women.
Because they grew up in an environment without temptations, because they
had no unsatisfied longings to be loved or to be popular, they are
incapable of understanding these feelings in any other person.

In every girl there is an inborn longing to be loved and to have a home
of her own. It is a misunderstanding of this sense that is responsible
for the wrecked lives of many girls. In too many homes there is no
expression of the love sense. Frequently I have heard girls remark,
"Why, I never think of kissing my parents except, perhaps, when they or
I go away." In too many homes the only mention that is made of love is
that made in a bantering manner. A child has the right idea of love. She
loves everyone and is free in the expression of this love. As she grows
older she obtains wrong ideas of love and she too often obtains these
wrong ideas in her own home and from her own parents who instill false
ideas of love