intain themselves, if dependent on their own resources. The American
woman's pride in a good appearance, the natural human love of ease,
luxury, and excitement, the craving for relaxation and thrill, after
the exacting labor of a long day, all contribute to the welcome of an
opportunity for an indulgence that brings money in return. The agency
of the dance-hall and the saloon has also an important place in the
downfall of the tempted. Intemperance and prostitution go together,
and places where they can be enjoyed are factories of vice and crime.
Many so-called hotels with bar attachment are little more than houses
of evil resort. Especially notorious for a time were the Raines Law
hotels in New York City, designed to check intemperance, but proving
nurseries of prostitution. Commercial profit is large from both kinds
of traffic, and one stimulates the other.

Among minor causes of the social evil is the postponement or
abandonment of marriage by many young people, the celibate life
imposed upon students and soldiers, the declaration of some physicians
that continence is injurious, and lax opinion, especially in Europe.

90. =The Consequences.=--It is impossible to measure adequately the
consequences of sexual indulgence. It is destructive of physical
health among women and of morals among both sexes. It results in a
weakening of the will and a blunting of moral discernment. It is an
economic waste, as is intemperance, for even on the level of economic
values it is plain that money could be much better spent for that
which would benefit rather than curse. But the great evil that looms
large in public view is the legacy of physical disease that falls upon
self-indulgent men and their families. The presence of venereal
disease in Europe is almost unbelievable; so great has it been in
continental armies that governments have become alarmed as to its
effects upon the health and morale of the troops. College men have
been reckless in sowing wild oats, and have suffered serious physical
consequences. Most pathetic is the suffering that is caused to
innocent wives and children in blindness, sterility, and frequent
abdominal disease. This is a subject that demands the attention of
every person interested in human happiness and social welfare.

91. =History of Reform.=--Spasmodic efforts to suppress the social
evil have occurred from time to time. The result has been to scatter
rather than to suppress it, and after a little it