roying their offspring, although they would greatly desire
to be disembarrassed of them, who yet place them without remorse with
nurses who enjoy the sinister reputation of never returning the
children to those who have intrusted them to their care. These
unfortunate little beings are condemned to perish from inanition and
bad treatment.

"The number of these innocent victims is greater than would be imagined,
and very certainly exceeds that of the marked infanticides sent by the
public prosecutor to the Court of the Assizes."

THE SOCIAL EVIL.

Illicit intercourse has been a foul blot upon humanity from the earliest
periods of history. At the present moment, it is a loathsome ulcer
eating at the heart of civilization, a malignant leprosy which shows
its hideous deformities among the fairest results of modern culture.
Our large cities abound with dens of vice whose _habitues_ shamelessly
promenade the most public streets and flaunt their infamy in the face
of every passer-by. In many large cities, especially in those of
Continental Europe, these holds of vice are placed under the
supervision of the law by the requirement that every keeper of a house
of prostitution must pay for a license; in other words, must buy the
right to lead his fellow-men "down to the depths of hell."

In smaller cities, as well as in large ones, in fact, from the great
metropolis down to the country village, the haunts of vice are found.
Every army is flanked by bands of courtesans. Wherever men go, loose
women follow, penetrating even to the wildness of the miner's camp,
far beyond the verge of civilization.

But brothels and traveling strumpets do not fully represent the vast
extent of this monster evil. There is a class of immoral women--probably
exceeding in numbers the grosser class just referred to--who consider
themselves respectable; indeed, who are considered very respectable.
Few are acquainted with their character. They live in elegant style
and mingle in genteel society. Privately, they prosecute the most
unbounded licentiousness, for the purpose of gain, or merely to gratify
their lewdness. "Kept mistresses" are much more numerous than common
prostitutes.

The numerous scandal and divorce suits which expose the infidelity of
husbands and wives, are sufficient evidence that illicit commerce is
not confined to the unmarried; but so many are the facilities for
covering and preventing the results of sins of this descripti