ul attitude of
guardians of the purity of the home. We women cannot know anything about
the inner secrets of men's lives, or know whom to exclude and whom to
admit to the society of our girls. This ought to be the part of the
brothers. God knows we do not want to make a pariah class of men on the
same lines as are meted out to women. The young man who wants to do
better we are bound to help, and no better work can be done in our large
cities than to open our homes to young men in business or in Government
offices, etc. But men who are deliberately leading a fast life and who
are deeply stained with the degradation of our own womanhood, with no
wish to rise out of their moral slough, these must be to us as moral
lepers, to be gilded by no wealth, to be cloaked by no insignia of noble
birth, or we stand betrayed as hypocrites and charlatans in our own
cause. If our position in society is such as obliges us to receive such
men, we all know the moral uses of ice, and under the guise of the most
frigid politeness we can make them feel their absolute exclusion from
the inner circle of our friends and intimates. There need be no
discussion between you and your son--just the hint: "Oh, mother, I would
not ask that fellow if I were you," and you will know what is meant.

Much may also be done by keeping up the general high tone of the home.
One mother of eight sons, who all turned out men of high, pure life, if
ever they used in her presence such expressions as "a well-groomed
woman," or commended their last partner at a ball as "a pretty little
filly," would instantly interrupt them and ask incisively, "Are you
talking of a horse or a woman? If you are talking of a woman, you will
be pleased to remember that you are speaking in the presence of your
mother and your sisters." And if any scandal about a woman was mooted,
the conversation was at once quietly turned into another and more
profitable channel.

A word of homely advice from you to your sons with regard to our streets
at night: never to loiter, but to trudge on quickly, when they would be
rarely molested, may be advisable and useful.

As to absolute watchfulness with regard to the young maid-servants in
your house, this is so obvious a point that it scarcely needs
mentioning; though at the same time I have known the most culpably
careless arrangements made when the family are away for their summer
holidays, young maid-servants being left alone in the house while the
y