The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

THE EQUINOX railway platform in the Kingdom, the White Slave Traffic will continue to flourish the more it is persecuted, and become more criminal and degrading than ever. Money is not the basis of this so-called evil,as suggested, and public indigna- tion will not work a cure any more than public indignation against the Metropolitan Water Board will stop people drinking water. We must cease globe-polishing virtue and sand-papering vice. Away with our moral Monkey Brand and our ethical Sapolio, and back to a little genuine common-sense elbow-grease, When a girl ceases sowing her “ wild oats” and can enter any phase of life without being spat upon and “ chucked out,” degradation will cease. And when such women as are Jorn prostitutes are utilized by the State for the benefit of men who are not monogamists by nature, procuring will vanish. But, if these women be so used, it behoves the nation to care for these talented girls, just as she cares, or should care, for her soldiers; and when the time was expired, she should pension them off, and award them a long service and good-conduct medal should they deserve it. This is a clean-minded book so far as it goes. We have no humbugging Horton, D.D., swooning at the thought of lace, frills, and a pretty ankle. But the remedies suggested are worse than the disease. Exalt the courtesan to her proper place, bracket her name with sweetheart, wife and mother, names which are rightly dear to us, and you will find a tender heart beneath the scarlet dress, and a charming lovable woman in spite of public opprobrium, Neglect this, and all other propositions of reform spell—Muck! A, QUILLER. I like the legislation proposed by the blackguards of “ vigilance”; who, never having met a gentleman, think that everybody is an avaricious scoundrel —though sometimes in another line of business. And this attack by M.A.P. on its trade rivals in the filth-purveying business (for all journalism is filth—must we exclude this White Slave “copy” from the indictment and class it as literature?) is only what is to be expected. Anyhow, even our Government is hardly likely to pass the suggested Act, which thoughtfully provides that you may be arrested without a warrant for offering your umbrella in a shower to a strange lady, and makes it felony to raise your hat in the street. I once had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Coote, well-groomed in ultra- respectable broadcloth, and flaunting Three Virtues in his button-hole. I looked for some others in his heart, but drew blank. If he had any others, too, I suppose he would have worn the appropriate ribbons. The truth about Coote-Comstock crapulence is this. Manx Cats subscribe to the Society for the Suppression of Persian Cats. These funds go to support 338