"Be merciful to the erring."
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY M. DOOLADY,
49 WALKER STREET.
1861.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861,
By M. Doolady,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for theSouthern District of New York.
When reason and conscience are a man's true guides to what heundertakes, and he acts strictly in obedience to them, he has little tofear from what the unthinking may say. You cannot, I hold, mistake a manintent only on doing good. You may differ with him on the means he callsto his aid; but having formed a distinct plan, and carried it out inobedience to truth and right, it will be difficult to impugn thesincerity of his motives. For myself, I care not what weapon a manchoose, so long as he wield it effectively, and in the cause of humanityand justice. We are a sensitive nation, prone to pass great moral evilsover in silence rather than expose them boldly, or trace them to theirtrue sources. I am not indifferent to the duty every writer owes topublic opinion, nor the penalties he incurs in running counter to it.But fear of public opinion, it seems to me, has been productive of muchevil, inasmuch as it prefers to let crime exist rather than engage inreforms. Taking this view of the matter, I hold fear of public opinionto be an evil much to be deplored. It aids in keeping out of sight thatwhich should be exposed to public view, and is satisfied to passunheeded the greatest of moral evils. Most writers touch these greatmoral evils with a timidity that amounts to fear, and in describingcrimes of the greatest magnitude, do it so daintily as to divest theirarguments of all force. The public cannot reasonably be expected toapply a remedy for an evil, unless the cause as well as the effect beexposed truthfully to its view. It is the knowledge of their existenceand the magnitude of their influence upon society, which no falsedelicacy should keep out of sight, that nerves the good and generous toaction. I am aware that in exciting this action, great care should betaken lest the young and weak-minded become fascinated with the gildingof the machinery called to the writer's aid. It is urged by many goodpeople, who take somewhat narrow views of this subject, that in dealingwith the mysteries of crime vice should only be described as an uglydame with most repulsive features. I differ with those persons. It wouldbe a violation of the truth to paint her thus, and few would read of herin such an unsightly dress. These persons do not, I think, take asufficiently clear view of the grades into which the vicious of ourcommunity are divided, and their different modes of living. They foundtheir opinions solely on the moral and physical condition of the mostwretched and abject class, whose sufferings they would have us hold upto public view, a warning to those who stand hesitating on the brinkbetween virtue and vice. I hold it better to expose the allurementsfirst, and then paint vice in her natural colors—a dame so gay andfascinating that it is difficult not to become enamored of her. The uglyand repulsive dame would have few followers, and no need of writers tocaution the unwary against her snares. And I cannot forget, that truthalways carries the more forcible lesson. But we must paint the road tovice as well as the castle, if we would give effect to our warning. Thatroad is too frequently strewn with the brightest of flowers, the thornsonly discovering themselves when the sweetness of the flowers hasdeparted. I have chosen, then, to describe things