SOCIAL REFORM.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1960, 29 January 1885, Page 4

SOCIAL REFORM.

Thb City Hall at Glasgow was recently crowded to the doors by persons anxious to hear an address on " Social Purity " from Miss Elise Hopkins, and (says the Heiald) thu audience represented creiy grade .and age of citi/en. Miss Hopkins is no adventuress. She is a lady who lias out of sheer lovn for the fallen and degraded of her sex devoted her life, not so much to the reclamation of the fallen as to the endeavour to ro tse in the heaits of men a higher ideal of woman's mission in this world, to imbue him w ith a true and manly tenderness and kmuhtly beaiing towards the weaker sex, and her lcctuies to women are no doubt as powerfully directed towaida their spiritual, intellectual, and mental elevation. Her style of speech, and her dignified and earnest manner, at once commanded for her the most reverent and respectful attention, and her clear, sweet voice, her elegant and graceful declamation, at once stamp her as a woman well calculated to impiess powerfully an audience such as she addressed last night. Her opening word "Btothers!" uttered in a clear liquid tone, had a magical effect, and the fact that she spoke for fifty-five minutes without a single note or" scrap of paper compelled the undisguised admiiation of her licareis, and at times the storm of applause sho excited completely drowned her voice. She spoke of her upbiingmg, and of one who haa 1 eared her and imbued her with the strong love for the lost — her father. He was blessed, sho said, with every good thing that wealth and position could givo ; but this terribic national sin — this great evil of society, held tilled his mind with the deepest distress, which was only alleviated by her promise to give up home comforts aud every consideration of womanhood, and go forth through the length and breadth of England and Scotland to unceasingly woik for the promotion of social purity amongst the people of these islands. She knew the Herculean task, sh<» hid imdei taken, and horrified her audience by telling them openly that on the streets of London alone theic weic no less than 30,000 fallen women <md childien — "a supply created by the demand," she said, with concentrated bitterness in her tone. There were two rocks in a man's life, she said, iip^n which men must either find, refuge or be shattered — "God and woman! for the man who had lost 1113 faith in woman had lost the power of having faith in God." She said that Mr Moody, when in England, told an audience of 5.000 that it was impurity more than intemperance that was eating out the heart of England, and of this she herself was more and more convinced every day she lived, and she wanted to tell the young men here that they were to blame for it. Let the demaud and the supply of money cease, and theinqnity would disappear. She had brought them there that night to plead with them in the n.ime of their mothers and si3ters, by the holy ties of wifehood and motheihood, to keep themselves pine. Her hopes were centred in the young; and not only were they to keep themselves pure, but they were to fiown down the impure insinuations, the unchaste allusions, and the filthy btoues in the woikshops. They were to show by a robust manly bearing that mean sneaking cowards who could uoo the articulate speech God had blessed them with to detanic His name and utter obscouities wcie not fit companions for hoivst, honourable-hearted Scotchmen. Now and again her audience checre 1 her to the echo as she showed the fight and "go" tiiat were concentrated in her slender figure, as for instance when she said : " You have got to form a public opinion on the side of right and true manliness. Here you have been at fault, otheiwi>e our hands would not be full, as they are all over England, of poor, ruined, girls — not corrupt girls, but gills who have been betrayed by the men they Jove. I pledgo yon in the name of Chiist to cut a, ftllow who can behave to a woman like that. 1 pledge 'you, as you arc men and not sneakss to kick him out of your cricket clubs ; I pledge you to bring such a robust public opinion to bear upon him that both in England and Scotland that very common scoundrel may feel that he had better make himself scaice." It need hardly be said how such words as these from a lady, spoken with a ring of genuine indignation, affected a meeting of young men in Glasgow. It was an appeal to the inner cluvahy of their natuics, and evoked a perfect whirlwind ot applause. Again, w hen pledging them to pei.sonal purity, a part of a piomisc she ex-tract from them, she gave them some excellent advice. '■ Be mich a man to weak woman as Jesus Christ was, and you shall find that you can ebvate them to any pedestal you may desire. The kindness and sympathy of Christ made the poor ■women to whom he spoke become the most splendid saints of the Christian Church." Miss Hopkins finished by adjuring them to be loyal to the best interests of themselves, their families, and the State, and put the following pledges, adhesion to which makes them members of the " White Ciw-s Society :" — Ist. To treat all women with respect, and endeavour to protect them from wrong and degiadation. 2. To endeavour to put down all indecent language and coarse jests. 3. To maintain the law of purity an (•finally binding on men and women. 4. To cndiavout to spread these principles, and to help our younger brothers. 5. To 1110 every possible means to fulfil these obligitions, and to keep themselves puio.