proved so efficient in many cases, that it was seriously proposed to have a standing force in New York and Brooklyn, to look after young girls,[1]new to the temptations and dangers of city life. In The Revolution of March 26, 1868, we find the following:
It is often asked, would you make women police officers? It has already been done. At least a society of women exists in this country, for the discovery of crimes, conspiracies and such things. The chief of this band was Mrs. Kate Warn, a native of this State, who lately died in Chicago. She was engaged in this business, fifteen years ago, by Mr. Pinkerton, of the National Police Agency. She did good service for many years in watching, waylaying, exploring and detecting; especially on the critical occasion of President Lincoln's journey to Washington in 1861. In 1865 she was sent to New Orleans, as head of the Female Police Department there.
There was a general movement in these years for the more liberal education of women in various departments of art and industry, as well as in letters. First on the list stands Vassar College, founded in 1861, richly endowed with fine grounds and spacious buildings. We cannot estimate the civilizing influence of the thousands of young women graduating at that institution, now, as cultivated wives and mothers, presiding in households all over this land. Cornell University[2]was opened to girls in 1872, more richly endowed than Vassar, and in every way superior in its environments; beautifully situated on the banks of Cayuga Lake, with the added advantage and stimulus of the system of coëducation. To Andrew D. White, its president, all women owe a
- ↑ "Sergeant Robinson, of the Twenty-sixth Precinct, made a raid on the abandoned women patroling the park last evening. At 11 p. m. six unfortunates were caged." Thus runs the record. Will some one now be kind enough to tell us whether Sergeant Robinson, or any other sergeant, made a raid upon the abandoned men who were patrolling Broadway at the same hour? Did any one on that night, or, indeed, upon any other night, within the memory of the oldest Knickerbocker, make a raid upon the gamblers, thieves, drunkards and panders that infest Houston street? By what authority do the police call women "abandoned" and arrest them because they are patrolling any public park or square? If these women belonged to the class euphemistically called "unfortunate," they were doubtless there because men were already there before them. And if it was illegal in women and deserving of punishment, why should men escape? Prima facie, if crime were committed, the latter are the greater criminals of the two. We humbly suggest to all who are endeavoring to reform this class of women, that they turn their attention to reforming the opposite sex. If you can make men so pure that they will not seek the society of prostitutes, you will soon have no prostitutes for them to seek; in other words, prostitution will cease when men become sufficiently pure to make no demand for prostitutes. In any event, the police should treat both sexes alike. Making a raid, as it is called, upon abandoned women, and shutting them up in prison, never can procure good results. The most repulsive and bestial features of "the social evil" have their origin in the treatment that women receive at the hands of the police; and society itself would be much better if the police would keep their hands off such women.—[P. P. in The Revolution.
- ↑ An important decision relating to the eligibility of candidates for the Cornell free scholarship has been rendered by Judge Martin of the Supreme Court. Mary E. Wright, who stood third in the recent examination here for the scholarship, contested the appointment on the ground that the candidates who were first and second in the examination were not pupils of a school in the county. The judge decided that candidates for the position must be residents of the county and pupils of a school therein, to be eligible, and he awarded the scholarship to Miss Wright. This is the first contested scholarship since the establishment of the University.—Ithaca dispatch to New York Times.
