midnight
For years to come , the average of lone women will be largely increased ; and the demand , always great , for some means by which they may provide for themselves , in the rude jostle of the world , will become more urgent and imperative . Will any one sit pining away in inert grief , when two streets off are the midnight dance-houses , where girls of twelve , thirteen , and fourteen are being lured into the way of swift destruction ? How many of these are daughters of soldiers who have given their hearts ' blood for us and our liberties ! Two noble women of the Society of Friends have lately been taking the gauge of suffering and misery in our land , visiting the hospitals at every accessible point , pausing in our great cities , and going in their purity to those midnight orgies where mere children are being trained for a life of vice and infamy . They have talked with these poor bewildered souls , entangled in toils as terrible and inexorable as those of the slave-market , and many of whom are frightened and distressed at the life they are beginning to lead , and earnestly looking for the means of escape . In the judgment of these holy women , at least one third of those with whom they have talked are children so recently entrapped , and so capable of reformation , that there would be the greatest hope in efforts for their salvation . While such things are to be done in our land , is there any reason why any one should die of grief ?