Magdalenism : an inquiry into the extent, causes, and consequences of prostitution in Edinburgh / by William Tait.

  • Tait, William.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Magdalenism : an inquiry into the extent, causes, and consequences of prostitution in Edinburgh / by William Tait. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    lAvlio do not, in their sober moments, experience a very lively sense of re]igion,Qind are fully sensible of their degraded and fallen con- « dition^^he_j;ery tlioiight of which, be more particularly f acivefiEccrto in a subsequent chapter, joften drives tliem to distrac- tioiTai^d dissijpation.J. Nothing- can be better calculated to convey a fliithful representation of their real state of mind'^^n their reflec- tive moments,Yhan the following lines,^^written_ by one of these unjfortimate young women on the back of a card that hung near to her bed y^']}cn she was in the Lock ITospital.) The verses are given verbatim as she wrote them, with the excepition of the name, which she has written in full:— ./^ an unfortunate 3'oung girl from D , tlia(^left a good fatliei^incFa good home] to which she doubts veiy much ^ic will never return.' As long as life its term extends, Hope's West dominion never ends ; For while the lamp holds on to hiu'u, The greatest sinner may return. f He takes the weary wanderer home That long hath gone astray. Farewell, loved youth ! for still I Iiold you dear, Though thou hast left me friendless and alone ; Still, still thy name recalls the heart-felt tear, That hastes me to my wish'd-for home. It is satisfactory to add, that ; she'has (returned homeland is behaving well,,; and has experienced the kindest treatment from her affectionate father, who has never once alluded to her former misconduct. .Another sister of liers, who was on Jhe street at the same time, is now married to a highly respectable individual, and isfalso conducting herselft'with the utmost-^roprietyy W- (^mongst other topics of interest^n the(history of prostitutes,J) the writer has beeiTarconsiderable painJ* tq discovei'tliow many)of them had, previous to their going astray,(connected themselvesj) ^^as members with fany church)> and to%hat body of Christians they professed to belong.^ Tlic result of liis investigations on these