ISLAM

166 ISI^AM VERSUS CHRISTIANITY
decency and are rendered physical wrecks by sexual
intemperance. They sell their modesty and morality
for merely "a good time." They sell their birthright
for a mess of pottage, their life for a song or a sigh.
In page 142, of the same book, the author says :
There is a more sordid aspect of this corruption.
The vice of our public streets has undergone a
remarkable change. There is a new race of
immoral women. They come from offices and
shops. They are young, and the glamour of the
summit has bewitched them. They desire the
life of fashion, the life of indelicate clothes, gilded
restaurants, the theatre and the night-club. So
they sell first their modesty and then their
virtue.
It is the price they pay for a good time."*
One step lower you will find horrible things :
"There is a collapse of the most primitive virtue
among girls who live in the slums of our seaport
towns. They are so shameless that they get
themselves rowed out to incoming ships that
they may make sure of a sailor when the vessel
comes into port, be he Lascar, Negro, or Chinaman.
Some of these girls are the very dregs of
degradation. Most of them, however, are inspired
by the same motive which moves the millionaire
to activity. They want money. And they
want money for the same reason that the millionaire's
wife and daughter want it; for display,
for rich food, for excitement, for "a good time' 1 .
Jh* Gla& of Fashion, page 143.