$10 limerick #18
There was a young lady called Wylde
Who kept herself quite undefiled
By thinking of Jesus,
Contagious diseases,
And the bother of having a child.
Norman Douglas:
"(American.) This prudent young person hit upon the three chief deterrents to leading a loose life; a single one of them, I should have thought, would suffice for that purpose. The religious deterrent, once the strongest, seems to have lost something of its hold upon the modern woman. The second or medical one will never lose its hold; everybody knows that these diseases, a real menace to society, are now engaging the attention of public bodies all over Europe. Thirdly, the social stigma that would attach to a young girl, were she known to be pregnant, is incalculable – "bother" is a mild word for it – and often drives her into some nasty cottage down Cornwall way, or into the consulting room of people who "use instruments with a view to procuring a certain result" – the result to themselves being even more certain, namely, seven years."
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