Oh, why don't the city fathers stop that evil thing, when they know the harm it does?
It made my heart ache to see those boys, who ought to be at home and in their beds, going off for a night of riot which would help to ruin some of them for ever.' The youths looked scared at Mrs Jo's energetic protest against one of the fashionable pleasures of the day, and waited in conscience-stricken silence--Stuffy glad that he never went to those gay suppers, and Dolly deeply grateful that he 'came away early'.

With a hand on either shoulder, and all the terrors smoothed from her brow, Mrs Jo went on in her most motherly tone, anxious to do for them what no other woman would, and do it kindly: 'My dear boys, if I didn't love you, I would not say these things.

I know they are not pleasant; but my conscience won't let me hold my peace when a word may keep you from two of the great sins that curse the world and send so many young men to destruction.

You are just beginning to feel the allurement of them, and soon it will be hard to turn away.

Stop now, I beg of you, and not only save yourselves but help others by a brave example.