"Don't Take a Chance" - YMCA Pamphlet Discouraging Soldiers from Having Sex with Prostitutes
YMCA, 1918. An informational pamphlet discouraging servicemen from having sex with prostitutes, published towards the end of the war for the Sex Education Bureau of the National War Work Council of the YMCA. It begins by asserting that "Nearly every prostitute is diseased" (p. 1), and that, given the consequences, the risk isn't worth it; after all, Syphilis "is about the meanest, rottenest disease a man or a woman can have" (p. 2) and "You can't play in the muck and keep clean" (p. 3). Plain talk seems to be the order of the day here, as the pamphlet goes on to align virtue and cleanliness with patriotic duty. It asks the servicemen to reflect on how their actions would make the "women folks" feel at home: "Now think. How would you like to go home to a wife, a sweetheart, or a sister, who, while you were gone, had lived with half a dozen or more white slavers rotten with disease? Do you honestly believe that you have any right to do what you would almost feel like killing a woman for doing?" (p. 5). A reproduction of a letter from Theodore Roosevelt praising the "Don't Take a Chance" initiative is also included, reinforcing a sense of patriotic duty. Lastly, a sentimental poem titled "Somewhere a Woman" is printed on the lower wrapper.
Small 4to (5" by 3.75"), pp. 8, stapled in original illustrated wrappers. Fine to very fine. Some rust staining from staples.
Price: $125.00
Item #22000555