For a girl of Leonora's type the impress of the right environment, the
guidance of the right hand, means everything. To discover such girls,
to open the way for the working of new friendships, which shall furnish
new leadership for them, is a fine task and a great pleasure for the
lovers of girlhood.
But so impossible is the task of attempting, through the individual, to
touch the great mass of girls who are easily led, that one can work
effectually only through the individual effort plus the _law_. It must
be made "to go hard" with those who, for selfish ends and financial
profit, plan to take advantage of the weak will and trusting,
unsuspecting mind of the girl who is easily led.
Most of the girls in their teens, who are walking in evil ways, are
there because they have followed friends and companions. There are girls
who have blazed the way to paths of evil for themselves, but they are
comparatively few. Any court, or school for delinquent girls, which
contains a sympathetic man or woman to whom the whole truth may be
poured out, will testify that _somebody_ led the way. When allowance is
made for the tendency to lay the blame upon other shoulders, the facts
bear out the testimony that there has been a _leader_. The girls who by
nature are weak of will, and have had no training which could tend to
strengthen or develop that will, must be protected, and that protection
must be furnished by the community.
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