The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [223]
“And when you girls do meet with this temptation what are you going to say? Are you going to agree that... `Once doesn’t hurt?’ Or are you going to say: `See here now, what are your intentions? I’m a decent Catholic girl, and I do not intend to fling myself away on any rat because he has a funny-looking suit of bell bottoms and an automobile. Before I ride in any automobile of yours, I want to know why you want me to go, what intentions you have, what kind of a person you are?’
“And you fellows, if you find some cake-eaters trying to take advantage of your sister, what are you going to do? Are you going to shrug your shoulders, and say that you are not your sister’s keeper, or turn your head the other way to avoid trouble? I know of one such case. It happened in Marion, Ohio. The sister of a young Catholic fellow was ruined, and died giving birth to an illegitimate baby. And the spineless brother answered my questions this way. He said: `Father, it would have been such a mess. Father, I believe that each person has the right to live their own life.’ Well, let me tell you this: God won’t agree to such a principle on the final Day of Judgment.
“If there is an ounce of decency and red blood in a young fellow, he’ll not do that. When any one of these jazz-age, drug-store cowboys starts trying to fool around with his sister, he won’t mince his words. He’ll say: `See here, now, what do you mean, trying to ruin my sister?’ That’s what he’ll say. He’ll tell him to get out and stay out. And he’ll punch his yellow nose in for him. Because that is the only kind of treatment these wise young squirts merit.
“Why, if I had a sister, and one of them started monkeying around with her, I’d grab him by the coat collar, and I’d say; `See here! You’re not honorable! You’re not decent! Are you going to let my sister alone?’ And then I’d let him have one.”
Father Shannon paused, and again mopped his face. He glanced from face to face in the church. He spoke with calmness again.
“Remember these words! Years ahead, I want you, when you’re my age, and I’m dead, to pause and think, to remember what Father Shannon said in his missions at St. Patrick’s. And I want you to remember this statement particularly... Sin doesn’t pay.
“And I am willing to bet anyone here a hundred dollars that then you’ll nod your head, and think that, yes, Father Shannon told you the truth. And of all sins, that which pays the least, is a sin of the flesh. Ah, you boys and girls, you don’t want to ruin yourself, body and soul. You don’t want to disease your body so that a decent person will shun you as he would a leper. Your bodies are young and strong now. You don’t want to wreck them with disease and over-indulgence. There is nothing as fine as the sight of a good strong boy or girl, whose body and mind are clean, pure, decent. And the ideal of retaining such a body and such a mind is both noble and practical. It isn’t as hard as sin. I know, because I’ve seen hospitals where people were rotting away with disease as the result of their sins. One day, my young friends, they had bodies like you had, and the chance that you still possess. And they forsook that ideal. You want to remember the words of Thomas a Kempis: `For they that follow their sensuality, do stain their own con-science, and lose the favor of God.’
“When the devil tempts you, as he tempted such people, you want to say to him: `Satan, No! No! No! you cannot have my body and my soul!’ You young fellows, you don’t want to be fools, and go skulking, like thieves in the night, into brothels, consorting with the lowest kind of human beings, exposing yourself to diseases that can ruin your lives, and blast the chances of a successful and happy marriage with that sweet little girl whom you love. Ah, no, you don’t want to do that. Because it doesn’t last! And it doesn’t pay. It’s not pleasure. It’s not fine. It’s not decent! It’s not manly. You don’t want to be that kind of a fellow. If you do, you’re not choosing the brave course. You’re being a coward and a fool.
“And you girls! I know many of you. I know your fathers, mothers and brothers. And, yes, some of your sweethearts too. I know that I