Love for Sale

"In this battle, reform has right but absolutely no humor on its side--right, that is, if one assumes that human weakness is easily eradicated through the changing of institutions.
"The methods proposed for dealing with the extensive prostitution in Chicago early in the last century were, first, to segregate it in a particular part of town, and, second, to root it out and eliminate it altogether. Ministers, ambitious young lawyers set on forging political careers, anti-smoking campaigners, temperance workers, the B'nai Br'ith, vegetarians, and others on the side of sweetness and light naturally enough went for complete elimination."

In The Wall Street Journal, Joseph Epstein reviews Karen Abbott's Sin in the Second City.