Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1849-03-23
ibits a natural increase of 65 uer cent.

exhibits natural increase OF IS per cent.
have included all the foreign emigration in
the North. A little of it, however, has gone
to the South but not more than the excess of
Southern people who have removed to the
Northwestern States
This evidence of the great natural increase
OF Southern white population, is an answer 10
another imputation against it, very current at
the North. 1t has been held that slavery is a
degradation of labor; that therefore the white
people of the South refuse to work, and live
In idleness; and that from idleness they be-
come dissipated, vicious, and violent But
vice Is fatal to The increase Of population. II
destroys constitutional vigor, diminishes the
number of children. and aff1icts the few that
are born, with hereditary in6rmity and pre-
mature DEATH One fact is disclosed by the
census which is very significant on this point
There is an excess among the white people of
the South of 1872 72 males. Among those of
the North only 1925. This is about 81 900
less than the proportion the North ought to
have, to equal the South. But when we con-
slider that the foreign population settles almost
exclusively in the Northern States, and con-
tains much more than its proportion of males,
it is apparent that the deficit of the North in
male population is much larger. Now the vi
ces of civilized society affect males chiefly,
young men and boys. far more than any other
And If it were true that the South is more i'm.
moral than the North, it would appear in the
deficit of male population. But the reverse
seems TO be the fact
The explanation of this result is to be found
in the same circumstances that determine TIE
relative wealth of the two sections. The
South Ic rnro1 IN racs1nnna hoh;fc II Aoac
not present the temptation or the opportunity
for sensual qualification TO be found in city
life. 1t is TO cities that the passions and ap-
petites resort for their carnival. The theatre.
the gaming house, the drinking house, and
places of still more abandoned character a.
bound in them, and 10 these the dissipated
youth goes forth at night from home, along
the high road TO ruin. In the family of the
Southern planter or farmer, although wine
may be drank and cards played, all is done al
home under parental and feminine observa-
ton, and therefore excess can never go so far.
Of course the sons of planters visit the cities,
but those in their neighborhood are trivial IN
size, and meagre in attractions-those more
distant are the more seldom seen. The an
Gent poets, who thought that the lower re-
gons were the abode of great and good men
as we'll as bad, located the entrance in re-
mote and solitary place. Thus Homer con-
ducts Ulyssis on his visit to the shades OF his
| brother warrior Greeks, TO a thinly settled
country of dark skinned people
"when TO- we reached old Oceans utmost bounds,
Where rocks control his waves with ever during
mounds,
| There in lonely land and gloomy cells,
The duskY nation OF Cilnmeria dwels"
There he fonnd the portals of the inferna
world. So Virgil conducts Enease 10 the som.
| bre and solemn forest of the Duncan sybi
| But with our improved conceptions of the
character OF that place and its inmates, and the
most direct avenues toapproach il :the modern
| Epic poet. who desires to give his hero view
| of it, will have to fix the gateway in the hear
of a great city, where the vices hold their re-
vels. IT'S there
! The gates of He'll are open night and day,
| Smooth the descent, and easy is the way"
1t cannot be said that the excessive mortal
ty among the males of the North is owing te
their unwelcome employments For the fe
males are employed in similar or more destruc
tive avocations In Massachusetts,, about fif
! ~ thousand women work in factories, ant
yet, in that State, there is an excess of 7,67;
females, whereas if the natural proportion O
the sexes existed among the native population
or such as is found at the South, Massachu
sets ought 10 have an excess of about TWEEN
ty-two thousand males. So that at presen
she has about thirty thousand females beyond
the due proportion. 1t is true that Massachu
sets loses portion of her male population By
emigration to the West, although she is rein
forced again by the excess of males in th,
foreign emigrants that have settled there
But there still remains large portion wht
must have persisted by the sickness and vice
of the towns and cities that contain so large
part of her people-Boston alone, with it
suburb towns, having population of 200 600
or nearly one third of all the State So then, tn
operation Of the institutions of this model Stat
of the North, is to violate the laws of natur
by separation of the sexes 10 send thou
sands of her sons away from their happy con
dition at home, to encounter the hardships 0
the West; to send multitudes of others TO dit
by dissipation in her cities, and to place he
lonely and deserted women, not in converts
but in factories. have said that there are a
bout fifty thousand women employed in tn
factories of Massachusetts. Such is the tes
tmony of the official census of the State il
1916. Those who are thus employed, it il
well known, are generally young, unmarre,
women, as such a vocation would be rattle
incompatible with the domestic duties of wives
Now, according to the census of 1910, Their
were but about 81 900 women in that Stat
between the ages of seventeen and twenty
five. So that about even-eghths of the mar
} riageable women of Massachusetts,, at a tim
OF life that ought TO be sacred to love an
courtshlp, to pleasure and 10 hope, to HON
and to society, are sent forth from the parent
al root, TO labor for years. confined to over
heated rooms, containing a hundred person
each confined to a space five feet square, fo
thirteen hours day, under male overseel
and not permitted to receive a visit from 10
yer or relative in the mill, except by tn
permission of the proprietor's agent, or at tn
: boardIng-hous except by permission of tn
proprietor's house keeper; for such are III
regulations and condition of Lowell TIL
: confinement 10 factories postpones the mai
rlage of the women of Massachusetts, 10 an az
erage of twenty-three or twenty four years
do not know at what age precisely MARI;
ges occur in Virginia, but the census show
: that Virginia, with fewer adults, has 100, 90
4 more of children.
1t has been suggested that the emgrant populate
arrive poor and therefore when included in the
of individual wealth in the North reduce IFS rates. b
lore acquires wealth more easily than the native.
however, the emigrant population be stricken out
the innate and the whole properly of the North div
ded among the natives, their proportion Will yet be f
below that of the South
tAmerican Almanac
rCoDrIuS;o7, merit 3reeE