The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-02-21

Africa and China. but a war with a maritime
nation would arm the manufacturers of Rouen,
Lyons and Paris against him. His throne, too,
is bound by the cotton twist. Let Spain he
wise in time. Cuba is necessary to our deye-
lopement and nothing can prevent its coming
into this Union. Any attempt on the part of
the mother country to put into execution her
barbarOus threat that it shall remain Spanish
or become African, would affect the whole civil
lized world, and awake against her the ire OF
Christendom.
Deterioration or the Angio-SaxOa Race Ia
AmeTica-One or the Causes
Some of the London papers are commenting
upon the supposed decay of the Anglo Saxon
race in the United States. They ascribe the
fact to the effect Of climate.
That decay or deterioration does take place
in the physical man after one or two generations
have LIVED and died on American soil has been
asserted too frequently and by too high autho-
rity to be fppantly denied; though it may
properly be inquired whether the standard of
comparison which has served to condemn the
Anglo American has been thoroughly fair.
Persons coming from Europe to this country
and comparing the physical forms of the men
one meets in Broadway with the peasants of
Normandy or Dtsonshire would naturally be
led to form poor opinion of our race: though
contrast between the men of Normandy or
Devon and the farmers of Illinois or Connect
cut and another between the city bred people
Of Manchester and the city bred people of New
York, might not tell so severely against the
physical American. II nay we'll be asked
whether those who have most strenuously as
serted the inferiority of the Anglo Saxon race
in America to the Anglo-Saxon race in Europe
have taken care that the examples of the two
races which they compared were analogous in
respect Of training, vocation and habits.
However. assuming the fact of the deteriora-
zion to be admitted, the question of the effect of
climate must be excluded from consideration,
from the simple reason that no one understands
it. Science has not unravelled the mystery of
climate, and its effects upon the human frame
Persons of respectable attachments aud high DO
sition may be heard to this day teaching that
the climate of Africa turned the descendants of
Ham black. Others believe that the tawny
hue of the American Indian is the natural color
of dehizens of this hemisphere, and that we arc
gradually approaching that elegant shade of
color. We mention these absurdities simply to
illustrate our assertion that the effect of climate
upon the human frame is not yet understood; and
that no philosophical argument can be based
upon any supposed influence which it may ex-
ercise upon the human frame.
We can however, without risk of error, lay
our finger on one prominent and obvious cause
of ply steal decay in the population of the
United States. This is the infrequent use OF
bodily exercise in the open air by all classes of
our people. With the exception of those whose
business obliges them to work out of doors, it
may be positively asserted that no citizen of our
large cities, whatever his position or calling,
remains any longer in the open air than he can
belpit. If he could be conveyed from his house
to his Office or place of business in covered van
he would not willingly breathe breath of fresh
air from years end to years end. As to ath-
letc exercises, no one ever seems TO dream Of
such thing The great games Of cricket, foot
ball. rowing. hunting. archery, shooting, &c,
which divide with business the life of healthy
European, are either wholly unknown here or
are only practised 10y select few who know
enough TO deviate from the usual rules. No
one ever heard Of our lawyers or doctors, or
INGREDIENTS OF professional men generally giving
full play to their muscles at any trial of strength
or endurance. Even our collegians and school
boys have grown too learned and too dignificd
to play; when the lads should be batting ball
or leaping fence, you may find them reading
Q newspaper, and smoking segars.
II is very sad to think, in connection with
this undoubtcd source of physical decsy, that a
clas Of public teachers who ought to he fore
most in correcting public evils are actually putt
ting themselves forward at the present moment
to dScourage physical exercise in the open air.
We allude, Of course, to the recent attempt Of
the clergy Of this city to drive the working
classes to church on their only day Of rest, and
to deprive them of the wholesome ex.
ercise which they have heretofore enjoyed
in the open air on that day. Sunday
is the poor mans day for exercise, enjoyment
Ind fresh air II is the only day on which he
can take his wife and family to the country.
and admire God in his works II is the only
day on which he can really labor for the inn
provemebt of his physical health. Yet these
priests are now trying to take from him this
solitary day of exercise and relaxation, in order
10 swell their congregations, and increase the
audiences who sit under their pondcrous SER
mons
We hope that the poor people of New York
will remember that God knows neither times
nor places, and that those who seek to worship
Him need no church 70 do Il in no Sunday fnr