Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-11-28
,oT NUMBER. 130. ~ ),
IsTWHFIITO nNh sWNr
Town and COumtry-Tendenc of
'92s sPOpitlatfOti.i ihm DZidh1H


Economists in England and this country
have had their attention drawn to the ten
6ency of population to cities and the social
pHdbhysiGal Consequences oflit.y In Eng
land the manufactures of modern times
are draining the rural districts and SWELL
ing tile population of cities so 1t is in
this country. The women, forsaking the
family fireside and all its Joys, 90 10 the
citi6s to enter into TIE col ton mills and take
to the miserable life of ''roOm-k keeping,ns
with its .diseomforts and perlls, This sub
ject not long since engaged the attention of
that sky-scraping association, which devotes
itselfto, what is called .;.Soeial Science of
which Lord BrOugham Is president, and
whose mission thus far seems to have been
only yto,diseDver evils--remedies they have
none. They lamented the condition of the
poor girls, and were dreadfully exercised
by the lately developed fact that feiBalesin
the United Kingdom we're 100000 in, excess
of males. What to do for the women was
matter Of great with the antiquated
members of the organization. The malesl
had gone off with the armies, and they had
gone to "prospect' for fortunes, roaming
over the world In search of El DOradoesf
and gold mines The poor girls had to
wretched lives and die miserable deaths.J
Could the, men elbrought, back or could
the women be sent after the men? The
question found no solution Id the speculalI
tions ofLord BroHgham and his colleagues.
Blackwood recommended converts, where
the surplus females might teach house,
keepingand domestic arts generally; where
they could become a happy ,sisterhoOd,g
leading lives of purity and plety that would
command the respect of the world. But
still the evil goes ON, and the philosophers
h.. L., A,tI ko.. se
This country is, no doubt, nearly as bad
off as England in the nature of the dispar-
ity of sexes. TheWaro Killed off hundreds
of thousands of men,, and the thirst for :
riches have carried thousands roaming
over the world. The tendency Of popula-A
tion to cities, and especially of the female
part of 1t, is not trait of southern society,",
We have few large cities and few manTt-
factories. In the North, however, it is
very striking. In the city of Lowell it is
stated there are $4,000 more females than
males. Brigham Young, in recent speech,
renders his sympathy toIthe girls OF Low
ell, and declares that 1000 able-bodied
Mormons should go to Lowell and take
seven wives each, in fulflment of the scrip
tural prophecy as to the time when Hsevenl
Momeh snalblay-hOld OF one man. sc. The
life in the mills has done no good to New
England society. The earning of enough
ready cash there to crafty the love Of dress
seduces the girls to leave their quiet home
in the country TO immure themselves in
prison, as it were, for six days in the week,
that they may make q show on Sunday.t
The roses on their cheeks, soon, fade, aud
they know no. more the health and JOY of
home and the family. Thousands are lost.
But recently we read forcible newspaper
article planning of that false pride of
ri I'll NUh inh la eIat nf
the household work, and drove them to the
unhappy and unhealthy life in the MILL,
whilst the Irish girls took their places and
succeeded to the comforts and the invigOr-
iating pursuits which they had abandoned
Tor the mill. H.f' ..i.Ts Tsufart
Modern machinery, which has made such
sad havoc with those household arts at
which all women at a former aud better
day found occupation, Is chiefly the cause
of this tendency of the female part of So
ciety to the cities. But the age is excited
discontented, speculative, greedy aud ih-r
satiable. Cities are the places for the bat
tile OF life as now conducted. Hither men,
flock, emulOus of the examples of those
who have suddenly grown rich, all I'M
mindful Of the hecatombs of unfortutatesi
who have ended ill-tated lives in all sorts of 7
wretched ways. ,.....i.s. ..,
/ Even in the great agricultural West the
comparative increase of city population
over riralJis astonishing. In Iowa, in the
five. years jftom 1860 to 1865, there was a.
city gain of thirty per cent. over nine. in
the, country. One would think that the
evil would cure itself-that men W would be-
come wearied of city trials and troubles.
and Mortified at the hideous extremes of
wealth and poverty there displayed, and
gladly return to the peaceful occupations
I of the country, where they can enjoy the
Frenchman's paradise of . liberty, equali-
ty, fraternity But no. The tracks all
lead into the city. There are none reii
turning s.,'AH dona. r- tH H+ir.Ili
/ And so affairs must go on. Mills, and
those great agents of consolidation. rail-
roads and steamboats,, will continue to-
concentrate opulationLincrease the cost
of living by increasing the number of nom,
producers-increase, the, amount of vice
and misery, and widen the extremes of
wealth and diligence-and increase the
general depravity and, erime-uptil, such
time as by proyidential interposition it,
shall be made known how the gigantic
agencies which have added 50 much to the
power of the world and SO little to mans
virtue and happiness Were in the begin
ming intended for the general welfare of
mankind. 'n''' W n "Ihi h'@ o7A