The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-11-15
o,v,, and Country-Tendency OF Pop"'
lation.

cncy ofpopulationtoci cities and the soc'a,','I
nhysical consequences Of it. In h"S''..
the manufactures Of modern t'''' No.:
draining the rural districts ana Sn w ,his
the population of cities. 50 " -. tho
country. The women, i0rs"N o;.;os
fam;N Preside and all its joys s0'1 u. e'. W.,
.aan;or Tho cotton mills and take 10 ,ne
10 '"',l ' nc, If "room-keeping,' with
~ a,scomfarts and perils. This suCl'''
80, lone since engaged the attention u
~, sly.scraping association wh'eh ne
'"" ;,sclrto what is called Social Sci
If which Lord BRorGHAA IS pres'-
de,,. and whose mission thus lar seems 10
have been only to discover evls-reme-
s;es they have none. They lamented the
condition of the poor girls, and were dread
fully exercised by the lately developed
fact that females in the United Kingdom
were 100000 in access OF males.
What to do for the women was
a matter of great concern with the anti
auated members Of the organization. The
males had gone oil with the armies, and
they had gone TO prospect " for fortunes
roaming over the world in search OF ri
Doraios and gold mines. The poor girls
had to remain-to go into cotton hiliis ana
lead wretchcd lives and die miserable
deaths. Could the men be brought back or
could the women DC sent after tie men: The
question found no solution in the spccula-
tons of Lord BRorGHAM and his coi!cagueH.
BLACkwooD recommended converts, where
the surplus females might teach honsekeep-
ing and domestic arts generally where they
could become happy sisterhood, leading
lives of purity and picty that would com
mand the respect Of the world. But still
the evil goes on, and the philosophers can
only talk about it and regret il.
This country is, no doubt, nearly as bad
of as England in the nature of the dis
parity of sexes. The war killed off hun
dreds of thousands Of men, and the thirst
for riches have carried thousands roaming
over the world. The tendency of popula-
ton to cities, and especially of the female
part of it, is not a trait of southern society.
We have few large cities. and few manu-
factories. In the North, however, ii is very
striking. In the city of Lowell ii is stated
there are 10 600 more females than males.
BRIGHAM Y0CNG, in a recent speech, ten
ders his sympathy to the girls Of Lowell,
and declares that 1000 ablc-bodicd Nor
mans should 90 TO Lowell and take seven
wives each, in fuliilmcnt OF the scriptural
prophccv as 10 the time when "scycn
women shall lay hold Of one man,
&C. The life in the mills has done 40
GOOD to New England society. The
earning Of enough ready cash there I"
CRAFTY the love of dress, >educcs the gili>
10 leave their quiet home in the country
TO immure themselves in prison, rs II
were, for six days in the week, that they
may make show on Sunday. Tie ro>'>
OF their cheeks soon fade, and they know
no more the health and JOY Of home an"
the family. Thousands are lost. But re-
Gently we read lorcibl" newspaper article
complaining OF that false pride of country
girls which made them ashamed Of the
household work, and drove them to the
unhappy and unhealthy life III the mill,
whilst the Irish girls took their places and
succeeded TO the comforts and the invigo-
rating pursuits which they had abandoned
for the mill.
Modern machinery, which has made
u,ith those han~pnnlI
at which all the women at former and
better day found occupation, is chiefly the
cause of this tendency OF the female part
of society to.thc cities. But the age ioeN-
cited, disconnected, speculative, greedy,
and Unsuitable. Cities are the places lor
the battle of life as now conducted. HITLER
men flock emulous ofthe examples OF those
who have suddenly grown rich, all unmind
full of the hecatombs of uniortunates who
have ended Inflated lives III all sorts of
wretched ways.
Even in the great agricultural West the
comparative increase of city population
over rural is astonishing. In Iowa, i'll the
five years from 1860 to 1865, there was
city gain of thirty per cent. over "'ne the
country. One would think that the evil
would cure itself-that men would become
wearied of city trials and troubles, and hor-
ritied at the hideous extremes of wealth
and poverty there displayed, and gladly
return to the peaceful occupations Of the
country, where they can enjoy the French
mans paradise of liberty, equality, fra
ternity." But no. The tracks all lead
into the city. There are none returning.
And so affairs must 60 on. Mills and
those great agents of consolidation, rail-
roads and steamboats,, will continue to con-
centrate population-increase the cost OF
living by increasing the number of non
producers-increase the amount OF vice
and misery, and widen the extremes Of
wealth and indgence-and increase the
general depravity and crimc-untii such
time as 10y proyidential mterposition it
shall be made known how the gigantic
agencies which have added so much to the
power of the world and so little to mans
virtue and happiness, were in the beginning
intended for the general welfare Of man
kind.
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The Wheeling Intel;Gencer asks us whe-
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