The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1867-11-26
Northern Society.

" e. Barringer, Esq, of Concord, N. G..
writes from New York to the Union Republican
as follows:
sThere are some things here in the state Of
society, which are like whited sepulchres-beau
tiful outward but within are full of dead mems
bones and of all uncleanness Twas walking the
other day in Central Park with an acquaintance
when most magnificent turnout passed us, the
whole thing, with the brilliant lady inside be-
| tokening unbounded wealth. / asked who ii
| was! Madame Restell." "And who is Madame
RestellT My acquaintance took out Herald
| and pointed to a line, amid a thousand other ad-
vertisements, madame Restell's Pill for married
women, unfailing at first interview, Sc Thus
shamelessly does this,abortion- -mongress practice
her unnatural art, and so proftably, too, that she
rivals the beau monde of the metropolis. 1t
| CHANGED the next morning that l met with an
able and elaborate paper read by DR.. Allan, of
| Lowell, Mass, before recent meeting of the
| American Social Science Association at Boston.
which contains glad news for all Yankee-haters
| He shows, by large collection of statistics, a
| steady decline in the productiveness of native
population of the North generally and an equally
! steady encroachment of the foreign element, by
birth or otherwise, upon the native. He shows,
moreover, that, if this process of decline goes on
uninterruptedly in fifty one hundred years the
Yankee stock must become extinct-rather a
| long time for some of us to wait for consumma-
ton so devoutly to be wished! He attributes
the falling off to two causes-frst to the neglect
OF physical exercise and too exclusive cultiva-
tlon OF the brain among women; and, secondly,
to the alarming practice of abortion, which, he
said, was never so common as in this country at
the present day. His paper elected lively
discussion, which is fair sample of the habit
these Yankees have of tearing to pieces and ex-
posing to public view the social evils amongst
themselves. But do not find that any of the
learned assembly touched the real philosophy of
| this remarkable decrease of the native popula-
ton. The more recent investigations of sociology
seem to reveal the law, that the general tendency
of civilization, in its highest form of material
comfort and intellectual culture, is to dmnu-
tion in the generative powers of the race The
old theory that the greater the means of subsis-
tence and the higher the development of people,
the more rapid the increase of population, is
| abandoned; and social science is coming back to
the truth of the proverb-''a poor man for chill
dren.' The rule is, the more numerous the
marriages, the fewer the births-the fewer the
marriages, the more numerous the births. The
same thing may be expressed in another form
that modern civilization tends to produce man.
not men. / could give illustrations without end
Take France and England. In the former coun-
try, marriage is early and general and the aver
age material comfort and intelligence higher than
| in any other part of Europe of the same extent;
yet her population has been stationary for gen.
GRAFTON two, and is likely to remain so forever
unless some disturbing cause should intervene
The births barely supply the deaths In Eng
land, on the contrary, where the standard OF
| living and of mental culture among the mass is
no hrth hava hly
preponderated over the Deaths and it was the
example Of England that Nautilus had most in
his eye when he announced his startling and false
doctrine that, in the natural course Of things
population would outrun subsstence-of which
there is no danger unless and except where man.
kind is kept most imbruted He might have
found contradiction in fecund England herself;
for of her various races, which produces the
fastest? Not the hereditary nobility-but the
lowest order rather, where filth and ignorance
abound So, too, among the races of our own
Southern States where do we see the greatest
animal fertility? Among our former slaves, who
hardly recognized regular marriage at all, and
lived low, though plentifuly enough, or among
the free-born well-to-do, educated whites! We
all know that they were outstripping us by large
per cent in productiveness, when emancipation
took place. And hereafter, if we discover, as
of our Africans, let us not hasten, therefore, to
argue general downward tendency of the race.
1t may be evidence of the very opposite tendency.
Now in the case of New England, whose natives,
we know, lead all the tribes Of earth in physical
well being and mental cultivation, this great law
this Providential arrangemeut-may be de-
veloping it's first fruits; which is gradual de-
cline in population until it reaches stationary
point, where it may remain for ages / merely
suggest this view rs explanatory of the pheno-
menon in New England. do not dispute the
appalling fact asserted by DIR. Allen in regard to
abortion. But we must remember that he is a
reformer ON that subject, nor should we forget
the oyer.zeal of reformers and the narrowness of
their philosophy
SMALL THINGs.-Small things in the hands
of Providence often deprive men of life in this
world Pope Adrain lost his life by the sting
of kna'. A distinguished Roman counsellor
lost his life by hair, which was in some milk
that he drank. The Emperor of France, Charles
", was deprived of his life by eating mnsl-
ROOM Anacreon the famous Greek poet, who
lived in the 9th century before Christ, was
choked by gropeseed, in the act of drinking
wine at the age of S5 years.