The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-09

| United States appears Identical VIII
that of the countries before mentioned
except that the inequality from emi'
| grafton is greater here than there. Bul
at this point the parallel stops. There
whatever excess there is at 80, continues
on to 40, so, 60 and so TO the end of life
| But how is it with us? At 80 New Eng
land and New York have 70, 900 more fe'
males than males, at 40 every one Of Ghost
| rs, 900 ICoHIeJI hare disappeared and =, OOl
more besides, and at 90, 20. 600 more hare
JOLLODed them. Here then are 5000 fe'
males, that in every decade, pass away
| in the very prime of womanhood as
| they would not have done had they
lived in either England, Ireland Scot
land, Belgium, Norway, or Sweden
| These are the facts of tO-day-the facts
of our communities-and of our wo'
men-facts that meet us and them how
ever unwilling we may be to acknowl'
! edge their truLhfulness. But more than
/ this, if $1,000 wither and die every ten
wears in the prime of wOmanhoOd that
should have lived, what must be the
number whose health yields in some
lesser degree to the same influences
1t will not be disputed Ipresume that
| In any community there are ten feeble
and sickly women of any given age to
! every one that dies. With such appall-
ing results meeting us, 1t Is no matter
| of surprise that this has risen to be one
of the foremost questions now engag-
Ing public thought
But there is another branch OF the
same subject which the solemn duties
of the hour have not permitted men to
overlook.
It has been apparent for some years
past that in many parts of New Eng
| land, the old families were gradually y be-
coming extinct, not from emigration
| but by decay.
The great law of nature, that the chill
dren should gather the parents to the
rest of their fathers, being subverted,
their early tomb by grey haired and
feeble age. A census of the State OF
New York taken during the past year
reveals the truth that to-day 10000
families in that State sit around desc
late hearthstones, where the music OF
childish prattle never breaks in upon
| the silent solitude.
In the presence of such facts no par
ent but feels n sense of anXiety-nC
lover of his kind but that we can not
longer remnin blRmelessly silent or in
active. With a sense of foreboding we
ask ourselves is this to be the inheri-
tance of our children. Has the future
nothing better in store for them? All
this evil cannot come without cause.
Where has been the error and what is
the remedy?
Evils are oftentimes more readily ap-
pretended than are their causes or their
remedy! ..
If horticulturist should plant the
choicest selection of trees, should cul-
ture them with the most assiduo us
care-if they should flourish with every
evidence of health and thrift, yet, If
just as he was looking for the reward
OF all his patient toll, large proper
and, II of the rest, the fruit should
shrivel and fall while yet half grown
he might know that blight lurked in
every leaf and rootlet, and still pot
know whether it came from soil, or til
lage, or sky. So here the blight is upon
us, though we know not fully whence
it comes. That some great guiding
law of human nature has been violated,
OF which we are now paying the costly
penalty, can hardly be questioned;
but whether it is some law near or re-
mote, whether physical, mental or
moral, is not fully apparent.
Until recently it has been generally
believed to be some law OF physical
nature. 1t has been affirmed that want
of sanitary care in the clothing of wo-
men-the overheatinE of some portions
OF the body, and the insufficient pro-
lection of others, could not but result
in detriment. Others have said 1t is
due to diminution of volume of lung
and the consequent enfeebled clrcula-
tion.
There is little room to doubt that both
these causes have been most perni-
cious. II can hardly be questioned
that many daughter has been sacri-
feed to the mothers false notion of
penteel figure-and that to-day many Il
mother weeps amid the desolation she
has herself wrought upon those en-
trusted to her care. ... .-. ---r-
A whist cramped and compressed to
half its intended size, must tcdUe HndOHe
r . L. IN
accomplish. The mother that thus coun-
sells daughter, or the father that re-
cards il as an accom- plishment, assumes
a fearful responsibility touching the
health and life ofthose entrusted to their
guardianship.
But making allowance for all these
violated physical laws, they seem
hardly adequate to the extent OF the in
juries we have been considering; and
we are constrained to the conclusion
that there is some additional source OF
evil: some other exhaustive drain upon
woman's vital power. This appears to
be traced to an overtaxed brain in
childhood.
And here this subject, which may
have appeared remote from the present
occasion comes home 10 our firesides
and hearts demanding our gravest con-
sideration.
We have SO long believed in educa-
| tlOQ. eulORlLeu euuCdLlOu4 auu
9attered ourselves upon our education
al system, that we have nearly or quite
overlooked the great law of all human
| affairs, that excess Is ruin. Food is
good, but gluttony no less harmful.
Light is needTul for our daily life, but
| If we gaze at the Sun it may smite us
with blindness. So knowledge, one oi
mans richest inheritances, may like
every other good be sought unwisely.
When the great benefaction of educa-
ton was offered to the people through
the public school, it was esteemed too
great boon to be neglected even in its
least important advantages, and so 1t
was Thought that while the child was
too young to be of any value otherwise
IL might at least be storing its mind
with useful knowledge, and preparing
itself for after years. s'ea-
Another consideration tended to the
same result. Our educational system
originated in section of our country
where a sterile soil demands the unre
mitting labor of all the members of the
household. As soon as the child could
earn, its labor was needed. Its educa-
tion must therefore be forced upon lis
earliest years, and SO children were
sent to school and set to intellectual
tasks at and even 2 years of age,
And when aflerward they were eX'
cluded by law until A, the people felt II
to be an aninfringement upon their privi.
Ieges. 1t never occurred to these good
| people to ask how II was, that at this
tender age, the brain was so Inuch more
capable Of endurance than the Other
portions of the frame. 1t is an admit
ted fact that labor of brain is more ex'
haustive than LABOR OF body, and yel
children were set to intellectual toll al
an age when none but the most incon'