The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1869-04-16
Run Out.

Der of Harper's Monthly.
The head that shook at the Easy Chair
said after prolonged wagging: OF course
one who watches the signs of the times close
ly, like an Easy Chair, has already come tc
the inevitable concuson?'
This was spoken interrogatively, and the
Easy Chair assumed an air of pre- found at
teDtioD.
Il mean, said the Wager, that you have
seeb that we are all played out.
This assertion was followed by a most EN-.
phatc and significant shake.
All played Quit? asked the Easy Chair
doubtfully.
Il mean, continued the shaking head, that
we Yankees are run out, and the origina
Yankee nation has virtually come to an end.
] am astonisned that Chair of intelligence
aud observation has never remarked what is
so very evident"
The Easy Chair naturally felt very much
mortified by its dulluess, and penitentialIy
smiled as if it craved forgiveness.
Very WE'LL said the Wager, as if gra-
ciously pardoning the oifense, do you know
hows many married women there are in the
State Of New York;
This is the kind of question to which it
is useless to attempt an answer. 1t presup-
poses your ignorance. 1t is q question de-
family brandished at you by consciously su-
perlor knowledge, for whoever does know
these statistical details except those who
have carefully crammed them for the purpose
of crushing you? You are familiar, OF
course, Sir says your neighbor at table,
with the fact of the war in New Zealand -
Are you aware of the number of the Maori
populations? Certainly you are not, and your
neighbor knows it. He merely uses you as
spring board to facilitate the bound with
which he skips into the air to perform his
antics of knowledge. Three hundred and
twenty-four thousand two hundred and seven
teen, and if an interesting anticipated event
has taken place in the family of the chief,
three hundred and twenty-four thousand two
hundred and eighteen or nineteen, as the case
may be, remarks your neighbor.
DO you know how many married women
there are in the State of New York; was
the question asked by the good man who
knew perfectly we'll.
Of course the abject ignorance Of the
Easy Chair could not be concealed, and il
smiled the usual apoogetc suiile as if the
treachery of its memory was really eXtraOr-
diuary. And the good friend immediatly
answered his own question.
There are eight hundred thousand married
women in the State of New York.
Good gracious! are there indeed? re-
sponded the Easy Chair, with the ardor. OF
the young scholar who upon being introdu.
ced to the al phabet, heard very listlessly aud
mechanically that A was A; but when the
teacher continued, and that is b. answered
warmly, why is that B?' as if he recoguiz-
ed familiar old friend under the most eX-
traordinary disguise.
OF these about two hundred thousand, or
oue-quarter, have 40 children; about one
hundred and forty thousand have but one
child, and about Que hundred and sixty thou
sand have only two children; and il Is only
the Yankees uE natives who have these small
families But it isn't New Y ork only that
is going under; there is New England, there
is Massachusetts. Why, Massachusetts has
about-how many inhabitants?
'Weii-about-I believe
Exactly; about thirteen hundred thou,
sand, of whom, us yea know and the eye
of the good friend had ioieboding expires
sion as he said it about two hundred and
fifty thousand are Foreigners. There are
about twenty thousand deaths and thirty-tive
thousand births annually III tne State; but q
ridiculous large portion of the births are
among the foreign citizens. The old stock
is DYING out. Aud what Is coming III? And
Wit them what kind of morals, what poll
tics? The chief ambition OF young men in
this country now is to make Il great fortune
without working tor it; aid tue sole desire
of Young women is to be married, to nave
plenty of money to spend, and no children
to care for Morals aud the common humaI
instinct have SO delerloruted that the mos
odious practices are publicly denounced al
TOO common to be disregarded, and Il Bishop
in q pastoral letter condemns an otlensC
which should be impossible. The mad foil!
of wealth utterly ruins noble character. =
Our politics are Il vast abyss Of corruption
The orator of the golden link declares tina
ip the city in which he is Que OF the nios
prominent politicians no politician is honest
The public service is mere job. The oil
GERS of tue law and the judges are the crea
lures of the criminal CLASSES. Their news
paper political organs openiy sneer at mora
ideas And look at Congress! What IN
credible forays upon the Treasury! 1t i
everywhere nothing but mad lust OF money
The national character is rott.ng US the orig
inal stock is disappearing.
The good frienu stopped. The Easy Chai
thought OF the dead motheR and son on lii,
floor Of the room in the Isle OF Dogs, au0 o
the mad husband aud father in the work
house; of all the other Starving and mad un
fortunates; of the immense suffering, despair
brutality beneath the imposing spectacle o
British opuleuce and power. But it reflected
that England is imprisoned upon Il small is
land, and has inherited all kinds of trouble
aud, as much as Yankee Chair may, it mad
allowance for English wretchedness an
sorrow and crime AS its thoughts came IT
luctanly homeward, what could it make
Here are vast continent and endless ie
sources. Here is u spare population wei
grounded in morals in education. in indus
try, in political habits. Here was but On
perplexing tradition, which has disappeare
in blood Here was the calm opportunit
to learn from every example; and, before tn
nation is century old, here are the signs {
fatal moral decay and Of political decrep
tude. In the newspapers, winch are the hl'
tories OF to-day, the faithful narrations {
events at the City Hall. in the great ciiy {