Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-01-03
CHILDREN G0fSG OUT OF
FASHION.
The Yankee stock Botting into
the Earth,

Dr. Nathan Allen, of Lowell, Mass,
in an article published not long since in
the Congregafioaqlist, produced some
curious and suggestive illustrations Of
progress in q growing demand for chill
dren.
Itappears that in the public institu
tions Of this State there are more than
a thousand children under fifteen. The
little inmates Of these establishments
can hardly be gathered as fast as they
are wanted And in the increasing
scarcity, of course the dear things are
growing dearsr very fast. At the State
Primary School in Monson. some hun
dred and fifty were put out under inden-
ture or adoption last year, the demand
still far outrunning the supply. 1t is
said also, that the Little Wanderers
Home in Boston cannot begin to meet
the applications in this kind. In the
city of New York, also, there are the
Children aid Society, and several Mis-
sion Schools besides, and these are all
overrun with calls, and send of from
three TO four thousand children year
There, too, the demand is constantly in
ereasing. As things are now going, it
seems not unlikely that foundlings and
orphans of all sorts will ere long become
a prominent article of merchandise in
4 American trade, Yankee thrift making
it a regular business to collect and dis
/ pose Of them to the mutual benefit Of all
the parties concerned.
There is another class Of facts draw
ing still more largely in the same direc-
ton. The New Hampshire School
Report for 1867, prepared by the Secre-
tary of the Board of Commissioners,
gives detailed statement, showing that
in 1860 the number Of children attend
inc school was 94,576; in 1867, only
II, $40. Here is a falling of Of Il, ,734
in eight years more than two thousand
a year. On this point the report speaks
as follows Gone fact, manifest to all
who are accustomed TO visit the schools
throughout the rural portions Of the
State, affects the mind with sadness. 1t
is the decrease of pupils in the schools,
and Of children in many of the towns.
This is not made up by the growth Of
cities and Villages for, as viii be seen
by comparison with the reports Of former
years, the whole number in the schools
of our State diminishes" 1t is to be
noted, also, that with the one exception
of Maine, New Hampshire probably has
smaller proportion Of foreigners than
any other New England State. The /.
account thus affords a nearer estimate as
to how things are going with the native
stock. Yet even there, if the ratio of
childhood were sifted down to the native
population, the falling off would be
found considerably larger the general
rule, as ascertained by a wide induc-
ton, peiug, ttT-Tt for'sgn families ayerqge /
three times as many children as natives. T
The causes Of thi5 strange course Of /
things are too deep and comprehensive
and involved to be entered upon here /
and now We can but note one or two .
points as indicating how surely and how
rapidly those causes are working out /
their proper result A clergyman Of (
the highest character, in one Of the in .
terror towns Of this State, not forty miles .
from Boston, late informed us that in
his parish there were from twenty FIVE .
to thirty couples, a long time married
who had not one child among them. So
too, in this city, it had been ascertained
that among the whole population the
annual birth rate falls somewhat behind
the death-rate The foreign population
here probably makes not less than three
eights of the whole if anything more
and among them the ratio of births to
deaths is more than three to one. And
the case is not much different in the
other portions of the State, especially in
the larger towns. Now the school
returns DO not commonly mark the re-
lative number of the native and the
foreign classes they just give the results
in gross, and DO not discriminate at all
as to the ratio Of increase or decrease
between the two. And so the great in
crease of the foreign element misleads
most people as to what is actually going
ou On this point, Dr. Alien remarks
thus: at has been ascertained by a
careful inspection, in some of the largest
places in Massachusetts, that where the
foreign population has numbered for
wears about one-third Of the inhabitants
more than one-half Of the children now
under fifteen were actually Of foreign
descent; still the leaders of public
opinion in those places would be quite
slow, if not unwilling, to acknowledge
the fact"
From the whole matter thus indicated
one conclusion is very clear and very
certain, namely, that the old Yankee
stock in New England is fast going into
extinction literally rottiDg down into
the earth And the causes which lie at
the bottom Of this process are too deep
seated and have got too much Roadway
TO be arrested a remnant IS at the best
all that can now be saved though that
is indeed worth working for. M0reoUer
Il appears, By this account, that Has
sachasetts, genoreliy and Boston IA par
ticular, the ceater and SPRING head Of
Anlericaa thrift aad enterprise and jiianl-
ilsatioa, Is aoIo, so far as the aattUc popH
lati0a Is concerned, and so fay as regards
tie. supreme matter Of domestic health ]
HtH Ctff0t UHtt p'Off''f t'J1 f"e 'f'' Sol-~''
est spot under The ,ohole hcacen. Even
Paris is not SO bad, in this respect, as
the "Athens of America" There is no
other place in the world where those
sins and vices that are by nature the
sure and speedy decay and death Of
humanity, are so rife and in such ener-
getic action, as right here where Hosea
Ballou has planted and Theodore Par
ker watered and who has given the
increase? The reformers Of this wonder
full little spot have taken the world in
charge, and have grown so potent and ;
ubiquitous with their wisdom and pro
gress and philanthropy, as to leave the
Creator no further work to do and yet
the very structure of humanity is lit
orally rotting-we beg pardon; pro-
qyesstaq--into extinction before their
eyes; themselves, meanwhile, still
dreaming and snoring SO loud that the
rest of US can hardly sleep af all-snor-
ing ."theres a good time coming"
On the whole, would it not be well
for the Protestant clergy in general to
suspend, for while, their eternal pratt 2
ines OF theology and Apostolic Sue