The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-19

cation, and reformers suggest, with the
air of original discOverers, that everybody should
become sober The suggestion is admirable, IL
rather obvious; but unluckily IL only leads to the
further question, how are drunkards to be in
duced to become sober? Society is undoubtedly
over-luxurious in many ways; we spend great
deal more than people do abroad without Sc
curing more real comfort or even elegance;
wastefulness has long been one of our most
marked national vices; and when IL is combined
with singular want of taste, the results are not
ediiYing. good many young men are, we
may believe, deferred from marriage by the fear
OF expenses which, under a better sytem would
be unnecessary. What is the cure for these
toleraDly notorious evils? Mr.. Greg recon-
mcnds us TO besmple and economical, but are we
more likely to be so because Mr.. Greg recon-
mends II Clcrgymcn have preached, and jour
nalists have been satrical, and reformers elo-
quent, but the evil persists and even increases
as wealth accumulates luxury does not tend to
tall OIL and even distinct demonstration of the
resulting evils will fail to check so deeply
seated tendency Where arc we to find the
necessary leverage for upsetting abuse which
has been the topic of defamation for centuries?
ANA here occurs an additional complication
which Mr.. Greg does not mention. The young
men who will not marry because they prefer n
club life are, after all, n small minority of the
population. The class from which they spring
contributes traction, numerically tri1ing
though socially conspicuous, of the great army
of spinsters; and there is another evil precisely
the opposite of that which he denounces.
Reckless marriages produce u surplus popula-
ton, from which the men are drafted off
by emigration The pauperized class multiplies
without forethought and fills our streets with
women to whom decent household is an i'm
possibility and who swell the ranks of the
vicious classes. The unfortunate gOvernesscS
who excite Mr.. Greg's cOmmiseratiOn are fire.
quently the daughters of the well-known curate
who marries and has ten children on hundred
n year. The sons go to the colonies or find
some sort of occupation at home, and the daugh-
ters are left to swell the competition and beat
down the value of feminine labor. If our popu-
ton increased as slowly rs that of France, there
would be less surplus labor, and consequently
the most helpless part would not be left behind
earned wages, or worse. We have no desire to
defend the luxurious habits of the upper classes
which may probably do something to make
marriage less common; but if everybody took
Mr.. Greg's advice tomorrow, and young
aristocrats supported families upon $500 year.
it would not follow that our women would be
less redundant The first result would be an
increase of the population, which in very short
time would add still more unemployed females
to the existing crowds.
Mr.. Greg is too good political economist not
to admit the influence of ais cause. In fact, it
falls in only too easily with the other influence
upon which he has mainly dwelt grievous
want of prudence and self-restraint causes the
population to multiply unduly, and forces a
number ofpers0ns, either because they are abso-
lutely poor or because they can't get as much as
lLGl ulblIH uClltlOl' " NC JlONu llO Il uCDGLl-
dent position. If we all clutch too greedily at
any enjoyment which comes within our reach,
a good many will be thrust on one side,
and the weaker sex will naturally get the
worst of it. The remedy, to come back
to that question, must be sought in the
agencies, religious, moral, and intellectual
which we may hope are gradually improving
civilization, and may some day introduce a less
reckless love of display in the higher classes and
more self-restraint in the lowest. Subsidiary
remedies, such as emigration, may do something,
and are worth more careful thought than has
been given to them. But we must look for Il
more radical cure in the gradual extension of
education in its highest and widest sense and
especially in anything which tends to make
women, without losing their feminine qualities,
more rational and less hopelessly childish. How
that is to be done is, we need hardly say a very
wide question, and the value of such Observa-
tiOns as those which Mr.. Greg has published lies
chiefly in the assistance which they give to OBJ
tanning public recognition of the greatness of the
task to be undertaken.