Weekly Trinity journal., 1870-07-02


power to act, becomes enfeebled and the seat of
wearuess and low spirits, incapacitating one for
happiness or duty. She knows how all this,
carried on for a few weeks or months, will spoil
any constitution, and yet she insists in doing it
for years, making herself unfit for wife or
mother fitting herself rapidly for a useless life
and an early death. No wonder that so many
men become untrue with such a withered flower
for an ornament; no wonder that so many little
children are left for stepmothers. The great
wonder is that marry them at all. This
discloses the real secret why so many of our best
men never marry. If they wish an ornament
they want something that will not wither after a
few months or if they wish a useful companion
they do not to take broken-down woman
at scarcely eighteen.
Women constantly affirm that they dress in
this way to please men, and there is much truth
n the assertion. ! have often heard men ex-
claim, upon seeing waist padded and extended
to nearly two feet across the back, and girded to
three-iouFths of foot at the bottom, I" how gen.
teel how elegant! - But such men were either
fools or lberlines, and daily contact with the
ewd had made the customs and forms Of the
lewd attractive. All sensible men deprecate
this as weakness, which, more than everything
IN the world put together, stamps woman the in
ierior OF man. She shows even less judgement
than the ignorant Chinese, whose men favor the
crdmping of feet, and she cramps the very cen
ire OF her life when men constantly oppose it.
We have just heard, and are thankful to hear it,
that tight lacing is unfashionable in Paris, be-
cause 1t prevents grace of movement, which is
coming much into favor we may hope for
change here for a few months ut least, though
soon as the old fashion returns, we have
much reason to fear that our women will rush
into ii regardless Of health or life. This aUhOr-
rent custom robs her of all her charms as
woman simply; her roundness Of form, her Vi
yacity, and her freshness. Though no pure man
marries solely for a yoluptuous form, man
can be blamed for admiring fully developed
woman any more than woman for liking
strong developed man.
Again, probably not one man infen thousand
marrles without wishing for children to live and
grow up in his house, to sit upon his kRee and
bear his name after be is dead, and women do
not hesitate to let it he known publicly that they
no not wish to bear the pains of maternity or to
have the care Of children. They prefer society.
1t is not strange that they dread child-bearing,
for they have all their lives been rendering them
selves incapable Of passing through it without
danger. | have just read with great interest,
not to say surprise and sorrow the report of the
proceedings Of the American Social Science As
socation held at Boston recently. DR.. Nathan
Allen Of Lowell, says, speaking of the popula-
ton of Massachusetts, . The increase of popula-
tion for twenty or twenty-five years has been
mainly in the cities and large towns, and it will
be found to be largely made Of the foreign ele-
meut. In the smaller villages the State is mostly
American, and has hardly increased at all. EX-
amining the number of deaths we find that there
are absolutely more deaths than births among
the strictly American children, and that aside
from immigration and births of children Of for
elgn parentage, the population of Massachusetts
is daily decreasing Examination shows that
the families Of the first generation had aver
age OF eight or ten children of the next three
between seven and eight; the fifth about five,
and the sixth less than three TO each family. In
some Of the old towns the records of one hum
dred years do not show single married couple
without children. The New York census of
1850 shows that Of JJ3, ,326 married women,
1871, ,755 had no children, and 303 1913 had only
one or two. The birth rate shows that Ameri-
can families do not increase at all, and inspect
ion of the registration in other States shows that
the decrease of children is found to prevail in
country almost as in city, and that Only about
three-lihs Of all that are born every reach adult
life. " hat then is to be the state OF society in
New England fifty or hundred years hence
What is to become of the American stock ?. Can
the difference between the births of foreign and
native pareutage be attributed to degeneracy
in the physical condition and organization OF fe-
males, or settled determination with large
numbers, by confluence at certain periods, to
have no more children, or only limited num-
Der Y'
Writers upon population regard, as principal
causes OF peryertng its increase, climate, famine
pestience, government, war; want of marriage
and prudential considerations. The speaker
showed that none OF these agencies, except the
last could have eXerted any very great effect
His points were that such considerations nat
urally wrong and physoogcally harmful. The
primary object of the institution of marriage is
the propagation Of the human species. The
practice OF abortion was alluded to, and the
Gfaft4
history OF the world was the practice so common
rs in this country at the present day. The ymi.
Gus means in which it was brought about we're
stated, and the opinion expressed that in New
England many thousand abortions are procured
annually.
With these facts before us, we should think
every husband would trembie for the future of
America, every young man look with horror
upon the sins of women, and every woman so
lost to all sense of her nature and duty to God,
would wish to hide herself from society ms tead
of tOuting in it. woman who does not wish
to he mother can have little that is womany
about her little affection, little devotion to her
husband, httle of that sympathy and tenderness
which make man, in spite of her weakness, long
to hold her to his breast, and work for and pro-
tect her. A woman who does not love The
clasp of tiny arms, the kiss of baby lips, the pat
ter OF liue feet, the training of little minds up
to her own, be she ever so learned, must have
something omitted from her nature, and that
omission makes her undesirable for any mans
wife. To be IA wife and mother does not take
ones every moment, or prevent one from enter
ing any other honorable sphere, any more than
to he a husband and father prevents him from
bearing part in the duties of city, or State, or
For these principal reasons among some minor
ones, numbers of men are to-day refusing to be Il
part of the great family of society That these
reasons are potent, no woman can deny, but
that men should be so much Influenced by them
as to adopt their present course, cannot be al
lowed + 4. q i
Every man with reasonable amount of intel !
lect, and with sufficiently strong body to labor
.or the support of Il woman, should marry. Hell