The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1874-05-07
WHOLE NO. 14O7.

look to the printing press, the steam en-
| CINE, the railroad, the telegraph, there is
much to glorify.
We cannot speak, within the bounds
| of propriety, of that disguised but dread
| skeleton, the social evil. But we may
state one fact. that is so startling that it
! should ring thuDder-toned through soci-
ETY.. Of all who die of the effects of the
social evil, and there are thousands every
year, three-fourths are children Thus
| fearfully is visited the crimes of the faith
! er upon the children in generations to
come.
There is still another skeleton, now
small, though rising up. This is infanti-
eide. In 1860 there were but ten cases
OF infanticide in the state of Ohio-at
least, that were detected. Now there
are unquestionably many more; while
that form of it called abortion is multi
plying at a most rapid rate, and nothing
but the severest and most certain pun
ishment of the abortionists can prevent
it. This is, like suicide, the direct con-
sequence of hot bed civilization, without
the increased and constant influence of
religion. Society creates and keeps Gas
in the houses of i'll fame) the conditions
which create want, maddens the intellect
and stupefes the conscience.
The article to which we have alluded
makes this true statement
"The movement against it must be put
upon Christian grounds, and no found
ling hospitals can stop this abomination.
The mortality in these institutions is
usually frightful, and about double the
rate outside the walls, amounting to be-
tween 72 and 79 per cent. of the children
admitted 1t is still more strange that
when the foundling basket is at hand,
child murder does not decrease. Thus
in France, where there are many such
institutions, there is one child murder to
every 100000; in Belgium, where there
are but few, one to every 100000, and in
England, where there are none, one to
every 100000. The probable reason is
that where public opinion does not in
sist upon parents taking care of their
own children, the sacredness of the
childs life is forgotten"
The statistics of foundlings and infant
icides prove that the proportion in Eu-
rope is immensely greater than in this
country, and that it is connected with
intemperance especially brandy drink
ing This fact, however, is not so devel-
oped as to be important. But it is be-
yond doubt that foundling hospitals will
do more harm tn an good. And now, what
do you think of Europe? There are the
countries whose people are said to be
cheerful and happy with wine and beer
drinking. We are asked to look at
picture galleries, and palaces, and gar
dens, and worship at the shrines of
saints. Yet there stand the greatest
skeletons of modern society. In the
midst of the tombs and fallen empires
rise the skeletons of their vices, stand
ing out in almost as great proportions as
when Babylon stood upon the Euphrates
or Pompeii under the verge of Vesuvius.
Have we gone back? Orcan we not raise
civilization to a higher standard? We
can. We have; but it is only by the ut
most and continued exercise of all the
moral powers of society that we can
keep American society up to the level
we have attained. The 100000 immi-
grants which come annually to our
shores from Europe testify unmistakably
to two facts. One, that America is su-
perior to Europe in all that is beautiful
to man; and, secondly, that it will take
all our moral power to prevent the eff
fects of infidelity and vice, which unhap-
PLY are largely imported with even the
best class of immigrants. The good, vir-
tuous, and thrifty come also; but more
largely those who have been accustomed
to society which is unconscious of those
skeletons, or Indifferent to religion.
Ill BROADWAY, April Ii E. D. NJ.