The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-02-12
Is THE WORLD GOING TO THE DEIIL"

Dean Stanley, in Westminster Abbey,
recently, spoke of the fear of many at
the present time that the world is grow
ing worse 1t may be that sometimes
in our gloomy moods we are inclined to
think we can not count of the con-
tinuous advance of the onward progress
of our race. 1t may he we are some
times inclined to fear that the latter
half of the nineteenth century is to close
in lower morality, a darker philosophy,
a debasement of the senses, or a term of
gross superstition. 1t may be that dia-
bolical crimes shall rise again which we
had hoped were dead forever, that states
men may again become corrupt and self
seeking, that the leaders of sects and
churches Will again prefer the outward
to the inward, the natural to the spiritu-
al, the seen to the unseen There are
plenty of revelations to bear out in part
pessimist philosophy nor is there any
common sense in vanishing over the
! ugly facts of the day. 1t is not always
wise to make the best of things and TO
take Il cheerful view of every thing all
round. Comparing ourselves with our
forefathers, we hear of many nearly CO.
lossal calamities, and are face to face with
large number of crimes. The accidents
that shocked them killed OF MANNED
units, our misiortunes desolate hundreds
of homes The horrible consequences of
strong drink in brutality to woman and
children have multiplied in our large
towns. For one English child brought
up in foul air til rec hundred years ago
there are row at least fifty. For ten
men habitually unused to country walks
in the sixteenth century, these are prob
ably one hundred. If we look abroad
and remember the civil var in America,
/ or the recent French ws.r, we see that
| the numbers of men engaged in deadly
struggle were ten or twelve times the
j forces of our ancestors, though great. and
the loss in money and every way to the
nations striving proportionately in
creased In trade and commerce dis
honesty has made gigantic strides; the
tiny pickings and stealings OF the village
have grown into gigantic CITY frauds.
| Goldsmiths rogue no longer cheats far
mer Marlborough in bargain, or over
reaches Moses with "a gross of blue
spectacles :" he starts a company, and
dips his hands in thousands of pockets.
! Then instead of few sailors being paid
to scuttle ship, giving the passengers
time to escape in boats, We have the
Bremerhaven monster, who murders h.y
machinery and winds up an assassina-
ton eight days in advance of the deed,
! leaving no hopes for the victims of the
! calculated crime. Moreover, faith has
! died down, leaving none of the stern.
relentless zeal that impelled men to die
at the stake themselves or burn their
neighbor for clause in a creed. The
chivalrous loyalty which placed life and
goods at the bidding of a king is van
ished or is cherished only by few peas-
ants, priests and mobiles in Biscay and
Navarro Our theater revels not on in
tellectual but sensuous attractions; or
literature is all copy and compilation;
our poetry is half hearted, and Romeo,
signing under Juliet's balcony, is soothed
by the anticipation of a dinner, cigar
and rubber at the club.-London Tele-