Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1878-09-26
Communication.
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Paris Letter.

PARIS, Sept. 18th, 1873.
A few weeks ago there was
published in a list of nearly 6
score of Scientific Congresses
that were to be held in the Pal
ace of Trocadero; a Congress
of "Demography." DIR. Bertil-
lon. a distinguished savant, is
the inventor of Demography, oil
at least of the name. His ex'
cellent maps enable one to take
in rapidly the parts of France
where legitimate prevail over
illegitimate births, where irreg-
ular unions are most frequently
"regularized," and natural chill
dren recognized by their faith
ers; where there is most drunk
enness; where crime is violent
and barefaced and where it
skulks; where primary instruc-
ton is most general; along what
rivers cancer, or Group, or bron-
chetis, or typhoid fever, or pull
monary consumption prevail
the statistics of disease at riv-
ers' mouths and rivers sources;
the climates and soils most fa-
tai to infants, to youths, and to
young girls; for the geographi-
cal conditions that suits the
male organization in youth are
often pernicious to the female
and eice uersd. Two Of the most
moral departments, if morality
is to be tested, by the scarcity
of illegitimate children and the
frequency of marriages, are the
Vancluse and the Gers. The
former is a very wealthy and a
very bad department, and has
for It's chief town Avignon, in
to which, before it was annexed
to France, the violent men Of
the south, flying from justice,
used to congregate. It's popu-
lation still sayors of this origin.
Bnt arart from violence they
are an essentially yirtuous peo-
pie in the chief town of the
Department of Vancluse.
Paris is a sink of corruption
if judged by DIR. Bertillon's
maps. Why it should appear
SO requires some explanation.
When a provincial girl meets
with q misfortune which causes
her to be Stunned by her neigh
bors she turns her face Paris
ward, and comes here to make a
new departure. Other girls are
attracted by the high wages Civ
en- to domestic servants, and the
glamour Of the dazzling city;
while vast numbes who desire
to reap the wages of sin and
amuse themselves immensely in
them, desert farms and
workshops in small towns to
join the army of vice. The
largest proportion of recruits
from this direction is furnished
by Rheims and its enyirons.
Why this is SO is not explained
by the statistician l have named.
1t is probably due to the power
ty of the soil and the exciting
nature Of the wines of the Mar
ne Valley. Poorly fed women
have hot vital energy enough to
face brayely life of hard work.
Anaemia follows on insufficient
nutrition, and laziness on amaze
mia. The we'll fed robust Nor
man peasant girl is covetous and
selfish, but it is not her way to
seek a livelihood in vice when
she comes TO Paris.
The high rents of lodgings in
the department of the Seine is a
serious impediment 10 marriage.
A workwoman can live pleas
antly in a garret where two
would be miserable, and an in
FAINT would soon perish from the
heat of the slate roof Immedi-
ately overhead in summer, or
from the cold in winter. The
NorG, take it all in all, is the
most vicious department 10
France. Factories, drunken
ness, and gross appetites rem
Ter the towns pandemoniums.
Sunshine, fruit and olive oil are
great boons Of heaven to the in
habitants of the southern prov
noes and conduce to health, |
sontentment and longevity, |
when once the infantile diseases
ire surmounted. But the prin-