The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1883-06-21

Christian American men and women,
live, IL, in its adjustments at least,
about such il world as the Almighty in-
tended it to be.
The old idea that everything in the
social world is ordered by the Divine
will that il is the mysterious dispcnsa-
tion Of providenc. that gives wealth to
the few and orders poverty AZ the lot of
the many, makes some rulers and the
others serfs-is losing power; bnt
another idea that serves tho same pnr-
pose is taking its place, and we are told,
in the name of science. that the only
social improvement that is possible is
by n slow race Revolution, Of which tho
fierce struggle for existence is the inn
pelling force; that. as / have recently
read in n journal of civilization" from
| the pen of II man who has turned from
| the preaching of what he called Chris.
| tianitv to the teaching oi what lie called
| political economy, that only the elite
| of the races has been raised to the point
where reason and conscience can even
| curb the lower motive forces. and that
| for all but few of us tlc limit of at
tainment in life, in the best case, is to
live out our term, to pay our debts, to
place three or four children in u posi-
ton as good AZ the fathers was, and
then make the accounts balance As
for friends of humanity and those who
would "help the poor" they get from
him the same scorn which the scrlbes
and pharisees $500 years ago visited on
pcstilent social reformcr whom they
finally crncificd.
/ Lying beneath all such theories il the
selfishness that would resist any in
guiry into the titles to the wealth which
greed has gathered, and the difficulty
and indisposition on the part OF the
comfortable classes of realizing the ex-
istence of any other world than that
seen through their own eyes.
But look around. All over the world
the e ,uty and the glory and tho grace
of civilization rests on human lives
crushed into misery and tlistortion
l will not 81 eak Of Germany, OF
France, of England. Look eyen here
where civilization flowers in THE free
.. field OF, new continent; where there
are no Kings. no great standing armies,
no relics Of feudal servitude: where ma
!, tional existence began with the solemn
declaration of the equal and inalienable
rights of men. / clip, almost ut ran
: dom, from a daily paper, for l am moi
I seeking the blackest shadows:
Margaret Hickey, aged 30 years,
j, came to this city few days. ago from
e Boston with 7-weck-old baby. She
tried to get work, but was not success
5 full Saturday night she paced the eel
I lar at No 226 West Forty-second street
g At midnight she called at Police head
:. quarters and said she had lost her bab,
> in Forty-third street. In the meantime
i IN officer had found the child. The
) mother was held until Yesterday morn
! ing, when she was taken to the York
t Vile Court and sent to the island fol
I six months"
n Morning and evening, day after day
in these times of peace and prosperity
!. one may read in our daily papers sucl
i items as this-and worse than this. W,
a are so used to them that they excite II,
n attention and no comment. We know
Q what the fate of Magaret Hickey. age,
= 30 years, and of her baby, aged
II weeks. sent to the Island for 81,
) months. will be. Better for them an,
y better for society were they drowne
IS outright. as We would drown Il useles
e cat and NANCY kitten; but SO common
o are such ite'ts tha. We glance mt tn
c number OF birds wounded at pigeon
}, match, and turn to read what is goin
Y OH in society,"
d l read the other day in a Brookly
y paper of Coroner's jury summoned
:, inquire, rs tho law directs. into th
Is cause of death Of 2-days' infant. Tn
n unwholesome room was destitute {
,t everything SAVE broken char. a mis-
TO erablc bed and an empty whisky -bottl,
N On the bed lay uncared for a yann
ls girl, the mother of the dead intan,
le over the chair, IN drunken stupo
CO sprawled man- her fathcl I'll
NJ horror stricken ,ursr," said the repor
81 rendered verdict in accordance wit
=. the facts, and left the place as fast :
20 they could SO do We turn from the,
horrors. Are there not policemen an
ne station-houses, alms-houses and chal
G. table secietiesp Nevertheless, We sen
r. missionaries to the heather! Yet fro
w Arctic to Antarctic circle. where are Il
2 heathen among such degraded and iii
to torted human beings to be foul
$ as in our centers of so-called Christia
lie civilization, where we have such respc
a for the all-seeing eye of God that If Y,
lis want drink on Sunday YOU must
he into the saloon by the back dool
it Among what tribe of savages, vi
of never saw missionary, can the col
he blooded horrors OF Tewksbury Aim
m house he matched? Babies don't &c
1t, orally live long here" they told Il
rat farmers wife who brought them the
,r- tie waif And neither did they-sc
he enty-three out of seyenty-four dying
an few weeks, their little bodies sold
it al, a round rate per dozen to the Il
nd secting-table, and 6-months' infa
lot left there two days losing three poun
,se in weight. Nor did adults-the brok
to men and women who there sought sh
he ter--fare better. They were robbie
of starved. beaten, turned into marketal
OTIS corpses as fast as possible, while I
al highly managers waXel
and rich, and set before Investigate
At- committees the best of dinners and /
. a choicest of wines. 1t were slander
,rs dumb brutes to speak OF the best
,n- cruelty disclosed by the opening
as this whited sepuleher. Yet, not ol
he do the representatives of the wea
ry- and culture and high moral ideas"
nv Massachusetts, receive coldlv these r
me elations. they fight bitterly the II
ont who has made them, Us though
eli dragging of such horrors to light,
he the doing of them, We're the unpard,
be able sin. They were only paupe
,or And l read i'll the journal founded
ath Horace Greeley that "the woes of
WI Tewksbury panpers are no worse IL
the the common lot of all inmates OF p
yer per refugees the country over"
url Or take the revelations made
,en winter before Legislative committe.
red the barbarities practiced in New \,
mo State prisons. The system rema
,eir unaltered; not an official has been G.
,ma dismissed. The belief that domina
,ra- our society is evidently that whicl
the find expressed in IL journal of civil
tion" by reverend professor Mt Y,
II shat tha criminal has M claims nora