Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-12-08
OVER POPULATION.
startling Views on a PrOtrusive
PrObicm.

| g. r. Sims, In the London News
Whichever way we look at the subject it Is
| fraught with difficulties, and if we are chal-
| lenged TO ind remedy, we have to 90 into a
| question which thousands of excellent people
refuse altogether to discuss. The deserving
| poor could be all better housed now without a
| single brick being laid or single act of par
lament passed if they had fewer children.
| Even i'll the slums the rents are lower and the
rooms better for couples vino have only two
| children. In dozens OF instances where have
asked the denZens OF these novels WHY they
pay four and five shillings for such vile accom-
mediation the answer is "They won't take US in
decent place because of the children"
l know Case now of man who took q
mousse for himself and family, and found he had
Two rooms 10 spare. The house was clean and
healthy, and he had dozens OF applications
from would-be dodgers. But though he was
pOOr-and the extra rent would have been n
| godsend to him-they remained inlet for four
months because all the applicants had three
or four children. His case is the case OF hun
dreds OF people who have decent rooms to let
| Tor the labOring poor.
The large families these peonle fnvariablv
have, not only keep them in grinding poverty
all their lives, but the over-populatiOn floods
the labor market and keeps the scale of wages
down to starvation point. While supply SO
ket be in Il healthy condition?
Men and women. and boys and girls. all eager
LOT something to do, are to be had by thou
SANDS. ana labor is at discount. If the supply
diminished. and hands We're more in proportion
10 the work to be done, labor would BIZ at a
premium.
We have reached point when It is absolutely
mlschieyous to ignore this side of the question.
1t Is not only labor that is affected by the rapjd
increase IN the population; half OF the vice and
nan the crime we deplore in these districts is
traceaDle TO the same cause. Did | wish ia imj-
| tate the French writer and plunge the reader
| TO mis- eyes In horror, might tell how the lack
OF employment brings mere children I'm thase
districts into the streets; how girls Of IL and l2
are forced into sin by their wretched parents as
the last desperate means OF that self-preserya-
ton which we are told is the first law of nature
Ana as the girls in evil times sin at first for
bread to eat, SO the boys begin to thieye: and
| we are brought face to face with the fact that
we nave III our midst vast human warrens
which are simply places where thieves and
| wantons are bred, and poverty and crime in
| crease and multiply together
. nave no desire to argue yeXed question or
engage III controversy on subject which re-
| quires the most delicate handling but no one
VINO mas actual experience of Outcast London
can keep this one great cause of the teemiDr
| misery and vice entirely out of sight. What
the remedy for it may be is no part OF nv pur-
pose to discuss, but here again believe that the
great Hopc is Ill Tue new race That Is coming to
| replace the old The next generation will be
more cultured. more intellectual, and more
refined. mental faculties will be more exercised
which have been dormant in the poor of TODAY.
and as we Increase in civilization SO shall we
decrease In numbers. Education will make even
the lowest OF our citizens something better than
they are at present-mere animal reproducers
| Of their species.
Dan Sickles and Young BartOn Kew.
Mrs. Glider writes to the Boston Gazette:
"You probably know that Gen Sickles has but
one leg, and has been unable to wear an arti-
ncial One so that he is naturally obliged to walk
on crutches. After the house is comfortably
| seated and the opera is going smoothly along.
| Just as the prima-donna reaches her most forid
passage. or the tenor touches his high c, YOU
hear dull thuu down the main aisle of the
Opera house, and looking around. YOU see a
| rather fine-lookng man on clutches swinging
| himself into his seat You naturally ask. who
| Is that and soon get your answer that it is
Cen Sickles,' sometimes with the additional
information. the man who shot Key The last
time saw Gen. Sickles at the Academy | saw
also standing In the lobby Mr.. Barton Kew,
known to the profession as James Barton III
he also saw Gen. Sickles he must have had an
| unpleasant sensation, for can imagine nothing
that would work man up to such point of
excitement as to meet the murderer of his father
face TO face