Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1886-01-06
RE pteA OF 1ss cA,LeaaM
The curss ef Inherited Moral sad rAys.
,s>i D~pravify-A Great Problem

nwa Cufss ~ tuuerNed Wores eou r0ys~
ssAi D~pravify-A Great Problem.
l"F y. In Globe Demor-'t
Dickens' picture Of = school for train
ing child-thieves is literally true in all
our large titles. Those who have to do
with distributing children, taken from
the crowns of ew ork, into western
homes, are frequently compelled to send
back boys and girls Of 10 or AZ because
of preeocious and hereditary VIC
iousness. assions that would not in q
healthy organization appear before Is,
in these children are violent at 10.
There is no possible way of managing
them in the way of trust and love. II
is inherited grossness When the curse
of deprayity gets 10 be liked bias, or
instinct, what the theologians call nat.
ural deprayity," it is perfectly normal
that the child should be tad. Such
badness is not to be dealt with in the
way OF punishment. Whatever theolog-
ians may determine about eternity, it Is
clear that punishment is not the right
treatment I, "a naturally bad creature
in this world. What we have TO do 10
to stop the increase of total depravity
and as soon as possible bring it to ex-
tinction.
ongenital disease of aphysical sort is
only less terrible than congenital moral
disease. Tut you ha,J only TO walk
along tenement thoroughfare to OBJ
serve how few of the children of the
lower classes are free from some sort of
malformation Forgetting altogether
that not one in one hundred approaches
any idea OF form or feature, there is
present an astounding proportion OF con.
stitutional deformity. From the face
to the feet there are ulcers and sores.
tickets and fits and st. titus meet us
in every other tenement tpthalmia
alternates with crooked and crossed
eyes. Moral obliquitity iinds all sorts
of obi ne physical expression Bone
diease, cancer and all possible out.
breaks of poisoned blood are common.
II was the writer fate at one time TO
go more or less among the tenements of
Aew ork city. While il is true that
feeble health, miserable wages paid to
women and sudden losses drive large
number to these crowded uildings. yet
by far the largest part of the occupants
are such by heredity. You can tell
natural born tenement dweller by his
looks There is an utter lack of the
individual about him. When not crimi.
nal, he is case of arrested develop
ment ] could never get o, er the idea
of their all being parts or numt ers of
some one thing zach one is defective
somewhere; in legs bowed, or in arms
skinny. or in eyes bleared, and hardly
shapely head among them The
children are born as part of the sys.
TEN. do not refer to those tenements
that are largely filled with dangerous
brutes and thieves, but those grade
higher.
Morals and physique go together In
Q fifth-story room found a liquor-sell-
er's family, consisting of eight girls and
the wife They had no hesitation about
changing their rags to put on their ash
barrel finery. although it left them for
time in a state of nudity. TWAS not
immortality, but non morality: total
lack Of moral sentiment or sense How
could it be otherwise They cupied
but two rooms, and one of them was
hardly igger than a closet The op.
portuni:y of those eight girls in life is
what concerns us. do not care a half
penny what you think about their fate
in eternity, | want to know what chance
they are going to have here and now.
There is nothing in your Chinese prom
lem. or your negro problem, or your
tariff, 10 compare with this problem of
the children. Multiply this eight by
10, 600 and imagine an army of $4,000.
L will not run the figures beyond thou.
sands, ecause you can get mental
pictureof 1000. But the childran that
lack decent moral and physical beget.
ting and culture 60 far 5eyond that in
these states OF ours.