The daily herald. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1886-1887, 1886-12-21
rA6 MURDER 81 CHILDREN.
'1Iourners" That nrc Not Burdencd with
sorroNx--To snve Exnensn.

'1Iourners" That nre Not Burdencd with
sorrow--To save Expense.
Persons living on West Madison street will
notice that there Is almost every hour Of tho
day small funeral en- route to a cemetery
lying few miles west Of tho city. These
''pro s,ssions" consist of one carriage or
two, and occasionally they reach the dignity
of having ns many as three in limo. There is
never any hearse; and tho only indication
that burial is in prospect Is 10 DO found in
n small, plain, wooden box, which Is carried
on tho footbonrd of the drivers scat on tho
first carriage
The ''mourners" donot seem overwhelmed
with sorrow. There are always a woman or
or two and some men, and,now and then some
children. The men smoke pipes and appear
to be enjoying the trip; the women gossip
with fearless eyes, and appear nc IL they wore
bound TO the woods for q picnic. The beer
saloons at and beyond the limits arc patron
lied on the outward and inward Journey.
There is no grief, no appearance OF distress,
no indication of sorrow or regret.
This rusty hack with its rough, wooden
box, its unclean driver, and its fearless, pipe
smoking ''mourners,n is ono OF the factors
connected with the infant mortality for which
Chicago is so famous. 1t is the vehicle which
plies between certain homes and the grave
yard, and in n sense IL Is tho cart of n scaven-
ger. The infant material which it carries
beyond the town to bury, rs is done with
other forms of offal, is as willingly cent away
from the various houses as IL It were SO much
refuse, and with as little regret. Civilization
Is Mortified over the custom of savage tribes
who toss their aged relatives out to die when
they become useless, but civilization docs not
-.
walls in its midst. Here in Chicago infant
murder Is carried on almost by wholesale and
without hindrance.
There is in this city very large population,
mostly or wholly foreign by nativity, among
whom child murder is as common ns eating
and sleeping Among them each sickly child
Is slnin by process as certain as poison. If
IT'S the least weakly at birth it is at once aban-
doned TO death 1t is not actually, per-
haps, strangled, but IL is refused attention,
medicine and nourishment, and thus Is assas-
sinated as certainly as If the work were done
with knife. Whether or not a newly-born
child should be nouIished and cared for or al
lowed to die depends wholly on its physical
condition. The question is purely one of dol.
lars and cents; il the child is ailing, it will
not pay TO rear it; it can not be of assistance
when it grows up, and its maintenance will
be q useless expense.
There is a suggestion Of Spartanism in this
disposal of weakly infants, but It Is based on
different motive. The ancients slew in order
10 strengthen the race; these people destroy to
save the expense of medicine, to prevent the
support of ailing children, and TO secure
strong assistants in the future work of money
getting. There are people who viii conclude
that the more this class destroys its young the
better for society and civilization. Nevertho-
less, the existence of the practice of allowing
the ailing to die simply TO nvoid tho trouble
and expense of caring for them is brutal, de
grading and scandal 10 the community in
which it has existence. Chicago Times.