The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-08-19
WHEN THERE SHALL BE NO MEN.
That's What tbs World Eventually Il Con
ing To, OF Figures Lie.

~ II tDo VII - SA1
ing To, or Figures Lie.
New Orleans Picayune.
Prof. Stanford E. Chaille. NJ. D.. Of this city,
and dean of the medical faculty of Tulane Uni
verlty, a recognized authority in matters OF
sanitary philosophy and hygiene. has recently
published an interesting report on the life and
death rates Of New Orleans AS compared with
those of other cities. The Picsyune is indebted
for q copy. which contains q variety OF interest
ing and important matters, which we will here
after take occasion to notice as they deserve.
Attention here is directed to some deductiops
which the Professor derives from mis- statistics,
and if We may trust in this case to the some
what questionable statement that figures never
lie" we are brought face TO face with some re-
markable.
Our professors statistics which are, of course,
perfectly square and honorable as far as he 10
concerned, are derived partly from the records
of the Louisiana Board OF Health, which Is
charged with the duty OF recording all births
and deaths in this city. and partly from the mort
nary tables Of the tenth United States census,
and they are doubtless as reliable as such col
lated figures usually are. From them it "a dis
covered that in most parts OF the United States
women have q better expectation Of life than
men; they live longer and survive with more te-
pscity and success the vicissitudes that tend to
shorten existence. But it is in New Orleans
where these advantages are enjoyed to the high
est degree over any other place.
The Picayune has heretofore discussed as a
possibility. in view of the constantly increasing
surplus of women over the numbers OF men,
that a state of society analogous to that at
tributed to the Amazous of antiquity might
again occur. Here a learned psychologist pre-
sents a formidable array of figures to show that
in the struggle for life the softer sex starts out
with decided advantages of immunity from the
assaults Of death as compared with the males;
that the women have better chances for develop
ment in all that makes up sane. sound and Wig
orous life. In a word, the men are on the down
grade OF health and morals, while the women
possess all that conduce TO their physical and
moral superiority. Let rs quote the words OF
our scientist:
The expectation of life for females. is. in every
locality, better than of males, but the difference in
favor of females varies greatly. and to an extent mex.
over males is greatest. and very great in New Orleans
and Charleston; it is a little in Boston, Brooklyn and
jersey and Masssehusetts. The fourteen localities
take, in reference to this superiority OF females over
males, the following order: New Orleans. Charleston.
~adelphia, District of Columbia. Baltimore, New Yorlo
Brooklyn. Boston. Massachusetts, New Jersey.
The like superiority and difference exists in refer
ported, only four, take the following order: New Or
leans, again first, and the difference is very great.
though not as great as between white females and
males; next, Baltimore; then the District OF Columbia,
and last, charleston. And it is singular that in
Charleston, where the superiority of the white female
is very great, the superiority Of the colored female
Another singular fact is that while there is a slight
superiority in Massachusetts, of the females over the
males. yet the males have the superiority from two to
ten years of age. and that this male superiority Is
found in no other locality.
A third singular fact, and one encouraging specially
to New Orleans, is that the expectation of life of its
white females is superior to that of the white females
of Charleston, Brooklyn. New York and Boston; but
the expectation of life of the white males of New Or
leans is less than il said places.
Why is all this p~ossiblel Our author replies:
hurtful excuses; they are more confined to the
house and engaged in less hazardous occupations. and
thereby they are less exposed to communicable dis
eases. to inclemencies of weather. and to dangerous
accidents. But these obvious causes, while explain.
ing in part, fail co do so IN whole For at no time is
the superiority of females so great as under five years
TO the above causes. For such reasons. vital stats.
ticians have claimed that nature endowed the
female with . stronger vitality. with greater vital
endurance, and if there be better explanation I do
not know IL.
We are to believe, then, that while women
are, In obedience to subtle forces of evolution,
growing physically more perfect. and this would
seem also to include advancement toward moral
perfection, the men are declining in all vital
characteristics. The women are growing con.
stantly more beautiful and more numerous, while
the men are in a corresponding ratio to retire
from the world they have for so many ages dom
mated and controlled. By these mysterious and
potential agencies the men are dying fading out OF
existence, and their last despsirinR gaze is to be
fixed on . race Of goddesses, ''diviuely tall and
most divinely fair" crowdine upon the stage
where the tremendous tragedy of "Msn and
Woman" has been so long enacted. but now Il
be superseded by the ipexpressibly peculiar and
unknowable drama, "Womau."
1t 10 to this ending that all tho musty fgurei
and dry bones OF science presented above in
evitable tend. 1t is the consummation of an i'm
placable Law which is destiny, declaring the sur
vivAl Of the fttest. 1t portends q grand futur,
for woman, but il Is much TO be doubted if Eye
can be happy in Paradise without Adam.