Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1889-02-17
MATERNITY'S DECLINE
INPRBQUENCY OF LARGE FAMILIES AMONG
THE BETTER CLASSES.
Seriousness Of the Question-Whst Once Was The
Glory Of WOmanhood is No Longer
Es.aemsd-Jsnny Wrsn's
views.
Rom Ii Nelr - H.rold.

by the pulpit and the papers 1t is sub
ject TOO sacred 10 be handled lightly, ard
yet for the sake of posterity it should bs
investigated thoroughly and Undertaking
ly; therefore, leaving the criticisms of stiff
necSed contemporaries, put the question.
Why, may ask, ia It no longer good |
form for the fashionable woman 10 be the |
mother CT more than ore, OF at the most.
two curled dlrlings? Ia it true that our
race of women is degenerAtiDe? Are they no
longer capable OF their nOblest function, |
mOtherh. cd? Is 1t a fact that the fast, latigu-
ing, exciting life of the society devotse is
IN enemy to maternity. and that the loss |
of vitality ard nerve force attending it is |
auswerable for the empty cradles ana un-
used nurseries IN many wealthy homes?
GREAT MEN FROM LARGE FAMILIES.
We know that there is new regime, and |
that whereas our grandmothers looked with !
admiring pride on the dozen or more happy
faces, miniature likenesses of their own,
around the hearthstOne, now we could
scarcely find in days wslk household
among the uppsr ten Thousand that could
boast half dozen members of the secnpd
generation. Does this decrease in domes-
tic numbers point us to what seems to be
q psychological fact-viz., that the friction
of many minds from the nursery up TO the
salon is necessary to the development OF
genius? 1t would seem 90, indeed, when
remembering that Napoleon Bopaparte was
one of thirteen children, Benjamin Frank
liz one of seventeen. General Sherman one
OF eleven, Charles Dickens one of eight,
Gladstone one of seven or more. DR.. WIN.
Makepeace ThackeTay, gIandsire OF the later
namesake, was one Of sixteen, and go on
many Others could be cited who Rave at
tanned eminence in one department or an
other, who were one of many, while in
stances of an only chiid's celebrity are rare.
What possibilities our fashionable mothers
of to-day forego in their borrowed home cir
cles The possibilities of fostering genius
and of gaining for themselves personal dis
tnction, for we all remember Napole0n's
pointed ans ser when Nine dc Stael asked
him who be considered the greatest woman.
"She, madame, who is the mother OF the
noet Children" replied the greatest gen
eral Of France TO the great, brilliant wo-
man of her day.
1t il selEevdent fact that society vo-
msn Go not have as msny children as those
less fashionable, and the important ques-
ton TO be answered is, Which is cause and
which effect? Doss the fashionable life re-
ally lessen the chances Of motherhood, or
does it recessitate it's dtcrsast? Does it
destroy maternity, or only put it aside as
incOnvenient?
But some one will say:-"These gay
butterflies ere not the only women in whom
maternity seems TO be failing. The intel
lectual omen, too, those whose energies
are expended upon the higher education,
often have NO progeny" Those who reply
thus will be the latter day scientists, those
who wOpld put down the new religion
viz, the highest mental culture for women
by claiming that womsn's capacity for
motherhood is materially effected by the
loss of nerve force, wasted in climbing the
heights of intellectually. This may all
be So although doubt il. Bat granting
that it is, the question in the sOciety VIC
mans case is still unanswered, for the az
guments that would reach one would lot
apply to the other, fer they are by no
means identical.
THE MATEANAL INSTINCT
Can il be, rs it has been iutimsted, that
the motherly instinct is disappearing? Can
the question of childless women be an
swsred by fashion? Has motherhood lost
its old time sauctiJ? The time was when
motherhood was the browning glory Of NO
mar hood. A woman possessed Of every
other blessing on earth felt that she was
indeed accursed if this Rrta est OF I'll bless
ings YVES denied her. The burden OF 5arah's
prayers was for children. The blessing
God bestowed upon Abraham was the
promise that he should rear up a genera |
ton of psope The highest ideal of NO
manhood is the Madonna with her child, !
hut modern society hiss set up a new and
false ideal. in which there is no infant, and !
the question which forces itself uron us is |
one Of gave impOrtance-viz Is mater |
nifty indeed falling or is the morality OF our
women glowing les? D1es the fashionable |
woman care more for giIlish Looking fig |
ure than fer her unborn children? Does
she dare to Judge 5etTeen the sacred duty
of motherhood and the secular duties CT
society end in favor Of the latter? l ask |
the question seriously, Is it the misfortune
or the fault of the society woman of to-day |
that maternity is failing? Who will an
sgel? Can we believe that our women are |
lees favored than other women, aud that !
to forget their desc ate hearthstones they |
plunge Sin the swimn OF fashionable gsy- !
ETY.? Would that We could believe this
even.
DELEGATED MATERNAL DUTIES.
That the motherly ihstir c, is not as great
as formerly is proved in the increased ten
dency of the mother Of babes to leave
them to the almost exclusive cave OF nurses. |
Dr.. J. C. Winters, of New York, in r paper |
read before the Academy Of Med!cines, says |
Science, condemned the practice now so
common among society women OF employ
ing vet nurses instead Of Themselves per
forming the duties Of moihsr." I'VE
usually select, " he ssys, e hireliug TO per-
form the mothers most sacred duty, one
who occupies the lowest place In TIE social
ecsle. and in whom there is an abserce Of
moral quslities-One who can forsske her
Own child and take a strangers to Der
breast one who can witness the gradual
starvation and death of her own child and
who may be 8 double murderess by poison
ing her foster child with opistes or alcohol.
II. after being nourished from such ioun-
tain, our child is perverse, troWard, lnso-
lent and has 70 regard for truth, who is
accountable? Is not the mother who de-
rrived him of her Own pure, untainted
breast, and who purchased Tor him instead
a polluted, debauched stream?
May not this pernicio1s custom explain
the moral decline in the children of worthy
PARENTS? How often is the community
shocked by the son of piOus, upright pa
rents turning scoundrel, or the daughter
losing caste, with no apparent cause in
the blood" when in reality they nave ao-
sorbed the cause with their foster mothers
milk, and the world sees only the effect
without guessing the cause. Tits time that
the women of to-day pause awhile IN the
halls of fashion and answer the qusssions
Of their own responsibility.
JENNY WREN.