The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-01-30
20 MATERNITY FAILINGP
80 1nf-eouercy of Large Famiiles
10 A1,o1g the Better Glasses.

-,,ostion is Maternity Failing 7" is
wbicb concerns the race much more
on MI, than some others recently discussed
" +be nulpit and the press. Is IS SUBJECT
~ ~ socred to be banded lightly, and yet
~, tho sake of posterity it should be inves-
ll ~. thoroughly and unhesItatlng
.Earafore. Drawing the criticisms OF SUN
ma contemporaries, | put the question.
LeT T1t9I may ask, is it no longer good
{or the fashionable woman TO be the
i"l - -. ~ more than one, or at the most,
a1,rlad darlinCS Is it true that our
W. ~ If women is degenerating Are they
IaC 's,l,ar canable of their noblest function,
n+baThood Is it the fact that the TEST,
Ho+;a1ing. exciting life of the society devo-
aIS an enemy to maternity, and that the
! ss of vitality and nerve force aI1enolng IL
i ansIverable for the empty cradles and I'M
~ a., nurseries in many wealthy homes
nr,r MEN FROM LARGE FAMILIES.
We know that there is new regime, and
49, ,vbereas our grandmothers looked with
tlro bride upon the dozen or more
49,, faces. miniature likenesses of their
uapF' arouud the thearthstone, now we could
soorcelv find in a days walk household
or,ong the upper ten Thousand that could
last half a dozen members of the second
Seneration. Does this decrease in domestic
nSup,bers point MS to what seems to be
Genealogical fact-viz: that the friction of
49, minds from the nursery up to the
colon is necessary to the development os
~anius9 II would seem so, indeed,
ss,ben remembering that Napoleon Bona
,or+a WAS one of thirteen children, Ben ia
min Franklin one of seventeen, Gen. Sher-
man one of eleven, Charles Dickens one OF
oiobt Gladstone one of seven or more, DIR.
William Makepeace Thackeray, grandsire
of the later naneSake, was one OF sixteen,
and so on many others could be cited who
have attained eminence in one department
mr. another who were one of many, while
instances of an only child's celebrity are
rare What possibilities our fashionable
mothers Of to-day forego in their narrowed
home circles! The possibilities of fostering
genius and of gaining for themselves per-
sonal distinction, for we all remember Ma
poleon's pointed answer when Mme de Stael
asked him who he considered the greatest
woman. "She, madame, who is the mother
Of the most children" replied the greatest
general of France to the great, brilliant
woman of her day.
It is a self-evident fact that society women
do not have as many children as those less
fashionable, and the important question to
be answered is, Which is cause and which
effect? Does the fashionable life really
lessen the chances of motherhood, OF does it
necessitate its decrease! Does it destroy
maternity, or only put it aside as incOn-
yenlent.
But some one will say: "These gay but
terfies are not the only women in whom
maternity seems 10 be failing. The intel
ectual women, 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 would put down the new religion
namely, the highest mental culture for
women-by claiming that woman's capacity
for motherhood is materially affected by the
loss of nerve forces wasted in climbing the
heights of intellectually. This may all be
80 although | doubt it. But granting that
it is, the question in the society wOman'S
case is still unanswered, for the arguments
that would reach one would not apply to
the other, for they are by no means iden-
teal.
THE MATERNAL INSTINCT.
Can it be, as it has been intimated, that
the motherly instinct is disappearing? Can
the question of childleSs women be answered
by fashion! Has mothe hood lost its old
sanctity! The time was when motherhood
was the browning glory of womanhood. A
woman possessed of every other blessing on
earth felt that she was indeed accursed if
this greatest of all blessings was denied her.
The burden of Sarah's prayer was for
children. The blessing God bestowed upon
Abraham was the promise that he should
rear up generation of people. The highest
ideal Of womanhood is the Madonna with
her child, but modern society
has set up new and false
and the question which forces itself upon
us Is one of grave mportance-viz.: Is ma
ternlJy indeed failing or is the morality of
our women growing lesss Does this fash
lonable woman care more for girlish look
ing figure than for her unborn children?
Does she dare to judge between the sacred
duty Of motherhood and the secular duties
OF society and in favor of the latter9 ask
the question seriously, Is it the misfortune
or the fault of the society of to-day that
maternity is failing! Who will answer?
Can we believe our women are less favored
IMAM other women, and that to forget their
uesolate hearthstoneS they plunge sin the
SWIM OF fashionable gayetyf Would that
we could believe this even,
DELEGATED MATERNAL DUTIES.
mat the motherly instinct is not as great
aS formerly is proved in the increased
tendency Of the mothers Of babes to leave
mem TO the almost exclusive care of nurses.
~ .. T. Winters of New York, in paper
tead before the Academy of Medicine, says
oc'ence, condemned the practice now so
S'iiSi4S SOCloGJ Wotlibu OF employ
ing wet nurses instead of themselves per-
forming the duties of a MOTHER 1--WE
Usually select, he says, "a hireling to per-
olIu me mothers most sacred duty, one
VINO occupies the lowest place in the
o1'idl scale, and in whom there is
a1 absence of moral qualities-one
VINO can torsake her own child and take a
hangers to her breast; one who can wit
LESS less 'ne gradual starvation and death of
u own child, and who may be a double
LUZ ueFess by poisoning her foster child
"'sn opates or alcohol If, after being
lShed from such fountain, our child
- PeIserse, forward, insolent and has no
saru Tor truth, who is accountabel Is
~. Ihe mother who deprived him Of her
cb "n pure, untainted breast, and who pur.
ttra s9l ,9r hlm Instead polluted, debauched
may not this pernicious custom explain
na.slo al decllne in the children Of worthy
sbae31S' now often is the commu lity
1ay oAtu oy the son Of pious, upright
ouus turning scoundrel or the daughter
Al iIi caste, with no apparent cause "in
sorh o,1o ~, when in reality they have alb
NH. me cause with their foster mothers
W. NJ, ana the world sees only the effect
tb ,.u n guessing the cause 1t is time that
"othen OF to-day pause awhile in the
ffois VI fashion aud answer the questions of
'10' own responsibility.
BANKER BLEICHRoDER.