Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-11-20

male person standing separate and a.
part from family that is to be consid
cred. 1t is the family separate and a.
part from the male person, that mus
be supported. The male person and
the family are set over against each
other and the former is required to sup
port the latter. The law pre-supposes
that the male person viii care for him.
self, and hence makes no provision foI
the family to support him. History
discloses the fact that as general av.
erage male persons unincumbered by
families have been fairly successful in
looking out for themselves. II also
discloses the fact that multitudes oi
male persons upon coming into posses
sion of families gracefully recline upon
them for support. Perhaps it might
be regarded as fatal defect in the bill
that it did not provide for the reversal
of this too common practice. But the
law is intended to guard the State a
gainst the necessity Of carrying any
burdens that can be worked off upon
individuals. The necessity Of such a
measure as has here been rejected is
clearly manifest to any one who will
carefully look over the condition Of So
ciety. You viii find abandoned fami-
lies in every direction. We venture
the assertion that there are more aban-
doned families in Vermont to-day than
there are abandoned farms. In many
cases there is close connection be-
tween the two. The male person aban-
dons the family and then the family a.
bandons the farm. Occasionally this
order of proceeding is reversed. But
there are difficulties in the case Of FAM
lilies that do not appear in that of farms.
II is not easy to bring in Swedes to
occupy these families and carry them
along, and it is much more difficult to
bring a native American back to fam
lily that he has once abandoned 1t is
much easier to bring him back 10 some
family that does not need his support.
But this rejected bill contemplates that
male persons must take care OF their
own families. They are not allowed
the privilege of skipping about and tax
ing up with any families they may find.
The tendency to do this is so marked
as to emphasize the Importance Of this
bill. We can accept the fact Of aban-
doned families much easier than we
can account for it. Sometimes hostile
feelings pervade the household and the
male person is compelled to launch out.
We can conceive it possible that in in
stances of this kind the law might work
a hardship. Perhaps some such tho't
made bitter by experience brought about
the rejection of the bill. Sometimes
the male person becomes mixed with
regard to the family he should support,
and clips in and takes a part of some
other family, abandoning his own. II
may be that this bill contemplated the
of such waywardness. But
has not yet reached that con-
1ition of lofty and pure disinterested-
ness in which the male person can be
trusted to legislate away privileges that
history and tradition agree have be-
onged to him from time immAmorial.
men accumulate large
amily and then nbidden tshufle off
his mortal coil" la this way they
defeat the intent of the law.
There was never a Legislature sharp |
enough to COMPEL male person to do
,nything after he was dead. Some
imes it happens that there are men
who have special faculty for building
up family but are lacking in that ac-
ivity essential to their proper mainten-
Ince. They fail to take in things in
heir just proportions and communities
ufer in consequence. 1t may be that !
he bill was intended TO reach this class
md if so it might as well lhave been de-
eated. 1t could have effected nothing
With this class OF male persons. The
ind Of Legislation we need in this d.
ection is preventative in its nature.
sussia has given us a hint She takes
hose liable to make trouble and dis