The Indiana State sentinel., 1891-05-27
CAN'T AGREE WITH REEVE
AS TO BREEDING HUMAN RACE.
Manly Degeneracy Cannot BE Remedied
BY the Practice of Barn-Yard Systems
OF PrOpaEAtion-PhysieaI DevsI-
opment Not Alone Desired.

To THE EDTToR-Sn: have read. with
much interest, the review of Mr.. Reeves
book, "The Prison Question" in THE SUN-
DAY SENTINEL of April 70, and feel in
clined, with your kind indulgence, to OBJ
trude few words on the subject.
In the extract from the book, which is
all / have seen, not having copy, there is
much to indorse in some Of the ideas for
the improvement of the human race, as
the evils of these violations are constantly
before US. Still we can never treat the
human family as we would herds and
fiocks of animals, and to attempt it would
outrage every sentiment of decency and
every idea of justice. Mr.. Reeves plan,
carried out fully, would be TO select few
of the best developed males and females
of the human flock, set them apart for the
propagation of their kind, for few years,
during the prime of life, changing them
about, and remating with others, to get
the best physical results, as we would with
horses, cattle or sheep, returning them to
the common herd after certain period.
The mental and moral surroundings
must not be overlooked, if we would prop
erly consider hereditary crime or disease.
This the book seems, so far as | can see,
to DO. 1t entirely leaves the soul-life out
Of the question. The happiness or misery
of mothers, the state of their minds, both
before and after the birth of children, has
almost unmeasured influence upon their
offspring. Can a more disagreeable and
more revolving condition 10 a refined
woman, or to the better elements of So
ciety. be imagined than that of marriage
upon this purely animal plan, for the pur-
pose OF improving the race?
The very conditions would bring worse
evils.
Crime and disease do not arise from
marriages so much as from the conditions
that surround the children and parents al
home. Cities are well prepared to ruin
both the physical and moral grandeur of
a large percentage OF our race, in the many
avenues into which some enter from
choice, and more are driven, like helpless
cattle. Take the homes of the poor day
laborers. No, l beg pardon: / won't call
them homes. A place is not a homo
where plenty and comfort are not. Un-
der the present conditions of finances an
ordinary day-laborer cannot procure sufi-
cient means to house and support a wife
| and children as they deserve and as it
should be done for the welfare OF the race.
He lodges them in some disease-breeding
tenement house, filled to overtlowing with
foul air and fouler people. Here wife and
children must breathe the contaminating
influences Of both, cooped up like pigs In
a pen. No Fairgrounds, no freedom that
childhood demands. Even at the park
the weary, pale mother and sick child see
that hateful Keep off the grass"
Often IN the one room of the family of
| the poor laborer they must live, sleep, eat,
cook. There they are born and there die;
| there the wall of maternity mingles with
the death-rattle in the throat. The over
worked mother scarcely knows what the
words crest" and lease" mean. even dur
| ing the months of CESSATION. Exhausted
soil cannot raise good crops, nor exhausted
mothers vigorous children.
The mother should have home, where
she and her offspring have plenty and the
refined surroundings that elevate and
| cheer. She should have rest, and peace of
mind. void OF cares, as far as possible from
| the anxieties that so distress her sex To
procure these blessings the husband and
father must have an income sufficient to
| sustain this home.
The young man and woman should be
educated up to the idea that marriage and
| the establishment of a home are the high
est aims of life. BOYS should be taught to
avoid every offensive habit, as smoking,
| drinking, and all immoralities, that they
might be pleasant companions for a wife,
| and girls taught all the arts of housekeep-
| ing, that they might be worth marrying
| and be "help-meets."
| When women do not marry, but choose
some calling man should have, she does
| double wrong-wrongs herself and some
man. She should be the wife of some
| good man who receives twice the wages
| she gets Unfortunately. capital finds it
| cheaper to coin the blood of girls into gold
| than that of their brothers, and the fac
tory, the store and the shop are destroy
| ing and thwarting the purpose of woman's
| life, and forcing idleness upon thousands
| of young men. Marriage is growing less
popular, and the home, the very founda-
| ton of the government, is neglected.
All that is beneficial in Mr.. Reeves ar
| guments can and will be obtained in due
| time by education on the broad plan of
| all that is useful to humanity, but rot in
one direction only. Greece taught the
elegance of art, Rome the dignity Of law,
Palestine the sanctity OF religion. Amer
| lea must teach all this or cease to be great
and free. But, after al, humanity's safest
| guide is its faith and love. When fame is
| forgotten, genius lost in the night of its
own confusion, faith will see star and
| love will find a path j. A. HOUSFR.