The record-union., 1891-09-02

But we can charge the other in good part
as General Walker does, to customs and
habits due in large degree to foreign in
fuences that have had the effect of max
ing child-bearing among Americans less
a joy. Thus, as the essayist puts it:
Throughout the Northeastern and Northern
Middle States, into which the newcomers
poured IN Such numbers, the standard of ma
terial living, of general intelligence. of social
decency, had been singularly high. Life, even
at It's hardest, had always had its luXuries !;
the babe had been thing Of beauty, to be
delicately nurtured and proudly exhibited :;
the growing child had been decently dressed,
at least for school and church; the house had
been kept in order, at whatever cost, the gate
hung, the shutters in place, while the front
yard had been made to bloom with simple
foWefs; the village church, the public school
house, had been the best which the COM
munity, with great eXeI tions and sacrifices
could erect and maintain. Then came the
foreigner, making his way into the little vii
lagc, bringing small blame to him not only
a vastly lower standard Of living, but too
often an actual present inCapacity even to
understand the retnementS OF life and thought
in the community in which he sought a home
Our people had TO look Ii! on houses that We're
mere shells for human habitationS, the gates
unlung, the shutters tapping or falling, q cen
pools in the yard babes and young children
rolling about half naked or worse. neglected
dirty, unlIempt. * x The Anne rcan was
unwilling to engage in the lowest Kind OF day
labor with these new elements of the popr a
ton; he was even more unwilling 10 bring
sons and daughters into the word to enter
INTO that competition. = g Neither the
social companionship nor the industrial COM
petition of the fore gner has, broadly speak
ing, Lcen welcome t. the native.
THE rough element of London has
taken advantage of some labor troubles,
some political agitation, and now and
then of a socialistic demonstration, to riot
and defy the police. But we recall no in
stance when it has been so defiant and
outrageous, without apparent cause, as in
the riot of Sunday last. The object Of at
tack was the Salvation Army. Why that
inOftensiye body should have drawn the
fire of the slums is not stated in the dis
patches, nor can we surmise. The Saliva
| tion Army is noisy, but surely that is not
| offensive to the toughs. 1t breaches re-
form, repentance and cleanliness, and it
is not recorded that IN the lowest quar-
ters Of the most congested populations
these virtues have awakened Cnmity such
as that to which we refer. The base ele-
ment appears to have mobbed the Saliva
tionists out of pure cussedness," !" simply
and only to give slack to the strain Of the
brutal nature Of the vicious. The Saliva
| ton Army methods of reforming the
world may not have our approval; we
may regard their march in the streets as
foolish and the emotional religious fervor
they arouse as ephemeral. But it is sober
history that the Salvation Army has done
aworld of good to London, and, indeed,
to all England. 1t has labored among the
poor; it has secured its income openly
and hOnorably; it has found no spot too
wretched or low for its knees to bend
upon in prayer; it has lifted the curtain
of misery in the great city and made
want known. 1t has built and maintains
hospitals and refugees, and has lifted out
of the gutter the thousand whom the
world passes by. In short, with all its
shouting and drumming and trumpeting
in the streets it is an important agency
for good in London whatever it may be
elsewhere, and ought least of all other
organizations to have invited assault from
the mob