Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-09-26

physically. A ranting theorist recently ex-
pressed the wish that she were God AL
mighty for five minutes SO that she might
empty the slums of New York city out into
the country. In ali probability she, her.
self would rather live in vile New York
tenement than on farm. Her morbid love
for sensationalism would gnaw her heart
out in the quiet and peaceful conditions OF
country life. Its very whol4someness
would choke her. For her to accommodate
herself to the new conditions as radical
change would be necessary as to bring
topper on the verge of delirium tremens to
satisfactorily quench his thirst with pure
spring water. She would remain in the
city if to do so she were compelled to sleep
in dry goods box and seek her nourish-
ment in slop buckets. As with her, so with
probably seven tenths of the inhabitants of
the slums. These facts have been ELECTED
in response to the wild statements of the
theorists who would bring about mil
lennium Immediately by shipping the SUM
population out into the green fields and pas
lures. These facts show that these theo-
ries are under present conditions impossible
of application. 1t is well known that the
Hebrews helped from the filthy surround
ings of the lowest slums into the agricultu-
raj regions, did not thrive. The death
rate was higher than in the slums to
which they inevitably drifted back as
soon as they were able to do so. In this
come ction statistics show that the death
rate in the densely populated portions of
great city is not so great as in the country
and in the better parts of the city. Of
course these statistics may be questioned
and there is probability that there is not so
nearly accurate accounting of deaths in the
slums as among the better classes, but the
truth remains that the disposition of those
who infest the hives of humanity is to re-
main there and that there they find what is
nearer contentment than they could find
anywhere else.
theories advanced by the philanthropic and
seem to dash cold water upon many warm
hearted schemes for lettering the condi-
tions of the submerged tenth, care should
be exercised lest they leave the
impression that all attempt to anne
liorate the condition of these people
is useless. Such conditions as the slums
reek with may not kill the bodies of those
Injured to them, who have inherited qualities
adapted to such surroundings and an in
stinct to enjoy them, but they inevitably
kill the soul. Just as surely as fish confined
10 subterranean caverns gradually beget
species without eyes, save in rudimentary
form, so these people living in conditions
of filth and bestiality lose the finer sensi-
bhities and all the higher qualities of man
hood and womanhood. The slums are the
breeding places of the dangerous elements
of humanity. The danger is that between the
wild eyed reformer on the one side and the
bloodless devotee of statistics on the other
people lose the power of applying their
common sense to the matter. The need of
sanitary tenements was never greater than
at the present time when concentration in
the centres of population is on the increase.
The safety of humanity in those centres at
least demands that people live in some OBJ
servance of cleanliness and decency and
that they shall have opportunity to do SO.