The herald., 1894-04-22
A Strong Argument in Favor
of Stirpiculture.
The Criminal Glasses should Not Be
Allowed to Breed.
An Advanced View OF Measures That
1t IL Thought Would
Benefit Society Gem
orally. r-o

man pests without the slightest restric'
ton. No sooner have wa incarcerated
the sires in vice, after, it may be, theiI
long and successful career, than we find
the sons continuing the war upon oui
persons and property. The cost OF our
prisons and police forms only part ol
the insurance we have to provide on
account OF the savAges in our midst
whose hands are against every man.
Those who deviste from honesty are
few indeed compared to those who
make fraud and theft life profession
the former may be reclaimed, the latter
never, because it is their nature to war
upon society. Often they are the vic
tims of heredity, and, philosophically "
considered, have then, perhaps, as little
responsibility for their actions as the
dog that bites. A wolf is always wolf ;
an hereditary criminal will always COM
init crime If he can.
Thefts, frauds, and outrages up to
murder, are not the only evils they in
fict on us. They infect the whole COM
munity with an immoral taint. 1t ie
impossible for our young people to pc.
ruse in the daily papers the records OF
their wickedness without being worse
for it, to say nothing of any stronger IN.
Huence they may exercise. Tales oil
ravishing, robbery, murder, are not edi-
flying literature for youthful minds. At
the best, these are likely to absorb some
portion of the immortality thus inhl-
trsted through them.
EffectuRl means, however, are at hand
to prevent our annual crops of criminals,
could we only be persuaded to adopt
them. The most potent, but least pal
atable, would be to render them incapa-
BILE OF propsgating. Another is to make
human breeding u science, and educa-
tion is another. At present they both
proceed haph azard, whereas they re-
quire profound study and strict method.
We English are unsurpassed in the
art OF breeding the inferior animals
from a salmon to a shorthorn, from a
pigeon to q racehorse. The method is
no secret. All understand it. Healthy
animals only, with the best points and
free from hereditary tsint, are selected.
They are mated carefully, and the
strains are preserved pure from all de-
teriorating blood and damaging con-
ditions. But in the rearing OF the
highest animala these salutary maxims
are ignored, and many men of natural
affections and intelligence bestow moro
pains ON the mating OF their dogs than
that OF their daughters. Our warehouses,
prisons, refugees, penitentiaries and
lunatic asylums bear sad witness to
these inequitRble laws and customs.
Into them arc crowded hosts of I'M.
brutality and heartlessness; and they
wear out their pititul and
cheerless days to the end, too many Of
them, alas J.! having been lowered with
the fatal gift of beauty. Usually 1t ia
the ardent girl of generous disposition.
the least calculating and the most art
less who is lured to her destruction.
Nature is strong in her, and affection
dominates. Her embraces go with her
heart. II society and the law could be
compassionate to any, they should be
tender to her. But both are implacable.
She 10 appalled, by their unrelenting
severity, and in her mad terror ls often
impelled to destroy the witness of her
wrong doing. But even should she spare
her innocent offspring, the law still pur-
sues him. He cannot inherit, except
by will, and if he dies intestate, the
crown seizes all his property.
Owing to their exclusion from the
higher grades of en- ployment, women of
the better classes are given over to use
less and frivolous pursuis. Dress and
fashion, amusementa and hirtations
mainly make up the trivial round of
their occupations, and act as bars to all
solid intellectual work. Yet who can
blame these gilded butterflies OF society
for being what their fathers and hus-
bands have made them? A leading
London paper assures US that every
year witnesses a vast increase in the
working population of England, coupled
with growing decrease in the amount
OF labor to be disposed Of" Thus the
ranks of the proletariat are constantly
being swollen, and among them their
women have to endure and suffer most.
Their maternal instincts are frequently
crushed out of them by their vicious and
equalid surroundings. Thousands vi
infants are annually overlald, smothered
By the mothers who bore them; and one
child out of every 10 dies before the end
of its first year.
The evils enumerated are monstrous
in an age and country like ours, and
call for immediate redress. There must
be no tinching from any remedial
process, however ebhorrent it may be
to our prsconceived ideas and prejudices
provided some cure can Do effected.
Radical diseases require drastic treat
ment, and losthesome excrescences
must be removed by an unsparing use
OF the knife. To begin with, sex priv
ileges and sex disqualidcatiOns should
be abolished, and lair field given to al.
alike. Let each be permitted to be Rnc
to do whatever he or she is able. Boys
and girls should be educated alike. and
should compete with each other in stud
ies and sports. What ia good for boys
is good for girls. Mothers should en-
urage entire confidence between theil
daughters and themselves, and carefully
instruct them in regard to all that con-
Germs their future. Nothing should be
left to chance or to prurient instructors
The mother ia the fttest teacher OF hei
| daughter. How many girls would be
spared miserable lives had they beer
blessed with 5ensible mothers? Womer
should have the same right to propose
to men as men have to women. 1t il
the mother who for weary months viii
bear her child beneath her heart and 70!
years will nurse it in her bosom. vii
she desire an idiot. drunkard, weak
| ling? No. She longs for a man-child
one who will be tender, wise and valiant
Woman is u hero-worshiper. and desires
to produce heroes. Her instincts arc
| true, and she will select the bravest anc
best OF men for her husband. II left tC
nature the 6ttest would survive. But
as things are, the unworthiest increase
most rapidly. The ignorant and thu
improvident give the reins to thei
| passions and threaten to overwhelm Vi