Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-01-27
DECLINE OF MATERNITY.
Large Families of Children Rare
Among the Upper Classes.


Large Families of Children Rare
Among the Upper Classes.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox in the Philadelphia Press.
The general impression of the public
seems to be that maternity is on the de-
cline. The profession of the mother is in
disrepute, and much concern is felt in con-
sequence by the world at large. Extensive
families of children are the exception, GER
tainly among the upper American classes
Our wealthy society people do not produce
numerous offspring A life of absolute lux
ury and pleasure is not conducive to such
a result. Then, too, malpractice by skilled
specialists" dearly bought and paid for
can account for many a childless woman Of
fashion, without doubt.
Late Marriages.
The late marriage of American women,
which has superseded the youthful reveries
so prevalent in the days of our grand
mothers, is still another cause The girl
who weds at eighteen takes marriage and
maternity with the never-thinking mind
of youth. The young woman who remains
single until she is well into her twenties
has had time to look about her. to think
and ponder. to weigh the consequences, to
see results, and however deeply she NAV
be impressed by nature with maternal in
stincts. she is burdened with the expert
ences of her friends, and avoids a repeti-
ton of them in her own case.
We might quote improper dressing of the
BODY as one cause for the decline of ma
ternity, but when we look upon the corset
ed waists and bouffant hips of bellies in the
days of our grandmothers we fear the ar
gument would not hold.
The highly strung nervous temperament
OF American women renders collaborating
so serious a matter that many avoid ma
ternity-out of sheer fright.
In no other country in the world is the
experience attended with so many dangers
to health, and consequently to happiness
Men who note this fact from observation
are averse to seeing their wives pass
through the ordeal; and the great expense
which is entailed by a large family of
children Is also most important factor in
withholding men from becoming fathers
Gifted people, or those of high mental en-
dowments, are frequently childless, or the
parents of noticeably mediocre offspring.
Children of Brniny People.
This Is source of surprise and regret
to the unthinking observer who says what
strange pity that the people gifted with
brains and blessed with money should pro-
duce no children, while the Woodworking
middle classes and the very poor are SO
prolific" But let the fault finder dig deeper
into the subject and he will change his
ideas.
When the seed is planted in the earth it
produces plant-the plant produces a
flower. the flower fruit and the fruit seed
again; yet the effort of horticultural science
Is to produce a seedless fruit-delicious to
the eye and palate, but useless beyond that
Nature achieves this result frequently in
human beings The exceedingly common
place man in some past generation has
been distinguished only as productive origi-
nal seed. His sons and daughters were
sturdy plants The grandchildren-less nu-
merous-were fair flowers; from these
flowers developed some one more piece of
fruit-a elimination of all the most remark
able qualities of past generations-a
genius, to startle. please or uplift the
world. He achieves the object for which
he was sent into existence; through him
self, not through his offspring, is he to be-
stow benefits upon the world. He is the
extreme development of human culture
seedless fruit.
All that is strongest and best in his ma
ture he gives to the present time. He is a
splendid lover, friend and companion-but
his children will be but pale weak shoots
of the present tree. He is the grand eli
max in the harmony which nature has
been composing for generations, and his
children Will be but faint echoes of it.
American Men and Women.
The highly educated American men and
women are all more or less examinations of
former generations. Talent is becoming
almost universal amongst us; and as a
consequence large families are diminishing.
Meanwhile / see no reason why there
should be such public concern over private
matters of this kind. Save in the cases
when malpractice has abetted a crime-an
objectionable crime for which the mother
and the physician must be called to ac-
count hereafter-the world is not going to
suffer through this decline of maternity
among the upper classes. Out from the
ranks OF the poor and unlettered will
spring statesmen, or actors, musicians,
poets, scholars and reformers, who shall
keep the great machinery of the world in
motion, and who shall in their turn, ac-
cording to a natural law, die without note
worthy offspring, and give place to others
to rise from unlooke for resources
Did great brain produce greater brain
did genius produce greater genius from one
generation to another, the earth would soon
groan under the oppression of tyrants of
colossal intellectual power, as it now
groans under the tyrants of inherited
thrones and fortunes.
1t is well for humanity at large that
genius cannot be entailed. Time is doing
away with thrones, and may God speed the
day when great wealth, too, shall reach
its limit with each generation, and a mo-
nopoly of human rights become an impossi-
bility.