San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-10-13
MANS INHUMANITY.

mans inhumanity to man makes
countless millions mourn, but it
has been more accepted as a senti-
ment than as hard fact lying at
the door stone of every effort for
the amelioration of the race. 1t is
a fact so general that it ceases to
attract attention, being taken as a
matter of course, without any spe-
cial thought as to how it may be
Offset by remedial institutions,
and increased development of the
philanthropic and humanitarian
side of our natures. 1t is a fact
that is as apparent in one condi-
tion of social development as an
other, the method of its manifesto
ton alone changing, and this not
from any bloodthirstiness in the
race but from an allpervasive and
allinclusive selfishness that is
practically blind to the inhuman-
titles that it inflicts upon it's fell
lows. Probe any act of in human
ity and you find selfishness at the
bottom.
The prevailing sentiment with
which men view each other is one
of profound Indifference. Men in
cline to do that and interest them
selves in that which ministers to
their pleasure or profit or comfort,
their love or their hate or their adj
vancement in o4eway or another,
and on the whole care very little
for anything outside of that which
does SO minister. Life is
hard SCHOOL and those
who are famili br with it soon grow
to understand that it is a battle
for the front end of the procession.
The rule of it is, every one for him
self and the devil take the hind
most. 1t is fight for existence,
and the fittest is the one who sur
wives. The fittest is he who fights
best and most successfully; who
gets the best of everything that is
being contested for in the battle
for life.
Mans inhumanity is only part
of the universal order. All
nature is cruel; that is, in the pro-
visions of nature there is no place
given to the sentiment of protec-
ton of the weak by the strong, no
shielding of the feeble by the
mighty. All through observed
phenomena we see that the weak
is at the mercy of the strong. Why
should we think it strange in the
kingdom of humanity that this
universal law obtains The vigor-
GUS plant saps the nOurishment
that if spared to the sicllly one
! might prolong its life. The strong
animals prey on the weak ones and
live upon them. Even in those of
the same kind, the sickly ones are
driven from the herd and Outlawed
because they are sick. Nature
teaches that it is crime to be
weak or puny or sickly, and her
punishment is death.
That department of nature that
is called humanity comes under
. the same general law. Here, as
elsewhere, the kingdom of exist
ence suffereth violence and the
violent take it by force. 1t is true
that in the humanitarian societies,
so-called, and in the charitable in
stitutions OF earth, and in the
churches, there is an attempt to
reverse the general order and re-
wise the law governing human re-
lation, but TO date it has been a
miserable failure. How much a
failure, it is painful to consider
The law Of these institutions, that
publicly proclaim their inculcation
of the humanities, is still an eye
for an eye and tooth for a tooth,
The broader lines laid down by the
Nazarene have proved too hard for
the following of the race, even after
eighteen hundred years of at
tempt. snnnMw
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