The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-04-13
ARE WE DISCRIMINATING?

ARE WE DISSEMINATING?
Arguments Which Seem TO Prove That
People Nowadays Think Entirely Too
Much for the Good OF Their Health.
The verdict of guilty in the case of
Oscar Wilde has made doubly interest
Ing book recently published by Max
Nordau, entitled Degeneration" What
the author undertakes to prove In 1t Is
this Ito use the brilliant words of Mayo
w. Hazletine, In the New York Sun of
April y: THAT degenerates are not
always criminals, prostitutes, anarch-
lists. and pronounced mnatics; they
are often authors and artists. The
latter, however. manifest the same
mental characteristics. and, for the
most part, the same somatic features
as those members Of the anthropologI-
cal family who satisfy their unhealthy
impulses with the knife of the assassin
or the bomb Of the dynamiter, instead
Of with pen and pencil. Some among
these degenerates in literature music,
and painting have, in recent years,
come into extraordinary prominence.
and are acclaimed by numerous ad-
mirers as creators of new art and
heralds Of the coming century. The
aim of this book Is to demonstrate that
the tendencies of the latest fashions in
art and literature are aberrant and
morbid tendencies: that they have their
source in the degeneracy of their au-
thors. and that the enthusiasm of their
| "A i,,ar t.,f fn, to-
or less pronounced moral insanity, i'm
becility, and dementia.
What Is meant. continues Mr.. Ha-
zletine. "by the tepfn fin de steele? The
author says truly that this rather silly
but convenient' term Is used to connote
what is characteristic of many modern
phenomena, and also the underlying
mood Which in them finds expression.
Yet however silly the term fin de steele
may be. the mental constitution which
1t indicates is actually present in in
fiuential circles. The disposition of the
times is curiously confused, a COM
pound of feverish restlessness and
blunted encouragement. of fearful
presage and hangdog renunciation. The
prevalent feeling is that of imminent
perdition and extinction. Fin de steele
Is at once a confession and complaint.
The mood to which 1t testifies is the i'm
potent despair of sick man who feels
himself dying by inches in the midst
Of an eternally living nature. flower
ing insolently forever. 1t Is the envy
of rich, hoary voluptuary who sees a
pair of young lovers making for Sc
questered forest nook; it is the morti-
fication of the exhausted refugee from
a Florentine plague seeking in an en-
chanted garden the experiences of a
| .Decamerone.' but striving in vain to
snatch one more pleasure of sense from
the uncertain hour.
An Age Of IIystcria.
"To what Is this tired and despair
ing attitude attributed? To degener-
acy and hysteria. But why. again,
should these maladies be exceptionally
prevalent at the present time? Morel
ascribes their prevalence largely to poi
soning through alcoholic drinks, tobac-
co, opium, arsenic and tainted foods.
To these noXious influences the author
of this book would add residence in
| large towns, where even the richest In
habitant Is continually exposed to un-
| favorable influences which unduly
| diminish his vital powers. He breathes
an atmosphere charged with organic
| detritus; he eats food which Is more
or less contaminated and adulterated;
| he feels himself ina state of constant
nervous excitement, and he may be
compared. without exaggeration. to the
inhibitant of marshy district. Now
1t is we'll known that at the present
time an incomparably larger portion
| of the whole population of Europe and
the United States Is subjected to the
destructive influences of large towns
| than was the case fifty years ago:
hence the number of victims of urban
degeneration Is proportionately more
striking.
"Still another cause Is suggested for
the enormous increase of hysterla in
our day. A phenomenon which, II not
adequate to the production of degen-
Grafton. in at least able to produce hys-
terra, may be recognized in the eXcep-
tional fatigue of the present genera
tion To the fatigue which, according
| to pathologists. may change healthy
men into hysterical, the whole of civil
lied humanity has been exposed for
half a century. All it's conditions of
life have In this period of time expert
enced revolution uneSampled in the
history of the world. Mankind can
point to no century in which the inven-
tions which penetrate so deeply, SO
tyranr lily into the life of every indi-
vidual, are crowded so thick a9 In ours
The discovery OF America, the Refor-
nation, the French revolution stirred
mems minds powerfully no doubt. and
certainly, also. destroyed the equilibri-
um of thousands Of brains which lacked
staying powers. But they did not
change the material life of man. He
got up and lay down, ate and drank
dressed amused himself, passed his
days and years as he had been always
wont to do
The Pace That Kills.
"In our times on the contrary steam
and electricity have turned the customs
Of life Of every member of the civil
lied nations upside down, even of the
most obtuse and narrow-minded clti
zen who Is completely inaccessible t.
the impelling thoughts of the times
Besides, an incomparably greater pro.
portion of the population Is accessible
to such thoughts than was formerly
the case. The humblest village inhabi
tant has today, II he do but read his
newspaper, a wider geographical hori
zon, more numerous and complex In
tellectual interests, than the prime
minister of petty or even second
rate state a century ago. A cook re-
ceives and sends more letters than die
a university professor. and a small
tradesman travels more and sees more
countries and peoples than did the
reigning prince OF other times. 1t |.
manifest. however. that oil these &c
tivities. even the simplest involve al
effort Of the nervous system and 6