San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-12-21

and highly certificated mtdwives
who did this, was about the same
that is given for stealing pocket
handkerchief.
Unlicensed "1ying.in.houses" and
unregistered houses for "nursing
out" appear to be too frequently !
wholesale death-traps for the I'M
welcome newborn. The national |
conscience Is occasionally galvan- |
lied into momentary activity by |
some horrible exposure of cruelty,
and straightway goes to sleep
again.
We observed liz the list Of new
bills introduced in the present !
moribund parliament that there |
was one ito control itinerant street |
musicians" another "to regulate
the sale and use Of pistols" and so
on, but there was no mention Of
any bill, in the interests Of help |
less new. born babes, to control the
abuse of ignorant and mercenary
nursing out, or to supervise the
houses where unfortunate mothers
flock to hide their shame. How
Is this? we may ask. Are not the
lives of natural children as impor-
tant as the strains OF barrel organs,
and for one person who perishes
4 by a pistol, do not hundreds Of in
fants die almost as soon as they
are born, because everyone around
them desires that they should not
live? Our cruel and immoral
morality degrades the unwedded
mother, deprives her Of common
social rights, and sets the stamp OF
harlotry on her brow. She may
be by nature refined, chaste, and
yirtuous as any married woman,
although, perhaps, betrayed by
the man to whom, in pure maiden.
ly affection, she sacrificed her
honor, yet her righteousness
counts for nothing, and her sub
mission to her lover Is deemed a
crime because it is found out. So
ciety does not rep-obate the want
Unmarried or single-who is
armed by experience against dis
cOvery. 1t reserves its punish
ments for her whose innocence
suspects no evil, and who surrend'
ers without generalization.
We are cursed with too many
superstitions-the relics OF an
ingnorant past, and with too many
socalled sins-the prolific con
ceptions of mouasticism and mar
row-minded prudery. We want
wider views and a broader and
deeper common sense. Then our
ideas would be more in accord
with nature and with human re-
, quirements. society should have
no more right to interfere with oul
private mode of life than with oul
religious opinions. Public decency
is all which it can justly demand
1t is an open question whether
there is not more real immortality
within the marriage bonds than
without. Who can say that the
late lamented George Eliot" fol
instance, was not more virtuous
] wife as mistress than the ma.
|, jority of our married women:
That great and most estimable
l j ltI w
,eloquence of an unspotted life
She broke through the artificial
trammels of society and lived up
to her conscience and her God
None have dared to cast stone at
her. And when other noble woman
shall have the moral courage to
exercise her independence Of con-
ventional morality, there will be
greater liberation Of our humber
sisters, and mothers will cherish
their natural offspring, instead Of
being maddened by shame,to muir
der them. The deplorable roll Of
infsnticides which disgraces our
country will become hideous re-
membrance Of the past, and Eng
lishmen of the future will marvel
that heaven and earth could re-
main so long insensible to the cry
of the Newborn.