The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-05-22

the ground of the code OF morals taught
in the cheap literature of the day. he
sighed for the days of the long ago and
wanted the girl who did not chew gum
Of read silly novels. =. Men, he cfnimed,
were beginning to assume feminine at
tire and women to wear mems apparel
The next speaker. Mr.. w. E. Williams,
Of Reidsville, took altogether another
view of the matter. He looked at the
world through the glasses of the Optimist
and he saw mankind stepping with giant
strides toward the goal of perfection.
The highest privilege, the greatest
boon, he said, that man ever possessed or
could possess was the right to worship
God according to the dictates of his
own conscience. Never was their such
freedom of conscience as the human race
today enjoys. The days Of bigOtry, of
witchcraft and heresy trials have passed.
No man. no church can compel man to
believe this or profess that. Morally and
mentally. he thought. man had never be-
fore attained such a height. There was
degeneracy in some respects. he said. but
in the sum total man is rising higher and
higher in the scale of prOgress-nearer
to perfection, nearer to God.
This was all pleasant talk and pretty
picture. said Mr. i. h. Tucker. of
Brunswick county. the next speaker, and
it was a great pity that it is untrue. He
took darker view of the situation, if
possible. than even Mr.. Newly did. He
found nothing in which man was gaining
an inch. In all respects he was slipping
back at a wonderful rate. No regard for
truth. no respect for religion, no purity
s,, 4 he s,ssr, .la1rn IA
thought. were on every hand and increas-
ing yearly. The increase in intemperance.
he thought responsible for the increase
i'm crime. insanity and mortality Of the
population.
In mental and physical man he found
degeneracy, as we'll as IN the moral man.
Deaths by old age now come at 40 to 80
years of age. Mentally we have lost that
vigor of thought. that high moral stan
dard of other ages. The cheap, highly
spiced literature of the day, he thought.
was sufficient proof OF this degenerate
tendency of the age. The scholarship and
culture of the past was at great dis
count.
Mr.. C. B. Williams, of Elizabeth City,
gave some goods reasons why man was
climbing up the ladder Of progress and
becoming better. s
L. Man is not tlegenerating physically.
The farmer yields the hoe and follows
the plow with as much exhausting toll
as did our fOrefathers. Our sailors are
as skilful and strong as were the PhOeni-
clans in the days of the past. There
were never before such soldiers as the
men of the South in the late war.
2. Man is growing better and better
morally. There are churches and schools
everywhere. Man has risen to higher
plane morally. The glad tidings have
been spread in every country to every
people.
3. In mental qualifications man ispro-
crossing with the progress OF the ages.
Hiss aspirations are higher. his lOngings
ARE nobler. AS his wantsand desires. iir
crease SO does HIS power to- satisfy them.
He has harnessed the & steam, che has
bridled the lightning, he has tanned the
ocean, There seems to be nothing beyond
his reach, nothing beyond his finding out.
The judges decided that the negative
had the best Of the argument-that man
was not degenerating. and, Judge BOykin
added. the committee was most emphatic
in its decision that woman is not degen-
Grating
After the exercies We're concluded an
hour was spent by the young people in
dancinS talking and enjoying themselves
general - - - e&s 80