The San Francisco call., 1897-11-07

Pretender, was drunken paralytic, who
died insane. From time to time the in
sanity of James Y of Scotland reappeared
among bis descendants of the house of
Hanover. Whenever Queen Victoria has
a fit OF low spirits the court agonizes over
the dread that the curse is going TO oappear
III her b.ood. There never was a genera
ton i'll which the virus in the Bourbon
blood which showed itself in Luis XIV
did not make lis appearance in The family
in some share or other, from the time OF
The Grand Mona.que to that of the Count
OF Cham bord. A similar uniformity OF
unsoundness may be traced N the dynas-
ties OF Russia, Spain, Portugal and Savoy.
Different forms were assumed Sometimes
the victims weakness was moral, some
times physical; but il was always there,
paIpable and recognizable evidence of a
congenital defect. Blue blood involves a
rima facie assump ption OF degeneracy.
The more highly developed our social
relations become The more the indiyidu'l
is subordinated to society and the more
sacrifices he is required to make tor the
general good. Parental authority, which
used to be all powerful and is still potent
in some countries, as in France and China,
is with us passing into the hands of the
state Personal liberty has to give way
TO the interest and the convenience OF the
people a large. 1t is invaded, with gen.
eral approval, when we require house
holder to keep his back yard clean and to
drain his premises: when We quarantine
his house in ca.e OF dlphtherla
and require the inmates to be vac
cinated against smallpox; when we
forbid the conduct of evil smelling
laboratories near Inhabited dwellings.
and regulate the traffic in poisons, high
exL losives ana intoxicating liquors. Yet
while the law tries to prevent, as far as 1t
can. the disse animation of disease from
cradles visible TO the naked eye, we care
! fully refrain from interfering with dis
eases whose cause IS latent though
! equally discernble by the experienced OBJ
! server. We send the larcenist to Jail,
! and let him out when his malady has be-
/ come constitutional; when he repeats his
/ offense, we condemn him to longer term,
| SO as to make sure that be shall grow
worse; we adhere to the pol cy in the ca
! of his third and fourth offense each time
/ increasing his sentence, so that it would
!
I at first.
We place the man or woman who was
! tainted from birth in position where he
tant may be thrown into general circula-
ton. We say to them: You were doomed
from the cradle. Your father was a
drunkard, your mother is consumptiye
your uncle had fits, your aunt is in luna
tic asylum. But waat? Shall We punish
the child for the sins of the father? God
! forbid ! Go and marry and engenGer a
family of children who after probation
ary stage in The ginmill and the country
picnic will presently loom up as feIons or
harlots in the penitentiary or on the
streets"
That is modern civilization. When it is
proposed to place restriction on marriage,
churchman rises on his hild legs and
protests that such crank notions will In
duce young lovers to dispense with the
offices OF the minister or the Justice.
There have been times and places when
hat might have been said with truth.
: Borrowe, in his Wild Wales" uses the
argument against marriage fees. But in
such communities as ours it is safe to RELY
| upon the woman's sense of proprietv as
ndl SIlc Will DeCOn6 q VIE be-
! fore she is mother. There are excep-
tions to the rule, but they are rare and
they cannot be reached by law or public
opinion.
Very few girls would want to marry a
man as to whom it was officially declared
/ that by reason of constitutional defect.
he was unit to be a husband and still
fewer would be willing to encounter the
risk OF bringing into the world children
who would probably be weaklings, or de-
praved, or incurable invalids or lunatics.
But, says a philosopher, the proposed
restrictions would debar Il large number
of young persons, male and female, from
the joys OF coniugal life, including some
who are unaware of their latent heredi-
tary defect. The point is we'll taken.
| The answer is that the interests OF the
few must give way to the interests
OF the many. 1t is better that some
families should become extinct than that
pestilence-moral and hvsical-should
spread among the people at large Better
! that the race of the Guiteaus and the
Durrants should perish from off the face