The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1900-06-14
SOCIAL DECADENCE.
The Route by Which this Coun-
try is Rushing to Ruin.
By ex-senator John J ingalls,.


: it reform 1t seems more like revo
luton They are substituting the
hotel and the club for the home. com
radeship for marriage and Bohemian
for domestic life. With wealth
: leisure and luxury they are establish
ing a social code that demands fidel-
ity only to those who are faithless.
and that forgives everything in a
woman except old fashioned good
ness.
The recent records of the divorce
courts i'll New York and all our great
cities justify the apprehension that
quite as many OF the fair sex are I'M
justly suspected of Innocence as are
falsely accused of wrong-doing. 1t Is
commonly said that the world is
growing better. Probably it is-in
spots. There are many good people
who pay titheS of anise atonement
and contritions Sunday and forget
the weightier matters of the law
every other day in the week.
Numerous eminent divines quarrel
devoutly concerning crneds. and de-
liver eloquent discourses about the
@enealogy of Abraham and the blast
OF the trumpet that threw down the
walls of JericO
Universities, colleges. libraries and
museums are endowed by contribu
tions to the conscience fund from the
deaf h-bed repentance of contrite nj |
rates and eXtortiOners. who. havino |
burned the candle to Mammou all |
their lives, blow the snuff i'm the face
of the Lord This is nearly the most
corrupt and greedy age since Nero
played first violin at the burning of
Rome
Those who have seen tile frascops
and sculptures of Pompeii can com
prehend why that composite heap
was buried under the cinders and
ashes of Nesuvins: why The site OF
Sodom and Gomorrah is forgotten:I
why ancient Corinth was despoiled
and its inhabitants extirpated. There +
was no other medicine for such de-
pravlty and degradation. Most
travellers who know the Gin mills of
London by sight, and have walked =.
the Strand after nightfall, or have {
visited the Moulin Rouge witnessed /
the viciOusness OF Berlin and Vienna |
md Venice, know that every capital
n Europe can give odds to Pompeii
md COrinth.
A fatal contagion infects our so
;iety and portends individual degen- a
ration and national decay. No nation \
AN long survive the loss of moral o
or the sanctity of the home :
40 one can observe without alarm v
he invasion Of our country by this q
Oreign pestilence and the amazing T,
hanges that are going on in the so q
ial condition. GO
a deluge OF French and English Il
ewage is polluting literature. art T
nd the stage. Plays olorifying in lie
deity, making marriage a lest and ii
neering at all virtue as rustic pru
cry are supplemented bynumberless !,
eX and problem novels that treat :,
ature's hottest mysteries with the
rutal candor of the clinic and the
lssecting table. Eager. thronginp
ATTITUDES listen TO such plays as
The Degenerates, .-Sapho." and
The Turtle. = lv
1t Is unfortunate from the moral pr
andpoint that the best of mankind ex
re not invulnerable. There is no k
rmor proof against temptation 1t
still more discouraging that good
aopie are generally uninteresting
ld that We remember with most
easure those persons and events We
light 10 forget. 1t is a prodigious
sk TO hit man. a community. iu'
ON barbarism into enlightenment T.
ld civilization. and IA still greater ON
SIX TO keep him. The tendency is 81
relapse, The gravitationis to the bl'
litter. 1t requires the constant act Pe
g cooperation Of the conservative II
rces OF religion, education. laws. Al
Iblts and customs To maintain even Ec
ternal order and decencv. bu
Break down the barriers of modestv 10 70
Id shame in woman. teach the lis
lung that the distinction between 20
ght and wrong * an inversion of Ba
eoIopv. that co1sc;.,,,.., :. bic
.4;,,l,,+ ;,,-o.s- Hii IN Pc