The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-07-14
dard Of luxurious requirements so high

dard Of luxurious requirements so high
in New York that the home as it is
remembered by most of us is almost
disestablished. 1t was a separate
domicile, set in an ample yard, not to
say grounds, from which all stran-
gers were excluded, except as invited
and temporary guests. Now it only
exists, in a metropolis, for the very
| rich. The great mansions of the city S
less populous days are utilized to &C
commodate boarders by those who
| have narrow incomes.
There is a certain comfy among the
| dodgers, especially where the partitions
are thin and the space very circum-
scribed, which enforces the duty upon
each family to see to it that their
neighbOrs are not disturbed or incon-
venienced, and therefore the family
generally an i'll child does cry, will up
set a whole floor full of ordinarily
| friendly, considerate people. Conse-
quently the landlord or janitor is sore
| ly put about. When one enters the
door of the apartment house, and gen
orally in the more luxurious of them,
the first question asked by the suave
agent is: Have you children in your
family? We do not lease to families
with children
Perhaps there is a placard on the
door to save the proprietor trouble in
announcing mo children or dogs ia
KEN" or if the children are lodged,
Children and dogs not allowed in the
halls" The buildings can be filed cas-
lily with childless couples, they say, and
tenants who have no children of their
own do not want to be annoyed by
those of other people; besides, children
ares destructive of carpets, furniture
and walls. In some of the poorer tene-
ments, copying the fashion of the bet
ter lodging houses, where there is a
miserable oilcloth only on the floor, one
reads: Children not allowed to play
in this hall" Indeed, in many a home
there is a sign invisible but none the
less prohibitory, Children not want
ed"
Children, like the lepers of old, must
keep aloof from every one except their
own family, and in many cases these
find them burdensome. 1t is an awful
charge to bring against modern civiliza-
ton that it is not making proper pro-
vision for the coming generation. Once,
in a simpler state of society, children
were a precious. possession, prayed and
longed for; sacred trust; a God-giv-
en- well spring of joy and hope in the
home, but now they are to some extent
considered nuisance, an afflicion, and
to be avoided if possible, and if not.
to be merely tolerated. The hotels re-
ject them; so do the boarding houses
and renting agens, and the rents de-
nlanded for detached entire house
taken in conjunction with the increas-
ing difficulty of getting servants and
the very high wages they command.
seem to condemn the poor little Ish-
maelites. whether their parents desire
1t or not, to a joyless future in the
pent-up apartment or lodgings.
The economic objections to large
families have prevailed so universally
in the country of France and the prov
lnces that now the government is wres-
ting with the problem of a steadily
diminishing ratio of births to deaths.
ten given over to the care and COM
partnership, first of nurses, and then of
governesses, as their ages may indi-
cate. Is it possible or even reasonable |
TO expect that these will look after the |
building UP Of the characters of the
children or the culture of their moral |
nature as parent would? The hered- |
itary tendencies of child can only be |
known and appreciated by its parents. |
Certainly the governess must work ex |
perimentally and in the dark as well |
as without enlightening love to guide |
her. | once asked an insubordina+e |
very small girl who was alone and
crying Historically on her fathers |
stairway after she had got into an al
tercation with her governess. .rWbv |
are you not good little girl?" She |
sobbed out, Il cannot be good because |
she does not love me- This is the |
specimen of a good many of the COM
plants children make without knowing
the origin of their troubles. They do |
not associate with their mothers in an
way.
| have been astonished when driving
in Central Park to see so few children
in the splendid equipages which roll by
N endless succession. Very often there
IS a dog, sometimes of considerable
size, on the seat with the mistress. but
very rarely a child. I do not know