The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1901-01-17

and practice of divorce, while on the
brighter side there is a great and in-
creasing interest paid by the government
to the welfare of the child. The State
and society realize in many ways the
obligation to protect, aud care for the
child in q fashion entirely unknown
hundred years ago.
Four of our States have recognized
woman to full rights of citizenship, aud
we think this will tend to raise the IL orals
of the country. There are other evidences
of moral progress in the growth of>ocial-
isn. The century which has Witnessed
the triumph of democracy in politics.
will be followed by another which would
enthrone plutocracy if it We're not for the
Ieaven OF Christian sentiment working out
in more or less socialistic effect. The
victory over slavery is one sol the
trumphs Of moral principle in the 18th
century, but it is far from being complete.
The decay Of dogmatic religion has been
followed by great outburst OF humani-
tartan philanthropy. \ rose bud cut,
and placed in water will blossom into
perfect rose more rapidly than il it were
left on the bush, but cut rose bears no
bud, when its leaves fall all is over. 1t
NAV be so with this humanitatiou that
Christian dogma. The later years of the
century have afforded sinister warning
of a new and nOn-Chrstian dogma which
tends not to mercy, but to murder. Our
country and England are acting upon
the doctrine of the survival of the fittrst
for the justification of the butcherv OF
nations, and in SO doing they have
brought the century to a bloody close,
heralding yet more bloody morn.
Hence when we are asked il FIVE have made
as much moral as material progress we
do not hesitate to answer no, Tor we
have here evidence not Of progress but OF
retogression. The sublime teachings OF
the man of Nazareth are undergoing an
eclipse by the bloody and ruinuus doc
trines OF Darwinian Imperialism IA
ruthless as that of Pagan Rome
DR.. F. S. Harris was the next prin-
cipal speaker, his subject being
ARTS AND SCIENCES.
He said:
'Twere vain to speculate as to what
would have been the result had not man
by disObedience m-rited the curse which
came upon him when barred from Para
disc and sent forth to earn his existence
in the sweat of his face. We might in
dulge in EIysian dreams of perennial
happiness in the Paradise of GOd-with
no care for his own preservation. but
simply to reach ont as it were and gather
fruits wherein he had bestowed no labor;
but twas mans to confront the con
ditions which h. himself had brought
down upon his own head and wiring from
mother Earth she would deny as her
bounty and which hencefOrth must only
be obtained by struggle with her,
punished herself and lacerated by thOrns
and thistles. where flowers and fruits
Elysian had hitherto prevailed.
The divine fiat fell He must work. A
struggle for existence must go on till
each in turn shall yield up the struggle
and return to earth's bosom, cOntri-
buting in his dissolution that he had
borrowed when cast into the form and
mold divine.
In his primitive state simple were his
requirements but contact with the things
about him would evolve from his brain
new ideas by which he might better
wrest from the earth that which was
needed for his own comfort and pleasure
and through which he might take ad-
vantage of the forces of nature to the ac-
complishment of things heretofore un-
seen by him, and which would result in
the amelioration of his sad condition.
He fell upon an era of not only doing
things better-the arts, but of seeing
into and noting the resultant of the
exercise of the higher functions of the
hand and mind-the sciences.