The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-11-09
PLEASE DON'T.

IN recent issue OF ceftain puptS@-
ton which purports to teach women
everything they ought to know. and pos
sibly some they ought not to know. and
never will know, the editor tells them to
study the human baby and keep at it."
Then 1t adds:
Or 90 farther back with DR.. Darwin.
Begin with the original protoplasm, the
oysters grandfather ten thousand times
removed. Follow that protoplasm as he
lives In the. water as a fish, In the air
as bird, on land as reptile, chase him
along through the worlds history as
four-legged mammal with a backbone
running parallel with the ground. watch
that backbone rise by degrees to YER
teal position. and find your baby's prede-
cessor clinging to his hairy mother, the
female primate, as she hops from limb to
limb.
men OF this country will do nothing OF
the kind II Is going too far back and
starting too far from home. 1t is kind
of study which will be "a WEAKNESS OF
the flesh" and q vexation to the mind.
woman will be no better as a companion
to man. or as wife and mother. by
learning that her ancestors some millions
Of years ago were clinging by their tails
to the limbs of the primeval forests or to
70 back further and find that they were
wriggling in the waters of the prehistoric
seas. or to bark back some thousands Of
millions of years more to learn that hui
mainly was just starting in the form OF
an almost formless and lifeless proto-
plasm. clinging to the Shiny weeds Of the
primordial waters.
Suppose an educated young lady, when
her best fellow calls and wants to talk
about present-day affairs. should launch
out into disquisition about protoplasmic
primogeniture. and rhapsodize about the
ultimate origin of humanity. wouldn't he
grab his hat and break for darkness and
fresh air? And, when he wants to ask
her something interesting. she sets out
| to tell him how he has descended from
| an atom which, when the stars were
young, was floating around loose await
ing the chance of hitching to. another
equally shapeless microbe. and that from
been worked up to his present civiliza-
ton, what would he do?
What good will it do society. humanity,
the rising generation. or the women
themselves, IL they devote their time try
ing to show that man, descended. through
countless ages and numberless changes.
instead Of having been created by a Su-
preme Being? Will she be better calcu-
| lated to raise and train and lead her chill
! dren upward IL she convinces herself that
4 their ancestors were monkeys? and will
| the children themselves be any better for
the knowledge?
| We repeat that we hope the advice of
l the journal in question will not be needed.
II a woman wants to study babies, let
her study those of the present, and try
to make them better and healthier and
| happier instead of worrying her mind
about Darwin and Huxley and Tyndall
| or any of their kind. Whether man was
created by Divine intelligence or "just
growed up" like Topsey, is a question
that will probably never be any nearer
settlement than 1t now is. and we do
not consider that the happiness of man.
kind in the present or the destiny of hu-
man beings in the future, can be altered
or advanced by our women generally fol-
lowing the plan given in the extract we
have quoted. Man may have come per-
feet from the hand of God or he may
have CROPPED his way from the atoms OF
the remote past. but we prefer to take
our instruction from the Bible, and we
shall study to improve and elevate hu-
mainly rather than cast doubts on its
origin.