The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-02-23

and not stay long-good children TO SYM
time, good grandchildren to come and Kiss
you and go TO and fro and talk and make
q noise; q good wife TO scold you and tell
how inprudent you have been, and a good
doctor to look at your tongue and choke
you with a spoon handle so as 10 see
away down the esophagus. But nature
has the best of medicines slowed away III
the blessed sunshine that gives NE anu
vigor to everything animal and Yegetaole
and reyiyes the dropping spirits Oh the
sick 1t has been a long and nara WIN
ter-the coolest and most disagreeaDie
one hundred consecutive days that we
have had for years. How | envled the
good people of Florida while | read Tom
Sawyers rhapsodies in the Clear water
paper over the advent OF spring with It's
peach trees and yellow 1essamine per-
tuning the balmy air with their fragrant
blossoms But it is coming Gentle
spring is not fer away now and day like
this IS it's harbinger II it were not Tor
the daily catalogue or horrible Things
that headline the daily papers even SICK
man could be calm and serene on such
day as this. An aged country friend tolu
me that he had quit taking the daily pa
perg for it distressed him to read SUCH
things. Il haven't long TO live said he,
.'and I don't wish TO cloud my mind with
a daily record of human misery" But
most all people have to mix up with the
affairs of nations and of men and keep
posted about everything that happens.
We can't skip the bad and read the good
To- Zoe a
rible things that we cannot resist. They
are the first things We look for. They
excite our pity or our Indignation or orr
wonder Our childhood began that way
for we never tired OF Jack the Giant
Killer and Raw Head and Bloody Bones
and Robinson Crusoe. And now the edi-
tor of the press dispatches carelessly
looks over the little slips that are laid
upon his desk and reads Another explo-
sion In the mines-one hundred killed:
Another railroad wreck-thirteen
killed" and then resumes the little anec-
dote he was narrating to a friend We
are all growing case hardened TO pain
and grief and suffering for the same rea-
son that the surgeon becomes case hard
ened to the pain OF his patient.
But ever and anon some new horror
comes along that shocks humanity and
astouEds the world. l read three long
columns last night about the horrors OF
adulterated food in Paris and how 1850
Infants died the last year from poisoned
milk How the great incorporated dairy
companes in the suburban towns have TO
deliver 500, 900 quarts every night. 1t is
skinned before it Is canned and then is
watered 30 per cent before it Is put on
the cars. On arrival at their depots it
is delivered In cans TO 800 milk boys
(gareonsl, who get $1.40 a night and as
much more as they can make by water
ing the milk from the hydrantS that are
supplied from the river Seine, the hlthiest
river in all France. One hundred detec-
tives are employed TO watch these boys,
but the boys have detectives, too, and
are seldom caught or arrested. The SUI
nerintendent of police says it is impossi-
Bile for one, hundred men to follow and
watch elghE hundred boys and he now
asks for tWo thousand. This watered
milk quickly sours and by the time 1t Is
delivered To the retailer at daybreak ii
has TO be watered again with solution
of bicarbonate of soda. This is the milk
that supplies all Paris, and is daily fed
10 infant children and in brief time they
take cholera infantum or diarrhoea and
die. The medical faculty all testified
that this milk caused the death OF over
5000 infants in Paris In one year and
the mortality was on the increase. and
this does not include the deaths of chill
dren over one year old. These eight
hundred Boys are organized into pow
erful syndicate for protection and de-
fence. Each pays into their treasury S.
9 week. making a total of $4,000 month
with which to pay lawyers fees and fines
and the wages of those in jail and to
bribe the city detectives not to catch
them when watering the milk. They
water 1t while the wagons are on the go
pumping in behind with cans of water.
The milk suspected is turned over to the
city chemists. who analyze and report and
If the boys are arrested most Of them
escape punishment in some corrupt way,
but none are discharged They go back
at once into the company's service. But
Paris is aroused as it never has been
and declares the death dealing business
shall be broken up il it takes two thou
sand detectives TO pursue the eight hun
dred boys. "Our children are fed on mi
crobes from the river Seine" is now on
every tongue. Other cities have taken UP
the cry and Rouen and Dunkirk show
larger uGaln rate Oh infants imam GaFlS,
and now they say no wonder the popu-
latlon of France is decreasing instead of
increasing. We are poisoning three
fourths of all the children before they
are q year old and half the remainder
soon after. Seine water, microbes and
bjcarbonate of soda!
This exposure comes from late Official
sources and is no doubt the truth, or very
near II. Just think of it and shudder-
1900 innocent, helpless babes murdered
IN one year III one city. Tom Hood wrote
a song about the poor sewing women that
aroused all London. If he were alive i'll
Paris now what pitiful subject he would
have for another song. What a shame
upon our sex, for /. is not women who do
these things. but men and boys. The
mothers suffer in giving them birth ThnN
nurse aud cherish and clasp the little
things to their bosoms and love and hope
and pray. but the destroyer comes aud
then all she can do is 10 grieve and weep.
, England Strengthening the Beers and
France her innocent children What
next?