New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-03-14

4
culties, but to lives spent in overcoming diff
cultieS. Teach them that work, for themselves
anu also TOT others Is not a. curse out d press
ing; seek to make them happy, TO MAKE them
enjoy life, but seek also to make them face life
with the steadfast resolution TO wrest success
from labor and adversely, and 10 DO their Whole
duty before God and to man Surely she who
can thus train her sons and her daughters IS
thrice fortunate among women
There many good people who are denied
the supreme blessing of children, and for these
we have the respect and sympathy always due
to those Who from no fault of their own, are
denied any Of the other great blessings Of life;
but the man who deliberately foregoes
these blessings, whether from v1clousness. cold
ness shallow heartedness, self-indugence, or
mere failure to appreciate Alright the difference
between the all important and the unimportant
why, such a creature merits contempt as
hearty as any visited upon the soldier who
runs away in battle, upon the man who re-
fuses to work for the support of those de-
pendent upon him. and who, though able bodied.
is yet content to eat in idleness the bread which
others provide.
The existence of women of this type forms
one of the most unpleasant and unwholesome
features of modern life. If any one is so dim
of vision to fail to see what a thoroughly
unlovely creature such a woman is l wish they
would read Judge Robert Grants novel, I'm
leavened Bread" ponder seriously the character
of Selma, and think Of the fate that would
surely overcome any nation which developed its
average and typical woman along such lines
Unfortunately it would be untrue to say that
it also exists in American life is made IN
pleasantly evident by the statistics as to the
dwindling families in some localities.
THE CURSE OF EASY DIVORCE.
1t is made evident in equally sinister fashion
by the census statistics as to divorce, wnlcn
are fairly appalling, for easy divorce is now, as
it ever has been, a bane to any nation, a CURSE
to society, a menace to the home, an incltement
to married unhappiness and to immortality an
evil thing for men and a still more Mucous eVH
for women. These unpleasant tendencies In our
American life are made evident by articles sucn
as those which 1 actually read not long ago IN
certain paper, where a clergyman was quoleu'
seemingly with approval, as expressing the gen
eral American attitude when he said that t1e
ambition of any save a very rich man should
be TO two children only, so as TO give ms
children an opportunity ito taste rev OF inc
good things of life
This man, whose profession and calling should
| have made him moral teacher. actually set De
fore others the IDEAL not Of training chlldren 10
| do their duty, not of sending them forth with
| stout hearts and ready minds to win tr1unphs
| for themselves and their country, not or allow
| ing them the opportunity and giving them the
privilege Of making their own place in the world,
| but forsooth of keeping the number OF children
so limited that they might taste rev gooa
| things!" The way to give q child falr chahce
in life is not to bring il up in luxury, but TO see
that it has the kind Of training that Will give IL
strength Of character Even apart from o, rnv
the Individual interest Of the children tneIn-
selves happiness in the true sense Is hundred
| fold more apt to come to any given member or
| healthy family of healthy minded children.
J well brought up, well educated, put taught that
| they must shift for themselves must WIN their
| own way and by their own exertions make their
| own positions Of usefulness, than 1t is apt 70
| come to those whose parents themselves have
acted on and have trained their children to act
| on the selfish and sordid theory that the Whoie
| end of life is ito taste few good things.
RESULT OF RACE SUICIDE.
The intelligence of the remark is on a par
| with its morality for the most rudimentary
| mental process would have shown the speaker
| that if the average family in which there are
| children contained but two children the natlon
| as a whole would decrease in population SO
rapidly that in two or three generations II Woulu
| verv deservedy be on the point of extinction, SO
! that the people who had acted on this base ana
! selfish doctrine would be giving place TO others
| with drawer and more robust ideals. Nor WouLo
such a result be in any way regrettable, for a
! race that practised such doctrine-that IS a
| race that practised race suicide-Would tnerepy
| concusively show that ii was unfit to exist ana
| that it had better give place to people VINO hau
not forgotten the primary laws of their being.
| To sum up then, the whole mater Is simple i
| enough. If either a race or an irdlvldua! pre-
fers the pleasures of mere eortess ease OF sen
indulgence to the infinitely deeper the infinitely
| higher pleasures that come to those VINO Know
the toll and the WEAKNESS, but also the joy, of
hard duty well done, why, that race or that IN
dividual must inevitably in the end pay the pen
atty of leading a life both vapid and ignoble.
| No man and no woman really worthy of the
name can care for the life spent solely or chiefly
in the avoidance OF risk ana trouble ana LABOR
Save in exceptional cases, the prizes worth nav
ing in life must be paid for, and the life worth
living must be life of work for a worthy end,
and ordinarily of work more for others than Tor
ones self.
The man is but a poor creature whose effort is
not rather for the betterment of his wife and
children than for himself and for the mother,
her very name stands for loving unselnshness
and seIf-abnegation, and, in any society fit to
exist is fraught with associations which render
it holy.
The woman's task is not easy-no task worth
doing is easy-but in doing il, and when she has
done it, there shall come to her the highest and
hottest 10y known to mankind; and having done
it. she shall have the reward prophesied' in
Scripture, for her husband and her children,
yes and all people who realize that her work
lies at the foundation of all national happiness
and greatness shall rise up and call her blessed.
THE WORK OF THE CONGRESS.
This was the most important day of the con-
gress President Roosevelt's address tonight.
White House this afternoon, was the climax of
the sessions.
one of the dramatic incidents of the morning
was the appearance on the platform of Mrs.
Terrell. negro woman of Washington. whose
good work is familiar to Tribune readers. She
went to the woman's International Congress in
Berlin last year, and made three telling speeches
in English, French and German
IF YOU" she said with great feeling to-day,
need this congress for instruction for rearing
children. how much more do we, from whom the
shackles Of slavery have been lately taken,
| need such information to enable us to rear our
children properly
One Of the most important papers this morn
ing was the report of the Committee on Deepen
dent, Defective and Delinquent Children made
by Hastings H. Hart. superintendent of the Hi
nois Children's Home and Aid Society. He said
that in view of the great number of subjects
pressing on the attention of the congress the
committee had confined it's report TO the "ad-
vantages and disadvantages Of the placing out
system He explained that the placing out"