The Tupelo journal., 1905-08-11

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lean group.
Race suicide is therefore not a n
to be dreaded, from the standpoint OF
the man who loves his country and hopes
to see her sons and daughters born in
numbers sufficient to keep the balance
steady against the swarming crowds OF
the foreign-born, as a counter poise to
the throngs who see the light in homes
of deepest squalor and poverty. The
comfortable, thrifty, intelligent, hard
working. plain-living and ~high-thinking
American citizen is to have his table
surrounded by bright, clever, lovable
children, life's crown and life's tpuest
wealth.
Where, then, does a threat of danger
interpose itself? The race suicide we
have reason to fear, how shall We define
it?
To me, at least, it seems that our great
est present peril lies in the lowering OF
our standards of integrity, in our ac-
ceptance of commercial success as the
only success worth having, and in our
mad desire for ease and luxury. We are
becoming effeminate. Our boys and
girls shrink from labor. One finds the
children and grandchildren Of toiling
men who earned their living by the
sweat of their brow and the exercise of
their muscle, Sinking chores about the
house, evading mere work on the plea
of athletics or of study, and spending
money with freedom and irresponsible
ity that BODIES i'll for the future.
The education of rich mems sons too
often tends to make them idle and ele-
CANT incapables, glo%be-trotters and
spendthrifts. The education of rich
mems daughters trains them in social
charm and distinction. but too much
neglects the homely virtues, Else why
do so many of them fall readily into the
trap when a foreign adventurer with
a high-sounding title seeks to recoup his
wasted fortunes with their fathers
wealth?
Middle-class folk, if anyone will own
to being middle-class. are far too snob-
DlSu. ulGdl NOlII io tOOhCN
Of pseudo refinement and society veneer.
People who should know better are
guilty of the vulgarity of worshiping
money, and God help us, We are all too
anxious to make money. So anxious
are we for the things that perish with
the using, that we strain every nerve,
sacrifice health, good temper and self
respect to get on, to secure more money,
to add dollar to dollar and acre to acre.
Zone million" I not long ago heard a
woman exclaim: What is n mil
lion? Why, in this period it is nothing
but genteel poverty" This is what we
instil by precept and example into the
lives of our young people.
So it has naturally followed that SAM
forums flourish. Young men in their
haste to be rich. break down with nery-
Gus exhaustion. The sanitorium re-
ceives them. They live to be nervous
wrecks, or improve to walk softly all
their days. Herein is a finger that points
warningly at race suicide.
Another peril is in the increasing Ii
'cense among women of character and
reputation in certain indulgences and
~recreations once doubted or scorned by
their class. The card table in the
drawing-room, the practice among WON
en- of playing bridge whist for stakes,
small, it is true, but waking the game
ster's passion, the practice of taking
wine socially and in public places, as at
restaurants and in hotels, both tend to-
ward blighting I'LL finest and noblest in
Btincts. For it is not only vulgar,
coarse and garish women Of the noveau
rich type against whom these COM
plants are with reason lodged. Delicate
ly nurtured, beautiful and well-bred
women suffer themselves to fight ennui
and to drift with. the fashionable cur
rent, playing cards by daylight, as If
the ghosts Of their grandmothers were
not lowering over them in stern sur
prise. They sip cordials and pick-me-ups
at dainty tables, as if they had
heard of temperance and proprietya
This talk is not written to enforce total
abstinence; it is intended to remind
good women of the cruelty and sin of
putting temptation in the way Of others,
and of causing the weak brother to STUN
BILE.
Race suicide maySas truly be wrought
by those who e~nervate the race. who
kill its valor, deplete its virtue, and
mock its ~self-denials, as by those who
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