Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1905-08-23
Ey MARGARET E. sANGsTER.


Copyright. 1905. by Joseph B. Bowles.)
No dispassionate critic can fail to see |
that a great and praiseworthy change |
has come over the spirit of American |
homes in the last score of years. Before |
our president called general attention |
to the diminutive size of American fam |
lilies, and sounded his warning note |
about race suicide, a reaction had set in |
for the betterment of conditions that |
were deplorable.
A much more wholesome sentiment
obtains among women than formerly as
regards the dignity of motherhood. To
this the Mothers Congress and the nu-
merous mothers clubs throughout the
country have contributed. and the Oft
repeated opinions of those who believe
that child culture is not beneath any
woman's genius, have brought an up
| lifting influence. The eXpectant moth
| er is not now an object of pity among
| her acquaintance. Motherhood has be-
come an admired and coveted state even
| among married women of fashiOn-and
many families are fearlessly going be-
yond the two or three children who con-
stituted, not long ago, the ideal Amer
| lean group.
| Race suicide is therefore not menace
| 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 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, lifes crown and life's truest
| wealth.
Where, then, does a threat of danger
interpose itself? The race suicide We
have reason to fear, how shall we define
it?
Tome at least it seems that our great
est present peril lies in the lowering of
our standards of integrity, in our ac-
| eeptance 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
: | a. h.
The education of rich mems SONS too
often tends to make them idle and ele-
CANT incapables, globe-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 foreign adventurer with
a Understanding 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-
bish. Real worth is overlooked in favor
of pseudo refinement and society veneer
People who should know better are
guilty of the vulgarity of wOrshipiIg
money, and God help us, We are al! toe
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 l not long ago heard 6
woman exclaim: What is one mil
lion? Why, in this period it is nothing
but genteel poverty" This is what VIZ
instil by precept and example into thu
/ lives of our young people.
$ So it has naturally followed that SAM
2 forums flourish Young men in theil
I haste to be rich, break down with nerv
q Gus exhaustion The sanitorium re
q ceives them. They live to be nervou.
wrecks. or improve to walk softly al
= their days. Herein is finger that point,
/, warningly at race suicide.
Another peril is in the increasing II
cense among women of character an.
reputation in certain indulgences an,
n recreatiOns once doubted or scorned b.
o their class. The card table in tn,
: drawing-room, the practice among WON
r en- of playing bridge whist for stakes
r small, it is true, but waking the game
| ster's passion, the practice Of takin
v wine socially and in public places, as a
d restaurants and in hotels, both tend to
ward blighting our finest and noblest in
stincts. For it is not only vulgar
coarse and garish women of the novea
q rich type against whom these com
II plants are with reason lodged Delicate
+, ~ nurtured, beautiful and well-bre
Is women suffer themselves to fight emit
If and to drift with the fashionable cul
= rent, playing cards by daylight, as