The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-03-17

the I1AA II AEl0SES I'D WUEE lot Ils
support of those dependent upon him.
and who though ablehodied is yet con-
tent to eat in idleness the bread which
others provide.
The existence of rome OF this type
forms n of the o unpleasant
and unwhoIesome features Of modern
life. If any one is SO din. Of vision
as to fail to see what a thoroughly
~Enloyely creature such q woman is L
wish they would rea Judge Robert
Grants novel "Unleavened Bread.
ponder seriously the character Of Sell
ma. and think of the fate hat would
surely overcome any nation which de-
veioped its average and typical wom-
m along such lines. Unfortunately il
would be untrue to say that this type
exists only in American novels. That
it also exists in American life is made
u~npleasantIy evident by the statistics
rs to the %dwindIing families in some
localities. Tt is made evident i'm equal
~ sinister fashion by the census sta
.istics as to divorce which are fairly
appalling; for easy divorce is now as
it ever a been a banc to any ma
ton. a curse to society, a to
the home, an Indictment to married
unhappiness and to immortality. an
evil thing for men and 4 still more
hideous evil for These un-
pleasant tendencies in our American
life are made evident by articles such
as those which | actually read not
long z in a certain p where 4
clergyman was quoted, seemingly with
approval as expressing the general
American attitude when he said that
the ambition Of any save a very rich
man should be to rear two children
only. so as to give his children an
opportunity ito taste a few of the
good things of life"
This man, whose procession and
calling should have made him a moral
teacher, actually set before others the
ideal, not of training children to do
their duty, not Of sending them forth
with stout hearts and ready minds to
win triumphs for themselves and their
country, not of allowing them the OPP
portunity. and giving them the priv
iiege Of making their own place in the
world. but, ~forsooth, of keeping the
nuinber of children sc limited that
they might taste a few of the good
thinSs'" The way to give a child a fair
chance in life is not to bring it up in
luxury, but to see that it has the kind
of character. Even apart from the
vital question Of national life, and
regarding only the individual interest
Of the children themselves. happiness
in the due sense is a hundredfOld
more apt to come to any given men,
Der Of Il healthy family Of health
minded children. we'll brought up,
we'll educated, but taught thai they
must shift for themselves, must win
their own way, and by their own ex-
ertions max their OWL positions of
usefulness, than it is apt to come to
those whose parents themselves lave
acted on and ave trained their chill
dren to act or, the selfish and sordid
theory that the whole end Of life is
"tO taste a few good things"
PLEA AGAINST RACE-SUICIDE.
The intelligence Of the remark is on
2 par with it's morality, for the most
documentary mental process would
have shown the speaker that if the
average family in which there are
children contained but two children
the nation as a whole would decrease
in population so rapidly that in two
or three generations it would very de-
servedly be on the point Of extinction.
so that the people who had acted on
this base and selfish doctrine would
be giving place to others with drawer
and more robust ideals. Nor would
such a result be in any way regret
able; for a race that practiced such
doctrine-that is, a race that practiced
race suicide-Would thereby conclu-
sive1y show that it was unfit to exist:
and that it had better give place to
people who had not forgotten the pri-
mary laws Of their being.
To sum up, then, the whole matter
an individual prefers the pleasures of
mere effortless ease. of self-irdulgence,
to the infinitely deeper, the infinitely
higher pleasures that come to those
who know the toll and the WEAKNESS,
but also the joy. Of hare duty we'll
done, why, that race or that indfvid-
ual must inevitably IN the end pay the
penalty 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 and trouble and
labor. Save IN exceptional cases the
prizes worth having in life must be
paid for, and the life worth living
must be a life of work for a worthy
end, and ordinarily of work more for
others thar for ones self.
The man is but a poor creature
whose effort is not rather for the bet
terment CT. his wife and children than
for himself; and as for the mother,
her very name tands for loving I'M
selfshness and self-ahnegation, 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 do
ing it. n when she has done it. there
shall come to her the highest and ho1-
lest iov known to mankind: and hav-
ing done it, she shall have the reward