The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-08-18
BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER

| 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
| womans genius, have brought an up
| lifting influence. The expectant moth
| er is not now an object of pity among
her acquaintance. Motherhood has be-
lcome an admired and coveted state even
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
surrounded by bright, clever, lovable
children, life's crown and life's truest
wealth.
|
Where. then, does 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, 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
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-
bish. Real worth is overlooked in favor
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 not long ago heard a
woman exclaim: what is one 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 sani-
forums flourish. Young men in their
haste to be rich, break down with nerv-
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.
AnotheE~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 al
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 novear
rich type against whom these com
plants are with reason lodged. Delicate
ly nurtured, beautiful and well-breG
women suffer themselves to fight emu
and to drift with the fashionable cur
J. rent, playing cards by daylight. as i
the ghosts of their grandmothers wer,
not lowering over them in stern sur
prise. They sip cordials and pick-me- up!
at dainty tables. as if they had neye
heard of temperance and propriety
This talk is not written to enforce tota
abstinence; it is intended to remin;
good women of the cruelty and sin o
putting temptation in the way of others