Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-14

who deliberately forgoes these blessings,
whether from viciousness, GOODNESS, shall
low heartedness, Self-indulgence, or mere
failure to appreciate Alright the difference
between the all-impOrtant and the unlm-
portant-why, such a creature merits con-
tempt as hearty any visited upon the
soldier who runs away in battle, or upon
the man who refuses to work for the SUD-
port of those dependent upon him, and who
though ableboded 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 I'M
wholesome features of modern life Ii any
is dim of vision as to fail to see
what thoroughly unlovely creature such
woman is l wish he or she would read Judge
Robert Grants novel "Unleavened 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 this type exists only in American
novels. That 1t also exists in American
life is made unpleasantly evident by the
statistics as to the dwindling families in
some localities. 1t is made evident in
equally sinister fashion by the census sta
uSttcS as to divorce, which are fairly ap-
palling; for easy divorce is now, as 1t ever
has been, bane to any nation, curse to
society, a menace to the home. incte
ment to married unhappiness and to i'm
morality, an evil thing for men and a still
more hideous evil for women. These I'M
pleasant tendencies in our American life are
made evident by articles such as those
which 1 actually read not long ago in
certain paper, where a clergyman was
quoted, seemingly with approval, ex
pressing the general American attitude
when he said that the ambition of any save
very rich man should be to rear two chill
dren only, so as to give his children an op-
portunity ito taste few of the good things
of life
This man, whose profession and calling
should have made him moral teacher. ac-
tually 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 them
selves and their country. not of allowing
them the opportunity and giving them the
privilege of making their own place in the
world but forsooth. of keeping the num-
Der of children so limited that they might
taste few good thingsi'' The way to
give a child a fair chance in life is not to
bring 1t up in luxury, but to see that it has
the kind of training that will give it
strength of character Even apart from
the vital question of national life, and re-
garding only the individual interest of the
children themselves, happiness in the true
sense is hundredfold more apt to come to
any given member of a healthy family of
healthy minded children. well brought up.
we'll educated, but taught that they must
shift for themselves, must win their own
way, and by their own eXertionS make
their own positions of usefulness, than it Is
apt to come to those whose parents them
selves have acted on and have trained
their children to act on, the selfish and sor-
did theory that the whole end of life is ito
taste a few good things
The; intelligence of the remark is on a par
with it's 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 chill
dren the nation as a whole would decrease
in population so rapidly that In two or
three generations it would very deservediy
be on the point of extinction, so that the
people who had acted on this base and sell
fish doctrine would be giving place to 9TH
ers with Drawer and more robust Ideals Nor
would such result be in any way regret
table; for a race that practiced such doc
trine-that is, race that practiced race
sucide--would thereby conclusively show
that it was unfit to exist, and that it had
better give place to people who had not
forgotten the primary laws of their being.
To sum up. then. the whole matter is
simple enough. If either a race or an indi-
vidual prefers the pleasures of mere effort
less ease, of self-indulgence, to the infinitely
deeper the infinitely higher pleasures that
come to those who know the toll and the
WEAKNESS, but also the joy, of hard duty
well done, why, that race or that individ-
ual must inevitably in the end pay the pen
atty of leading a life both vapid and ig
noble. No man and no woman really
worthy of the name care for the life
spent solely or chiefly in the avoidance of
risk and trouble and labor. Save in excep-
tional cases the prizes worth having 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
for ones self.
The man is but poor creature whose
effort Is not rather for the betterment of
his wife and children than for himself;
and as for the mother, her very name
stands for loving unselfishness and self
ahnegation. and. in any society fit to exist.
is fraught with associations which render
1t holy
The woman's task is not easy-no task
worth doing is easy-but in doing it, and
when she has done it, there shall come to
her the highest and hottest JOY 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