Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-08-23
SUICIDE AGAIN.
ABOUT MODERN LARGE FAM
LIES
BY I. K. FRIEDMAN.

ing delegate of the Stone cutters
union, there's been $50 much about
race suicide in the newspapers lately
that I'm half afraid of committing sui
eide myself If l keep on reading EN-
If half the men that were talking race
suicide at the banquets wou marry
half the women that talking race
suicide at the clubs, it seems to me
that the problem would be solved.
"All that the people Fwho are afraid
Of race suicide need totdo to see theii
mistake is to take a stroll through
the West side, where the children are
so thick that the only fear of ace sui
eide is the danger of their killing each
other at play.
"It's a wonder to me when one oil
their mothers sticks her head through
the window and yellsl Sammy" and
700 Sammies, moreSor less, answer
Yes, ma'am,' how intthe name of Won
der she can pick outSher own particu'
lar little Sammy.
And yet they TALK about the ignor,
ance of the poor! The poor amt
ignorant-I've often \said it-they're
just plain foolish. If they were more
ignorant and less foolish they'd cut
down their families Lmean their fam.
lily expenses, which Is the same thing
and get in on the end of the race
suicide game that the'rich are playing.
"As for the rich, all l can say is
that l don't blame tour multimillion,
aires for committing race suicide when
l see what their sons are doing with
the money. What man wants to be
the father-in-law Of sthree back row
chorus girls, two maHe-believe actress
es and a woman with a past long
enough to fill an encyclopedia?
Some of the rich don't want chill
dren, it seems, on account of their be.
ing in the way ofItheir keeping social
engagements where 1t amt fashionable
to take babes, In the ballroom. And
the poor want children because playing
with 'etn, whipping 'em and making
'em work is the only amusement that q
man on wages of H2 a day can afford.
"As for the medium or middle class
es, it seems that they're sandwiched
In between the rich and the poor and
they want just %atmedium number oil
children. Too many would be in the
way and take up their mothers time
when she ought to DE writing an essay
against race suicide for the woman's
club. / judge from what l hear that
you've got to go tosa ball or the won.
ans club to be in it these days, and
those who are too'poor to afford either
belong to what you might call the
working classes.N
"a medium ortmiddle class family,
as / started to say, contains about -four
children to every fiat, according to the
size of the fiat and the fathers purse.
Old Watson, the contractor, said to
me only the other day: 'Herbst, as
long as this race suicide ,and play
reading>fad is on l keep on putting up
flats. For, mind you, it amt flats that
is making race suicide, but race sui
eide that is making fats. The old
fashioned family used to require a
hotel with an annex to live in, but it's
gradually boiled down to a model
apartment with one room, a kitchen
stove and q bath. It's awful to con
template, Herbst,' he sighed. Then he
turned around and gave his agent
blazes for not showing up the rents all
along Race Suicide row
"How is it, Watson?' l asked, that
you haven't a large family yourself?
You're fond of children, and all you
have to do to support seven or eight
more is to raise the rent on some one
that has no right to have more than
two
"eWell, Herbst,' he sighed again, 4
came from one of those ideal 18-round-
Interchangeable kind of families that
nv wife speaks about at the woman's
club, and l can't say that my recollec,
lions of it are particularly happy. The
dining-room table was there all right,
but my wife was careful to omit the
fact that my poor old dad was so hard
pressed to keep us in clothes that 1t
would have taken q microscope to see
anything on the table cloth.
"sYou can imagine, Herbst, that 1t
kept my old man hustling to take care
of the IS of us and himself. l think
IL we had dared in those days to whis,
tie Everybody Works But Father"
he wouldn't have done a thing but
reach out for an ak.
"'Herbst, he used to get out of bed
while the stars were still shining, and
he never quit until the stars showed up
again. When he got home, so tired
that he couldn't enjoy the idea of hav-
ing his family holler around him, his
work had just about begun, for you
can be pretty sure that some of the
IS had to be licked for licking n of
the II others.
more often he had to go into the
back yard and fix the clothesline post
that nine of the Is of us had pulled
down, or chop the wood that IL of us
had tried to put off on the eighteenth
and the eighteenth left unsplit or else
but when a man has Is children, II
he gets any leisure time he can use 1t
to good advantage arguing with the
grocer that he ought to wait awhile
Iorwor for his money!