Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1908-04-10
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"FitteSt" TO
Survive US ali I?

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A conspicuous factor in the battle
OF HE Is omnivorousness, or divers
ity OF feeding. That animal which
mas but q single plant, for instance,
which 1t can use for food may be
annihilated by a frost or grub or any
other cause which would remove that
plant for a single season. That
winch feeds Unfortunately on all
plants viii find abundant sustenance
under more adverse circumstances.
That whose stomach receives yege-
table or animal food with equal favor
has a still better chance of surviv-
Ing; and that which can catch the
most various sorts of prey Is more
apt to have prey always at its COM
mand than that whose powers in
the chase, whose courage or whose
strength can overtake or overcome
only the most slow-moving or weak
est animals. Man, the most perfect
OF animals, and the one who In the
present conditions of the earth could
survive all others, has attained to his
position Of mastery largely because
he is, Of all animals, the most omni-
vorous.
or all the varieties of man the
Asiatic, and especially the Chinaman,
Is most diverse in his food. All is
meat to him-animal or vegetable,
in the air, on the earth or In the
waters under the earth. He can gorge
himself with joy on the abundant
meat diet of the Englishman; he can
dine comfortably and happily upon a
brace Of mice, or exc out life for
weeks upon a few handfuls of rice.
And all the time he can work with
out ceasing. He can pack more of
his kind upon an acre Of ground than
any New York tenement life can
show, and live there in what he re-
CARDS as tolerable comfort. In this
he has precisely the same advantage
over the white man as the European
had over the original inhabitants of
this country and as the Englishman
had over the natives of Australia.
1t Is really, therefore, those char
acteristics of the Asiatic which we
most despise and which we regard
as constituting his inferiority to our
selves-his miserable little figure, his
pinched and wretched way of living,
his slavish and tireless industry, his
Indifference to high and costly pleas
ures which our habit OF generations
almost makes necessities, his capac-
ity to live in swarms In wretched
dens where the white man would rot
II he did not suffocate-all these
make him most formidable rival for
ultimate survival as the fttest not
only in America but wherever he may
gain foothold.
Our ancestors emerged from the
broad and roomy environment of pas
toral and savage life only few CEN
turtles ago, and our DEMONSTRATING fac.
ulties represent what has been stored
up by heredity in the period which
has since elapsed. The Eastern Asia
tic emerged from those conditions at
a period so remote that no human
record or tradition can be found so
old as to refer to time when China
and India were not too populous for
the conditions Of savage life. The
accumulated experience of countless
ages is therefore stored up in the
Asiastic's food-getting and food-sav.
ing capacity, and those ages properly
and fairly represent his superiority
over us In the battle for the survival
of the fittest, If that battle Is to be
fought in fair field with no favor.
in open and undisturbed competition.
Another advantage In the battle of
life which the Chinaman enjoys, al
though it Is one with which the path.
ologist rather than the political econ
omist should be familiar. is his i'm
mmity from diseases which prey up
on the Western races. His civiliza-
ton is 80 old that he has probably
eliminated a thousand varieties of his
own race which were susceptible to
these diseases and has at last develop
ed type more or less immune. He
can apparently live In tolerable health
and comfort in the midst Of filth
which would breed desolating pesti-
lence among Western people. He has
had time to undergo every experience
OF which the human animal is capable,
to adjust himself to it and regard 1t,
howsoever abhorrent 1t might be to
Europeans. with indifference.-Mich
ael ]. Dee In the Pacific Era.