Connecticut western news., 1911-06-08

should, like charity begin at home. To be good man or woman citizen, to change all that is worse Tn you to better, to abuse or wrong neither yourself or any one else, Is to lessen the need of Civic Reform Ill your town or city; in other words the more citizens we can get to reform .the better civics we'll have, and there is scarcely Q citizen so perfect who does not need little touch ing up somewhere. We associate the word reform altogether too much with tae lowest, the most dissipatsd and openly vicious; reform suggests the criminal or the reformed drunkard or something like that. The truth is, if angel inspect ors were sent from Heaven to look us over and decide who must go to place filled with spiritual reformatories there would be found suoh an amazing num- Der of immoral eligibles as would dis courage the heavenly inspectors them selves, 1 fear. To an imaginative mind there comes 8 vision of crowds of people leaving city or town bound for such & reformatory. "Goodness, I hear a woman excIaim, "Is that nice old Mrs. X going too? Why suppose sed she was perfect !' "Yes and look l' cries her companion, There's that angel faced Miss Blue and good old Dr. Green and Madam Pink, (the supposed pink of pro- prietV) and professor Brown and MT. A, B, c, D, Mrs. k. F, G, and H, and I, J, and K O my We needn't feel asham- ed, Lizzie, the whole town needs reform ing guess," and Lizzie says, That's so. felt awfully ashamed at first but I don't care now all the best people seem to be going too !''
 After we have done the best we could frY-rN Nl oil %ka., step toward Civic Reform is to reform the home. Good homes make. good citi- zens as a rule. That takes us into the realm of Eugenics, 8 far off realm it is at present but 1 think we shall live in 1t some day. At present we are caring more for pedigreed animals than we are for humans, blooded hog, or horse or COW, dog, cat or hen, appeals to us more than fine human being made in the image of God. When we stop marrying one lmbeclle CT incompetent to another, when the drunkard is counted out and the diseased, (the hopelessly mental or physical incurables mean, ) are debarred from marriage and when women have so reformed themselves that each and every one will demand of the man who is to be the father of her children the same moral cleanliness of body and soul, that he demands of her, then we shall have pedigreed stock in the human race. Lots of it, at least there will be more of it than now is, and reforming civics will be a comparatively light job. Women are all over the world beginning to take hold to help in this reform since they have found that they too have civic duties as well as men. Foreigners though they may be for, some time to come in many states, they are poking round i'll the dark civic corners where only meh are supposed to go, and she has found that a place not fit for 8 good woman to go to or even to know about is not fit for a young man either. She wants civic conditions for her father, brothers, husband and sons to be a mor- ally clean, decent, honorable and whole some as for herself, and the bad is bad for all humanity not rather bad for one sex but most awful and shockingly bad for the other. MT. Editor, do believe the next time l am asked by a sweet and gracious woman, or any one else for that matter, to explain even the Fourth Di- mension, l shall get right up and ex- platerate, slides or no slides. I have some very moving pictures Of civlc re- form that 1 should dearly love to exhibit in the woman's clubs and at ohurch so- cials, camp meeting and the like. Of course this article explaining Civic Re form Is not a masterpiece. 1t is not Macaleyan nor Websterian language but I fancy got down pretty near the roots. It is sprawling and uncouth and crudely put, no doubt, but so are the roots of things, and the root of the whole matter of reforms, civic or otherwise, is to be good yourself, as good as you can, and help others to be good, and so. to use the magnificent language of Robert Collyer we shall find the shadow of all evil pass ing away from our hearts and from all the world when we turn to "such an im- pregnable fastness to which all ages turn-the everlasting and eternal good ness of God.''
 I an Il NV, MT. Editor, prepared to 'ex- plain you will graciously permit me through the medium of The News-any- thing under the heavens, from "Why does the RAffieria smell so bad?" to "Why did she do it ?"
 Very truly yours,
 CORINTHA CORR