The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-10-28
BY wINIrRED BLACK.

BY WINTFRED BLACK.
The cause of the decadence Of the
human race Is not hard to nnd." said
lecturer ehe other night Marrying
Ter love has done the work.
The lecturer was = dried-up. mincing
little person. with large round specta-
cles. enormous care, and hands and
Feet that really--it was plain to see
that no one would ever encourage him
to help the human race to dcteriorate.
There Is only one thing the matter
with the human race today" announced
= womantI know that same evening
and thats the cigarettes. Wipe them
out and we'll he AL right"
wen never pull ourselves together
az q race again until we stop the base
ball erase and the turkey trot fad"
writes nolier- than-thou evangelist.
And 20 ride. galiop, trot pace. walk.
M ita sesaes co. fs f.. Mssnsy IL. too
much starch In the food. it's too much
work. It's not work enough. it's the
hacheiors. Its the married men, it's
Over and over. and round and
round. and under and about, and
through and past they talk, and write,
and preach. and tell what 1t Is that
makes US No decadent, and all the time
are decadent at all or not. / can't
see that we are. Can your
Was your mother q failure in life
compared 70 your grandmother How
wauld grandma do II she he'd to live
~ you do now7
You take a bath every day; grnndm&
Was considered tribe fussy II she
wanted more than one complete bath
week.
la your srandfathcr,s time the
preacher used to come to the iog-roli-
Ing and go home the worse for liquor.
and no one thought any the less of
him for Y either. Have you ever seen
the rector q your par "a ever 80 httle
Forty years ago if you were
Democrat and lived In q Republican
community you might expect to wake
up and ind your barn burned and your
TO go whare you were welcome. If
you were Republican you never even
dreamed Of trying 10 live in peace with
Democrats: YOU knew It was no use
ahead of that sort OF thing?
When was q little girl. not SO
awfuily long ago. people used to give
| litter of Kittens TO the children and
when we cried at the idea the grown
people laughed. Any one who would
ask growing child to do a cruel thing
like that today would be sent to thu
Juvenile court for investigation. and
! quite right. too.
When my grandmother died the
neighbors came and sat I'm the rooYn
with her and watched every symptom
interest and went home and told the
| children all about 1t. Civilized they
weren't even partially so.
IT WAS only Atty years ago that the
starved and beaten by their own
| families. Forty years ago you could
F, whip 4 horse to death In the streets
| OF the biggest cities OF the world. and
! no one could DO thing TO make you
the horse was yours Forty years ago
they used to take little helpless child
| rem out Of asylums and farm them out
for drudges to people who worked
| to make fuss about any such case
| you would have been laughed at for
1 pour palma. "ts
We do some OF these same things
| anyhow. Our grandfathers were no,
| At all ashamed OF them. and would
have given you a good deal to think
/ Of e you had tired to make them so.
ne are q the not sss ssa
rising slowly. slowly. Miserabiy slow,
!. faltering. mot sure of the strange
| ground. slipping back every now and
tnen--hs, rising. rising, inevitably.
| Dominating the beast coneue ring the
Animal Eb.Ating down the brutal i'm
/ pulses, higher, higher we rise, we rise.
/ thank the good Oliver Of honest en-
| deavor and true-hearted desire to be
| better.
| pecadence Of the racsi GO to the old
countries Just for six weeks. See some
| Of the old prisoners that pollute the
free air OF heaven. even to stand there
4 empty Go through some of the old
| castles We think 70 romantic. See
how the noble lords and ladies' lived,
1 like dogs In a kennel. without air
| without light, without clean water.
Step into one Of tha cages they used
to hang IN the court yards. Pretty
/. just big enough to hold man crouch
| Ing. and he crouched there In the rain
| and the snow ard In the beating
| hiistering sun, and starved And the
I women and4children came to see him
/ and laughed at his means,
When child Of high degree fretted
4 yard and ist him watch d starving man
wrtthe IA his a9onY. And then soma
, troubaAouF wrote verges about her lffy
/ hands and heavenly eyes. and she
| hadn't had . bath for year and wore
| her coarse uAdevifnsn TIL Il dropped of
Grand genties, these. hne sprigs Of
nobiiity! The plainest clerk In the
humhiest shop n our city. today
ope Of them any more than he would
dine with = growing. nnnbltng. bone
cracking, paw-bttinE monkey.
i No, np-wo do not det<riorste. VI
rise, and our children will rise aftes
I as higher. hteissr. out Of the mfre 81
/ selfish brutality that bore ua
Higher. higher. sec the star shines
4 ct SLEEPING conscIencs IL aimosi
{. rnaAv "a break tnfn rsNav dnwa I.@e -.