Belletonte, Pa., April 27, 1917. S— smm—— OUT OF ARCADIA. The country boy was in love, and young, But he urged his cause with an eager tongue, But the maiden bade him work and wait; She wanted a man who was strong and great. He loved his home and the country life, And he wanted a tender, little wife, He wished to live in peace and ease, In the shade of his spreading old elm trees. But the maiden bade him go and win A name she could prize and glory in. She said she would wait and wed him when He had men. Then the boy plunged into the city’s roar, And he learned the market's sordid lore, And he learned that life is an awful fight, Where the wounded fall to the left and right. But on their bodies he slowly rose, And he gained new strength from his van- quished foes; As he overcame them and bent them down, He grew in wealth and in wide renown. But his heart was cold. He forgot to feel; His chilling smile had the glow of steel, His brain grew keen and his face grew hard, As he stood a victor, seamed and scarred. made his place in the ranks of Then his words were treasured through- out the State, And all men followed and great ; But he smiled country boy. And he sneered at love as a childish toy. —Harry Romaine in the *“Puritan.” called him when he thought of the A CLEAN-UP CAMPAIGN. The Chautauqua Reading Hour WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH, PH.D. EDITOR. For a number of years sometime in April or May clean-up campaigns have had an annual sporadic appearance in towns and cities throughout the coun- try. It is only recently that munici- pal house cleaning has become a na- tional spring fashion. It can truth- fully be termed a national fashion. This year the National Clean-Up Campaign Bureau is co-operating with more than 6000 local communities in the organization and direction of “Clean-Up and Paint-Up Campaigns.” This bureau, with headquarters in St. Louis, was founded in May, 1912, by Allen W. Clark, editor of the American Paint and Oil Dealer. It was Mr. Clark’s belief that the “spring cleaning” spirit that stirs in the breasts of most men and women and that often manifests collectively in the form of cummunity “clean ups,” ought to be organized in con- structive form for permanent year round results. HOW, TO START IN OUR TOWN. If you knew that you could start a movement in Yourtown that would make Your Hometown a Better Home- town, would you start it? Certainly! If you knew that the movement would beautify Yourtown, make for better sanitation, enhance property values, aid in fire prevention, reduce fire in- surance premiums, cause flower beds and shrubbery to replace rubbish, ard educate the children as well as “grown-ups” along the lines of clean- liness, thrift and civic pride—would you become enthusiastic in your un- dertaking? Certainly! Here is your opportunity. There should be a chairman or pres- ident as a head of the movement, a secretary, a treasurer, and then the various committees. It is usually well to have also an executive committee, not too large to act in case of emer- ‘gency, and to be the general directing force in the campaign. The way in which the committees should be ap- pointed or the officers selected, will depend upon local conditions. In some places it will be wise to effect the general organization at a mass meet- ing of citizens. If this is done, it is always best to plan the meeting in advance—by a preliminary conference prepare a “slate” or general program. Unless this is done, a mass meeting when peeple act upon the spur of the moment, may run wild and do all sorts of foolish things. The chairman of the mass meeting should be careful to confine the meeting to organization steps only. The details of the cam- paign should be referred to proper committies, Organize for the campaign as early as possible. DON'T STOP WITH ONE WEEK. Don’t have a “Clean-Up and Paint- Up Day” or “week” only—call it, and conduct it as a “Clean-Up and Paint- Up” Campaign, and keep it going as long as it will. But, of course, you will have to set a definite date for the opening of the campaign, and there must be definite dates for various fea- tures of this work—the cleaning of alleys, the burning or removal of trash, garbage, etc., so that everybody can co-operate effectively and eco- nomically, and that the interest may be maintained from week to week. Some towns have special “days” for a week: Fire Prevention day, Front Yard day, Weed day, Paint day, Back Yard day, Vacant Lot day, ete. Smaller towns and cities may mere- ly plan for two or three days of gen- eral cleaning, and arrange to have teams cart away the collected rubbish on an alloted day, or rubbish may be collected at specified times and burn- ed in district bonfires. HOW KIRKSVILLE, MO., CLEANED. Before “Clean-Up and Paint-Up week the mayor issued the following proclamation: “If your store front is dingy—paint it. “If your awning is ragged and old, get a new one. “If your walk is an eyesore to those over it, repair it or have a new one. “If there are old, unsightly traps in front of your property or in your al- | bed ley, move them. “If there happens to be a paper blowing about your street or broken limbs, burn them. “If in your back yard there are old, unnecessary, tumble-down sheds, tear | them down. The ground is too valu- able, and such things detract from the beauty of your homes—and the town. “Clean out all barn yards and sta- i bles at once—and don’t give the fly a chance to breed. “Clean out the alleys back of the business houses at once. “Take away all ashes and rubbish from your back yard immediately. By all means do your part to help make Kirksville ‘a cleaner and more beauti- | ful city.” “Clean-Up and “Paint-Up” buttons, in colors, are worn by the children, and help much in spreading the inter- est in the campaign. Soon after our first “Clean-Up and Paint-Up” week we learned that many people had civie pride who could not afford to own a lawn mower, so our Civic League bought several lawn mowers to lend. Within two weeks there was a waiting list of people worthy and deserving of the use of them. We aim to have our ministers incor- porate something concerning the “Clean-Up and Paint-Up” movement in their sermons, and some of the churches freshen up their buildings with a coat of paint where needed, and a general cleaning up of their grounds. Each year our merchants assist us by displaying in their win- dows articles used or bought during or after clean-up week, and run dis- play ads in sympathy with the move- ment, and there isn’t a line of busi- ness that isn’t quickened and benefit- ed by such a campaign. During “Clean-Up and Paint-Up” week our Cemetery Improvement as- sociation holds its annual flower sale. Plants, bulbs, and vines of all kinds can be procured—the proceeds are used to beautify the cemetery. WHERE TO GET SUPPLIES. The supplies furnished practically at cost by the National Clean-Up and Paint-Up Bureau of St. Louis are most helpful to develop enthusiasm. These supplies include jig-saws, puz- zles for children, posters, window cards, store hangers, cloth banners for store-fronts and out-door use, two different window display assortments in colors, lapel buttons in the national colors, stickers, poster stamps, movie slides, a one-minute animated cartoon movie film, a five-minute motion pic- ture film, fifty electros or matrices of complete ads or ad illustrations, and complete feature pages in plate or matrix form for newspaper co-opera- tion. Many of these supplies are bought by local committees, many by individual local business men. SENATE PASSES APPROPRIA- TION BILL. Terms of Bonds and how to Offer Them Discussed. Washington, April 24.—The war finance bill, providing for issuance of $7,000,000,000 in securities—the larg- est single war budget in any nation’s history—was passed unanimously last week by the Senate. After seven hours of discussion, the administration measure, which was passed by the House on April 14, and which provides for a loan to the allies of. $3,000,000,000, was approved by the Senate with few changes in record time. The amendments may necessitate a conference, or the Sen- ate changes may be accepted by the House. In either event the executive branch of the government conducting the war with Germany will, within a few hours, have authorization fer the great war chest at its disposition. To expedite action, the Senate at once appointed conferees to act if the House should not, contrary to expec- tations, accept the Senate changes. MONEY IN LIEU OF MEN. Of the 84 Senators present Tuesday every one including all those who voted against war except Senator Lane, of Oregon, who was absent be- cause of illness, recorded themselves in favor of providing the funds to prosecute hostilities. Nearly all of the twelve absentees were ill. That, in the inability of the nation to supply men at once for the fight- ing lines, money should be America’s immediate contribution to her allies, was the dominant thought expressed during the debate. Few Senators par- ticipated in the discussion, which was totally devoid of partisan expression. Every Senator speaking announced staunch intention to aid the govern- ment in prosecuting the war to speedy conclusion. Only two Senators, Bor- ah and Cummins, declared opposition to the proposed allies loan. A few fa- vored raising a larger proportion by taxation of the present generation and less upon bonds. Amendments adopted by the Senate include these provisions. BANKS MUST SUBSCRIBE. Limiting deposits of proceeds from the bonds in banks to the amount sub- scribed by the banks and their depos- itors; permitting deposit of proceeds in state banks and trust companies as well as federal reserve banks; pro- viding for exchange by subscribers of the issues authorized for bonds sub- sequently issued, during the war, at higher interest rates; requiring the secretary of the treasury to report expenditures of the bond proceeds, December 31 and annually thereafter; and exempting the $2,000,000,000 of treasury indebtedness certificates authorized from all taxation, except estate and inheritance levies. An Up-to-date Pupil. “And this,” said the teacher, “is the rhinoceros. Look carefully at his armored hide.” “I see,” said the bad boy of the class. “An wot’s this one?” “That,” answered the teacher, “is a giraffe.” ‘Gee! He's got a periscope.” Not Afraid, But— “Won’t you please leave the light burning in the hall, mother ?” pleaded little Robert as he was being put to “Nonsense, Bobbie,” was the reply. “Surely, you know there isn’t any- thing to be afraid of in the dark.” “Yes, I know, but can’t you leave a teeny-weeny light so I can see there isn’t anything there?” : \ 3% Under these head lines will be contin- ¢ zx ued a series of articles begun November x 10. They have been compiled and edit- 3S ~; ed with a view to progressive study and 3s ral rts rr RRR PR RP PI RS I I hs x 5 : Health and Happi % 3 : Health and Happiness 3 : > ~ ; al well-being. D3 ‘ Number 17. HOW TO HAVE BETTER CHIL- DREN. BY CLEVELAND MOFFETT. $ | parenthood. NM zs thought on subjects affecting our person- 2 ¢ If a woman loves some | Robert Louis Stevenson, in spite of | his weak lungs, let her marry him and { be happy with him, but let her guard | the next generation against heredi- . tary tuberculosis.” “You mean by not having dren?” i “Precisely.” ! “But—" the lady hesitated, then put { the question always asked by women | at this point, a question that must be , satisfactorily answered before race- | betterment enthusiasts can hope to chil- | enjoy we have received from those | who came before us, from those who, by their toil, their love, their cen- i turies of slow and painful striving, ! worked out our present civilization, which is really not ours at all except as we hold it in trust from them to , pass it on to those who will come after rus. To love our children, our descend- , ants with a racial intensity akin to | worship is our natural tribute to the overwhelming life-mystery that sur- sounds us, to the endless and begin- %: “Not marriage,” I replied, “but. are, all that we have and know and { ningless life-river that bears us along Coming now to our main subject I make progress in the practical carry- | on its God-like bosom. may mention that over fifty years%igo Herbert Spencer condemned an ob- vious defect in our modern education- al system which requires young men | and young women to spend years in exploring fields of abstract knowledge that can have little practical useful- ness for. them, although they are left in ignorance touching their main busi- ness in life, that is, the procreation of children. Those lovely girl graduates (rather discontented) that we were just con- sidering, have learned everything about life except how to live, they know all about men except how to be happy with a man, they can explain the mysteries of God’s creations, but are quite unprepared to bring up the children that God meant them to have. And our superior young men are in similar ignorance of their father- hood duties. Ask the average well-instructed graduate of Harvard, Yale, Bryn Mawr, Vassar, what will be the color of the offspring of a pure white male rabbit mated with a pure black female rabbit. Or the color of the offspring of a pure black male rabbit mated with a white female. Will some of the little rabbits be black and some white? Or will they be mottled black and white? Or will they show an en- tirely different color? i The answer is simple enough (black in all cases) and a hundred other in- finitely important heredity answers are simple enough, yet how many fathers and mothers have ever given thought to these matters? How many young couples in the ardor of their honeymoon bliss realize that they have in themselves good or bad traits that will be just as dominant in their children as that black trait is domi- nant in the rabbit ? We must think about these things! Suppose a woman is deaf; will her children be deaf? Suppose a man has some physical deformity; will his children inherit that deformity ?" What if there is a tuberculosis record in a certain family? Or an alcoholism record? Or a cancer record? Will healthy members of such families who marry have children that may suffer by reason of these family tendencies? Yes, or no? Before answering these questions let us consider the arguments that are advanced against intelligent ef- forts to have better children. It is said that such efforts interfere with God’s inscrutable purposes. It is said that love is an eternal mystery beyond the understanding of science. It is said that if a certain man and a cer- tain woman love each other with all their souls (regardless of their fitness or unfitness to love)then no power on earth can keep them asunder or should be allowed to try to keep them asunder. That is the position regarding hu- man mating that has prevailed for centuries, that has been upheld by the- ologians and glorified by poets with the result that while splendid progress has been made with flowers, fruit, vegetables, poultry, and domestic ani- mals in a development towards higher and finer types, there has been prac- tically no progress made with- human types for thousands of years. In beauty of face and form, in power of mind, in nobility of soul there is no evidence that men and women of to- day are in any way superior to the men and women of ancient Greece. On the contrary, the average twentieth- century American or European is in many respects inferior to the average Athenian of the time of Demosthenes, or to the average Roman of the time of Julius Ceasar. “Both church and state,” says Edwin Grant Conklin, professor of biology at Princeton University, “have cheer- fully given consent and blessing to the marriage and propagation of diseas- ed, defective, and vicious persons. . . . . Is it any wonder that the inher- itance of the human race has not im- proved within historic times?” All authorities agree, however, that the human race might advance mag- nificently towards the establishment of a breed of supermen and superwom- en, just as Luther Burbank’s creations have advanced magnificently from in- ferior types, just as our thorough- bred cattle have advanced magnifi- cently, were it not for the barriers of human ignorance, egotism and sel- fishness. Every alcoholic, every con- sumptive, every degenerate, every criminal in the world insists upon his or her inalienable right to marry and have children—that is, to propagate a race of undesirables who, in their turn, must go on endlessly peopling the earth with more undesirables unless— Unless what ? Unless men and women realize that of all the things in this world needing regulation the most important is this business of creating human life. For the common good, for the future of the race certain unworthy human types must be restrained from repro- ducing themselves. And all citizens must be instructed and encouraged to conduct themselves as regards the marriage relation in such a way that their children will be, not the second best or the third best, as usually hap- ‘pens in the hazard of accidental mat- ings, but the very best children the are capable of producing. ‘ I expressed these views recently to a woman who combines intelligence with rare nobility of soul, and I saw that she shrank from the thought of considering love as merely an agency for promoting racial efficiency. “This eugenics creed is a worship of the body,” she said, “but the body is not everything. What about the soul ? Think of the wonderful minds, the God-like spirits that have been housed in frail and imperfect bodies. Must marriage be denied to these radiant ones because of their physical weak- ness? ing out to their theories. i “What about the strongest instinct | that nature has implanted in women ?” she said. “You mean motherhood ?” “Yes. Suppose a healthy woman marries an invalid or a man who be- comes an invalid before they have children? Suppose she loves this man? There are thousands of such cases.” “I know. And there are thousands of cases where a deeply loved wife carries some hereditary taint that makes her unfit to bear children. It is unfortunate, but—do you think such persons have a right to bring into the world sons and daughters doomed to physical or mental inferiority ? If this wife longs for a child can she not adopt one?” The lady shook her head. “That is not what women want. They want their own children. They want healthy children, beautiful children, intelligent children if that is possible, but, if it is not possible—they want children anyway! And they want their own children!” I have met exceptional women who hold more advanced ideas. I recall the case of a beautiful young wife from Georgia who has had no children because: her husband developed St. Vitus’ dance soon after their mar- riage, and St. Vitus’ dance as she knew, is an inheritable disease. Another woman confessed to me that she has never been willing to have children because her husband is an alcoholic. Another woman of unusual intel- ligence is the wife of a distinguished biologist who for years has been a victim of tuberculosis, although he has held the disease in check by living in Denver. She also has a predisposi- tion to this malady, so they have de- cided not to have children. A friend of the husband, however, thinks they are making a mistake. “Why shouldn’t they have chil- dren?” this friend insisted to me one day. “They both possess exceptionally fine minds and splendid characters. Their children would inherit remark- able mene] and spiritual qualities.” “Also tuberculosis,” I replied. “Perhaps not. And even if they did the children might resist the disease by living in Denver, just as the par- ents have resisted it.” In vain I pointed out that Dr. Trudeau’s tuberculous children did not resist this disease in the Adirondacks, it for years. My opponent refused to be convinced; he says that science is developing in our midst a new troublemaker, an over-sensitive eu- genic conscience. : On the other hand, a woman of my acquaintance tells me that when she married her husband she made it a condition that there should be no chil- dren. “I have no respect,” she says, “fora woman who insists upon having a child that will be born with a tendency to disease or to bodily or mental weakness. The woman who tries to justify such a course on the ground of motherhood love is deceiving herself. She is really acting from a selfish motive; she wants a child for the joy it will bring to her, and forgets the heavy price in unhappiness and suf- fering that the child must pay.” I wondered what was the hereditary peril that had led this active and suc- cessful business woman to deny her own great desire for children. Finally she told me. There was a strain of insanity in her husband’s family. “It’s extraordinary,” she went on, “how little attention is paid to this danger, All over the country are men and women, thousands of them, just on the borderland of insanity, although they remain at liberty and are free to marry. I know of a dozen such cases in Brooklyn, where I live. The man next door, for instance, is always talk- ing about immense checks that he is going to send to people, checks for millions. Another man stopped me on the street the other day and began explaining how he had taken all the salmon out of the Connecticut River. And then there is Polly.” “Polly?” “That’s what she calls herself. She is a quiet, respectable-looking woman who goes about ringing doorbells and announcing that she has come to rent the house. One day she came up to me very pleasantly and said: ‘I am in my garden. I want you to come and dig with me.” Most women would draw back at the thought of marrying a man in the near-insane class and of having chil- dren by him; but how many would refuse to marry an attractive man and have children by him (if they loved him) who showed signs of in- cipient tuberculosis or whose family had a tuberculosis record? Not one in ten! And how many women would refuse to marry an attractive man and have children by him (if they loved him) who was known to be a moderately heavy drinker and whose family had an alcoholic record? Not one in a hundred! Alas! we must acknowledge that the majority of wo.nen are not pro- gressive, not scientific when it comes to picking out a husband! Are we, then, facing a situation where the majority of women, moth- ers of the race, will be found in de- termined opposition to child-better- ment ideals? Are women the ones who will cling desperately to the an- cient live-as-you-please errors that for centuries have kept the human race from advancing? Are women unable to understand our supreme du- ties to posterity? What are these duties? What do we owe to posterity ? The answer is that we owe every- thing to prosperity, since all that we although the doctor himself resisted ! Polly. My doctor tells me I must dig] | “At times, in a fleeting vision,” says Henri Bergson, “the invisible breath | that bears the living is materialized | before our eyes. We have this sudden i illumination before certain forms of | maternal love, so striking and in most animals so touching, observable even in the solicitude of the plant for its seed. This love, in which some have seen the great mystery of life, may possibly deliver to us life’s secret. It shows us each generation leaning over the generation that shall follow. Leaning over the generation that shall follow! To our children we pass on the love that our parents gave to us. We never give back this love to our par- ents, not the full measure of it, any more than our children ever give back to us a full measure of the love we give to them. They will pass it on to their children, who will pass it on to their children. And this is as it should be; this is no sign of youthful ingratitude and should cause no grief in parents’ hearts, for it happens in accordance with nature’s eternal racial law: each generation leans for- yard, not backward, lovingly, yearn- ingly forward over the generation that follows it. : What, then, can we do for the gen- erations that will follow us? How can we best hand down the heritage of love and service that has been handed down to us? Evidently we can do nothing so important, nothing so de- sirable for future generations as to leave behind us children possessed of the finest possible bodily, mental and spiritual endowment. How are we to have such children? How are we to give them this endow- ment? Is there available knowledge on these subjects that will enable the average man and woman to have bet- ter children than they would probably have had without this knowledge? The answer is yes, there is a vast store of such knowledge that may be drawn upon helpfully by whoever desires to possess it. And, first, let me emphasize one | fact: that nature rewards the normal, healthy man and woman for conform- ing with her great procreative intent and punishes them for not comforming with it. Statistics prove that men and women who marry and have children live longer and are less liable to dis- ease than men and women who do not marry and do not have children. Mar- ried women, for instance, who are mothers are less frequently afflicted with cancer of the breast than un- married women or than married wo- men who are not mothers. Perhaps the greatest of all crimes is committed by the man or woman who, having health, intelligence, all uous life-chain, guishes the precious life-flame that has come down to him or to her from the parents of ourrace. I am not speaking of birth control, but of birth refusal. Whoever, being healthy, for selfish reasons refuses to have any -child, either by not marrying at all or by keeping sterile a marriage that might have been nobly fruitful, takes a dread responsibility, for that shat- tered life-strain, sacred survival of the ages, may be necessary to one of God’s high purposes. Another Lin- coln! Another Tolstoy! Who knows? Here is a simple law of heredity to be kept in mind by parents, that na- ture, in all her creations, fights des- perately to maintain an average stan- dard of excellence. With all her pow- er she moves down from the highest types and up from the lowest, work- ing always towards the perpetuation of an average type. This means that in human mating it is not absolutely necessary, al- though desirable, that the finest men marry the finest women or that the finest women marry the finest men. The children from such ideal mar- riages will tend to range downward towards the average (while remain- ing above it) and may not show great- er excellencies than the children of a very fine man mated with an average woman or the children of a very fine woman mated with an average man. It is of the utmost importance, how- ever, that men and women who are below the average in any respect cor- rect their deficiencies by trying to se- lect mates possessed of compensating excellencies. A short girl should mar- ry a tall man. A stupid man should marry a clever girl—if he can. An indolent person should select one abounding in energy. A delicate person should take a life partner who has robust health. And so on. And the mating of two inferior per- sons is evidently a crime against the race; a lazy or stupid man mated to a lazy or stupid woman, a diseased or degenerate man mated to a diseased or degenerate woman, a feeble-mind- ed or criminally disposed man mated to a woman of the same class, will always produce inferior children, al- though nature may try to push these children up towards the average level or, failing in this, may kill them off with her inferiority-destroyers, the microbes. Unless we know this secret it would seem best for the race that superior men should always mate with super- ior women. As a matter of fact, mag- nificent offspring are obtained in this way for a few generations; then, sud- denly, as happens in breeding fine horses, nature steps in with her law of cultural limitations (so named by Dr. Robert T. Morris) and says: “Thus far shalt thou go, and no far- ther.” And she proceds to end our Superman dream by making the im- proved type sterile! Were it not for this racial restriction we might, in a few centuries, Burbank up a race of Bismarcks or Napoleons twenty feet high! Another law of heredity, knovn as Galton’s law, is that average parents tend to produce average children, whereas parents possessing ‘high character units tend to produce chil- dren that will also possess high char- acter units. And parents possessing extreme character units, whether high or low, tend to produce children pos- sessing less extreme character units. Suppose a girl is a fine musician. If she marries a man who is also a fine musician the chances are ten to one that all their children will be fine musicians. But if she marries a man who has no musical ability the chane- es are that their children will have little or no musical ability. The same responsibility rests on a young woman who is a brilliant ar- tist or writer. If she mates with a man who has the same talent as her- self, then their children will almost certainly inherit this talent. Other- wise not. Dr. Charles A. L. Reed, of the Uni- versity of Cincinnati, believes that the children of mature parents are more apt to attain success in life than chil- dren born when the parenfs were either at the crescendo or decrescen- do of sexual life. In support of this theory is an in- vestigation made by Havelock Ellis, who analyzed the ages of 299 fathers at the birth of sons who grew up to be geniuses and found that only two of these fathers were under twenty and only nine between twenty and twenty-four, and only sixteen over fifty-five. : Paolo Mantegezza, the Italian phil- osopher, says that the best parent- hood period for men is between twen- ty-five and thirty-five and for wom- en between eighteen and twenty-five. Statistics of all countries show a larger proportion of deaths among the children of young parents than among the children of older parents. Eugenists tell us that frenzies of passion (the spiritual must be arous- ed with the physical) are not good for the child to be begotten; also that in- habitants of hot climates, although more ardent, have fewer children than the inhabitants of colder climates. And the children of sexually self-in- dulgent fathers have a less favora- ble racial inheritance than the chil- dren of fathers who have learned moderation. Lovers are right in worshipping physical beauty, for beauty in either sex is nature’s stamp of approval. Beauty in a woman, especially when accompanied by a reasonable round- ness or plumpness, offers a strong presumption of suitableness for motherhood. But this presumption must be supported by a study of the family pedigree. A young woman may be very beautiful in face and form and yet have cancer of the breast which may have come to her through a family cancer tendency. Young men and young women must realize, speaking in a biological sense, that when they join their lives to a sweetheart, it is not the sweetheart alone that they marry, but the sweet- heart’s entire family. Nor can they ever separate themselves from this family. The parents, the grandpar- ents, the uncles and aunts, the broth- ers and sisters are always present and always will be present in the fam- ily life-strain, the family germ plasm, the family diseases and weaknesses that is necessary for admirable off-| (as well as excellencies) that will in- spring, deliberately breaks the contin- |evitably be passed down and revealed deliberately extin- {in the children to come. How often we have heard an ardent young lover, in the glow of his desire, insist that it makes no difference to him what objections there are to a certain girl’s family—he loves the girl and that settles it. Her father may have died of cancer, her mother may be in the last stages of tuberculosis, but he loves the girl. Her grandfath- er may have been an epileptic, her brother may be in jail, she may have two or three degenerate cousins, but he loves the girl, He is going to mar- ry the girl and not her family. And every day lovely young wom- en, resisting all advice (or, perhaps, receiving no advice,) make similarly unfortunate selections of husbands. They accept a life partner for the most trivial reasons, because he dan- ces well, because he is amusing or good-looking, because he has nice eyes or a pleasant voice; it never occurs to them to ask what his family inherit- ance may be or whether he is fit or unfit to be the father of their children. And if you point out to these young ladies that their chosen one comes of a tainted or enfeebled line, that his blood-relatives are a shiftless, dishon- est or diseased lot, they tell you they are answering the holy call of love, they are marrying one particular, predestined man (whom they adore) and not the whole family! : Alas! These hasty lovers have the crudest evidence forced upon them that they have married the whole family. This evidence comes with the children and grows as the children grow! Take the case of a drinking man who comes of a drinking family. His father or his grandfather may have died of delirium tremens. Then what? The girl says she loves this man and he loves her. He needs her. He will stop drinking for her sake. Her great love will reform him. Perhaps this is true, perhaps she will reform him, but one thing is cer- tain that the greatest love of the fin- est woman in the world cannot re- form the germ plasm of an heredi- tary drunkard, nor prevent that germ plasm from transmitting an alcohol- ic craving to the drunkard’s children. Young women should be warned in our colleges and High schools, girls should be taught in our homes to hate the alcohol habit chiefly for the harm it does to the children of those who are enslaved by it. They should be told plainly that the procreative pow- ers of the heavy drinker or even of. the steady “moderate drinker” are seriously impaired, not always suffi- ciently, however, to prevent him from having defective children. Dr. Bertholet, the distinguished scientist of Lausanne, after hundreds of comparative autopsies of alcoholic and normal persons, finds that “mor- bid changes in the essential cells of the productive glands in alcoholic men occur in 82 per cent. of the cases.” If a girl must love a drinking man, if nothing can stop her from casting her lot with his, let her at least re- frain from drinking herself unless she (continued on page 7, Col. 2.) ad -» >
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers