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.)
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