Show deterioration of the race 4 A few years ago dr nathan alien allen of massachusetts startled the people of that proud community by declaring that the puritan race was running out they might have forgiven him had lie he stopped there but he committed the unpardonable pr donable donabie sin siu of proving his thesis he he accumulated a large collection of facts and figures to show that the native new england population had bad materially deteriorated families had run out towns once peopled with a hardy thrifty yeomanry of english descent were now occupied forthe the most part by irish and other fb foreigners the native new englanders are deserting the country for the cities they have not the physical health and stamina nay naj and power of endurance of a former generation an interesting number of them do not marry the average number of children to a yankee family has dropped from seven to three infanticide is an epidemic and emigration sweeps away the native ppul population atlon fike like ilke a pestilence even in in the cities the native population is hardly holding its own in in comparison with the more fertile and vigorous foreign races who have few enervating tastes and no race destroying fashions if present tendencies continue according to dr alien allen a century hence new england will be new ireland and the original calvinism will be suppressed if not supplanted i by the catholic church tile the me idea a that a hundred years hence the puritans would visit plymouth rock by permission lona in a celtic province and among an essentially foreign population lation like christian pilgrims at the tile holy roly 4 ly sepulchre under mohammedan escort was enough to curdle all the blood in the average new england constitution and it is not sur sui surprising that dr alien allen found himself the most unpopular man east of the hudson perhaps dr aliens allens statements were too bald he may have overlooked important facts and cies cles cies cles of an opposite char character deter but he raised a problem which deserves consideration Is the english race running out we see how it is iq in new england mr galton has recently published an elaborate paper in the journal of the statistical society to show that thab there is a manifest of race 1 in n england he accumulates statistics to prove that there is a constant tide of population setting from the country to the cities eitle Q centralization is the most marked tendency of the a age e the great industries are in G the populous towns the chances of success are there the attractions are concentrated in these busy hives wives but while marriages are fewer and the death rame rate higher in the cities than in the country the number of births in a given number of families is decided decidedly lyless less legs putting the matter in the most concise form the cities contribute to the adult population seventy seven per cent less than the country in in the second generation the per cent drops to fifty nine it is easy to calculate the consequence the life ilfe streams of f the country districts pour their currents of population into the towns where they are swallowed up lut iut in these fiese devour devouring in 9 whirlpools something a as s the waters that flow into the mediterranean the city gains but only a tithe of what the country loses and the city would exhaust itself in a few generations were it not constancy con stanly recruited from the country as fire would bum burn itself away were it not replenished with fresh fuel the dreary theory of malthus 1 Is disproved P roved by facts he be did not dream of thes these a facts are certainly worth considering they show a fearful consumption of life in modem times civilization has thus far proved an it cultivates mind at the expense of body it taxes the fhe nerves at the expense of the muscles it diminishes physical vitality its habits are weakening in its luxuries are deteriorating its vices ices are fatal to health and longevity its fashions prevent production and hinder development the city polishes and refines but wastes the substance of manhood and weakens virility these obvious facts wear but one face they look towards a batas catas not pleasant to contemplate it seems as though mr darwin carwins Dar wins Is celebrated law the survival of the fittest should be read backward so far fair as the human races i are concerned As mr greg has poi pol pointed anted out in his enigmas Enig mas 21 it is t lle the un fittest that live it I 1 is s the physically hardy and ancl vigorous races whose habits are simple simpie and whose lives are with multitudinous cares and problems and ambitions that overcome their more cultured competitors in the conflict for existence but this is not anew fact dr alien allen could have published a quite similar pamphlet in athens twenty two hundred years ago mr galton could tell a quite similar story about urbanand urban and suburban life in rome borne in the second or third century of our era the facts show a local fallin falling oarin oss off in production and ph physical Y 11 ii degeneracy but they do 1 not 0 prove a real deterioration the average life ilfe rate rato is higher than ever before there are more ians than at any former period moreover there is an awa awakening kenIn interest in sanitary laws and h hygienic Y principles and physical culture which promises the best results in the late war it was found that the slender clerk from a city store would bear the service better than many a large brawny recruit from the country the physical power was all there but undeveloped the city of the future will be constructed on sanitary ginal principles and will be a conserva conservatory ory ors q of health there is no reason in t the he nature of things why a concentrated tn ted population should not be as healthy and long lived as one that is diffused and with the new interest in physical culture and the new knowledge of the conditions of physical well being which science is accumulating for human use there is every reason for thinking that the civilized races will be the most vigorous and the most enduring ing 0 av N Y gra graphic chic |