Show THE DECAY OF AMERICAN MANHOOD I 1 the following caustic and sarcastic letter in the new york graphic is is wo worth rth reading the writer evidently is satisfied that the fierce fire ot american energy is destined to burn out american vitality moral and physical cai cal his letter ietter doubtless contains some truths but there I 1 is no necessity for plunging recklessly into war with spain fol dor for all ail that alit here is the indictment your correspondent jeremiah Serem er emiah iab lab s who recently wrote of the decay degay of national pride among americans has emboldened me to write upon the kindred f the de deterioration teri oration i ellich all races raced see seem beem difo fo me doomed to undergo who inhabit the western continent look back to the civilization of the thes peruvians and the aztecs azteca those races had developed lobeda a ver very y high degree degive of civilization when they worp discovered by the tile spaniards but they lind had so deft dett deteriorated mental mentally ly and physically that the they were easily crushed by tiie the invaders and are long since totally extinct look too at it the race whom antiquarians term the mou mound n d builders of the mississippi valley they must muff have havo been a powerful and civilized people but they have so completely died out that no fio memory membry ot or them remains look too at nt the spaniards who colonized south and central america ric rie tu they belonged to the most powerful nation in eudox europe but today their degeneracy is universally acknowledged and ia Is not a simi bimi larfate overlooking the tile people of the united states for myself I 1 h have a v e not a question of it your women have become weak thin flat nat cheated cliette d they cannot nurse their children or walk a mile without fatigue they die early of consumption or linger through life the victims of nervous nervous diseases your men are gaunt and feverish in appearance they are the victims of dyspepsia and buff suffer sunner or tortures fromi decayed teeth and aching heads A hale bale hearty old man Is is a rarity in Amer america lea fea and aind here paralysis and apoplexy which irl lit in I 1 europe attack only only the old and I 1 the improved im improvident provid bent strike e down y young oun men inen whose thin cheeks and spin dig dle die legs ought to guarantee them t em exemption from that terrible disease not only are you degenerating ing ghys rhys physically lacally but morally what hns has become acome of or the courage that you id inherited lie lle from english ances auces ancestors once americans did not hesitate to td go towar to war with the mistress of the seas in defence of their nag flag now you hesitate to resent an in insull sult suit even against spain and you your ir journals continually talk of the inability of your fleet to in meet eb tile the spa spanish nish dish fleet you fought well during th the civil war I 1 admit but did not both sides starve their prisoners murder pickets and commit other acts that characterize timid timi dand and semi barbar ous nations your moral tone lias suffered as well as your moral and physical courage in reading the tho new york papers I 1 nind and find almost daily accounts of embezzle embezzled embezzlements ments ants and swindles perpetrated by bank officers and railway director but which are never punished and seem to excite no more than a passing remark you are conspicuous among all too tie t tte ie nations of the world for the corruption which prevails in your political and business cirei cirel circles and you know it Another mark of degeneracy is js the fact that like the chinese and the east indians you are a nation of or talkers 1 you content yourselves s with talking instead of action both in congress congre ss and in private ilfe life what a howl lias has been raise raised duil dull al over the country by the press in lit relation 1 to the tiie virginius vergin Virgin nis his inns inus massacre sacre that is nil all you will do about it you will talk but you will not forget that talking is cheaper and s safer 1 than fighting in degenerating ph physically si cally eally in hi losing your courage an and your sense of honesty and becoming a nation of chatter chatterers erp ers you have only followed the example of the tile races who have pie preceded ceded you on this continent there is something deadly 41 irl 14 the air and I 1 do not doubt that th in I 1 n the ages to come a day will arri arrive ve when it will be utterly abandoned bye by europeans and will sink in an oblivion fr from om which no columbus to rescue it IL al new jersey people dont bay eay ilar liar right out but remark sin sins sir you yon remind beof me 0 my lamented brother who could bould pervet t truth ta th with the greatest ease eabe |