1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1329 



Our Homes 



By a. I. Root 



I the Lord am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the 

 fathers upon the children of the third and fourth Eeneration of 

 them that hate me. — Exodus 20 : 5. 



Let me repeat just once more (the thought first 

 mentioned in our issue for Sept. 1, and again Oct. 

 15) what I said about marriage being the most 

 sacred and solemn event between birth and death 

 in the life of a human being. Although 1 have 

 lived, and observed humanity for nearly seventy 

 years, I did not know until recently that break- 

 ing God's holy command not to commit adultery 

 frequently sends men and women to insane-asy- 

 lums — at least I did not know, or had not con- 

 sidered, that even a young man may in three years 

 become a ra--vi>ig maniac simply by transgressing 

 the law of God and also the law made by nan. 

 Many young people seem to think it a light thing, 

 or a thing of not so t'oy much importance, that 

 they should live pure chaste lives, and that, as 

 only marriage sanctifies this holy union between 

 man and woman, there should be no trifling in 

 the matter. The world demands that a woman 

 shall be pure; and may God help us in a like man- 

 ner to demand that the j'oung man who proposes 

 marriage shall himself h<i. pure. 



In a recent issue of the Cleveland Press, one of 

 our regular dailies of a great city, I was startled 

 by an editorial that I believe should have world- 

 wide publicity. Read it over; and when you get 

 through it, read it again. Yes, I wish every man, 

 woman, and child could read it and ponder over 

 it a dozen times. You may be tempted to think 

 it is an extravagant statement; but after you have 

 read it and considered it, look out on humanity 

 and then pray over it, and then I think you will 

 conclude it is just right. Here it is: 



REAPING WILD OATS. 



Can you imagine what would happen to a man if he were 

 pointed out on a crowded street and a voice cried loudly, " That 

 man has just taken a white hot wire and put out both the eyes of 

 his day-old boy " ? 



Suppose a man did such a thing — with a white-hot wire. No 

 voice would be raised to ask mercy. If he escaped a rope at the 

 hands of a mob you may be sure the judge and jury would see to 

 it that he got the limit of punishment allowed by law. 



Away back when the world was young, human beings toiled 

 patiently to work order and civilization out of chaos. One of the 

 first thing? attempted was to throw the safeguards of social con- 

 vention, religion, and even superstition about the marriage rela- 

 tion. Chastity in a woman became as vital to her as a member 

 of civilized society as life itself. And woman accepted the de- 

 cree as wise and just, and she has, a million limes, defended her 

 chastity at the cost of her life. And man, having worked out the 

 self-evident proposition that the life of the human race depends 

 upon the sanctity of marriage and the purity of its participants, 

 had shown himself again to be higher than the other animals — no 

 longer a beast, but a man. Then man rejected his own wisdom, 

 and permitted himself and his son to relapse to the level of the 

 beast while insisting that his wife and his daughter, as they value 

 their lives, maintain the high position that reason and intelli- 

 gence point out. 



In the old days the male human was a queer mixture of a 

 thinking creature and a bnite. His new-developed mind thought 

 out and laid down rules and laws — for other people — and his ani- 

 mal instincts (the instincts of a bull moose) guided him largely 

 in his own conduct. 



The man made the women-folks accept the decree of chastity: 

 himself he absolved. The lord of the manor made his tenants 

 and vassals toil: himself he indulged in idleness. The king en- 

 forced economy and pmdence upon his officers: himself he per- 

 mitted luxury- and extravagance. The great captain enforced so- 

 briety upon his soldiers, and in many cases the great general of 

 early history was the great drunkard. 



Then the phrase " sowing wild oats " was invented. It was 

 coined as an excuse for the inexcusable; a cloak for the naked 

 truth; a cowardly bluster to hide craven conduct. "Sowing wild 



oats " was accepted and acceptable in the state of society in 

 which it was coined; but it's as much out of date now as is chain 

 armor or curing disease by witchcraft. The thing we want to 

 know about now is reaping viWi oats. Whose is the harvest.' 

 and by what right is such a harvest sown for an innocent reaper .' 

 and what is that harvest f Listen: 



One out of three of the babies who are blind at birth, or whose 

 little eyes flicker and go out in the first few days of life, are reap- 

 ing their fathers' wild oats. 



Two out of three of the women who lie under the surgeon's 

 knife for operations peculiar to women are reaping their hus- 

 bands' wild oats. 



One-half the homes in which no baby's voice will ever be 

 heard are sterile because of the husband's wild oats. 



Countless thousands of babes are born dead, and the little life 

 is the toll of father's wild oats. 



Millions of babies, of boys and girls, youths and maidens, men 

 and women, go through life sickly, miserable, unsound in body 

 and mind, and they are reaping their father's wild oats. 



Oho! We mustn't talk about such things in public? Well, 

 then, let it be known that the phrase " Hush! such things must 

 not be talked about," is of the same cowardly stamp as the apol- 

 ogetic " sowing wild oats." These things must be talked about 

 until we realize that a pure girl deserves a pure man. No young 

 man " must have his fling" if that " fling" takes toll of his fu- 

 ture wife's health or his baby's eyes. 



Not talk of it! Think of a baby groping its way in the eter- 

 nal darkness of the blind; think of the young wife poisoned at 

 the very altar of marriage; think of the cost of that crop of wild 

 oats, and then say whether the subject is a proper one to discuss. 



Does not the father ask if his daughter's suitor is able to sup- 

 port her f Does he not ask if his mind is clean, and fit for father- 

 hoodf Then why not ask, and insist on knowing, if his body is 

 clean .' 



When I was in Florida two years ago I experi- 

 mented considerably with a cheap incubator. It 

 brought out some chicks, but a good many of 

 them were crippled. Mrs. Root said at onre 

 that the Humane Society should stop people from 

 using an incubator that brings cripples into the 

 world. She said nobody should be permitted to 

 curse deliberately even the dumb brutes by 

 bringing into the world a lot of cripples, and I 

 agreed with her. I think that, at the time men- 

 tioned, I said something about human beings be- 

 ing permitted to people the world with human 

 cripples. That figure of putting out the eyes of 

 a "day-old" baby with a hot-wire startles one. 

 It is too horrible to think of. Of course, we have 

 asylums in our land (and may God be praised for 

 them) to take care of those who are born blind; 

 and we have also asylums for those who are crip- 

 pled in other ways; but I must confess again, old 

 as I am, that I have never noticed statistics par- 

 ticularly in regard to this matter from those who 

 are blind or crippled from birth, and how it came 

 about. 



When this writer in the Press told us that one 

 out of three babies that are blind at birth are so 

 as the result of their fathers solving ^wild oats, I 

 thought it could not be true. Again, everybody 

 has wondered why women require so many more 

 surgical operations than men; and I wonder if it 

 can be really true that it is the fault of the men 

 (or of the wretches who call themselves men) who 

 marry these good pure women. 



Then, again, just recently my attention has 

 been called to so many childless homes that I be- 

 gan thinking it must be a severe cross — yes, we 

 might say a terrible cross — for both husband and 

 wife to go through the world having no children 

 to gladden and brighten their home. This writ- 

 er says half oi these cases are occasioned by the 

 husband's stupid folly, or, better still, criminal 

 folly, and that the world is peopled with crippled 

 beings because of the awful selfishness and greedy 

 spirit of men who have never learned to control 

 themselves, or, better still, to control their pas- 

 sions. 



