SPRING 61 



other forms of violence, it tends to good 

 results in us. If only we could weed 

 humanity of its parasites, its vicious, its 

 criminal elements as quickly and ruthlessly 

 as we weed our gardens ! We should 

 have no army of 50,000 tramps to beg, 

 bully, and steal a living out of us, no bur- 

 glars, no drunken, corner-loafing, wife- 

 beating, non-washing, swearing, insolent 

 creatures. When we are better ourselves, 

 we shall be less soft toward the irreclaim- 

 able, I fancy. If any escape the right 

 parental and other formative influences, 

 we shall exile them to barren lands, where 

 they must hustle healthfully to live. The 

 weeding of the human race cannot begin 

 too soon, and the outlook for the rest of us 

 will be brighter when criminals, by surgery 

 if by no other means, can be prevented 

 from longer begetting their kind, for it is a 

 bad kind. 



Like all reforms, weeding is easiest when 

 earliest. You can thrust your fingers into 

 the loose soil, and trace a root of witch- 

 grass six inches under the surface and a 

 foot in length, all spiked with yellow blades 



