Moral Degeneracy of the Age.
A GENTLEMAN who is active in church and reformatory work informs me that it is vastly more difficult to get young men into libraries, reading-rooms, and churches, than it was twenty-five years ago. They take quickly to amusements and saloons. They are superficial, sensational, without high moral purpose and determination of will. A moral asphyxia has come abroad. The sources of society away from the cities are not what they were. There has been a degeneracy in the hill and country towns. This is evident from the statistics of divorce. In some way the family has been polluted. As agencies in this work of corruption, a keen observer who has traveled for a large house from Nova Scotia to Texas gives it as his opinion that saloons and the commercial travelers stand at the head. Refined sensuality is thus disseminated; the young are contaminated before they reach the city. Explore the causes as we may, the fact of the moral decadence remains, and is a factor to be considered in educational and reformatory movements.—"Observer," in Christian Union.