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The Spike or Victoria University College Review October 1915

Correspondence. — Eugenics and the Glad Eye

page 40

Correspondence.

Eugenics and the Glad Eye.

Dear "Spike,"—As the intelligent observer regards the trend of thought in the present day, he is tempted to prophesy that the science which is to add glory to the twentieth century, as biology gave laurels to the nineteenth, is the science of sociology. To the study of the chief off-shoot of this science, namely Eugenics, or social heredity, I have had the honour of devoting the greater portion of my life. It is therefore with especial anxiety and forebodings of spirit that I have discovered in this city of Wellington a grave and imminent menace to the progress of the science of Eugenics.

It first came to my notice in the following way: Last Saturday night, between 8 and 8.30 p.m., I happened to be walking down Manners Street, where I passed a number of young ladies. I was considerably surprised, and not a little embarrassed, to notice that two out of every three of these females winked at me as I went by. I was with a friend at the time, and when we arrived at the club I asked him the meaning of this singular behaviour. He informed me that I had received what he called the "Glad Eye." I asked for particulars. I could not fully understand his explanation, but, from what I could gather, it appears that when anyone is "given the Glad Eye" he is expected to "hook on." This expression means—to accost the girl, complete stranger though she may be, and, after a little circumlocution, to ask her to come to the pictures, as a reward for which service one is allowed the inestimable privilege of paying her tram fare home.

You will gather from the above description that the practice of the "Glad Eye" is a form of lunacy. Since it is followed up by all the younger portion of the community, we are driven to the conclusion that the youth of the nation are afflicted with insanity.

Now, one of the chief conclusions of the science of Eugenics is that lunatics may not intermarry, but if our younger citizens do not do so, the race must soon die out for want of parents. It follows, then, that either the human race, or the science of Eugenics, or the Glad Eye, must be abolished. I am too great page 41 a lover of mankind to desire its extinction, and the abolition of Eugenics is out of the question. It is therefore the Glad Eye that must go, and the attention of all thinking men should immediately be brought to bear on the matter.

In the meantime, were it to happen that this poor epistle of mine should contribute anything to the eradication of this evil, and thus in the progress of Eugenics, I shall not consider that I have lived in vain.—I am, etc.,

Ave Atque Vale.