ignorance and to secure the ideal conception of American justice. Then will our principles take on a new luster and illumine a nation in the guidance of Conscience-under the guardianship of God.

And are these qualities-this universal intelligence, this liberality, this sympathetic conscience-ideals unattainable? I rejoice that they are not. For, to incite us to these virtues, to furnish us with pure civic ideals, to inspire us to the truest devotion and the noblest self-sacrifice, we have every propitious circumstance. With us Nature is so bounteous that we have time and means to feed the spiritual as well as the material man. We have our beautiful country, with its placid lakes and picturesque valleys, with its majestic rivers and towering mountains an environment fit to inspire our characters with the ideals of peace, beauty, majesty, and power designed and desired by the Infinite Mind. We have our sacred spots and hallowed scenes, which so vividly recall and so eloquently testify of our nation's patriots, her statesmen, and her heroes. We have our national emblem, with its every star undimmed, with its every stripe unsullied, which, when through it we view our nation's heroic past, its troublous present, and its hopeful future, causes every fiber to quiver, every nerve to tingle, and the heart to beat with an emotion indescribable, undefinable, sublime, but crystallized in that matchless word "patriotism."

Momentous, then, is the issue, and our strength is our weakness! But we can, and we shall, attain this lofty civic level. Even to-day "the old order changeth," and, against a reign of gold, democracy is going forward to new triumphs. Then let it be the hope and the inspiration of every American to see these triumphs multiply-to see this nation a true Republic that can successfully solve the problems with which she is intrusted. To this end let each citizen consecrate himself to the cause of enlightenment, equality, and humanity. Let him, thinking not of reward nor doubtful of the outcome, accept every challenge to battle for the eternal principles of right and justice. Let his be a patriotism brave enough to face without flinching the

threat of the lobbyist; a patriotism noble enough to scorn the lure of the briber; a patriotism just enough to give as well as to demand fair play. Then shall History record the patriot's name in the great Book of Life as one who loved his fellow-men and helped to solve the throbbing problems of his generation.

When this people shall be permeated with a patriotism so enlightened as to destroy prejudice, crush disorder, and kill ignorance; when it shall be infused with a loyalty so liberal as to embrace every religion and every sect, every nation and every race, every color and every tongue; when it shall be inspired with a zeal so moral that the command, "Thou shalt not steal," is obeyed alike by office-holder and constituent, and the command, "Thou shalt not kill," is honored alike by the corporation and the individual; when every citizen offers up a prayer that his every aim may be "his country's, his God's, and truth's"-then shall our nation have worked out its true destiny; then shall be added new stars to the sky of liberty; then in the constellation of nations shall ours be the star of first magnitude; then shall be justified an era of American Supremacy, and men shall behold Columbia the Arbiter of the World!

Milwaukee, Wis.

A. B. DEAHOFE.

ONE

MARRIAGE AND DRESS.

NE of the most noticeable and melancholy facts in the social life of to-day is that young men are less prone to marry than they used to be. Bachelors are more numerous, and the majority of girls suddenly awake to find they have passed the age of thirty and are apparently doomed to die "old maids."

What is the cause of this social change? Why do we find so many men passing the age of thirty-five still unmarried? Once past that age the chances are that the man will die a bachelor. There certainly must be a reason or reasons for this disinclination of the average young man to marry. Can it be true that the girls have themselves to thank-or quarrel with— for having made the young man of to-day fight shy of matrimony?

In some respects it is a good thing that men and women should not rush into wedlock at an early age-before their minds are sufficiently matured to realize what they are doing, or to distinguish between fancy and love, or to appreciate the obligations that married life imposes. There have been too many cases of such folly in the past, and there are too many even now. Men should not take the chances of wrecking their lives before they have reached the age of at least twenty-five, and the girl who marries before she is twenty must run the risk of finding herself a physical wreck before she is thirty. Boys and girls should have a period of enjoyment between the emerging into adolescence and the state of mature manhood and womanhood. As a rule we have become wise enough to realize this; so we do not regret that what may be called "baby marriages" are not so common as in former times.

In northern and temperate climates there are many who think it would be wise to prohibit men from marrying under twenty-eight to thirty and women under twenty-two to twenty

five. In the long run society, they believe, would be much the gainer. On the other hand, barring cases objectionable upon physical or moral grounds, every girl of twenty-five and every man of thirty should be married. While, therefore, the comparative disappearance of "baby marriages" is good and their entire prohibition would be better, yet the constantly growing disinclination of young men to marry and the increasing number of single men and women of marriageable age are matters for great regret and subjects worthy of serious study.

This brings us back to the question, Why do young men hesitate to marry? Are natural desires less strong than of old? Certainly not. Has the marital relation lost its charms? Undoubtedly not. Has the desire to establish a home of his own and to perpetuate his name by progeny, as well as to have children to care for him in his old age, ceased to exist in the young man of to-day? Not at all. He refrains from marrying mainly because he feels that under existing conditions he cannot afford to marry-which logically means that it has become more expensive to support a wife.

It may be questioned whether the various avenues of employment in commercial and other pursuits that have been opened to women have resulted in benefit to the sex from a matrimonial viewpoint. Before the advent of the typewriter, every respectable law office employed at least three or four male copyists. They received fair salaries, and they took wives unto themselves. To-day one girl, for less wages, has taken the place of the four men-who are now out of employment or are earning so much less that marriage is out of the question. And this girl more frequently than otherwise is not obliged by necessity to labor, and what she earns is put "on her back"-in other words, is expended for dress. In addition, she feels independent and demands more of the young man than she formerly did. In every large store are to be found numbers of girls who could very well live at home, but who prefer to work outside in order that they may dress more finely. It is bad enough when a girl is obliged to labor among men for the actual support of herself or a family; but when she

does so without necessity, and simply for the sake of dress, she injures both sexes. If she does not displace a man she places an obstacle in the way of another girl who actually needs the wage, and she aids in lowering the never too large rate of compensation paid to all.

M. Edgar de Ghelin, a Belgian writer, in a recent article in the Revue Générale, which has escaped the comment it deserves from our press, declares that American women are a ruin to business in their own land and a menace to industrial and commercial Europe. He writes: "In America, women are now practising several professions which in former times were practised solely by men," and he gives the following statistics showing that the United States contained

He asserts: "The education of young American girls is designed to excite in them all possible ambition. Even in their childhood they are taught to be independent, and later they go to a school where they are taught together with boys, and then to a university where they learn Greek, algebra, mechanics, and the sciences. In fact, they are taught everything except how to become good housewives and mothers." This latter assertion is unpalatable to us, but we are obliged to admit that it is not wholly barren of truth.

So far as girls in employment displace men, they decrease their chances of marriage; so far as they increase the love of dress, they make the prudent young man afraid of matrimony.