,,an ,,american ,,religion ,work ,play ,breathe ,bathe ,study ,laugh ,live ,love ,i believe that no one can harm us but ourselves2 that sin is misdirected energy2 that there is no devil but fear2 and that the ,universe is planned for good ,we know that work is a blessing1 that ,winter is as necessary as ,summer1 that ,night is as useful as ,day1 that ,death is a manifestation of ,life1 and just as good4 ,i believe in the ,now and ,here4 ,i believe in you and ,i believe in a power that is in ourselves that makes for righteousness ,illustration ,,the ,,philosophy ,,of ,,elbert ,,hubbard ,illustration ,,the ,,roycrofters ,copyright1 #aiaf1 by ,the ,roycrofters ,of this edition of ,the ,philosophy of ,elbert ,hubbard there have been printed #iihc copies on ,roycroft watermarked paper1 made by hand1 especially for ,the ,roycrofters1 at ,fabriano1 ,italy1 and of the edition signed and numbered1 this copy is ,number ,illustration ,why not make this a world of friends8 ,illustration ,,contents ,the ,american ,philosophy #aa ,freedom and ,responsibility #be ,corporal ,punishment #cj ,purpled ,ease #ci ,consecrated ,lives #eg ,marriage and ,divorce #fe ,the ,taxation of ,church ,property #gi ,free ,motherhood #if ,why ,i ,am a ,philistine #ajd ,oral ,righteousness #abb ,the ,health ,habit #abh ,the ,elks' ,creed #acd ,remember the ,weekday #adc ,reciprocity #adh ,vaccination #aec ,equal ,suffrage #aei ,just ,boys #afc ,the ,sea #afh ,epigrams #aga ,,credo ,elbert ,hubbard ,i believe in the ,motherhood of ,god4 ,i believe in the blessed ,trinity of ,father1 ,mother and ,child4 ,i believe that ,god is here1 and that we are as near ,him now as ever we shall be4 ,i do not believe ,he started this world a-going and went away and left it to run itself4 ,i believe that we are all sons of ,god1 and it doth not yet appear what we shall be4 ,i believe the only way we can reach the ,kingdom of ,heaven is to have the ,kingdom of ,heaven in our hearts4 ,i believe in freedom--social1 economic1 domestic1 political1 mental1 spiritual ,i believe in every man minding his own business4 ,i believe in sunshine1 fresh air1 friendship1 calm sleep1 beautiful thoughts4 ,i believe in the purifying process of sorrow1 and ,i believe that death is a manifestation of life4 ,i believe the ,universe is planned for good ,,the ,,philosophy ,,of ,,elbert ,,hubbard ,,the ,,radiant ,,life ,elbert ,hubbard ,i wish to be simple1 honest1 natural1 frank1 clean in mind and clean in body1 unaffected--ready to say 8,i do not know10 if so it be--to meet all men on an absolute equality--to face any obstacle and meet every difficulty unafraid and unabashed ,i wish to live without hate1 whim1 jealousy1 envy or fear4 ,i wish others to live their lives1 too--up to their highest1 fullest and best4 ,to that end ,i pray that ,i may never meddle1 dictate1 interfere1 give advice that is not wanted1 nor assist when my services are not needed4 ,if ,i can help people1 ,i will do it by giving them a chance to help themselves2 and if ,i can uplift or inspire1 let it be by example1 inference and suggestion1 rather than by injunction and dictation4 ,i desire to ,radiate ,life ,illustration ,the ,american ,philosophy ,so this1 then1 is an essay on the ,american ,philosophy4 ,the ,american ,philosophy is founded on the ,science of ,economics4 ,just here1 in order that we may speak a common language1 a few definitions are in order4 ,economics is the ,science of the production1 distribution and use of wealth4 ,science is accurate1 organized knowledge founded on fact--or1 as ,herbert ,spencer expressed it1 8,science is the classified knowledge of the common people40 ,all that which is simply assumed1 believed1 conjectured1 taken on dogmatic statement1 or mayhap read out of printed books1 is unscientific1 no matter how plausible ,all practical businessmen are scientists4 ,business is a vocation4 ,philosophy is--or should be--an avocation4 ,to make a business of philosophy is to institutionalize and dilute it1 just as to institutionalize love and religion is to degrade and lose them4 ,religion is philosophy touched with emotion ,philosophy is your highest conception of life1 its duties and its destiny4 ,a religious organization is a different thing from religion4 ,a religious organization is built on a feeling made static1 or fear frozen stiff4 ,it then becomes a superstition1 and is employed as a police system1 and is taxed all the traffic will bear4 ,science is definite1 accurate1 organized knowledge concerning the things that make up our environment4 ,modern philosophy is the distilled essence of wisdom that eventually flows from science4 ,or1 if you please1 philosophy is the explanation of science--a projection from science ,transportation1 manufacturing1 distribution1 advertising and salesmanship are all variants of business4 ,each and all are scientific1 that is1 capable of analyzation and demonstration4 ,weight1 size1 color1 number1 qualities and time are all elements of science4 ,theology is antique and obsolete philosophy4 ,it never is nor ever was scientific1 not being derived from knowledge4 ,faith is the first item in its formula4 ,theology comes to us from dogmatic statements gotten from books or the hearsay words of men long dead4 ,theology is voodooism2 in matters of importance it is in the same class as alchemy1 astrology1 palmistry1 mantology and augury ,science is understood1 while theology is believed4 ,psychology is the science of human minds and their relationship one to another ,superstition is scrambled science1 or a religious omelet flavored with fear4 ,organized religion being founded on superstition is1 perforce1 not scientific ,and all that is not scientific--that is1 truthful--must be bolstered by force1 fear and falsehood4 ,thus we always find slavery and organized religion going hand in hand4 ,business1 to be successful1 must be based on science1 for demand and supply are matters of mathematics1 not guesswork4 ,civilization turns on organization4 ,and organization1 in order to be of any value1 must be scientific4 ,economics is a new science4 ,history does not show a single instance of its existence in the days of ,greece and ,rome ,they had simple mathematics1 but not complex4 ,fractions1 percentages1 statistics1 averages1 were beyond them4 ,the blueprint1 even for humorists1 was unguessed ,philosophy was speculation2 business was barter4 ,since then1 up to within a few years ago1 the problem of how man could save his soul has been uppermost4 ,this world has been neglected in the endeavor to gain another4 ,when the ,science of ,economics is finally formulated it will be expressed first in ,america ,in ,america all nations meet and blend4 ,here the factors1 elements and categories of ,economics are to be found4 ,here we have one language1 and no more1 and this is necessary for the expression of a new science ,the first endeavor to found ,economics as a science was the work of ,adam ,smith4 ,and when ,thomas ,henry ,buckle said that ,adam ,smith's ,wealth of ,nations had influenced the world for good more than any other book ever written1 save none1 he stated truth4 ,economics changes man's activities4 ,as you change a man's activities you change his way of living1 and as you change his environment you change his state of mind4 ,precept and injunction do not perceptibly affect men2 but food1 water1 air1 clothing1 shelter1 pictures1 books1 music1 will and do4 ,adam ,smith1 ,john ,stuart ,mill and ,karl ,marx1 all wrote on ,economics1 but none was an ,economist4 ,each based his logic largely on presumption1 assumption and hypothesis4 ,if this happens1 then that will occur4 ,they were ,political ,economists--they pursued ,economics as a policy1 not as truth4 ,they loved love1 not the lady4 ,they were students of ,economics1 and their work was not grounded in ,science4 ,since the days of ,smith1 ,mill and ,marx we have had many students of ,economics ,but the world has not yet produced an ,economist4 ,to be an ,economist1 a man must be a ,scientist4 ,he must be both a man of action1 and one who knows why he acts4 ,he must work and he must contemplate his work4 ,he must act and he must think4 ,a ,scientist is the man who has done the thing--who has seen and knows4 ,then from his positive knowledge springs his ,philosophy4 ,and the ,philosophy of a businessman1 analyzed1 explained and formulated1 would constitute a ,science of ,economics4 ,the ,american ,philosophy will be formulated by ,scientists--by ,businessmen who have succeeded4 ,thackeray's lawyer in the ,debtors' ,prison1 who was working out a new financial policy for the ,nation1 was not a ,scientist ,his knowledge was academic and his scheme conjectural4 ,science was outside of his orbit4 ,he lacked experience4 ,he had feelings1 but not facts ,he did not have enough cosmic mortar to construct an arch4 ,emotionalism1 charity1 altruism1 optimism1 are not science1 and they may be hysteria4 ,when ,i speak of success ,i do not mean it in the sordid sense4 ,a successful man is one who has tried1 not cried2 who has worked1 not dodged2 who has shouldered responsibility1 not evaded it2 who has gotten under the burden1 not merely stood off1 looking on1 giving advice and philosophizing on the situation4 ,in fact1 the result of a man's work is not the measure of success4 ,to go down with the ship in storm and tempest is better than to paddle away to ,paradise in an ,orthodox canoe4 ,to have worked is to have succeeded--we leave the results to time4 ,life is too short to gather the ,harvest--we can only sow4 ,up to the year ,eighteen ,hundred ,seventy-six the business world was tainted by trickery in trade ,the methods of booth and bazaar were everywhere practised4 ,business was barter1 and he who could cheat and not get caught was accounted clever4 ,on the customs of the time there was no copyright4 ,they were a take-over from monarchical days ,but a new ethic has arrived4 ,within ten years' time the thought has gone through the entire business fabric that to cheat and not get caught is really a worse calamity than to get caught4 ,to be caught means that some one has applied the brake and you are given pause4 ,not to get caught means that you are headed for the precipice on the high clutch and down grade4 ,to cheat another is to cheat yourself4 ,theology did not teach us this1 for precept and preaching never touch our lives4 ,we shed them4 ,we are moved in only one way1 and that is by self-interest ,cut off our food-supply and we are no longer apathetic4 ,and self-interest is a form of selfishness2 it is the desire for life ,it is the instinct of self-preservation in action4 ,it was all a matter of mental growth1 evolution4 ,the discovery of truth as our most valuable business asset is the one great achievement of the age in which we live ,for truth there is no substitute1 and this discovery was made by businessmen4 ,honesty as a working policy was first put forth by ,benjamin ,franklin2 and his remark was regarded as a mere pleasantry until yesterday4 ,the clergy have not yet adopted it2 the doctors are considering it1 and the lawyers haven't heard of it4 ,however1 all these will finally adopt it1 as a last resort1 as a means of self-preservation4 ,economics based on falsehood leads to dissolution4 ,falsehood is a polite form of conquest4 ,the lie is exploitation4 ,the preacher has diverted us while the lawyer picked our pocket2 the doctor gives you ether and accomplishes the same result ,egypt1 ,rome and ,greece lived on their slaves and outlying colonies4 ,slave labor is the most expensive kind4 ,in time the land is exhausted1 and the slaves die4 ,but before this happened to the capitals that were1 the aristocrats who wasted1 destroyed and consumed had gotten nervous debility1 and were impotent1 also impudent4 ,then they died and the barbarian overran the land ,a wise ,economist--and ,america has many--could have figured out exactly how long ,babylon and ,nineveh would have lasted ,none of these ancient civilizations produced economists4 ,they had soothsayers1 priests1 lawyers1 poets1 artists1 clowns1 dramatists1 orators1 rhetoricians1 singers1 philosophers4 ,and most of all they had guzzlers and gormands4 ,but they had no scientists1 and their philosophy1 being based on augury1 dreams1 theology and fear1 was futile and fallacious4 ,a philosophy that is not founded on science is false in theory and base in practise4 ,modern business betters human environment4 ,it means gardens1 flowers1 fruits1 vegetables2 it means quick1 safe and cheap transportation of people1 commodities and messages2 it means books1 maps1 furniture1 pictures1 playgrounds1 pure water1 perfect sewerage1 fresh air1 sunshine1 health1 happiness1 hope1 light and love--because business gives opportunities for all to work1 earn1 grow and become4 ,business consists in the production1 transportation and distribution of the things that are necessary to human life4 ,through this exercise of our faculties we educe the best that is in us2 in other words1 we get an education4 ,inasmuch as business supplies the necessities of life1 it is impossible to have a highly evolved and noble race except where there is a science of business4 ,business is human service4 ,therefore1 business is essentially a divine calling4 ,once men believed religion to be the chief concern of mortals here below4 ,other men have thought that killing is the chief concern of mortals here below4 ,gladstone once said1 8,only two avenues of honor are open to young men in ,england--the army and the church40 ,this has been the prevailing opinion of the world for nearly two thousand years1 and is the one reason why the ,dark ,ages were dark4 ,during those years of night the fighting man was supreme4 ,it was a long panic1 and human evolution was blocked through fear ,the race crawled1 crept1 hid1 dodged1 secreted1 lied and nearly died4 ,we now say that the ,science of ,economics1 or ,business1 is the chief concern of humanity ,business is intelligent1 useful activity4 ,the word 8busy-ness0 was coined during the time of ,chaucer by certain soldier-aristocrats1 men of the leisure class1 who prided themselves upon the fact that they did no useful thing ,men of power proved their prowess by holding slaves1 and these slaves did all the work4 ,to be idle showed that one was not a slave4 ,but this word 8business10 first flung in contempt1 like ,puritan1 ,methodist and ,quaker1 has now become a thing of which to be proud4 ,idleness is the disgrace1 not busy-ness4 ,the world can be redeemed only through business2 for business means betterment1 and no business can now succeed that does not add to human happiness4 ,we believe that only the busy person is happy1 and that systematic1 daily1 useful work is man's greatest blessing4 ,we are a nation of workers1 builders1 inventors1 creators1 producers4 ,we are the richest country1 per capita1 in the world2 and our wealth has come from the farm1 the forest1 the factory1 the mine1 the sea4 ,we have dug1 plowed1 pumped smelted1 refined1 transported and manufactured ,we did not inherit our wealth1 neither have we laid tribute on other countries1 as did those earlier civilizations4 ,any individual who uses the word 8commercial0 as an epithet1 who regards business enterprise as synonymous with graft and greed1 who speaks of certain men as 8self-made0 and others as 8educated10 who gives more attention to war than to peace1 who seeks to destroy rather than to create and build up1 is essentially un-,american ,the word 8education0 sometimes stands for idleness1 but the ,american ,philosophy symbols work1 effort1 industry4 ,it means intelligent1 thoughtful1 reasonable and wise busy-ness--helping yourself by helping others4 ,the world's greatest prizes in the future will go to the businessman4 ,the businessman is our only scientist1 and to him we must look for a ,science of ,economics that will eradicate poverty1 disease1 superstition--all that dissipates and destroys4 ,the day is dawning6 ,illustration ,illustration ,freedom and ,responsibility ,i am told that hospitals1 jails1 almshouses and insane-asylums are for people who are unable to care for themselves properly4 ,therefore1 they are sent to these places1 where men and women1 specially delegated1 spend their lives looking after them4 ,so it seems that the incompetent1 in addition to not adding to the wealth of the world1 actually take competent people from a world of usefulness to minister to them4 ,after a few years as a guard1 the man is quite as incompetent as are the prisoners--and more so--because the prisoner works and the guard does nothing but guard4 ,and for the man who works there is a chance2 but the man who doesn't is damned1 body and soul4 ,hospitals1 prisons and poorhouses are places where people live who can't or won't work4 ,these places do not cure our bodily or social ills--they are palliatives1 all4 ,they do not prevent incompetence nor stop the production of the weak and incompetent4 ,every year we have to pull down our hospitals and build greater4 ,ben ,lindsey1 ,luther ,burbank1 ,john ,davey1 ,horace ,fletcher1 all men essentially of one type1 are working to shut off the regular annual crop of criminals ,preachers have preached their silly tales of where we came from and where we are going to1 directing the attention of men from this world to another1 and with myth1 miracle1 mystery--with dead languages1 dead ideas and dead formulas--have scared the world stiff4 ,that's why we are sick4 ,we have bred from the worst in the worst possible way1 under the worst conditions ,we have it thundered at us from a million pulpits that the indissoluble marriage-tie was a sacred scheme1 devised by ,god ,almighty1 who also provided that women shall be incarcerated in a kitchen4 ,the result has been the doormat wife1 with a liar for a husband--for men lie only to inferiors and tyrants--and a brood of legitimate candidates for hospitals1 poorhouses and prisons4 ,christianity was absolutely supreme for a thousand years4 ,did she abolish poverty1 disease and crime8 ,not exactly--these things increased under ,christian rule4 ,and ,religion is not yet willing to step aside and give ,science a chance ,revivalists get a thousand children in a room and play on their nervous sensibilities in the name of the ,gentle ,christ1 and then the doctors vaccinate them with pus from diseased animals1 and we wonder why they die or go insane6 ,the ,clerics killed ,ferrer because he was working to make men free4 ,freedom means responsibility4 ,and responsibility means the making of decisions4 ,by deciding for ourselves we grow1 and this exercise of the will in deciding what is best to do and doing it is the only method of attaining growth known in ,nature4 ,but woman's decisions have been made for her by male man1 and so low has she sunk that millions of women are willing that this should continue4 ,the passion for freedom is ,nature's cry for growth4 ,a judge of the ,supreme ,court of the ,state of ,new ,york once said to me3 8,divorce should be as free as marriage1 and if it were1 there would be no more separations than there are now4 ,we give men and women the right to put their heads into a noose1 but decline to let them pull their heads out4 ,those whom ,god hath joined together no man can put asunder4 ,also1 the word #8illegitimate' should be stricken from the judicial record1 forever4 ,an act may be illegitimate1 but a child1 never40 8,why don't you talk like this in public80 ,i asked4 ,and the answer was1 8,if ,i did1 ,i'd lose my job inside of twenty-four hours40 8,well10 ,i said1 8,i'll say it for you40 8,if you do and mention my name ,i'll--but1 say1 you will not1 you must not quote me4 ,you can agitate--,i can only conform ,we are ruled by the archaic4 ,you are working to make men free1 and only a free people can be a healthy1 happy1 virtuous1 self-reliant and competent people4 ,keep 'er going1 but on your life1 don't quote me4 ,here's two dolodocci to renew my subscription to ,the ,fra40 ,illustration ,illustration ,corporal ,punishment ,children's diseases are a logical result of children's beatings ,to shock1 pain1 grieve1 anger or violently suppress a human being is to run a grave risk of lowering that individual's physical vitality to a point where the person is an easy prey for any disease that happens along4 ,that which interferes with the vital functions1 even in a transient way1 is not wise nor good4 ,extreme anger is apt to be followed by lassitude or some marked physical disturbance4 ,in fact1 it is well known that hate secretes a toxin which manifests itself in the breath1 and in the tissues ,what we call a disease is a symptom of vitality decreased to a point where the forces of dissolution are active4 ,a shock which will blanch the cheek disturbs the circulation1 and interferes with the digestion4 ,perhaps the whipping did not mutilate1 but it angered and shocked until a fever followed4 ,dyspepsia is a matter of the nerves4 ,much of our bad theology1 if we could trace it1 would be found to have its rise in indigestion4 ,and that it has caused pathological disturbances of countless varieties1 from catarrh to acute mania1 is known to every thinking physician4 ,and of all causes of sickness1 ,i know of none that has borne a greater crop of cosmic cockleburs than the old-time plan of whipping children4 ,when ,solomon put forth that unwise saying1 8,spare the rod and spoil the child10 an extent of harm was done the human race that no pen can compute4 ,that one statement should have convinced every intelligent person that the ,bible was just like every other book--good and bad in spots4 ,if accepted literally1 the ,bible is an atrocious book1 false1 obscene and misleading1 tending to insanity1 disease and death4 ,fortunately1 we are now allowed to take the ,bible as the garbled literature of a barbaric and superstitious past1 collected from many sources1 and good and bad1 wise and silly1 sublime and vicious--all as the case may be4 ,that millions of parents have bolstered their brutal tendency to punish and inflict pain by that remark about sparing the rod1 every one knows4 ,and always the tendency to beat the little thing1 too weak to strike back1 was more to ease the feelings of the parent than to improve and benefit the child4 ,moreover1 it was educating the child1 for the youngster grew up and inflicted upon its own children all the horror that it had1 itself1 endured4 ,it was heir to the brutality1 heir to the ,bible1 heir to the strap1 birch1 rod1 ferrule and hairbrush1 so these were in daily use in all ,christian homes4 ,in my childhood1 ,i remember a ,baptist preacher who lived neighbor to us ,this man was loud1 lacrimose1 brutal1 a devout ,christian1 and a preacher of power1 snatching many souls from the burning4 ,the way that gospel sharp used to pass out his tidings of great joy broke in on my childish fancies1 so ,i became convinced that if ,god was really just1 that pious1 bawling beast who fed fat on our chickens would go to hell1 sure4 ,but ,i kept my suspicions to myself4 ,this preacher had a strap cut from a side of sole-leather--a strap three feet long1 with tails1 with which he used to beat up one of his nine or ten children every day ,from the baby wearing diapers to a big boy of sixteen1 and a girl full-grown1 they all got it4 ,i have heard their cries for mercy ring out on a winter's night when they would run out into the yard to escape their pious parent intent on saving their souls4 ,once1 one of his daughters1 a girl of fifteen1 spent ten cents for a blue ribbon1 and appeared in church with the ribbon in her hair4 ,her father saw her from his place in the pulpit4 ,he noted her mark of pride ,he denounced her before the congregation1 and expressed a hypocritical1 pious pain that his own flesh and blood should be guilty of such devilish frivolity4 ,then he ordered her out of the church4 ,when he got home after the service1 he fell upon her with the strap4 ,it pained him1 but he felt it was his duty to correct her4 ,the mother was a sick and undone little creature1 who twice had twins1 and bore at least one baby a year1 except the year when her lord and master crossed the plains and got alkalied4 ,and this woman really believed1 too1 that the children should be punished1 and so she had a way of reporting them1 thus1 8,i'll tell your father on you when he comes home60 ,she1 too1 believed in ,solomon1 and she believed also in her husband's religion4 ,poor thing1 she was too busy bearing babies to really think anything out for herself ,but that ,sunday afternoon1 when her husband felt it his duty to whip the daughter1 the girl ran to the mother and demanded protection4 ,the good man was laying on the strap1 anywhere1 over the girl's head1 shoulders1 her arms and hands1 although usually he picked out some choice portion of anatomy and did an artistic job4 ,yet this time the girl fought back1 and she was only a slim slip of a thing4 ,but now1 the womanhood in her was aroused4 ,she felt insulted4 ,she struck1 she bit1 she scratched1 she screamed4 ,and then she ran to her mother ,something in the little yellow mother was now aroused4 ,her child was being abused4 ,well1 what of it6 ,hadn't she seen these whippings going on daily for twenty years8 ,but this was different ,the adolescent girl had only given way to her innocent and natural desire to put forth a little color and be beautiful4 ,now it was brute man against woman4 ,the mother seized the strap4 ,it was jerked through her clenched hands with such violence that it took the skin with it4 ,the preacher had backed the girl into a corner1 and with one hand clutching her hair was laying on the strap with the other1 in the name of the ,lord4 ,the mother was behind4 ,suddenly she seized a long-handled skillet that was on the kitchen-stove1 she swung it with both hands1 and it landed square on the man's head ,he was dazed1 and turned half-around4 ,then he got another one4 ,he was getting a kitchen shower4 ,one sharp edge of the skillet skinned one of his ears and cut it half-off1 as ,peter touched up the servant of the ,high ,priest4 ,the blood ran in a stream4 ,the woman seeing the gore1 and amazed at her own temerity1 fell in a dead swoon4 ,the girl escaped and ran over to our house4 ,my father and mother hurried over1 and1 kid-like1 ,i followed4 ,we found the preacher on his knees1 praying over his wife1 begging ,god for her recovery ,he told us he had stumbled and fallen against the cook-stove4 ,my father took a stitch in the ecclesiastic souse1 and washed off the blood of the lamb ,the woman soon recovered and was put to bed4 ,the girl took care of herself4 ,she told my mother the truth of the incident1 but was cautioned not to repeat it to others1 and she didn't4 ,the next ,sunday the holy man preached as usual1 unctuous and oily1 smiling and smirking1 thundering ponderously betimes1 warning us to flee the wrath to come4 ,this daughter died at eighteen1 of galloping consumption4 ,one of the boys achieved considerable local fame as a horse-thief4 ,i believe he was the only one of that big family who reached maturity1 and this was because he had a pachyderm hide and a heart of gneiss ,several of the children died in babyhood1 the rest ran the gamut of about all the diseases in the books4 ,and finally1 the ,lord's will was done4 ,a long row of little white headstones in the village graveyard marks where they sleep1 freed from the strap1 awaiting a glorious resurrection at the ,last ,great ,day4 ,what killed them8 ,the strap1 ,i should say1 carried to its logical limit1 with a plentiful lack of love4 ,spare the rod and save the child1 for love is life1 and hate is death4 ,love is better than a cat-o'-nine-tails1 and ,solomon1 the wisest man who ever lived1 was a lobster--at least part of the time4 ,illustration ,illustration ,purpled ,ease ,no quarter6 ,we want all that you possess4 ,we will be content with nothing less than all that you possess4 ,we want in our hands the reins of power and the destiny of mankind4 ,here are our hands4 ,they are strong hands4 ,we are going to take your governments1 your palaces1 and all your purpled ease away from you1 and in that day you shall work for your bread even as the peasant in the field or the starved and runty clerk in your metropolises4 ,here are our hands4 ,they are strong hands4--,jack ,london4 ,the above is taken from a postal card sent out by the publishers of ,jack ,london's books4 ,jack is a ,marxian ,socialist all day long1 and he is much more frank than most of his party4 ,all the other ,socialists ,i ever met1 alternately admit and deny that what they want is a division of property ,jack ,london stands by his guns and declares1 8,we want all you possess40 ,and when he says 8you0 he means the people who own property4 ,he is talking to the owners and managers of the 8tools10 by which he means the railroads1 mills1 shops1 stores1 factories1 mines and steamships4 ,that is to say1 ,jack is going to take things away from the present owners and give these things to 8we40 ,jack assumes that property in the hands of the ,socialist would be much better managed than it is now in the hands of those who own it4 ,this threat of ,jack's would be a tragic thing if ,jack and his pals were really going to do all they say they are4 ,but they are not going to do anything but talk4 ,that is their 8hold40 ,folks who can1 do2 those who can't1 chin4 ,jack is a writing tramp who roams the world for thrills and copy4 ,he is kindly1 intelligent1 amusing1 indolent1 and absolutely without the power to manage anything--even his own tongue4 ,he is a good fellow2 and he makes folks think4 ,in fact1 he is the sparker to this paragraph4 ,jack made me think1 he made me mad1 he made me laugh1 and he made me write4 ,personally ,i like the rogue--he is most companionable1 especially if you have no work to do4 ,the tendency of property of every sort is towards depreciation and dissolution4 ,only eternal vigilance and tireless industry keep a manufacturing plant or a farm effective ,jack does not know this4 ,jack thinks that to own property is to be immune from work4 ,the truth is1 ownership is a responsibility and a burden4 ,most of the ,socialists ,i know do not work--they only talk about work4 ,what they want is an orthodox heaven of ease1 where the harps are always in tune and the robes are always laundered4 ,if ,jack could take away the property from those who have it and set them to work like peasants and 8runty clerks10 then the ,socialists would live in 8purpled ease10 as ,jack and many other childish1 silly folks think that rich people do now4 ,there is an 8idle rich0 class1 but it is a very small class1 and it is not made up of the people who manage things4 ,it is made up of remittance-men--and some of these are ,socialists1 who play at equality1 badger the busy1 and patronize the poor4 ,leave the idle rich to ,nemesis4 ,disease and death are at their heels4 ,the men who operate our great enterprises--mills1 factories1 elevators1 banks and department-stores--know nothing of ease4 ,their working-hours are not limited by the whistle ,they sweat blood to meet payrolls and to keep the wheels of trade revolving4 ,modern business is a most exacting taskmaster4 ,it says1 8,thou shalt have no other gods before me40 ,it demands every ounce of energy its devotee has4 ,the thought of a 8good time0 is not for the businessman4 ,he works1 and works eternally4 ,he works because he can't stop ,and this is the man the ,socialists are going to send to the fields6 ,jack ,london's view of railroading is only from the bumpers4 ,his philosophy can not deceive the section-hands1 nor the train-crews1 nor the operators1 nor the managers4 ,they work1 and they work with care1 precision1 energy and economy4 ,each one does the thing he can do best4 ,that is what we all do4 ,if ,jack's hands were the strong hands he pretends1 they would be grabbing plow-handles or a shovel1 instead of reaching for a hand-me-out ,if the hands of ,jack and his friends were strong enough1 they would own this property towards which they now look with lustful eyes4 ,the world will be redeemed2 it is being redeemed4 ,it is being redeemed not by those who shake the red rag of wordy warfare1 who threaten and demand1 but by its entrepreneurs--its workers1 its inventors1 its toilers--the men and women who do the duty that lies nearest them4 ,the fallacy of the ,jack philosophy lies in the assumption that the industries of the world would be much better managed by ,jack and his kith than by the men who are now at the helm ,in other words1 ,jack's claim is that ,socialists are a peculiar1 separate and distinct class of able1 unselfish1 competent persons with hands especially strong1 who accidentally are out of the game1 but who are soon to take possession of things and run everything in such a way that ,society will be blessed and benefited as never before4 ,the fact is1 ,socialists are not a separate and distinct class4 ,we are all children of ,adam and ,eve1 and the differences in us are more apparent than real ,we all have our limitations--read ,carlyle6 ,the weaknesses of humanity are inherent in ,socialists--only perhaps in greater degree4 ,their doctrine of reaching ,utopia through firing the men who now manage things is the doctrine of despair4 ,fabian ,socialism is something else--it is opportunism ,it does what it can1 now4 ,it does not wait for a revolution--rather it believes in evolution ,we climb step by step4 ,fabian ,socialism does not preach class hatred4 ,in fact1 it does not recognize that either the 8class0 or the 8mass0 exists4 ,people who belong to one so-called class today are in another tomorrow4 ,most of our so-called predatory rich wiggled up out of the mass--and they may be poor again ,many of the poor will be rich4 ,watch the immigrants landing at ,ellis ,island4 ,can you prophesy to what 8class0 these boys and girls--curious1 quaint1 half-frightened--will belong twenty years from now8 ,many of them will be contractors1 lawyers1 bankers1 scientists1 doctors1 teachers--it is all a matter of individual energy1 intelligence and desire1 modified by the antics of the gods of ,chance4 ,there is no conspiracy in ,america to hold people down and under4 ,class hatred1 represented by ,marxian ,socialism1 says there is4 ,there is nothing so savage1 cruel and blindly unjust as class hatred4 ,i've been accused of class hatred because ,i make statements from time to time that seem to reveal a lack of appreciation for the three learned professions4 ,granted that ,i do1 it is not the man ,i criticize--it is the office4 ,doctors1 lawyers and preachers are men1 caught in a certain environment1 trying to win the world's plaudits and plunder in a certain way ,i may consider the way a mistaken one1 but ,i surely do not hate the man4 ,and the fact that ,i have hundreds of close friends among the professions proves that ,i am not entirely misunderstood in this matter ,doctors are men4 ,lawyers are men4 ,preachers are men4 ,so1 also1 are judges4 ,marxian ,socialists are men1 and all these are very much like the people with whom they mix and associate ,rogue clients evolve rogue lawyers to do their work2 fool patients evolve fool doctors2 and superstitious1 silly people in the pew secrete a pretentious1 punk party in the pulpit4 ,for the man1 himself1 ,i have only admiration1 respect and love--and sometimes pity4 ,i may despise his business and some of his acts1 but how can ,i hate the man1 when ,i realize that his life is a part of the ,great ,one from which mine is derived8 ,this man may quit his business and take up something else4 ,the criminal is not wholly a criminal--he is only a criminal at times4 ,some of his impulses are good1 and most of them may be excellent2 but one mistaken act will brand him forever as a criminal in the world's assize4 ,under the same conditions1 if ,i were of the same quality and temper1 ,i would have done the same ,if ,i criticize lawyers1 doctors and preachers1 it is simply because there courses through my veins a quality and kind of corpuscle which fits me eminently for success either as a lawyer1 doctor or preacher4 8,a hair1 perhaps1 divides the false and true10 says old ,omar4 ,yes1 and ,i missed becoming a practising physician by a hair4 ,had ,i gone into ,medicine ,i would have had a team of bays1 a coon driver1 and a whisker that would have put all the other doctors in my town to the bad4 ,i have the fingers of a diagnostician1 a voice that soothes1 a presence that heals4 ,if you didn't have it1 ,i could convince both myself and you that you had4 ,then ,i would have cut into your cosmos to find out who was right--and ,i would have charged you five hundred dollars for the operation4 ,if ,i were wrong in my diagnosis1 you would never have known the difference1 for on occasion ,i can be discreet4 ,the law is a game that lures3 it isn't a matter of securing justice--not that4 ,truth has a secondary place in the practise of law1 and only very ignorant folks imagine otherwise4 ,the law is a game1 and you play to win4 ,the whole thing is fascinating4 ,it is a clash of wits--mind matching mind4 ,as a lawyer1 ,i would have quibbled you six nights and days together2 and ,i would have been a legal lallapaloosa4 ,bill ,reedy writes1 8,we are all touched with the essence of the thing against which we strive40 ,and ,bill is sometimes right4 ,that is all we can expect1 even from the wisest and best of men1 and ,bill is both ,yes1 ,i would take kindly to the law1 for guff1 bluff and stuff come easily within my grasp4 ,i can cross-buttock a fact2 side-step an equity2 befuddle a judge--some judges2 kerflumix a jury2 juggle with justice2 put reason astride of a barb-wire fence2 and prevent a witness from keeping his oath to tell the truth1 the whole truth and nothing but the truth4 ,and a fat fee would always reanimate any flagging zeal ,i might have as to the justice of my client's cause4 ,as for the pulpit1 ,i would take it now1 were it not so securely fastened down--hypocrisy1 gush1 glibness1 ,chicago ,tongue1--yes1 let ,billy ,sunday look to his laurels6 ,i1 too1 could tear a passion to tatters and make the judicious grieve4 ,i could hypnotize myself into a belief that souls were 8lost10 like collar-buttons under a bureau1 and ,i was the one man to rescue them ,sure6 ,especially am ,i qualified for making ,pastoral ,calls--or ,i was once4 ,also1 ,i have great capacity for chicken-pie1 pretense1 cheap social honors1 and the applause of the unthinking4 ,as a ,churchman1 reversed haberdashery would have done me proud2 breeks would become me1 for my shanks have individuality2 and a dinky hat would set off my sky-piece in a way not only to arouse curiosity but mirth4 ,let ,dean ,hart beware--his job is not so secure as he thinks6 ,doctor ,samuel ,johnson was for a time a member of ,parliament in the capacity of cub reporter4 ,one certain speech he reported1 and when the gentleman who had made the speech read the report he didn't exactly recognize it4 ,so he went to ,johnson and said1 8,look 'ere1 young feller1 ,i didn't say that40 8,certainly not10 said ,johnson1 8certainly not2 but that is what you should have said60 ,in recounting his reportorial experiences1 ,johnson was once asked this question3 8,what kind of men are there in the ,house of ,commons80 ,and ,johnson replied1 8,take the first fifty men you find walking up ,fleet ,street40 ,johnson knew that all men1 regardless of their condition in life1 are1 at heart1 very much alike4 ,and when ,fate has flung a man into a certain situation1 the man will1 if it is a place of some honor1 give himself all the credit for having attained it4 ,if it is a position that perhaps carries no honor1 the party will always blame some one else for putting him there4 ,we credit ourselves for our successes2 we blame others for our faults4 ,also1 we justify ourselves in everything we do ,and wise men see plainly that this self-justification is a part of ,nature's great law of self-preservation4 ,the exaggerated ,ego is a primal necessity4 ,good men all and everywhere multiply the value of their work by ten4 ,success in life consists in convincing yourself that you are the whole cheese1 and then getting the world to accept your view4 ,rostand's rooster was fully assured in his own mind that the sun would not come up if he did not crow4 ,the hens being told this by the rooster cackled it back to him1 and it became a crystallized part of the orthodox ,zeitgeist ,and it would have so remained for all time1 but for an accident--an accident of love1 when a guinea-hen became enamored of the boss of the barnyard4 ,so ,life is a paradox--and love is not only illusion1 but it is also the great enlightener4 ,now1 ,i know ,jack ,london2 ,i know the proletariat2 ,i know the 8predatory rich40 ,and this ,i know1 that so far as happiness is concerned each and all of them have an equal portion ,the struggle in getting out of the mass has given ,jack's predatory party a certain power1 but he has paid for it with his peace of mind1 and has to struggle to hold it4 8,purpled ease0 is a thing that exists only in ,jack's mental vacuum ,that is where the tramp has the start of the millionaire4 ,the tramp can dream it2 the other fellow has no time even to think it4 ,when ,john ,wesley saw the condemned criminal being taken to ,tyburn ,tree1 he turned to his friend and exclaimed1 8,but for the grace of ,god1 there goes ,john ,wesley60 ,when ,walt ,whitman looked upon the wounded and dying soldier1 he said1 8,i am that man60 ,emerson wrote in his ,essay on ,justice1 8,i have in me the capacity for every crime40 ,and here is what ,i say to ,jack ,london3 ,if you and your pals were in possession of the tools of trade1 you would commit all the so-called crimes of which you accuse the industrial leaders1 and more4 ,the fact that your heart is full of hate proves your unfitness to govern4 ,these men now in power have climbed step by step to their present position1 and at every step had to prove their worth1 before they were allowed to go on4 ,these tools of which you speak are sharp1 and men like you1 unskilled in their use1 would cut others with them1 and they in turn would take the tools and cut your head off4 ,your hands are not as strong as you imagine4 ,the strength of the hands of men is not proven by assertion--it is proven by use4 ,how far can you put the shot8 ,power unrestrained is always tragic4 ,the world is held in place by the opposition of forces4 ,the men in power are ballasted by responsibility1 as never before in history4 ,you have your use as an agitator2 so go it1 ,jack1 and say your say4 ,that fly on the wheel of the chariot of ,achilles said1 8,oh1 just see what a dust we do kick up60 ,and this remark of the fly has added to the gaiety of nations4 ,but get enough flies on the chariot of ,achilles and not a wheel revolves4 ,the ,egyptians in ,moses' time battled with swarms of flies1 when the flies scored home-runs and base-hits4 ,self-interest and the tug of inertia have hypnotized you1 ,jack1 until you1 being down in the gutter--through choice--see only your side4 ,yet1 your barbaric yawp is being heard1 and ,i am your antipodal organ1 passing it along4 ,meanwhile you ride on the bumpers provided by the ,trusts1 and these bumpers carry you forward to your destination4 ,the pie you eat is made by the ,pie ,trust1 yet you find it palatable and ask for more4 ,if the ,pie ,trust didn't make good pies and sell them at a fair valuation1 housewives would make their own pies4 ,or they might find pie-timber too expensive1 and then you would go pieless ,the great consolidated industries serve society1 and their very existence turns on their ability to minister and to help4 ,that which does not serve1 dies4 ,if the ,trusts overcharge they invite competition and dissolution4 ,success lies in co-operation and reciprocity1 and the hope of the future is in the fact that the world knows it4 ,we can't go back to chaos1 and start over4 ,we must go on4 ,light lies ahead1 not behind4 ,we are not going to take off the train-crews1 and put the tramps in possession4 ,there are accidents occasionally now1 but there would be more then4 ,safety lies in getting rid of the tramps4 ,one wide-awake1 vigilant man at the switch is worth more to society than all the tramps who ride the brakebeams4 ,get to work1 ,jack1 and if you can't find the job you want1 then take the one you can get6 ,to prove yourself able to rastle a big job1 get busy and take care of a little one4 ,power does not reveal itself in scolding4 ,and with all your getting1 get busy6 ,yours for the ,evolution6 ,illustration ,illustration ,consecrated ,lives ,here's a thought1 ,dearie1 that ,i give to you because ,i haven't a very firm grasp upon it myself4 ,in order to clarify my mind ,i explain to you4 ,and thus1 probably1 do ,i give you something which is already yours4 ,grateful8 ,of course you are--there6 ,the thought is this--but before ,i explain it let me tell of what a man saw in a certain cottage in ,denmark4 ,and it was such a little whitewashed cottage1 too1 with a single1 solitary rosebush clambering over the door6 ,an ,artist1 his ,wife and their ,little ,girl lived there4 ,there were four rooms1 only1 in this cottage--a kitchen1 a bedroom1 a workroom and the ,other ,room ,the kitchen was for cooking1 the bedroom for sleeping1 the workroom for work1 and the ,other ,room was where the occupants of the cottage received their few visitors4 ,when the visitors remained for tea or lunch1 the table was spread in the ,other ,room1 but usually the ,artist1 his ,wife and their ,little ,girl ate their meals in the kitchen1 or in ,summer on the porch at the back of the house4 ,now the ,artist painted pictures1 and his ,wife carved beautiful shapes in wood2 but they didn't make much money--in fact1 no one seemed to know them at all4 ,they didn't have funds to accumulate a library1 and perhaps would not if they had4 ,but still they owned all the books written by ,georg ,brandes4 ,these books were kept in a curious little case1 which the ,artist and his ,wife1 themselves1 had made ,and before the case of books was an ancient ,roman lamp1 suspended from the ceiling by a chain4 ,and the lamp was kept always lighted1 night and day4 ,each morning before they tasted food1 the man and his ,wife read from ,georg ,brandes1 and then they silently refilled1 trimmed and made the lamp all clean and tidy ,oho6 why1 your eyes are filling with tears--how absurd6--and you want to hear more about the ,artist and his ,wife and the ,little ,girl6 ,but1 bless me6 that is all ,i know about them4 ,however1 ,i do know that ,georg ,brandes is one of the ,apostles of the ,better ,day4 ,his message is a plea for beauty--that is to say1 harmony4 ,he would have us live lives of simplicity1 truth1 honesty and gentleness ,he would have us work for harmony and love1 instead of for place and power4 ,georg ,brandes is an individualist and a symbolist4 ,he thinks all of our belongings should mean much to us1 and that great care should be exercised in selection4 ,we need only a few things1 but each of these things should suggest utility1 strength1 harmony and truth4 ,all of our actions must be suggestive of peace and right ,not only must we speak truth1 but we must live it4 ,our lives should be consecrated to the good3 lives consecrated to ,truth and ,beauty4 ,consecrated ,lives6 ,and so this ,artist and his ,wife ,i told you of were priests of ,beauty1 and their ,little ,girl was a neophyte2 and the room where the ,roman lamp burned was filled with the holiness of beauty1 and no unkind thought or wrong intent could exist there4 ,consecrated ,lives6 that is the subject4 ,there is a brotherhood of such1 and you can reach out and touch finger-tips with the members the round world over4 ,beauty is an ,unseen ,reality--an attempt to reveal a spiritual condition4 ,members of this ,brotherhood of ,consecrated ,lives do not take much interest in ,political ,policies2 and all the blatant blowing of brass horns that are used on ',change1 in pulpits1 or by ,fourth of ,july speakers are to them trivial and childish4 ,they distinguish at once the note of affectation1 hypocrisy and pretense in it all4 ,they know its shallowness1 its selfishness and its extremely transient quality4 ,yet your man of the ,consecrated ,life may mix with the world1 and do the world's business1 but for him it is not the true world1 for hidden away in his heart he keeps burning a lamp before a shrine dedicated to ,love and ,beauty ,the ,adept only converses at his best with an ,adept1 and he does this through self-protection4 ,to hear the world's coarse laugh in his ,holy of ,holies--no6 and so around him is a sacred circle1 and within it only the ,elect are allowed to enter4 ,to join this brotherhood of ,consecrated ,lives requires no particular rites of initiation--no ceremonial--no recommendations ,you belong when you are worthy4 ,but do not for a moment imagine you have solved the difficulty when you have once entered4 ,to pride yourself on your entrance is to run the danger of finding yourself outside the pale with password hopelessly forgotten4 ,within the esoteric lines are circles and inner circles1 and no man yet has entered the inmost circle where the ,ark of the ,covenant is secreted4 ,all is relative4 ,but you know you belong to the ,brotherhood when you feel the absolute nothingness of this world of society1 churches1 fashion1 politics and business2 and realize strongly the consciousness of the ,unseen ,world of ,truth1 ,love and ,beauty ,the first emotion on coming into the ,brotherhood is one of loneliness and isolation4 ,you pray for comradeship1 and empty arms reach out into the darkness4 ,but gradually you awaken to the thought that you are one of many who hope and pray alike2 and that slowly this oneness of thought and feeling is making its impress felt4 ,then occasionally you meet one of your own4 ,this one may be socially high or low1 rich or poor1 young or old1 man or woman--but you recognize each other on sight and hold sweet converse ,then you part1 mayhap1 never to meet again1 but you are each better1 stronger1 nobler for the meeting4 ,consecrated ,lives6 ,you meet and you part1 but you each feel a firmer impulse to keep the light burning--the altar light to ,truth1 ,simplicity and ,beauty4 ,no other bond is required than that of devotion to ,truth1 the passion of listening in the ,silence1 the prayer for ,wholeness and ,harmony1 the earnest desire to have your life reflect the ,good4 ,all man-made organization would be fatal to the sweet1 subtle and spiritual qualities of the ,brotherhood ,for organization means officers1 judicial robes1 livery1 arbitrary differentiation1 and all the vile and foolish claptrap of place and power4 ,it means the wish to dictate1 select and exclude1 and this means jealousy1 prejudice and bitterness--fifteen candidates for a vacant bishopric with heartaches to match6 ,no organization ever contained within its ranks the best4 ,organization is arbitrary and artificial2 it is born of selfishness2 and at the best is a mere matter of expediency4 ,the ,brotherhood of ,consecrated ,lives admits all who are worthy1 and all who are excluded1 exclude themselves4 ,if your ,life is to be a genuine consecration1 you must be free4 ,only the free man is truthful2 only the heart that is free is pure4 ,how many compose this ,brotherhood--who shall say8 ,there are no braggart statisticians1 no paid proselytes with their noisy boastings4 ,two constitute a congregation1 and where they commune is a temple4 ,many belong who do not know it2 others there be who think they belong1 and are so sure of it that they do not4 ,but the ,brotherhood is extending its lines2 and what think you the earth will be like when the majority of men and women in it learn that to be simple and honest and true is the part of wisdom1 and that to work for ,love and ,beauty is the highest good8 ,illustration ,marriage and ,divorce ,my old co-ed college chum1 ,winifred ,black1 has recently propounded this question1 8,why are husbands lobsters80 ,so ,i'll explain to ,winifred the cause of this sad state which devolutes a lover into a lobster4 ,it's like this3 the rule is that the male of the genus homo is never any better than he has to be4 ,having said this much1 let me further add that this truth also applies to the female of the genus homo4 ,a marriage that is practically indissoluble gives the man security in his position4 ,he is not obliged to win favors--he merely exercises his rights4 ,as for the woman1 she has him1 and when she reminds him of the fact1 hell is to pay4 ,the man who stands on his rights1 thinks about his rights1 talks of his rights1 belongs to the ,lobsteria4 ,he has ceased to be either loving or lovable4 ,the only right any man should have is the right to be decent--that is1 to be agreeable and useful ,one of ,nature's chief intents in sex is to bring about beauty1 grace and harmony4 ,the flowing mane and proud step of the horse1 the flamboyant tail of the peacock1 the song of the bird1 the perfume and color of the flowers1 are all sex manifestations1 put forth with intent to attract1 please and fascinate4 ,charm of manner is a sex attribute which has become a habit4 ,the creative principle in all art is a secondary sex manifestation4 ,the average married man feels that he is immune from the necessity of winning1 pleasing1 charming--he owns property4 ,he's a ,turk6 ,and from the ,turk and the ,comet1 good ,lord1 deliver us6 ,public ,opinion is the great natural restraining force4 ,we are ruled by ,public ,opinion1 not by statute law4 ,if statute law expresses the ,zeitgeist it is well1 but often law hampers and restrains ,public ,opinion ,divorce laws are obsolete in their character1 and should die the death4 ,a marriage that can not be dissolved tends to tyranny4 ,there is a rudimentary something in man that makes him a tyrant--that divides humanity into master and slave--and to these barbaric instincts we are heir4 ,the business of civilization is to make men free4 ,and freedom means responsibility4 ,the curse of marriage is that it makes the parties immune from very much of that gentle consideration which freedom bestows4 ,freedom in divorce is the one thing that will transform the marital boor into a gentleman4 ,freedom in divorce is the one thing that will abolish the domestic steam-roller4 ,freedom in divorce is the one thing that will correct the propensity to nag1 in both male and female4 ,we gain freedom by giving it4 ,we hold love by giving it away4 ,to enslave another is to enslave yourself4 ,constancy1 unswerving and eternal1 is only possible where men and women are free4 ,marriage was first a property-right4 ,the woman was owned by the man4 ,she was a chattel4 ,he had the right of taking her life if she attempted to escape1 or was otherwise unruly ,then the priests came in and declared marriage a sacred rite4 ,they brazenly declared that the marriage where they did not officiate was no marriage at all--that it was a base and unholy alliance1 and that the children were illegitimate4 ,the relationship of man and woman was to them a sin and a shame1 but by their approval it was redeemed and made proper and right4 ,to grant a divorce was to admit that the rite did not 8take40 ,hence1 divorce was tabu4 ,the ,church isn't interested in divorce--all the church is fighting for is to hold its position4 ,then comes civil marriage1 which is a contract between the man and the woman from which neither party can withdraw without laying the whole matter before the courts--and the newspapers4 ,and the sacredness of contract takes the place of the sacredness of the rite4 8,i would hold my friend by no stronger tie than the virtue that is in my soul10 said the gentle ,emerson4 ,easy divorce would make divorce unnecessary in a vast number of cases1 because it would put men and women on their good behavior1 and thus do away with incompatibility4 ,that which tends to increase charm of manner can not be bad2 that which tends to conform a lover into a lobster is not wholly good4 ,all over the ,united ,states there is a general demand for a uniform divorce law4 ,this is right and well4 ,and the way to bring about this uniformity is to do away with all divorce laws4 ,if divorce were free1 it would probably be no more frequent than it is now4 ,marriage should be difficult1 and divorce easy4 ,as it is now1 any preacher will marry anything to anybody for fifty cents ,nightly1 clergymen are aroused from sleep to marry couples out of the second-story window4 ,marriages occur in circus-rings1 balloons1 show-windows1 and yesterday ,i heard of a wedding in an automobile going on the high clutch at speed-limit1 with ,papa's car opening up the cut-off close behind in hot pursuit ,bum1 lum1 de-dum6 ,marriage is so serious a matter that it should not be entered upon lightly4 ,the old plan of publishing the bans was founded on commonsense4 ,the couple about to embark should be compelled to take a full month to think about it1 and persons absolutely unfit should be debarred4 ,but once entered upon1 just two people know whether the venture is a success--and they are the man and the woman4 ,in the name of freedom1 let the only parties who are vitally interested decide the issue4 ,divorce is a heroic remedy for an awful condition4 ,it is the culmination of a fearful tragedy ,i know of nothing worse than incompatibility4 ,there is no hell equal to the hell of having to live with a person who is not your own4 ,either party who wants a divorce should have it4 ,and the proof that it is desired should be reason sufficient for granting it ,make way for liberty6 ,it isn't the law that brings a man and a woman together1 and no law should be invoked to hold them together4 ,the police should keep their heavy hands off4 ,what can an outside party know of this most subtle and delicate of all human relations6 ,the love of man for woman and of woman for man is the most powerful and persistent force in the universe4 ,and man in his greed has seized upon it and attempted to regulate it from ,harrisburg1 ,hartford and ,helena4 ,now there are many folks who think it should be looked after from the ,district of ,columbia4 ,god help us all--just lift off the roofs and take a look at ,social ,washington some night at four ,a4 ,m46 ,the lawyer here steps in and becomes as insistent and as dogmatic as the priest4 ,once you could marry only through the ministrations of a priest2 now you can secure a divorce only through the services of a lawyer--often a dozen are employed1 counting both sides4 8,why make life difficult1 complex and heavy80 cries ,emerson4 ,and well does he ask the question ,this supreme thing in life1 our love1 can not be regulated by man's law ,the ,supreme ,power that made1 fashioned and gave it to us provided for its automatic regulation4 ,when love1 honor and respect die1 it is time in the name of purity to part4 ,no priest can consecrate the holy relationship of a man and a woman1 but ,god can and does4 ,love is the only consecration--and love is enough ,to imagine that ,god should endow us with this mighty passion1 and then leave its regulation to those who govern us for a consideration1 is an insult to the ,divine ,intelligence of which we are a part ,the mating of a man and a woman is the one sacred thing in life4 ,and left alone it is lovely and true in all its attributes4 ,in law1 they will tell you that 8the plaintiff has all the rights his contract gives him and no more40 ,in ,nature1 a man should have all the rights which love bestows1 and no more4 ,and when ,i speak of man ,i mean woman1 too1 for there is the male man and the female man ,i believe in equality--the equality of ,nature1 or1 if you please1 of ,god4 ,i do not believe in the law interposing and giving a man rights and a woman privileges4 ,neither do ,i understand why the money a woman earns should belong to a man1 unless we first grant the righteousness of master and slave1 and frankly admit that the man owning the woman1 also owns per se all that she produces1 including her children ,god has decided who the children belong to--they belong to the woman who bore them and whose body nourished them4 ,but man steps in and makes laws about a mother's instincts4 ,men and women mate1 and being mated cleave together until death do them part--and longer4 ,they whom ,god has joined together no man can put asunder4 ,the mischievous meddling of man leads to a condition where the parties think they own each other4 ,this is slavery4 ,many married men treat any other woman with more respect than they treat their wives4 ,the gallantry that holds through gentle treatment and just is gone when the man thinks he holds a warranty-deed for the property4 ,to be free you must be on your good behavior4 ,and do not for a moment imagine that a man would leave his mate if law did not manacle him to her4 ,he is held by an unseen silken cord as strong as ,fate1 as constant as ,life1 as persistent as ,death4 8,whither thou goest1 ,i will go3 and thy people shall be my people40 ,the divine attraction which brings the right man and the right woman together must be trusted as strong and sufficient enough to hold them4 ,when you treat them as rats baited into a trap1 from which escape is impossible1 you dissolve the main idea and interpose the thought of escape4 ,and this is what makes so many married men and women stray in their sleep and tread the border-land of folly4 ,i would hold my mate by the supreme integrity of my love for her1 and by no other bond4 ,and this once fixed in the minds of men and women would make for constancy4 ,nothing is more terrible in life than to break and sunder human relations ,to be true to your own is the natural thing1 because it is the right thing4 ,it is the only policy that pays4 ,happiness lies in loyalty4 ,this applies to any field of human endeavor4 ,the race knows it now for the first time in history4 ,truth is the new virtue1 and ,truth is a virtue because it reduces the perplexities of life and brings good results4 ,the love of man for woman and of woman for man1 and of both for their children1 is a divine instinct ,when you bolster and brace it by political blacksmiths and shuddering shysters1 you doubt its constancy1 and1 what is worse1 you suggest the doubt to the very people you seek to fetter ,the greatest line ever written by ,humboldt was this3 8,the ,universe is governed by ,law40 ,but he did not refer to the laws of man ,he referred to the laws of ,nature1 or1 if you please1 the laws of ,god1 although ,humboldt in his latter years never used the word 8,god40 ,i believe in the blessed trinity of ,man1 ,woman and ,child4 ,these to me express ,divinity4 ,left alone the woman would be the companion1 friend and helpmeet of the man1 not his slave1 pet1 plaything1 drudge1 doormat and scullion4 ,happiness lies in equality4 ,the effort you put forth to win the woman1 you should be compelled to exercise through life in order to hold her4 ,and you will hold her by so long as ,love kisses the lips of ,death1 and the dimpled hands of the babe encircle the neck of its father ,the house of the harlot exists because love is gyved1 fettered1 blindfolded and sold in the marketplaces4 ,there is nothing so pulls on the heartstrings of the normal1 healthy man as the love for wife and child ,always and forever he wears them in his heart of hearts4 ,to imagine that he would forsake them for the husks of license1 unless looked after by ,jaggers and ,jaggers1 is to doubt the ,wisdom of the ,creator4 ,in our hearts ,divine ,wisdom implanted the seeds of loyalty and right4 ,these are a part of the great plan of self-preservation4 ,we do not walk off the cliff1 because we realize that to do so would mean death4 ,make men and women free1 and they will travel by the ,eternal ,guiding ,stars4 ,that which makes for self-respect in men and women1 putting each on his good behavior1 increasing the sum of good-will and lessening hate1 will have a most potent influence on future generations4 ,i can not imagine a worse handicap than to be tumbled into life by incompatible parents and be brought up in an atmosphere of strife4 8,we have bred from the worst in the worst possible way1 and the result is a race of scrubs10 says ,alfred ,russel ,wallace4 ,all that tends to tyranny in parents manifests itself in slavish traits in the children4 ,freedom is a condition of mind1 and the best way to secure it is to breed it4 ,so ,i say1 make marriage difficult by demanding notification and a pause2 then make divorce free on application of either party ,do you remember the woman who wanted a divorce if she couldn't get it1 and if she could1 did not want it8 ,no one wants a divorce from his own ,this would be the one horrible and appalling thing in life4 ,let life be automatic4 ,make room for the ,divine4 ,and in this article ,i have only stated what all thinking men and women know and believe1 but which they--wisely--decline to say or even admit4 ,therefore1 ,i have said it for them4 ,we will now listen to the ,anvil ,chorus4 ,illustration ,the ,taxation of ,church ,property ,i am in receipt of a very interesting letter from the ,reverend ,a4 ,b4 ,taylor1 ,lakeside1 ,new ,york1 in which he says that he reads ,the ,fra with much pleasure and profit1 and often receives valuable help therefrom in compiling his sermons4 ,doctor ,taylor is an orthodox ,methodist1 and the fact that ,i am able to express for him1 in degree1 many of the things he holds as truth is one of the encouraging signs of the times4 ,it is frank1 friendly and beautiful in ,doctor ,taylor to write me his acknowledgments4 ,but after writing the letter he adds a postscript4 ,i might say that ,i have a suspicion he wrote the beautiful letter in order to add the postscript1 but ,i will not4 ,here is the ,p4,s43 8,one thing ,i do not like1 and can not comprehend1 is why you so wrongfully advocate the taxing of church property40 ,then he encloses a column clipping from ,the ,christian ,work and ,evangelist1 wherein the reasons for exemption of church property from taxation are fully set forth4 ,very seldom does one get the entire argument at first hand1 but here it all is1 skilfully presented ,i give it in its entirety3 8,the worst enemy ,new ,york has1 or any city has1 is the perennial critic who would tax the churches4 ,some interesting correspondence has recently been going on in one of the ,new ,york papers over this matter4 ,some one by the name of ,hubbard discovered that there were several million dollars' worth of property in churches which was untaxed4 ,the critic supported his arguments by statements that the churches are not direct public servants1 as are schools and hospitals2 that they exist to teach certain doctrines of their own1 differing among themselves1 and which have no direct relation to the public good--some of the doctrines1 indeed1 being pernicious1 according to this critic4 ,the short-sightedness of all this is apparent to the most superficial mind4 ,the policy of taxing the churches would be almost suicidal to any town or city4 ,the churches save ,new ,york fifty times what the city loses in taxes from them4 ,here are a few facts which when perceived stop all such talk at once3 ,the ,church is the greatest police force in the community4 ,the ,roman ,catholic ,church alone--we mention that ,church because it practises the negative doctrine of restraint more than do the ,protestant churches--restrains hundreds of thousands of men and women from petty crimes that would cost ,new ,york more than all her courts and police and jails and prisons have cost her for years4 ,take the churches out of ,new ,york for ten years and it would be an unsafe city to live in1 and the expense of administering its criminal courts and prisons would bankrupt it4 ,as a matter of fact1 the teaching of any particular theological doctrine is the smallest part of any work the churches do ,go into any church in ,new ,york and you will find that fully three-fourths of all the efforts are being directly expended in making good citizens4 ,in ,sunday school the children are being taught honesty1 purity1 brotherhood1 ambition and the unselfish life4 ,fully two-thirds of the sermons of the average preacher are direct inspirations to the moral life or instructions in ethics4 ,we venture to say that had our friend collected fifty of the sermons preached in ,new ,york last ,sunday he would have found forty-nine which dealt with practical religious life to one on the doctrine1 say1 of the future life4 ,of course1 there are millions of people who have found in their experience that the #8peculiar doctrines1' as our friends call them1 produce the highest type of citizenship4 ,as a matter of fact1 the main efforts of the churches of ,new ,york are put on producing honest and altruistic men ,heaven only knows what would become of the city if its one thousand four hundred churches were crippled by great taxes4 ,it is bad enough now4 ,the police service the churches render ,new ,york saves the city millions every year4 ,the service of furnishing her with honest and unselfish men can not be put in numbers4 ,there are none large enough40 ,it will please be noticed that the editor of ,the ,christian ,work and ,evangelist starts his article by informing us who the worst enemy of ,new ,york or any city actually is4 ,this worst enemy1 according to my ,christian colleague1 is the critic who would tax the churches4 ,thus1 before he attempts to reply to the critic1 he denounces the critic as not only an enemy of the ,state1 but its worst enemy4 ,grafters1 thieves1 dealers in dope1 procurers1 sweat-shop fiends1 murderers1 all take second place3 the worst enemy of a city--any city--is the man who advocates the taxation of church property4 ,the editor himself is a ,christian1 a church-member and a clergyman4 ,does he stand as a sample of the head1 hand and heart of the modern church-member8 ,i think so4 ,he is a man of education1 of position1 honored and respected in his denomination4 ,and he tells us that people who disagree with him in a matter of finance are not only the enemies of the ,state1 but its worst enemies4 8,a traitor to ,god is a traitor to his country40 ,thus did religious fanaticism once link the heretic and the traitor as one ,to disagree with the prevailing religion was to be regarded as the foe of society4 ,how hard the tyrants die6 ,yet many clergymen believe that it would be better to put church property on an absolute parity with all other property4 ,in fact1 many churches now voluntarily pay taxes4 ,the great and influential congregation presided over by ,rabbi ,leonard ,levy of ,pittsburgh requested the assessors to tax their synagogue at its cost valuation of three hundred thousand dollars ,in ,toronto is a ,baptist church--the ,jarvis ,street ,baptist ,church1 ,i believe--that has paid taxes on its property for more than twenty years1 because the congregation voting on the question decided that an evasion of taxes on the part of a church because it did 8good0 was really no better than the exemption of an individual for the same reason4 ,the enemy of the ,state1 forsooth1 is the man who asks some one to pay a few paltry dollars for police and fire protection6 ,naturally1 one might say the enemy of the ,state is the man who refuses to pay his quota of expense for the maintenance of the ,government machinery4 ,the editor of ,the ,christian ,work and ,evangelist is a clergyman ,he is paid by the religious denomination he serves4 ,this denomination has large holdings of real estate1 upon which it pays no taxes4 ,if it paid taxes it would not have so much money to pay clergymen2 therefore1 one of its leading clergymen1 acting as spokesman for the rest1 defines for us the worst enemy of ,new ,york--8or any city40 ,thus we get the quality of logic that rules in our churches4 ,it would be laughable were it not pitiable in its weakness4 ,the church isn't dead--it can still call vile names ,how nimbly it yet flings the theologic stink-pot6 ,the fires of the auto da fe are not extinguished4 ,they are only banked1 banked in the editorial office of ,the ,christian ,work and ,evangelist4 8,the worst enemy of ,new ,york or any city60 ,it is the old1 old cry of 8,away with him60 ,it is the cry of entrenched tyranny1 that he who disagrees with you in religious matters is the enemy of the ,state4 ,socrates spoke disrespectfully of the gods1 and for this they brewed for him the hemlock4 ,the crime of ,jesus was that he undermined the ,state ,savonarola1 ,bruno1 ,latimer1 ,wyclif1 enemies of society--all6 ,the editor of ,the ,christian ,work and ,evangelist thinks that the ,state and ,religion are one4 ,and he is right4 ,for just as long as the ,state grants immunity from taxation to church property1 the divorce is not complete4 ,we haven't yet caught up with ,thomas ,jefferson4 ,well1 you know what the ,state in the past has done to those who are considered its enemies8 ,yes1 and that is just what the meek and lowly editor of ,the ,christian ,work and ,evangelist would do to you if he had the power4 ,carefully read1 analyzed and digested1 we find that the sole excuses churches have for not paying taxes are3 ,first1 the churches form a police system which prevents certain people from committing crime4 ,second1 the churches supply us a great number of honest and unselfish citizens1 who otherwise would be rogues ,for these two things they claim a cash reward from the community4 ,my answer is that both propositions are assumptions1 quite gratuitous1 but that1 even if they were true1 it would not justify the ,state in remitting their quota of taxes4 ,i have had a large and varied experience with clergymen and church-members1 and that they are better morally and stand higher intellectually are propositions which they admit1 but which no one besides themselves puts forward4 ,the names of clergymen1 ,sunday-school teachers and pious deacons who go wrong would fill a five-foot shelf of books4 ,in fact1 it is an axiom that the bankers' colony in every penitentiary is made up mostly of church-members ,when the ,university of ,copenhagen says that church-members are better citizens than non-church-members1 ,i may believe it4 ,until then1 the verdict must be1 8,not ,proved0--and especially so1 in view of the fact that when ,christianity was absolutely supreme the headsman worked overtime1 and crime1 grime1 blood1 poverty1 disease and woe were the rule1 not the exception4 ,the doctrine that some folks are so much better than others that they deserve eternal bliss is the most selfish idea ever put forth by mortal man4 ,folks who think they are better than others1 usually aren't4 ,that the idea of endless joy for believers1 and endless hell for doubters1 is not being preached now so much as it was a few years ago1 is nothing to the credit of church-members4 ,all separations of society into sacred and secular1 good and bad1 saved and lost1 learned and illiterate1 rich and poor1 are illusions which mark certain periods in the evolution of society ,the offer of endless life and the threat of endless hell are frightful rudimentary errors of the savage mind1 born of fear and frenzy1 and then perpetuated as a police system by a ,divine ,collection ,agency4 ,for not only does a religion of fear keep people 8good10 but it also makes them pay for being kept good4 ,the offer of immunity from the penalties of sin1 through belief in the blood of ,jesus1 is merely the immunity that human sacrifice once provided1 slightly refined and modified4 ,the 8belief0 in a blood sacrifice has taken the place of the sacrifice itself4 ,the orthodox ,christian ,church still teaches immunity from penalties on the acceptance of its creed4 ,from exemption from the natural penalty of a misdeed to exemption from taxation is but a step4 ,the man who can accept the one takes kindly to the other4 8,jesus died and paid it all--yes1 all the debt ,i owe40 8,saved by the blood of the ,lamb40 ,that is1 throw it off on some one else4 ,who cares6 ,any way to go scot-free6 ,and this evasion of a penalty for wrong committed is called 8the glad tidings of great joy40 ,to escape the payment of taxes is a variation of the same idea ,many of these 8saved0 people do not pay their debts until compelled to4 ,if they work for you they loaf and visit on 8company time40 ,they cheat you in a hundred ways1 and often spend as much time trying to evade the responsibility of shouldering the burden as1 rightly used1 would have carried the message to ,garcia4 ,the entire ,christian doctrine of rewards and punishments1 of a vicarious atonement1 and the substitution of a pure and holy man for the culprit1 is a vicious and misleading philosophy ,that fear in some instances has deterred men from crime1 there is no doubt4 ,but the error of religion as a police system lies in the fact that it makes superstition perpetual4 ,untruth that good may follow is not a nice philosophy4 ,it will be noted that the learned editor of ,the ,christian ,work and ,evangelist pleads1 as a reason why churches should not pay taxes1 the assertion that three-fourths of all sermons now preached deal with present-day problems1 and the effort is not merely to save souls but to make better citizens4 ,this is doubtless true ,the church is saving herself from dissolution by becoming secularized4 ,gradually the world is being educated into the belief that one world at a time is enough4 ,also1 a vast number of men and women see the fact that immunity and exemption are not desirable1 that nothing can ever be given away1 and that something for nothing is very dear ,to make a man exempt is to take from him just so much manhood2 and to make a church exempt is to weaken the fabric and place the institution on a mendicant basis ,to accept salvation for yourself1 with the consciousness that there is still one soul in hell1 would turn your paradise into purgatory1 if your soul were worth a damn4 8,one man is no man10 said ,aristotle four hundred years before ,christ4 ,we are all parts and particles of each other4 ,this matter of exemption from taxation of certain edifices and certain men1 transportation at half-rates1 and the ten-per-cent discount to clergymen and teachers1 all hinges on a lack of the ,ethical ,monistic ,concept ,it assumes that certain work is sacred and other work secular2 that certain places are holy and others profane4 ,my esteemed colleague1 the editor of ,the ,christian ,work and ,evangelist1 admits that this world is no longer 8but a desert drear1 heaven is my home40 ,he admits that we are here1 and that this is our home now1 at least4 ,when he goes a step further and admits that this is ,god's world1 not the ,devil's2 that every man is doing the best he can with the light and power he possesses2 that all human service is sacred2 that there is no high nor low2 that there are no 8saved0 so long as men are in bonds to fear1 superstition and incompetence2 that a smokestack is as sacred as a steeple--then he will agree with me that churches should pay their just quota of taxes4 ,good people no longer ask immunity from payment of bills because they are 8good40 ,businessmen are just as 8good0 as preachers4 ,business today is founded on the thought of reciprocity and mutuality ,we help ourselves only as we help others4 ,and all transactions in life should be co-operative and reciprocal4 ,granting for argument's sake that the ,church does do all the good claimed by my ,christian brother1 still that is no reason for its exemption4 8,so far as this ,court knows1 all men who live in houses are good men1 making the world of men better by their lives2 but this is no reason why their residences should be exempt from taxation40 ,so said a wise and learned judge in deciding the question of taxation of parsonages in ,illinois4 ,here we get the growing concept of the world of thinking men and women1 the concept of ,ethical ,monism4 ,all is ,one1 and the sacred is that which serves4 ,pay the price1 and provided you pay the price1 the thing you buy is worth the money4 ,the churches will never do the good they are capable of doing until they throw off mendicancy4 ,and the beggar is a robber who has lost his nerve1 a bandit with a streak of yellow in his ego4 ,the churches must take their stand1 firmly and frankly1 as human institutions1 asking no exemption1 demanding no immunity4 ,then they will be free4 ,for her own good the ,church must meet her responsibilities1 and not shift her burden of taxes upon the people who do not believe her creed4 ,if you believe in a 8peculiar0 doctrine1 that is your affair1 and you are the man to pay for its support4 ,to say that ,i must pay for the support of your creed or else be branded as a foe of society is bad logic1 worse ethics1 and very indelicate1 not to say discourteous ,only that is fair and beautiful which neither threatens1 bribes1 evades1 demands nor supplicates4 ,illustration ,illustration ,free ,motherhood ,the most important question that confronts the future is not ,new ,thought1 the ,juvenile ,court1 the ,tariff1 the ,single ,tax1 nor ,fletcherism4 ,it is ,free ,motherhood4 ,the perpetuity of the race depends upon ,motherhood4 ,i trust there will be no argument on that ,the quality of our race turns on the quality of the parents2 and especially does the quality of the child turn on the peace1 happiness and well-being of the mother4 ,you can not make the mother a disgraced and taunted thing and expect the progeny to prosper4 ,when you strike a mother1 you strike the race4 ,there is no hint in ,nature that ,motherhood is ever shameful or disgraceful4 ,only a social and legal fiction ever makes it so4 ,it is vain to look to the ,church for reform in this direction4 ,in fact1 the ,church is the chief sinner4 ,the necessity for orphan asylums came in with the vows of celibacy and chastity ,wherever these two things exist--celibacy and chastity--orphan asylums flourish ,less than five per cent of the children in orphan asylums are orphans4 ,the rest are waifs and outcasts4 ,if the ,state did not make the mother a criminal2 if ,society did not look upon her as disgraced2 and if the ,church did not refer to her as 8ruined10 most of the mothers of these 8orphans0 would cling to them ,for every thousand orphans1 nine hundred mothers reach empty arms out into the darkness4 ,the desire of the mother to protect and care for her child is the most persistent instinct that is implanted in the human heart4 ,if there is anything sacred in the world it is mother-love4 ,if there is anything divine in the universe1 it is the love of the mother for her baby ,we give pensions to the men who fought to save the ,state4 ,why not give a pension to every woman who goes down into the valley of death and kisses the white lips of pain8 ,isn't the mother just as necessary to the perpetuity of the ,state as the soldier8 ,i rather think so4 ,the necessity of the one is absolute1 the other is conjectural ,every mother should be recognized by the ,state 8for heroic services40 ,if she is not married1 her pension should be double that which her married sister receives4 ,we must conserve mother-love1 not dissipate it4 ,and let us remember this3 ,we can not successfully legislate against the biologic imperative4 ,to trample mother-love ruthlessly into the mire of conventionality1 and tear the child from the mother's arms1 and place it in an orphan asylum1 is the work of a false and hypocritical 8,christianity40 ,now that the whole world is trying to get back on a truthful basis as a move in the line of self-preservation1 is it not time that we look this issue squarely in the face and express ourselves concerning it8 ,before this babe is born it runs the hazard of murder from its conception ,that it survives reveals its hold on eternal life4 ,when born1 it is greeted with tears1 fears1 secrecy1 untruth1 hypocrisy1 and its divine heritage of mother-love is traded for a mess of institutional potash4 ,that most orphan asylums are now managed by skilled and able people is only a mitigation of the wrong4 ,a substitute is thus offered for mother-love--something just as good ,but the eternal fact remains3 ,there is no substitute for mother-love4 ,god is that jealous of it that ,he supplies nothing to equal it4 ,we can never have a noble race of men until we have a noble race of mothers4 ,and in order to be a noble woman1 this woman must be economically free ,wonderful changes have come to the world within a few years4 ,for a woman not to wed1 no longer carries a penalty4 ,the term 8old maid0 has now no terrors4 ,spinsterhood is an achievement1 not a disgrace4 ,the unmarried woman between forty and fifty is probably a self-supporting woman4 ,and this responsibility makes her the mental superior of her married sister who looks to a male man for food1 clothing and protection from the storm4 ,yet because a woman has not seen fit to marry is no reason for assuming that the cosmic urge is dead4 ,and just remember this1 that no woman ever lived who couldn't marry some man if she wanted to4 ,she will not marry because she is not content to accept any old thing4 ,it is always a question of what man4 ,and as women more and more are able to care for themselves--and this is the one sure economic tendency of the times--they will more and more cease being willing to swear to honor1 love and obey one man for ninety-nine years4 ,yet the mother instinct will not die on that account4 ,the race will not perish ,the independence of women will make them better mothers4 ,their children will be stronger in brain and body1 cleaner1 abler1 firmer in the ability to discover and decide for the right4 ,but ,free ,motherhood must be respected4 ,the word 8illegitimate0 is now pretty nearly banished1 since we have discovered that ,god smiles upon the freeborn child as upon none other4 ,william the ,conqueror1 ,theodoric the ,first1 ,erasmus1 ,jean ,dunois1 ,leonardo da ,vinci1 the ,empress ,josephine1 ,alexander ,hamilton1 ,abraham ,lincoln1 and scores of other intellectual kings that might be named1 have redeemed the 8small and select class0 from the unmanicured finger of shame ,we no longer look askance upon the offspring2 as for the father we smile away his 8past0 as a mere peccadillo1 and he becomes a deacon in the church--a pillar of society4 ,the mother1 however1 ,society still spits upon as one polluted4 ,this will not always be so4 ,the very fact that ,i am now writing on the subject1 and that several hundred thousand gentle men and women--the very intellectual pick of the world--will read my words1 argues progress4 ,others1 too1 are writing4 ,the world is changing--all things are being made new ,the crime of orthodoxy is its lack of faith4 ,it believes too little4 ,what we want is not a belief in one 8immaculate conception10 but a fixed and firm faith in the fact that whenever and wherever a mother holds in her arms a babe1 hugging it to her heart1 crooning to it a lullaby1 there is ,god4 ,when this time comes the ,state will provide a pension for every mother who cares for her babe4 ,as an economic move1 this will be cheaper than maintaining orphan asylums4 ,the child will be loved1 not institutionalized4 ,it will be a better citizen4 ,but best of all1 we will wipe away the tears of the mother4 ,we will rejoice with her that a man is born into the world ,we will extend gladness and congratulation1 not hypocritical sighs1 snarling sneers and sour faces4 ,froebel spoke of the 8little souls fresh from ,god0 ,and so1 too1 must we2 and when we do we will cease regarding the mother1 the vehicle of transport1 as a being to be shunned and maligned ,rather1 the miracle of ,motherhood will be reverenced2 and this will be a great moral uplift to all fathers as well as to mothers4 ,thus will the whole race be purified1 benefited1 strengthened and carried forward toward the ,divine ,ultimate ,illustration ,illustration ,why ,i ,am a ,philistine ,a long and very carefully written letter from an unknown gentleman who signs himself 8,retired ,professor0 has recently reached me4 ,the ,great ,obscure favor me quite often with anonymous epistles1 but life being short and the wastebasket wide1 ,i seldom reply4 ,yet now an exception must be made1 and ,i answer 8,retired ,professor0 for the sole and simple reason that he has 8retired10 and in retiring has made the world his debtor4 ,probably no one act of this man's entire life has been so potent for good as this4 ,he has set all ,professors without humor a most precious precedent4 ,in gratitude1 hoping that his example will bear fruit1 ,i reply4 ,did space permit ,i should be glad to print my correspondent's letter entire1 but the gist of his scholarly argument is that the ,society of the ,philistines is endeavoring to make free-thought universal and paganism popular4 ,he stoutly avers that the ancient ,philistines were the enemies of ,jehovah1 that they worshiped strange gods1 and that they were the sworn foes of the ,chosen ,people4 ,now this is the sad part3 he proves his case4 ,the gentleman explains that he would not have seen ,the ,philistine ,magazine had not his daughter1 8an unmarried lady of thirty-two10 purchased several copies2 but from this on1 with his permission1 no more numbers of this 8infidelic infernal machine0 shall enter his house ,my heart goes out to all unmarried ladies of thirty-two4 ,especially so when they have fathers who are irascible2 only one worse fate can befall a woman of thirty-two than to have an irascible father1 and that is to have a lover who is irate4 ,still ,i doubt me not that the daughter of 8,retired ,professor0 will find a way to read ,the ,philistine1 for booklets laugh at locksmiths6 ,yet1 ignorance prevails1 for is not 8,retired ,professor0 living proof8 ,and so ,i will say3 ,there lived in the ,far ,east about three thousand years ago a tribe of people known as ,philistines ,it is a hotly mooted question among the theologians whether they were so called because they lived in ,philistia or whether ,philistia took its name on account of being peopled by ,philistines4 ,i will not take sides on this issue1 but hedge closely and simply stand firm on the fact that a tribe called the ,philistines existed ,near them lived the ,hivites1 the ,moabites1 the ,canaanites1 the ,hittites1 the ,jebusites1 the ,perizzites1 the ,ammonites and the ,gothamites ,now1 among these tribes none was so strong1 none so intelligent1 none so handsome1 none so virtuous as the ,philistines4 ,and it came to pass that the superior quality of moral fiber in the ,philistines caused the entire country to be known as ,philistia2 it was the general name given to the whole valley of the ,jordan4 ,and the name endures even unto this day4 ,palestine means the land of the ,philistines4 ,and it seems that among them there was a rude sense of right and wrong4 ,for if a man owned a piece of ground and planted a vine on it1 and then watered and tended the vine1 the grapes that grew on this vine were his1 and all of the people agreed to this1 and the man and his neighbors knew all this without a ,dispensation ,these people planted vineyards1 and had gardens1 and fields of wheat and barley4 ,they had barns with threshing-floors2 and they had carts1 plows and other implements4 ,they builded houses and owned their homes2 and the men loved their wives and their children2 and the women were the comrades of the men--all taking part in the sports as well as in the work1 for they were a merry1 happy people ,now1 about thirteen centuries before the ,christian ,era1 while they were living in peace and prosperity1 there swooped down upon them a horde of escaped slaves1 called ,israelites ,these slaves had broken away from their masters in ,egypt4 ,the country to which they traveled was only about three hundred miles from ,egypt2 but as their average speed was less than a mile a week1 it took them forty years to make the journey4 ,the man who led these slaves in their flight was one ,moses1 who in a righteous cause had killed a man in ,egypt and fled4 ,after many years of exile1 during which time he had been in ,philistia and liked it1 he returned and led the exodus4 ,when the ,israelites left1 they took all the gold and silver ornaments and utensils they could 8borrow10 and melted them up4 ,and they were not ashamed of this act1 for they have written it down in the third chapter of a book called ,exodus4 ,the ancient ,israelites never had any clear ideas as to the rights of property4 ,when they found grapes growing on a vine1 they helped themselves and swore that the fruit was theirs by ,divine right4 ,in order to impress this ignorant1 barbaric horde with the sense of authority1 ,moses1 who was diplomatic as well as good1 told the people that ,god directed him and that ,deity told him what to do and say4 ,moses used to go up on a mountain1 clear above the clouds1 beyond where the mists hover1 and when he came down the people asked him what he had been up there for1 and he told them he went up there to see ,god4 ,in no other way could ,moses control this restless mob except by saying1 ,god says so and so4 ,and the fact that their leader was on such good terms with ,elohim or ,yahveh inflated these people so that they always spoke of themselves as 8the ,chosen ,people of ,god40 ,in fact1 they took it all in and were so vain and boastful that ,moses was often ashamed of them ,the ,jebusites1 the ,hittites and the ,moabites never referred to the ,israelites as the ,chosen ,people of ,god4 ,no one called them the ,chosen ,people of ,god--only they themselves4 ,and ,i wish to say right here that the individual who does a great and magnificent work is on close and friendly terms with ,god4 ,he is the ,son of ,god1 and it is necessary that he should feel this kinship in order to do his work4 ,from ,moses1 the called of ,god1 on up to ,socrates1 who listened to the ,demon1 to ,george ,fox1 who harkened to the ,voice1 to the prophets of our own time1 all lie low in the ,lord's hand and listen closely ere they act4 ,a man is strong only when he feels that he is backed by a ,power1 not his own1 that makes for ,righteousness4 ,so ,moses was not guilty of falsehood2 but the people who took him literally put him in a wrong light4 ,when ,i think of those brave souls1 the ,saviors of the ,world1 who have sought to lead men out of the captivity of evil--feeling and knowing that they were the ,sons of ,god--,i stand uncovered ,but a mass of people--a crowd1 a mob--that claims to be a 8,chosen ,people0 is a sight to make angels weep4 8,you can not indict a class10 said ,macaulay2 corporations have no souls1 and a horde that claims to be inspired is only a howling1 cowardly ,thing ,great men are ever lonely and live apart1 but birds of a feather flock together because they are afraid to flock alone4 ,they want warmth and protection--they are afraid4 ,a mob is the quintessence of cowardice--a dirty1 mad1 hydra-headed monster1 that one good valiant ,saint ,george can thrust to the heart4 ,when a mob speaks ,i say1 ,vox populi1 vox devil6 ,at the time the ,israelites tumbled pellmell upon the ,philistines1 ,moses had long been dead4 ,the mob was without a leader1 and quarrel was rife amid its broken ranks4 ,in a mad rush they stampeded the herds of the ,philistines1 scattered their flocks1 destroyed their gardens1 and as excuse they shouted1 ,we are the ,chosen ,people of ,god6 ,and one of their ,poets sang a song1 which runs thus3 8,moab is my washpot2 over ,philistia will ,i cast my shoe40 ,this only made the ,philistines laugh1 and although the ,israelites outnumbered them1 they went at it and scattered them4 ,finally1 after long years of warfare1 the fight was called a draw1 and the ,jews settled down and following the good example of the ,philistines made themselves homes4 ,of course1 as sane men and women1 we of today do not suppose that the great ,universal ,intelligence that holds the world in the hollow of ,his hand had much interest in the fight4 ,if this intelligence were a ,being1 ,i can imagine ,him looking over the battlement of ,heaven and turning with a weary smile to ,gabriel1 saying3 8,let 'em fight--what boots it6 ,they will all be dead tomorrow1 anyway40 ,it is a noteworthy fact that in the first chapter of the ,gospel of ,saint ,matthew the ,inspired ,writer traces the genealogy of ,jesus direct to the ,philistines4 ,in the sixth verse we find 8,david begat ,solomon of her who had been the wife of ,uriah40 ,back of this is ,ruth the ,moabitess1 who was the grandmother of ,david4 ,there is no such thing as tracing a pure ,jewish lineage back to the time of ,moses ,the ,jews went a-courting as soon as they arrived on the borders of ,canaan2 and the heathen quite fancied the ,israelitish women from the first4 ,in the ,book of ,ruth1 first chapter and fourth verse1 ,i see1 8,and they took them wives out of the country of ,moab40 ,the houses of ,capulet and ,montague have ever intermarried--it seems a quiet way ,nature has of playing a little joke4 ,and after a painstaking study of the matter ,i am fully convinced that the many sterling qualities in the ,jew are derived from his ,philistine ancestry4 ,no one doubts that ,solomon was the wisest man that ever lived4 ,his mother was a ,philistine4 ,now1 no man is ever greater than his mother1 and it is very plain that the great wisdom of ,solomon was derived from this pagan woman whose body and spirit nourished him1 in whose loving arms he was cradled1 and whose intellect first fired his aspiration4 ,this is all made plainer yet when we remember that ,david had many sons by ,jewish women1 and that all of these sons were positively no good--and some of them very1 very bad ,the facts are found in the ,second ,book of ,samuel--a book1 by the way1 which no respectable girl should allow her mother to read4 ,but if any captious critic arises and denies the ,law of ,heredity1 for argument's sake ,i'll waive this matter of maternal transmission of excellence and rest my case as to ,solomon's wisdom on the fact that he married over four hundred ,philistine women ,and1 as stated by ,sir ,walter ,besant in a recent story1 8a newly married woman always tells her husband everything she knows10 ,i feel safe in saying that ,solomon's transcendent wisdom was derived from ,philistinic sources4 ,only one incident in the history of this people do ,i wish to set straight before the world at this writing--that is the story of ,goliath ,according to recently discovered cuneiform inscriptions1 it is found that the giant lived long enough to attend the funeral of ,david1 so it is hardly likely that ,david slew him4 ,that ,david threw pebbles at the warrior is doubtless true1 but the giant of course paid no attention to the boys that followed him--going along about his business just as any other dignified giant would have done ,but ,david went home and told that he had killed the man--and the ,israelites wishing to leave a proud record wrote the tale down as history ,we have reason to believe that this story was interpolated into the ,bible during the first of the ,third ,century4 ,in ,david's case1 summer and autumn quite fulfilled the promise of spring ,that eleventh chapter of ,second ,samuel1 showing how he stole ,bathsheba and then killed ,uriah1 her husband1 reveals the quality of the man4 ,but it was left for his dying act to crown a craven career ,with his last lingering breath--with the rattle of death in his throat--he gasped to his son1 referring to a man who had never wronged him1 8,let not his hoar head go down to ,sheol in peace60 ,with the utterance of these frightful words his soul passed out into the ,unknown ,in all that ,david wrote1 not a word can ,i find that hints at his belief in a future life--he simply never thought of it--and dying as a dog dies1 he gnashed at ,shimei1 whose offense was that thirty-five years before he had told ,david a little wholesome truth ,shimei was a brave fellow and ,david dare not fight him1 so he made a truce with him and swore an oath that he would never molest him1 but dying he charged ,solomon to search him out with a sword ,this is recorded by the ,inspired ,writer in the ninth verse of the second chapter of ,first ,kings4 ,with forty-one distinct crimes to ,david's charge1 the killing of nine hundred thousand men and two hundred thousand women and children1 the houghing of thousands of horses1 all of which is set down in infallible ,holy ,writ1 his record is very bluggy4 ,in fact1 his whole life's pathway is streaked with infamy ,david being a literary man of acknowledged merit1 ,i have given him more attention than ,i would a plain1 every-day king4 ,and ,i now brand him as an all-round rogue4 ,i do this calmly1 holding myself personally responsible1 and fully prepared to plead justification and prove my case should the heirs or next-of-kin consider my language libelous4 ,and while ,i do not know anything about it for certain1 it is my opinion that at the ,last ,great ,day the folks who stayed around home and pruned their vines and tended their flocks and loved their wives and babies will fare a deal better than those other men who made war on an innocent people and tried to render them homeless ,of course1 ,i may be wrong about this1 but ,i can not help having an opinion4 ,altogether1 my sympathies are with the ,philistines--who were so strong in personality that they gave their name to the ,holy ,land--,pelishton1 ,pelesheth1 ,philistia1 ,palestina1 ,palestine4 ,long years ago ,professor ,jowett called attention to the fact that the word ,philistia literally meant ,land of ,friendship2 the term having the same root as the ,greek word ,philos--,love4 ,max ,muller has said1 8,the dwellers in the ,valley of the ,jordan1 in the fifteenth century before ,christ1 recognizing the idea of ,oneness or ,fraternity1 gave a name that signified ,love-,land to their country3 thus embodying the modern thought of the ,brotherhood of ,man40 ,in view of these things it was rather a strange move--a man so scholarly as ,matthew ,arnold applying the word 8,philistine0 as a term of reproach toward those who did not think as he did6 ,i can see1 though1 that he shaped his language to fit the ears of his clientele4 ,he sought to make clever copy--and he did4 ,the opinion being abroad that the ,philistines were the enemies of ,light--how very funny to throw the word like a mud ball at any and all who chanced to smile at his theories6 ,having small wit of their own1 the scribbling rabble took it up4 ,on reading certain books by a ,late ,critic1 who now wears prison garb and is doing the first honest work that ever his hands found to do1 ,i see that he is very fond of calling people who are outside of his particular cult1 8,philistines40 ,but look you6 ,brave ,taurus at the bullfight is a deal more worthy of respect than the picadores who for a price harrow him without ruth to his death ,and as his virtue surpasses that of any in the silken1 belaced and perfumed throng1 who sit safe and with lily fingers applaud1 so do we accept your banderilla1 recognizing from whence it comes1 and wear it jauntily as a badge of honor4 ,as the ,cross for eighteen hundred years has been a sacred emblem1 and the gallows since ,john ,brown glorious2 and as the word ,quaker1 flung in impudent and impotent wrath1 now stands for gentleness1 peace and truth1 so has the word ,philistine become a synonym for manly independence4 ,in ,literature he is a ,philistine who seeks to express his personality in his own way ,a true ,philistine is one who brooks no let or hindrance from the tipstaffs of letters1 who are only intent on crystallizing a life and language that are as yet very imperfect ,these men strive hard to reduce all life to a geometrical theorem and its manifestations to an algebraic formula4 ,but ,fate is greater than a college professor1 and so far its mysteries1 having given the slip to all the creeds1 are still at large4 ,my individual hazard at truth is as legitimate as yours4 ,the self-appointed beadles of letters demand that we shall neither smile nor sleep while their ,presiding ,elders drone1 but we plead in the ,world's ,assize for the privilege of doing both4 ,so in ,art we ask for the widest1 freest and fullest liberty for ,individuality--that's all6 ,illustration ,illustration ,oral ,righteousness ,in days agone1 if things tasted good we called them 8toothsome40 ,we did not work the subject out according to the ,herbert ,spencer ,law of ,synthesis1 but we dimly felt that teeth and taste were closely akin4 ,and therein were we quite correct ,the widow who declined to marry the man1 and on being discreetly pressed for a reason1 abruptly declared with a ,marie ,corelli defiance that it was because he did not have the ,dental-,floss ,habit1 was right in her instincts4 ,she would rid her of the reek before she took it on as a life lease4 ,for it is just such little things that make or mar1 when we have sworn to love1 honor and humor1 and face the party over the coffee-urn every morning for ninety-nine years4 ,the gentleman was not personally pleasant1 and although he may have had a college degree1 social position and spondulex1 yet a breath that would stop a watch put him to the bad1 and rightly so4 ,to such a one she could never murmur soft and low the word 8,mizpah60 ,nor could he salvo his kismet magnum and get it back again according to the ,aristotelian laws of action and reaction4 ,for gentlemen who are not toothsome are never socially gladsome4 ,if my years were not as those of the pterodactyl1 and ,i wanted to win the love of a woman1 ,i would look well to my molars4 ,brain1 brawn1 and the graceful two-step are as naught when toothsomeness is actively absent4 ,shakespeare had these two things in mind when he referred to a 8barber's breath10 and 8the breath of an unfee'd attorney10 which items do not come to us as the breath of ,spring4 ,abjure the weed and rice-paper1 eliminate the elevated spheroid1 and look you to your teeth1 ,cecil1 to your teeth1 ,i say4 ,and the rest follows4 ,we all have our opinions in matters of medicine1 but no one knocks on the dentist4 ,is love then a matter of toothsomeness8 ,i do not speak by the card1 for my knowledge along this line is merely academic1 yet a woman ,i know says1 8,yes40 ,but seemingly1 decayed teeth would give ,cupid a pain in his wee tummy small4 ,decayed politics are bad2 decayed literature is worse2 and to love a person with decayed molars would be like loving a mummy with tainted morals4 ,the increase in divorce1 and the much marital woe of which we hear1 are doubtless due to lack of toothsomeness ,the parties grin and bear it as long as they can--some declining to grin--and then strike for freedom1 fresh air and the open road4 ,aside from the esthetics of bad teeth1 there is the esoterics1 and worse than that1 is the hypersthenia which leads to language non-ethical1 offensive1 irrelevant and uncalled for4 ,a very slight irritation in the teeth throws the soul on the horn of the saddle4 ,to be sane and serene you have to be sound and salient4 ,we do business on a mighty small spiritual bank-balance4 ,to carry no reserve is like firing a boiler in which the gauges show no water4 ,in fact1 it means a very great danger of an explosion--and the grave necessity of being sent to the hospital and having the stub-end of your self-respect removed4 ,an aching tooth or a tooth of which you are conscious draws mightily on your mental reserve4 ,morphine1 or a dab of cotton soaked in chloroform1 will help you forget it1 but these things are drafts on the bank of futurity and the loan must be met with usurious interest4 ,i once knew a playwright who started in to write a great historical drama2 but he got a toothache1 and decided to make it a farce-comedy2 but all he produced was a fizzle ,seldom does a man with the toothache make good2 and to have cavities in your teeth and not know it is worse than to have the toothache1 since pain is ,nature's beneficent warning ,so1 to have decayed teeth and never have a toothache would mean lack of sensibility1 which is lack of life4 ,such a one hasn't enough nerves to make him irritable1 much less to give him artistic grouch ,and grouch is unused or misused energy--and have ,i not said that all energy is divine8 ,you write your poem1 your essay1 your play--just as you paint your picture1 carve your statue1 or give your oration--out of your surplus1 and never out of your capital ,should you begin to draw on your capital you get nerv4 pros4 or fatty degeneration of the cerebrum1 and are a candidate for ,billy ,muldoon's4 ,is oratory a matter of toothsomeness8 ,most certainly1 yes ,the greatest orator that ,new ,york ever produced was thrown from his artistic hobbyhorse once and forever1 when his store-teeth1 in an impassioned moment1 shot over the footlights and fell with a sickening thud into the orchestra4 8,say1 mister1 are these your teeth80 asked a man in a front seat1 as he solemnly arose and handed up the grinders4 ,and that broke up the meeting ,i once saw a man1 singing the part of ,tannhauser1 do a similar stunt4 ,and we all declared that he could go down to ,venusburg and stay there1 for all of us--he ceased to be interesting4 ,get this down as an axiom3 ,to speak well1 or sing well1 you must have good teeth ,the teeth are organs of speech--auxiliary organs at least4 ,when your voice whistles through your teeth1 and the tones come wheezy and with a sort of sad surprise1 there are soon bubbles in your think-tank1 and you travel home on your rim4 ,it is then time to sing ,tosti's ,good-by1 and retire from the stage1 thereafter warbling only to the gallery of your psychic self ,illustration ,the ,health ,habit ,there are three serious objections to my health prescriptions ,first1 ,i make no charge for them4 ,second1 they are written in plain ,english1 without myth1 miracle or mystery1 and can be understood even by the mediocre mind4 ,third1 you have to fill the prescription yourself1 and this costs effort4 ,sickness is a selfish thing4 ,if you are well you are expected to work1 and give your time and talent to helping other people4 ,if you are sick you are supposed to be immune from many unpleasant tasks and duties4 ,mark ,twain said he was never really happy except on two occasions4 ,one was when he was given that ,oxford degree and wore a marvelous red cloak and a mortar-board hat2 and the other was when he had the measles and expected to die4 ,the joy of holding the center of the stage and having the whole family in tears1 just on his own account1 was worth all the pangs ,but1 indeed1 there were no pangs4 ,mark was a humorist1 and a humorist is a man who has the sense of values1 and to have the sense of values is wisdom4 ,mark was a great philosopher as well as a humorist ,not only did he testify that pangs and pains are the attributes of life1 not death1 and that there is no pain in death1 but he also gave testimony that sickness is an acute form of selfishness4 ,the sick man disarranges the entire scheme of house-keeping wherever he is1 unless he be in a hospital4 ,to have his meals served to him in bed he regards as natural and right ,for once he holds the center of the stage--all dance attendance4 ,doctors come1 nurses run for this and that1 neighbors call and inquire4 ,he is ,it4 ,the paranoiac is a person who craves attention1 and rather than go unnoticed1 commits crime4 ,just observe how most sick people obtrude their maladies upon their friends1 and then tell me whether sickness is not usually a form of paranoia6 ,doctor ,johnson said the sick man is a rascal ,not only is the remark true1 but ,doctor ,johnson might have gone further and stated that a long period of rascality is required to produce most cases of sickness4 ,hate1 prejudice1 revenge1 jealousy1 wrath1 are all disturbers of the circulation1 and producers of toxins4 ,these toxins poison the entire system1 and continued1 may produce rheumatism1 dyspepsia1 ,bright's disease1 or various other pleasant things for which we look to the doctor for relief4 ,most people go through life on a short allowance of ozone1 and a surfeit of food4 ,we eat too much and breathe too little ,life is combustion--the digestive tract is a boiler4 ,and as oxygen is necessary to fire1 so it is to life4 ,the value of exercise in the open air lies in the fact that it is getting a goodly draft of oxygen through your system1 and this forced draft is both eliminating refuse and burning up slag ,these things are all so trite and true that it seems silly to write this for cultured people1 and yet cultured and educated people are sick quite as much as the other kind4 ,in fact1 more so1 since necessity is often removed and the person has the privilege of going to bed in the morning1 getting up when he pleases1 eating a multiplicity of dishes that set up an internecine war1 giving the saw-buck absent treatment1 and forcing or bribing other folks to wait on him4 ,it is a curious comment on our civilization to find our great sanitariums and health-resorts full of college graduates4 ,harvard1 ,yale1 ,princeton1 ,dartmouth1 ,vassar and ,wellesley are all represented constantly at ,battle ,creek1 ,dansville1 ,mount ,clemens1 ,hot ,springs1 ,richfield and ,alma ,imagine an ,,ll4 ,d4 being given vicarious exercise by a healthy colored man who can neither read nor write2 a ,ph4 ,d4 looked after by a saucy slip of a nurse1 in becoming cap and apron1 fresh from the farm or paper-box factory2 an ,m4 ,d4 vigorously ,muldooned by a man who knows nothing of medicine1 but something of health6 ,a great surgeon tells me that he has never yet seen a case of appendicitis where the patient has not been addicted to the ,beecham ,habit4 ,that is to say1 this disease is the result of medicine1 just as are many others4 ,so here is the prescription3 ,get the ,health ,habit--by throwing physic to the dogs1 because it will not hurt the dogs1 since they know better than to swallow it2 drink plenty of pure water2 eat what you like1 but do not overeat2 have a regular daily occupation2 breathe much and deeply in the open air2 have a veranda bedroom1 open if possible on two sides1 or at least sleep in a room with windows run up wide1 even if the water-pitcher freezes2 think well of everybody1 especially doctors1 for good doctors everywhere are practising a ,science of ,prevention1 and will corroborate these suggestions ,they are doing the best they can1 considering the ignorance1 superstition and inertia which they have to combat--often in their own minds1 and those of others4 ,illustration ,illustration ,the ,elks' ,creed ,here is a story told me the other day by a drummer traveling for the ,solvay ,process ,company4 ,we were on the ,new ,york ,central1 riding from ,syracuse to ,albany ,the incident has a fromage flavor that makes it look like lallapaloosala persiflage4 ,however1 it may be true1 for no one is in such danger of the ,ananias ,club as he who has the courage to give the plain1 unvarnished facts ,i am unable to recall his exact words1 and so ,i use my own language4 ,so say we1 tell we the tale3 ,my friend1 the drummer1 took the ,owl1 a midnight train from ,chicago to ,des ,moines ,the section just across from his berth was occupied by a ,vision in ,gray4 ,the chromatic ensemble was that known at ,wanamaker's as 8elephant's breath40 ,from the tip of her toe to the proudly defiant ,henry of ,navarre ostrich-plume1 she was an ecstacy in silvery gray4 ,the ,chiaroscuro was as lissome1 billowy1 willowy1 pearly1 evasive and impressionistic as the fog that hangs low on the ,october corn1 when the rising sun is a great1 round1 red ball on the rim of the dreamy and effete ,east ,from ,land's ,end to ,john ,o',groat's the symphony was satisfying and complete4 ,her hat was a milliner's creation2 her dress an architect's dream1 devised by ,kirk ,cutter in an artistic seizure2 her hair was done up as provided by the ,interstate ,commerce ,commission4 ,yet the woman was modest1 refined1 lady-like4 ,her high-sign only referred to the duds and haberdashery ,she was neither fly nor flip--merely bouffant1 that's all4 ,she was as tall as the ,solvay ,process man1 for he had observed it1 being from ,syracuse4 ,the ,pullman-car conductor came through and took up the tickets4 ,the ,vision in ,gray had the whole section--she said so--she needed the upper berth for her clothes1 and cautioned the porter that the space was hers4 8,yassum6 ,comin' up60 said ,george in reassuring tones that cost a quarter4 ,he had no tissue envelope big enough for the hat1 so it was covered with two copies of the ,chicago ,news4 ,the train started4 ,soon the curtains were drawn and the lights turned low2 nothing was heard save the rumble and roar of the onward rush of the train1 and the snores of an obese attorney1 traveling for pleasure4 ,morning came4 ,it often does4 ,it came dim and foggy4 ,lights blinked1 six o'clock whistles blew1 calling workmen from their beds to toil ,the man from ,syracuse was awakened by words of tumult and sounds of entreaty4 ,the porter was swearing an alibi in a tearful ,scipio ,africanus voice3 8,ah nevah saw dem close1 ,missus6 ,ah hope to die--,fo' ,gawd1 ,i hope to die6 ,i'se a ,baptis' an' nevah done nothin' bad in my life60 ,and from out the berth filled by the ,vision came subdued feminine threats1 which died away in half-sobs of anguish that shook the soul of the ,solvay ,process party1 strong man though he was4 ,the ,pullman ,conductor came4 ,the train conductor was summoned ,the flagman who guards the rear end forgot his duties1 as he stood in the aisle with his red flag1 and attached to it two cartridges and a red light1 ready to fire on a second's notice of danger4 ,the train conductor was trying to make a list of the things lost ,the upper berth was absolutely empty4 ,the hat was gone2 the dress1 a tailor-made fabric1 which the unseen said between sobs was worth two hundred dollars1 was swallowed by oblivion4 ,all the fluffy ruffles had disappeared4 8,haven't you a kimono80 asked the ,pullman ,conductor1 not so much for information as to reveal his knowledge of technique4 8,i did have1 but that has gone too10 was the anguish-laden response ,alas6 ,all she had was the suit of pajamas that she wore which clung close in this time of need4 ,even the gray chamois-shoes were gone4 ,two women had left the train at four o'clock in the morning at the ,junction1 but they carried nothing save hand-bags4 8,they could have put my clothes on over theirs10 murmured the lady from out the dismal depths of ,lower ,number ,nine ,the train-hands retired to the smoking-room to consult4 ,it was no joke to them--they were all under suspicion4 ,suddenly1 the man from ,syracuse had an ,idea4 ,he had with him an extra pair of trousers1 and of course the regular business-suit he wore4 ,hastily he groped beneath his berth for his suitcase4 ,with trembling hands he pulled forth the pants4 ,he reached over and pushed them into the berth1 saying3 8,here1 ,miss1 ,i am an ,elk ,don't be afraid1 ,i'm an ,elk1 and the first prong of my creed is to do good ,i am a respectable married man from ,syracuse4 ,i'll help you out of this fix--put on these40 ,and then1 his generosity increasing as the ,good ,samaritan instincts in his cosmos began to find expression1 he handed over his coat and vest4 8,then here is my raincoat1 which will come to your feet60 8,oh1 thanks1 kind sir10 she said2 8but ,i can not take your clothes--for what will you do80 ,the voice was flute-like1 and modulated like an aeolian4 8,oh1 ,i don't need any clothes10 said the liar from ,onondaga ,county2 8besides1 ,i have another suit40 8,but my hat6 my hat60 moaned the lady4 8,take this10 said the disciple of ,chancellor ,day4 8,take this4 ,i have my traveling-cap10 and he pushed the hat into the unseen depths ,it was a big1 light-colored ,roycroft ,stetson4 8,do your hair up on top of your head1 and pull the hat well down--it will be all right--don't cry60 8,but ,i have no shoes60 8,wear mine--,i have a pair of slippers40 ,and he pushed his shoes through the curtain1 and looked the other way4 ,only the onward roar of the train was heard as the conductors came back4 8,you are sure you had the clothes on when you boarded the train80 asked one conductor in a voice ill-concealing his resentment4 8,never mind--,i'll get along--go away--,i will make my claim on the road direct4 ,go away1 please60 ,they were glad enough to get away4 ,as the gloaming began to gloam1 the porter turned up the lights4 ,now and then the electric bell buzzed4 ,the obese party was calling for his shoes4 ,a man had lost an umbrella4 ,he got it4 ,a lady in an upper berth wanted a stepladder4 ,the porter was working like mad making up berths so as to brush his passengers and receive the offertory before they got to ,des ,moines4 ,a party wearing a long raincoat and a big1 light-colored ,roycroft ,stetson emerged cautiously from a berth1 and hurried toward the ladies' dressing-room 8,hi1 ,kuhnel1 t'other end of the kyar1 if you don' min'1 please10 called the porter ,the berths were all made up4 ,the porter had brushed everybody except the party wearing the big ,stetson1 drawn low1 who occupied ,number ,nine4 ,the porter had now concluded that the unpleasantness of the early morning was the result of a hoodoo--the failure to carry his rabbit's foot4 ,it was all a bad dream6 8,brush60 he said1 with a flourish1 approaching the party in the long raincoat4 ,the ,stetson shook1 and two sad1 gray eyes looked straight at the colored brother ,he fled in dismay4 ,george was out a quarter that he had counted on4 ,the drummer from ,syracuse1 wearing his ulster buttoned to the chin1 helped the soft-hatted party out of the car1 through the station into the ,hotel ,savery bus4 8,i'll send your clothes back as soon as ,i can buy more10 said the lady in her low1 musical voice 8,oh1 don't bother60 said ,dionysius of ,syracuse1 blushing brick-dust4 ,the drummer forgot to give her his address1 and to take hers4 ,he felt sort of guilty1 being a respectable married man1 and from ,syracuse1 as before stated4 ,he did not go to the ,hotel ,savery1 as usual4 ,he bought a pair of shoes1 a smart ,stein-,bloch ,company suit1 saw his trade1 and left for ,omaha on the ,two-ten4 ,illustration ,illustration ,remember the ,weekday ,did it ever strike you that it is a most absurd and semi-barbaric thing to set one day apart as holy8 ,if you are a writer and a beautiful thought comes to you1 you never hesitate to write it down because it is ,sunday ,if you are a painter1 and the picture appears before you1 vivid and clear1 you make haste to materialize it before the vision fades4 ,if you are a musician1 you sing a song or play it on the piano1 that it may be etched upon your memory--and for the joy of it4 ,but if you are a cabinetmaker you may make a design1 but you will have to halt before you make the table1 if the day happens to be the 8,lord's ,day02 and if you are a blacksmith1 you will not dare to lift a hammer for fear of conscience or the police4 ,all of which is an admission that we regard manual labor as a sort of necessary evil1 which must be done only at certain times and places4 ,the orthodox reason for abstinence from all manual labor on ,sunday is that 8,god made the heavens and the earth in six days and rested the seventh day02 therefore1 man1 created in the image of his ,maker1 should hold this day sacred4 ,how it can be possible for a supreme1 omnipotent and all-powerful being1 without 8body1 parts or passions10 to become wearied through physical exertion1 is a question that is yet unanswered4 ,the idea of serving ,god on ,sunday and then forgetting ,him all the rest of the week is a fallacy4 ,sunday with its immunity from work was devised for slaves who got out of all the work they could during the week4 ,no man can violate the ,sabbath2 he can1 however1 violate his own nature1 and this he is more apt to do through enforced idleness than through either work or play4 ,only running water is pure2 stagnant nature of any sort is dangerous1 and a breeding-place for disease4 ,change of occupation is necessary to mental and physical health4 ,as it is1 most people get too much of one kind of work4 ,all the week they are chained to one task1 a repugnant task because the dose is too big4 ,they have to do this particular job or starve4 ,this is slavery1 quite as much as when man was bought and sold as a chattel4 ,will there not come a time when all men and women will work because it is a blessed gift--a privilege8 ,then1 if all worked1 wasteful consuming as a business would cease ,as it is1 there are many people who do not work at all1 and these pride themselves upon it and uphold the ,sunday laws4 ,if the idler would work1 no one would be over-worked4 ,if this time ever comes1 shall we not cease to regard it as wicked to work at certain times1 just as much as we should count it absurd to pass a law making it illegal for us to be happy on ,wednesday8 ,isn't good work an effort to produce a useful1 necessary or beautiful thing8 ,if so1 good work is a prayer1 prompted by a loving heart--a prayer to benefit and bless4 ,if prayer is not a desire1 backed up by a right human effort to bring about its efficacy1 then what is it8 ,work is a service performed for ourselves and others4 ,if ,i love you ,i will surely work for you--in this way ,i reveal my love4 ,and to manifest my love in this manner is a joy and a gratification to me4 ,thus1 work is for the worker alone1 and labor is its own reward4 ,these things being so1 if it is wrong to work on ,sunday1 then it is wrong to love on ,sunday2 every smile is a sin1 every caress is a curse1 and all tenderness a crime4 ,must there not come a time when we shall cease to differentiate and quit calling some work secular and some sacred8 ,isn't it as necessary for me to hoe corn and feed my loved ones 7and also the priest7 as for the priest to preach and pray8 ,would any priest ever preach and pray if somebody did not hoe8 ,if life is from ,god1 then all useful effort is divine2 and to work is the highest form of religion ,if ,god made us1 surely ,he is pleased to see that ,his work is a success4 ,if we are miserable1 willing to liberate life with a bare bodkin1 we certainly do not compliment our ,maker in thus proclaiming ,his work a failure4 ,but if our lives are full of gladness and we are grateful for feeling that we are one with ,deity--helping ,god do ,his work--then1 and only then1 do we truly serve ,him4 ,isn't it strange that men should have made laws declaring that it is wicked for us to work8 ,illustration ,illustration ,reciprocity ,the first requisite in life is that we shall be able to earn a living4 ,for our own good we must be able to produce as much or more than we consume1 and to make two grins grow where there was only a grouch before4 ,and we can help ourselves only by helping others4 ,a transaction where only one side makes money is immoral4 ,reciprocity1 ,co-operation1 ,mutuality1 are the three big words4 ,to be of genuine advantage1 all human effort must be reciprocal4 ,the worker who works merely with his own benefit in mind doesn't get much benefit ,personal good comes incidentally1 and to go after a gain direct is to have it elude you4 ,the very effort you put forth to secure the thing sets in motion an opposition that makes it slip away beyond your reach4 ,the man who seizes culture by the cosmic scruff will never secure her tender confidences4 ,if you want to study the birds you do not go in wild search for them2 you simply seat yourself on a log in the woods and1 lo6 soon the branches are vibrant with song4 ,to clutch for love and demand it makes you both unlovely and unlovable4 ,if you would have friends1 be one4 ,this great spiritual law which provides that we lose the thing for which we selfishly strive has seemingly been overlooked in our universities and institutions that foster the so-called ,higher ,culture4 ,fond parents send their sons to college for but one reason--not to earn a living1 not to render the world a service1 not to perform some necessary task--they send them to college in order to absorb and appropriate a certain imaginary good4 ,the idea of reciprocity in a college is a barren ideality4 ,the 8work0 is non-productive1 futile1 fictive1 fallacious and imaginary4 ,in all ,nature there is no analogy to this thing of making an animal as big as his father exempt from securing his own living ,the birds in the nest are fed1 and the young are suckled2 but a weaning-time that does not take place until long after adolescence is fraught with danger4 ,the plan is medieval and dates to a time when conspicuous waste and conspicuous leisure were the badge of respectability4 ,the college is really a mendicant institution3 its teachers and students belong to the parasitic class4 ,the fact that a thing has to be endowed proves there is something wrong with it4 ,it is not self-sufficient and in itself supplies no excuse for being4 ,it requires an explanation4 ,no explanation ever explains the necessity of making one4 ,our system of teaching will never approximate the perfect until we devise an ,industrial ,college where the students will produce as well as consume4 ,the school then will not be an imitation of life--it will be life ,the fact that many college graduates are highly successful men does not answer the argument--that very many college graduates are wholly incompetent is the thing that forms the damning count4 ,the man who gets his education out of his work1 at his work1 is the type that has always ruled and yet rules the world4 ,we are safe only as we move with ,nature2 and any system of teaching that seeks to improve on ,nature is founded on fallacy4 ,there is only one valid reason for sending a boy to college1 and that is1 so he can discover for himself that there is nothing in it4 ,a college degree1 as matters now stand1 is like a certificate of character--useful only to those who need it4 ,however1 there must surely come a time when degrees will be given only to those who can earn a living--and this degree will be signed by the young man's employer4 ,all this for the simple reason that no man is a safe person whose time is not employed in some useful daily occupation where others as well as himself are the gainers4 ,time and energy not used1 or misused1 form a dangerous dynamite2 while time and human effort fused with reciprocity produce radium4 ,can you earn a living8 ,also1 do you8 ,illustration ,illustration ,vaccination ,a short time ago ,i spent a week in ,saint ,louis ,during that week there were three deaths of children from tetanus 7lock-jaw71 all the direct result of vaccination4 ,the ,board of ,health had been very busy1 and all children that could not show a scar were vaccinated1 this without consent of the parents or of the child4 ,for each vaccination the city paid the kind doctors delegated to do the work1 the sum of fifty cents4 ,that is to say1 these physicians operated on healthy children1 introducing a poison into their systems1 thus giving them a disease1 in order to prevent them from having one--all for half a dollar per child ,the three children that died netted the doctors a dollar and a half4 ,as before stated1 these children died1 and scores of others were made seriously ill4 ,how many were poisoned for life no one knows4 ,children know all that the parents know1 and the report that vaccination had killed several struck panic to the hearts of those not yet vaccinated ,many children refused to go to school for fear of the doctors4 ,and such was the alarm through non-attendance that the ,school ,board called a meeting and passed a resolution asking the ,board of ,health to desist from these fifty-cent operations until the question of the quality of the virus used could be passed upon4 ,now1 there is no such thing as a 8pure virus40 ,vaccine virus is a poison in itself4 ,and vaccination1 if it 8takes10 always reduces the resiliency or resisting-power of the patient1 laying him open to any germ that may be flying around that way4 ,the ,president of the ,board of ,health took refuge behind the law1 which required him to vaccinate the school-children ,but personally he said he thought the whole system was founded on a superstition1 and on a very barren assumption4 ,said the physician3 8,many people who are vaccinated never have smallpox4 ,a few who are vaccinated have smallpox4 ,to assume that those who are vaccinated would have smallpox if they were not vaccinated is childish reasoning1 fit only for those who are willing to accept a tainted plea1 because they are already convinced ,i must admit that the logic of vaccination is no reason at all1 and could only appeal to prejudiced1 ignorant and unthinking people ,i wish we were rid of the whole thing1 but ,i am not strong enough to stem the tide4 ,doctors get paid for vaccination1 the books and colleges uphold it1 and this thing will go on until the people revolt1 which ,i hope they will do soon40 ,here we get the expression of an honest man--an ,allopath physician--caught in the toils of ,custom ,physicians are instructed from books1 in colleges1 and by professors who were taught from books in colleges4 ,this is not knowledge3 it is the memorizing of things evolved many years ago by men who knew much less than we do ,very few physicians know how to live4 ,everywhere you find doctors who are soaked in tobacco1 booze and dope1 breathing foul air1 thinking vile thoughts1 resorting to stimulants as a pick-me-up ,these are the men that uphold vaccination--these are the men who assaulted the school-children of ,saint ,louis1 and forced a poison into their healthy bodies for fifty cents a body4 ,oh1 the shame of it6 ,immunity from disease comes from fresh air1 pure water1 clean surroundings1 an active1 useful life1 and kind thoughts ,the fear wrought in a school by one of these bewhiskered rogues1 with his outfit of scalpels1 scarifiers and poison1 is a cause of disease in itself4 ,the plan of vaccinating the mind with the virus of fear is in itself a crime1 and a most common cause of disease4 ,doctor ,j4 ,h4 ,tilden says that the fear of disease spread abroad by doctors is the cause of more deaths than the ,white ,plague ,people who live rightly are well4 ,it is right living and sanitary surroundings that have banished smallpox4 ,just good sanitation has banished the 8plague10 that mysterious disease which swept ,europe again and again1 and which killed one-third of the inhabitants of ,london in ,sixteen ,hundred ,sixty-five ,i believe1 with ,tilden1 that the so-called ,science of ,medicine has been a positive curse to mankind1 just as ,christianity has1 with its bogus 8,plan of ,salvation40 ,salvation lies in work1 play1 study1 right living and right thinking1 and not in belief in the death of a good man in ,asia two thousand years ago4 ,as a cure for our physical pains we have looked to a poison doctor1 instead of studying the case ourselves and ascertaining why we suffered ,we must learn to rely on ourselves1 and not put either our souls or our bodies in jeopardy by turning them over to a 8cure of souls0 with collar buttoned behind1 or to a hirsute gent who will give you a disease for fifty cents1 in the interest of happiness1 health and long life4 ,illustration ,illustration ,equal ,suffrage ,many good women do not care to vote1 and they give this as a reason why equal suffrage should not be allowed4 ,the logic is so faulty that it really serves as a reason for the antis4 ,a woman's reason is often the work of the genus male ,an ,englishman1 recently arrived in ,new ,york ,city1 stopped at the ,hotel ,majestic4 ,after two days he notified the proprietor that no more circulars which came by mail should be sent to his room4 8,because10 said this son of ',appy ,halbion1 8,i find it a task too great for my strength to acknowledge receipt of all of them1 and have1 therefore1 decided not to accept any more40 ,when asked1 8,what's the matter with the wastebasket80 he carefully examined that useful article and said that1 so far as he could see1 it was all right4 8,give decisions1 but never reasons10 said the wise old judge to the young judge 8,your decisions will usually be right1 but your reasons seldom40 ,women who do not want to vote should not stand in the way of women who do4 ,voting is not compulsory1 upon either male or female ,voting is a privilege4 ,voting is simply the expression of your political preferences4 ,every one should have preferences1 because they have opinions4 ,we grow through the expression of opinions and through making decisions4 ,voting is deciding between this candidate and that1 this policy or the other ,hence1 it tends to definite1 logical thinking4 ,one of the old arguments made against ,woman ,suffrage was that1 if women were allowed to vote1 they would be compelled to do jury duty1 because the jurors are selected from the poll-list4 ,this is one of the piffling reasons--8woman's reasons40 ,everything in ,nature tends to adjust itself ,it is quite natural for women to express themselves4 ,in fact1 they always have1 if history and experience are worth anything4 ,but why they should be forbidden this particular form of political expression1 only the male knows1 and1 in fact1 to use a ,hibernicism1 he doesn't4 ,in the ,state of ,washington1 a woman can accept the subpoena to do jury duty1 or she can decline it4 ,the law1 which is only crystallized custom1 defers to her wishes ,if she simply tells the deputy sheriff1 8,nothing doing60 he marks her name off the list4 ,she is not obliged to give any reason why she does not wish to serve as a juror1 any more than she is obliged to give a reason why she does not vote ,this seems eminently consistent1 right1 proper1 and well within human rights4 ,suffrage simply is a recognition by the ,state that woman is a human being4 ,where women have served on juries1 they have been found to be eminently attentive and anxious to view the question involved from every standpoint1 and to reach a sane and just conclusion4 ,judge ,w4 ,w4 ,black1 of ,everett1 ,washington1 has recently said from the bench3 8,my experience with the ladies in the jury-box has been that the trial of the case has been expedited1 and the whole proceedings marked with a dignity and decency which did not before exist ,and the verdicts1 for the most part1 were well within the legal limits1 eminently just and proper ,i do not find that woman's mental ability to grasp a point in law is inferior to that of man's40 ,illustration ,illustration ,just ,boys ,be patient with the boys4 ,you are dealing with soul-stuff4 ,destiny awaits just around the corner4 ,boys evolve into men1 and men sometimes change the boundary-lines of ,states4 ,they make political parties2 they crown kings1 and they put them to flight4 ,they bring contention or they make peace4 ,they may build or they may destroy4 ,but boys misused1 abused1 betrayed1 never forget and seldom forgive4 ,it is a terrible thing to plant the germs of suspicion and hate in the mind of a child ,tyranny visited on a boy may implant in his heart dragons' teeth that spring up and grow into armed men4 ,the breath of hate consumes1 and its voice affrights4 ,gluttony and greed sometimes leave the boy out of the equation ,gluttony and greed fatten and forsake4 ,they invite and they alienate4 ,they welcome and they repel4 ,grasping greed sometimes forgets4 ,it is the thing that brings mental and moral diseases and disorders of the state that can not be cured4 ,boys can not be deceived4 ,naturally1 they are truthful4 ,they are elemental4 ,they do not know how they judge or why4 ,the words of your lips count for little4 ,they know the things that are hidden in your heart4 ,to arrest boys and fasten upon them the strong hand of the law is a tragic thing4 ,a slight1 a boy will forgive2 but injustice1 never4 ,boys can be led3 they can't be driven4 ,they respond to love1 but tyranny may set their hearts aflame4 ,my heart goes out to the boys4 ,in ,kansas ,city ,i know one newsboy who supports a widowed mother and several brothers and sisters younger than he4 ,i know two newsboys1 brothers1 whose scanty savings are sending an elder sister to the ,state ,normal ,school1 that she may be fitted to become a teacher4 ,thomas ,a4 ,edison was a newsboy4 ,he sold papers on the streets of ,detroit1 and on the ,grand ,trunk trains4 ,while selling papers on the rail-road platform at ,mount ,clemens1 he saw a little youngster toddle out on the track1 in front of an approaching train4 ,at the risk of his own life1 ,tom ,edison1 the newsboy1 grabbed the youngster1 sprang upon the footboard of the engine and saved the life of the baby4 ,for this deed the station-agent rewarded ,edison by teaching him the telegraph-key4 ,we know the rest4 ,paginini was a street musician when a boy1 playing his violin and holding up his hat for pennies ,martin ,luther was an outcast and a street singer when a youngster ,occasionally the proud and the strong would push him out of the way into the gutter4 ,such treatment made scars on his soul that time did not efface4 ,it is a terrible thing to kill animation and joy and enthusiasm in the heart of a child4 ,boys should be encouraged1 and not ground down to a starvation-point in all of their worthy and useful little industries4 ,give the boys a chance to grow1 to enjoy1 to work1 to save their pennies and become men ,i used to know a newsboy who cried his wares up and down in front of the hotel where ,i stopped4 ,the years went by1 as the years do4 ,twenty-five years passed1 and ,i stood in a court of appeal to present a motion which was of vital importance to me4 ,the judge who sat on the bench looked to me strangely familiar4 ,all at once it came over me with a flash that this judge was once the newsboy from whom ,i had bought newspapers in front of the hotel4 ,he now held for me the ability to wither or to bless1 to destroy or to protect4 ,fortunately1 for me1 his heart and brain were right4 ,be patient with the boys4 ,bad boys are good boys who misdirect their energies4 ,the hope of the race lies with the boys4 ,in a year or two we will be going to hear them preach from pulpits2 we may go to them to borrow money2 they may operate on us for appendicitis--aye1 they may preach our funeral sermons4 ,nobody can prophesy the success to which a boy will attain4 ,difficulty1 trial1 hardship1 work--these are the things that evolve boys into men4 ,boys can be led4 ,they can not be driven4 ,be patient with the boys ,you are dealing with soul-stuff4 ,destiny awaits around the corner4 ,illustration ,illustration ,the ,sea ,the ,sea knows all things1 for at night when the winds are asleep the stars confide to him their secrets4 ,in his breast are stored away all the elements that go to make up the round world4 ,beneath his depths lie buried the sunken kingdoms of fable and legend1 whose monarchs have long been lost in oblivion ,he appropriates and makes his own all that is--dissolving the rocks that seek to stop his passage--forming1 transforming1 rearranging1 never ceasing1 tireless4 ,tireless ever1 for he gets his rest in motion4 ,with acute ear he listens along every coast and lies in wait for the spirit of the offshore wind ,all rivers run to meet him1 carrying tidings from afar1 and ever the phosphorescent dust from other spheres glimmers on his surface4 ,it is not to be wondered that men have worshiped the ocean1 for in his depths they have seen mirrored the image of ,eternity--of ,infinity ,here they have seen the symbol of ,god's great plan of oneness with ,his creatures1 for the sea is the union of all infinite particles1 and it takes the whole to make the one4 ,men have fallen on their faces to worship the sea4 ,women have thrown him their children to appease his wrath4 ,savagely yet tenderly has he received the priceless treasure and hidden it away where none could recall ,he has heard the dying groans of untold thousands1 and drowned their cries for help with his own ceaseless roar2 but still his ear has not failed to catch the whispers of confession that have come from souls about to appear before their ,maker4 ,and yet how beautiful and kind is he in his apparent relentless cruelty1 for he keeps only the transient part1 and gently separates the immortal and wafts the spirit back to ,god who gave it4 ,and what does the sea do with all these secrets1 mysteries and treasures8 ,go shrive thyself1 and with soul all in tune to the harmonies of the ,universe listen to the waves and they shall tell thee the secrets of life6 ,illustration ,illustration ,epigrams ,how much finer it is to go out into the woods and lift up your voice in song1 and be a child again1 than to fight inclination and waste good ,god-given energy endeavoring to be proper6 ,i am not sure what the unpardonable sin is1 but ,i believe it is a disposition to evade the payment of small bills ,labor is the only prayer that is ever answered ,if men could only know each other1 they would never either idolize or hate4 ,i would rather be able to appreciate things ,i can not have than to have things ,i am not able to appreciate ,vivisection is blood-lust1 screened behind the sacred name of ,science ,if pleasures are greatest in anticipation1 just remember that this is also true of trouble ,friends and credit pursue the man who does not need them4 ,hell is a separation1 and ,heaven is only a going home to our friends4 ,success is the realization of the estimate which you place upon yourself4 ,we are all children in the kindergarten of ,god ,missionaries are sincere1 self-deceived persons suffering from meddler's itch4 ,give us this day our daily work4 ,a criminal3 ,one who does by illegal means what all the rest of us do legally4 ,how beautiful that most of our troubles never happen6 ,we are not punished for our sins1 but by them ,one great1 strong1 unselfish soul in every community would actually redeem the world ,do not take life too seriously--you will never get out of it alive4 ,you are what you think1 and not what you think you are4 ,who is my brother8 ,i'll tell you--he is the one who recognizes the good in me4 ,do your work with a whole heart and you will succeed--there is so little competition6 ,when a woman works1 she gets a woman's wage2 but when she sins1 she gets a man's pay--and then some ,life without absorbing occupation is hell--joy consists in forgetting life ,respectability is the dickey on the bosom of civilization4 ,a man is as good as he has to be1 and a woman as bad as she dares4 ,if you want work well done1 select a busy man--the other kind has no time4 ,mind your own business1 and thus give other folks an opportunity to mind theirs ,the outcome of the battle is of no importance--but1 how did you fight8 ,do not keep your kindness in water-tight compartments4 ,if it runs over a bit 'twill do no harm4 ,genius is fine1 but if it comes to a show-down1 gumption is better4 ,in a world where death is1 there is no time for hate4 ,an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness4 ,a failure is a man who has blundered1 but is not able to cash in the experience4 ,if we are ever damned it will not be because we have loved too much1 but because we have loved too little ,man's greatest blunder has been in trying to make peace with the skies instead of making peace with his neighbor4 ,so here1 then1 endeth that goodly book ,,the ,,philosophy ,,of ,,elbert ,,hubbard ,being the gospel of the union of head1 heart and hand as preached and lived by that good man and great1 who has1 and truly1 said1 8,the mintage of wisdom is to know that rest is rust1 and that real life is in love1 laughter and work40 ,illustration ,gathered together by ,john ,t4 ,hoyle and made into a book by ,charles ,j4 ,rosen and ,charles ,youngers1 craftsmen at the ,roycroft ,shops1 which are in ,east ,aurora1 ,erie ,county1 ,new ,york ,state1 ,month of ,november1 ,,mcmxvi4 ,i will not pray that each day be a perfect day1 but ,i will pray to lapse not into indifference4 ,i will not pray that each time ,i shall build both strong and true2 but imperfect1 ,i will pray for impulse that ,i may build anew4