A Little Journey in the World

manent than profitable. Rodney Henderson--the name later became very familiar to the public in connection with a certain Congressional investigation--was a graduate of my own college, a New Ha

a. I could well comprehend this, for we are all making a "study" of something in this age, simple enjoyment being considered an unworthy motive. I was glad to see that the young Englishman was improving himself, broadening his

ne's position. In excess it may be very disagreeable, but when it is combined with genuine good-nature and no self-assertion, it is attractive. And although American women like a man who is aggressive towards the world and combative, there is the

the snow came. My wife had not managed it--she assured me of that; but she had not felt authorized to interfere; and she had visited the public library and looked into the British Peerage. Men were so suspicious. Margaret was quite able to take care of herself. I admitted that, but I suggested that the

rl had seemed wholly absorbed in dress, and the gayety of the serious formality of the occasion, feeling the responsibility of it scarcely less than the "leader." Yet her mind was evidently much occupied with the "condition of women," and she taught in a public school. He could not at all mak

night to Mr. Morgan; "but aren't most American

ce; but about the same number fi

do they look to marri

ver did look to marriage

terrupted, "you will get no informatio

I was young, girls used to go in for society; they danced their feet off from seventeen to twenty-one. I never heard anything about any occupation; t

d them for the seriousnes

men came out of that society. I got one out of tha

ou have profited by

. All their flirtation from seventeen to twenty-one is with some occupation. All their dancing days they must go to college, or in some way lay the f

competition. Women never will come to their proper position in the world, even as companions of m

ving, I am not so sure. It does not appear yet to make competition any less; perhaps competition would disappear if everybody did earn his own living and no more. I wonder, by-the-wa

n you know that the object in modern life is the cultivation of th

to have asked Abigail Adams's

spinning-jenny and the stocking-knitter had been invented.

labor. Only, I have faith that neither the jenny nor the coll

ho receive a scientific or professional education lose their faith, beco

, that they should not ha

will recover their balance when the novelty is worn off. No amount of science will entirely change their emotional nature;

s never before so credulous as it is

ge, revelation of all the intellectual weaknesses and petulances, absorption of mental routine on an equality, tend to destroy the sense of ro

statistics o

some old fogy who thinks education

as that solemn meeting of a society of intelligent and fashionable women recently in

claimed, "this is a

gly interested in Margaret's mission work. Nor was there much affectation in this. Philanthropy, anxiety about the working-classes, is nowhere more serious or in the fashi

sion. Snow covered the ground, the sky was leaden, and the air had

inuation of a conversation, "are making

bright boy you noticed in my class, who was a terror six months ago, wil

u call it. I couldn't see that the work in New York differed much from that

e most of our charitable work. The thing is

t do away with

e palliatives of charity. What effect upon a wretched city neighborhood do you suppose is produced by the advent in it of a stylish carriage and a lady in silk, or even the coming of a well-dressed, prosperous woman in a horse-car, however gentle and unassuming she may be in this distribution of sympathy and bounty? Isn't the feeling of inequality intensified? And the degrading part of it may be

would be any better i

ost sorry, Mr. Lyon, that I took you there. The boys knew you were English. One of them asked me if you were a 'lord' or a 'juke' or something. I

le reflection upon the possibility that the nobi

. You seem to remind me that I am in a position in

. You can d

attempt is considered a co

r eyes frankly upon him. "You can b

formed on it, with small openings here and there, where the dark water, hurrying along as if in fear of arrest, had a more chilling aspect than the icy cover. The ground was white with snow, and all the trees were b

s for the most part, but emphasized by occasional jocose remarks in an undertone. A serious ceremony was evidently in progress. The separate group had not a prosperous air. The women were thinly clad for such a day. Conspicuous in the little assembly was a tall, elderly man in a shabby long coat and a broad felt hat, from under which his white hair fell upon his shoulders. He might be a prophet in Israel come out to testify to an u

er helped a young girl to alight. She was clad all in white. For a moment her thin, delicate figure shrank from the cutting wind. Timid, nervous, she gla

meet her, and led her int

locks streamed in the breeze, his eyes were turned to heaven; the girl walked as in a vision, without a tremor, her wide-opened eyes fixed upon invisible things. As they moved on, the

ng and the weepin

waking and

and the reaping,

w, and the tall man's voice

rry not,

g clear of ice; the footing was not very secure, and th

ing and the fadin

of infinite sympathy, and seemed to speak words of encouragement. They were i

shining and

and the dreading

r the cruel water; he staggered a moment in the swift stream, recovered hi

rest, a

ord, tarry no

is almost insensible burden, could be heard above the

rry not,

arted little wife of the rough man in the crowd who began that sentence did not permit him to finish it.

silence. "I can't talk about it," s