ion and of God, and many of them would be offended were they told that they were nothing but idolaters, it is safe to hold that most of them have very quaint ideas of the attributes of God, and are in fact idolaters. Being unable to reconcile individualism to any god but one after their own heart, each has his ideal god-not of stone, wood, or india-rubber, but a flexible and comfortably fitting ideal god, who suits at all times under all circumstances as his worshipper desires. This kind of deism is consistent with inan's reason, but may not prove to be a saving doctrine. It is about a century since the French in Paris dethroned God and enthroned the Goddess of Reason. Man's reason is selfasserting, and not to be put down in the United States- where Reason reigns supreme, so it is claimed. They take their chances as a matter of course. Permanent impressions are made upon a child's mind at a very early age. In the United States little or no special care is taken to keep the bad from deteriorating the good. All are thrown together, and it may be for the good of the bad-so think many. Parents may not have had the advantage of education, and may be vulgar, foulmouthed, foul-mannered, drunken, vicious, and utterly depraved. Their children soon learn to despise them, or are ashamed of them, or break away from them. Long before the children have left school they have become self-asserting, and grow up, for want of proper restraint and correction, to imagine that they are the salt of the earth, and far superior to all their seniors-or at least equal to them in knowledge and in ability to take care of themselves. They scarcely know what gratitude is. They may or may not even thank the donor for favors or services rendered, but receive everything as a matter of course, as only their due. Children become prosperous, and ignore parents living in poverty or as invalids. They will, for a few dollars, blacken the characters of parents, or will allege that their parents are insane. The contests over the probating of wills reveal too often the unscrupulous, black-hearted ingratitude of children. Their education has been such as to develop and sharpen their intellects in competition with others; and they grow up to be "smart" men and women, seeking to succeed in social and business and political circles, according to their

opportunities and capacities.

They are

on the make" all the time, and never "let up." "let up." Most of them get no religious training at home-the traditional good American mother is not the fashion nowadays. They get no instruction in religion at the public schools, and only a comparative few attend Sunday-schools or otherwise get religious instruction. Hence it may be said the moral backbone of the people is weak, and cannot withstand a severe strain. The number of good men and women who go wrong is remarkable. Pillars of society are apt to totter and fall; pillars of the churches become rotten and unsavory; pillars of business disappear, or burst with destructive effect; pillars of politics rust and pollute all around them. In the United States the term 66 gentleman" is, according to Webster, "applied to men of education and good breeding of every occupation." White and colored exercise-boys in racing stables, and all other male citizens, are gentlemen in their own estimation, and expect to be called and treated as gentlemen. So likewise all the white and colored female citizers claim the appellation "lady."

It is often supposed that the inhabitants of country districts are more moral than those of cities, and that their blood is purer. This is not true of the United States, when what are called the slums of the city are excluded from the comparison. The slums are the receptacles of degraded outcasts, who cannot live in the country or elsewhere, and who necessarily drift from the country and elsewhere to the slums. Besides these outcasts, there are men and women and children whose misfortunes compel them to live as nextdoor neighbors to these outcasts, but who are not yet depraved or necessarily even vicious. These unfortunates are tottering on the brink of the precipice, making last efforts to regain their hold upon good society. The word "society" does not properly mcan only that of the élite of a place; but, as Webster defines it, any community of individuals who are united together by any common bond of nearness or intercourse." The slum workers of the Salvation Army have discovered and published to the world that the slums of New York are as bad as those of London. But the slums of some other cities in the United States are quite as bad. Tens of thousands of unfortunate immigrants swell

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thousands of these were im vm 21first to sink into the mms their best to make a start a ter life, but failed. Cthers are red shak ed, wronged, ami rumai. A

who bave passed through the ar what emigration angles, ami se do not migrate link abcd Ashadee of immigration. The number of fortunate is large enough to saten de hearts of those who have show buman misery and despair. The issition that native boru citius are more mo or less vicious than foreign-born acis auts (keeping, of course, the sims out of the comparison) is mcredible. It may e that alien born inhabitants, moiuiting str zous, are oftener tied for being drank and for fighting with fiat; but alter born ostis zeus are not such adepta a native boon a the use of revolvera, or, and corr lethal weapons they are not greater e perts in wrecking banks; making away with county, pity, village, state, and otter funds; in treachery to those who trask them as friends or otherwise they are not gaver or more unscrupulous Lotharion whose doings break up tamhea and till the newspapeta with sensational and nithy reading matter. It is natural for the na tive born to accuse the alicu born of being worse than themselves, but it is uglur The figures of the 1890 ceuaux are so cou vincingly incorrect that it would be aband not to doubt the correotucas of partisan figures, because figures proverbially mover lic. The reader has reason to be sceptical about figure statements made up in the United States. The figures way be right, but the statements or records from which they are made up are usually very unie

The boys and girls grow up like halfbroken colts and fillies. They are headstrong, and apt to take the bit between their teeth; they shy, and balk, and bite, and kick, and buck-jump; their months are wretched. They interfere, over-reach, and stumble. The girls are often so perverse as in 11 pure cussedness" to delight iu skating upon all kinds of social ice. Many Break through and get socially

seereation of

10 ́exnement wzniers, even There are more week ahe Unitesi

States hau a ne ve teda ngdom during one year-suite roof one week might peinapseeded to three days, ay, sentius to see day. The number of suicides 's a., and revenis the fact that the United States are fuil of suffering bumanity, hopeless, and driven to despair. It is almost every day one reads of a rejected lover shouting or otherwise killing the woman he would marry, his wife, and maybe his children too, or his mistress, and immediately afterward killing himself. Some years ago a case similar to that of Mazepps, who was bound upon the back of a wild horse, which was then set free, was reported from the westeru prairies; and there have been lately several cases of lovers dying simultaneously by poison, gas, shooting, or drowning.

In their domestic and family relations

the citizens do not set a good example to the rest of mankind. Enough has been said about the children as children. Except among strict Roman Catholics the marriage bonds sit very lightly upon the people. They are easily assumed, easily broken, easily unloosed. School children get married before they begin to earn a living. Papa said to Della, "You must not have anything more to do with Eddie ;" and papa said to Eddie, "You had better forget all about your little sweetheart Della." They afterward meet, and Eddie says to Del, Papa says we must not meet any more." Dlla says to Eddie, "So did my papa." Eddie says, "Let us elope." They elope and are married. Girls under the age of consent elope with older men, tell lies, and get married. A great many get married just because they want to know what married life is, and because they know they can get a divorce whenever they want to be free. The antecedents of men and women are generally taken upon trust, and women, without inquiry, marry a man who says he is not married, or that he has been married but has got a divorce. As might be expected, in the United States many soon find that they are not lawful wives. It is noteworthy that many women thus deceived get other husbands. The notoiety of their first venture may draw numerous offers of marriage from unknown men, and there may be an offer of engagement to exhibit in a dime museum-a "dime" is ten cents. Some women fall in love with a man who is merely separated from his wife, and if he will only go through the marriage ceremony with them, they afterward live with him as his wife. Others are not particular about any marriage ceremony, and others do not believe in it under any circumstances. Some married women who leave their husbands to live with another man like to be able to show a decree of divorce, but do not really care whether it is genuine or bogus. Milton used the phrase "civilized adultery," and, basing the opinion upon the Bible, no more appropriate term could be applied to the domestic relations of a vast horde of men and women in the United States. The reader, with a little exercise of imagination, can picture to himself how complicated a family relationship must be when the children can be classified as "mine," "thine,' ours."

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By the laws of the State of New York,

if any person whose husband or wife shall have absented himself or herself for the space of five successive years, without being known to such person to be living during that time, shall marry during the lifetime of such absent husband or wife, the marriage shall be void only from the time that its nullity shall be pronounced by a court of competent jurisdiction.' And further, final sentence of a hust and or wife to imprisonment for life dissolves the marriage, and no pardon restores such person to the rights of any previous marriage, or to the guardianship of any chil dien the issue of such marriage. In South Carolina there are no divorce laws. The divorce laws of all the states vary. The grounds for divorce may be adultery; wilful desertion; habitual drunkenness ; imprisonment for felony; cruel and abusive treatment; inhuman treatment; failure to provide for; great neglect of duty; absence without being heard of; absence without reasonable cause; separation; voluntary separation; ungovernable temper; such indignities as make life burdensome; husband notoriously immoral before marriage, unknown to wife; fugitive from justice; gross misbehavior, or wickedness; attempt on life; efusal of wife to move into the state; joining any religious society that believes marriage unlawful; cannot live in peace and union; and still other causes. It is calculated that at least one half of the divorces are applied for because one or other of the spouses has fallen in love with some other person, and may even be engaged to marry such other person before the divorce is applied for. Damages for breach of promise to marry and to get a divorce from a living spouse have been awarded.

The annual number of divorces granted in the United States cannot be accurately ascertained, but can be calculated roughly. Recently an official list of divorce libels awaiting trial in the Supreme Court for Suffolk County in the State of Massachusetts showed 234 cases. The 1890 census gave the total population of the county as 484,780, of which 448,177 were resident in the city of Boston. The twenty-five cities in Massachusetts had 1,337,164 inhabitants, and the total population of the state was 2,238,943. As divorce cases are generally of short duration, and few are not successful, it is probably within

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the mark to hold that the number of divorces granted in 1891 for Suffolk County exceeded 234; and so, basing the calcu lation upon that number, it would appear that in one year two of every 2072 of the population of all ages were divorced; 3402 persons were divorced in the State of Massachusetts; and 60,484 in the whole United States, with a population of 62,662,250. Recently an advertisement appeared in a Chicago newspaper that experienced divorce lawyer will take cases at reduced prices. It was ascertained that his charge was $24, payable in instalments if desired. The court costs amount to $15, so for professional services not more than $9 remained. But in addition he might recover costs from a husband. In a published interview he was reported to have said that he got di vorce cases in such large quantities, and did the business so expeditiously, that he could cut a little on the regular prices. A great many bogus divorces are being constantly foisted upon men and women by swindling lawyers, whose fees are regulated by what they can get their victims to pay. Surely, with an accumulation of many years of divorced persons scattered throughout the United States, and met everywhere socially, their number is too considerable to be innocuous to the rising generation. In fact, with very few exceptions, all the boys and girls from their infancy upward absorb the poisonous atmosphere around them, and can rarely trace back to first knowledge their familiarity with the details of divorce lore. There is nothing to wonder at in the fact that, with comparatively very few exceptions, the boys and girls of the United States are precocious, and are wanting in the natural youthful pureness and freshness of mind and manner. The youth of the United States soon drop out of the category, "For of such is the kingdom of heaven." They are exposed to so many risks that it is not safe to keep them ignorant of the ways of the world, and mothers have to put their daughters upon their guard even before they enter their teens. It is customary for men to discuss many subjects in the presence of, and even with ladies, which could not even be referred to in the United Kingdom. It is the ambition of many men to excel in indelicate talk, and to make use of some new and catching gross expression; and so words in

the English language acquire a new meaning, or an obsolete word, which has long ago been banished current conversation, is revived and becomes the fashion. Married women and the demi-monde soon learn these new meanings, and girls are apt pupils. Slang words used in the United Kingdom with an innocent meaning are in the United States expressive of gross indelicacy.

Almost without exception, every appointment to fill an office made by vote of the citizens is a partisan political appointment. Qualification and character are subservient to party-politics. The result is, that men utterly unworthy of trust, and totally unfitted for the particular office, are often elected, although the candidate of the other political party was of pure character and record, and thoroughly qualified in every respect. Publicans and sinners are fast allies; and consequently their candidates are the most likely to be elected. It is impossible, in the limits of this article, to go much into detail, but it may be kept in mind that, as a rule, every citizen is sleeplessly alert to benefit himselfhe is "on the make," and not over-particular. He spends his money freely, lavishly, but rarely with purely altruistic thoughts. He spends to make, to gain his purpose, whatever that may be. Clergymen devote themselves to solicit subscriptions for charitable or other purposes, and are paid commissions, like canvassers for advertisements in newspapers. Lawyers, brokers, merchants, and business men of all kinds will treat you as a prince, and then having attained or found that they cannot attain their object, pass on to the next. It is curious how many friends a new-comer who has, or is supposed to have money, finds around him. These cannot do too much for a friend, and have a good thing, certain sure to be a bonanza, which they can let him into. He goes into it, and the chances are that he meets a loss.

He invests in a business, in a farm, in house property, or buys anything, and in time realizes that he has been swindled or has paid far too much. After the mischief is done, some one may inform him that he paid ever so much more than his friend had tried to sell it to others for. If it is not owing to the institutions and laws of the republic, it must be because of climatic or atmospheric influences-perhaps it is in the water or in

the wind-that it dawns upon many newcomers that there is no such thing as friendship, that those who call themselves friends are speculators, bunco steerers, shrewd, cold blooded calculators of man's weaknesses, and unscrupulous enough to take advantage of the weaknesses or ignorance or innocence of every man, woman, and child they come across. But the reader knows better than to condemn all so sweepingly. There is a minority, the number of which he has to estimate for himself, to be excepted. All the men and boys are not stamped with such individualism that they cannot be kind, generous, unselfish, and pure minded, as men go; cannot be noble-hearted, true, trustworthy sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, friends; cannot be straight in business, and in all their dealings generally; cannot be levelheaded, honorable politicians, citizens, Christian, God-fearing men. The women and girls are not all badly brought up, tainted, impure, unchaste, bad; are not all disobedient, ungrateful, unbearable, unlovable, bad-mannered, women's rights advocates of individualism; are not all bound to marry with free-trade ideas concerning divorce; are not all unsatisfactory, heart-breaking daughters, sisters, wives, mothers; are not all unreliable, treacherous friends; are not all lacking in softness and true womanly simplicity of heart and mind and character; are not all deficient in the Christian virtues; are not all machines to be cast aside when worn out. But that they are not so is no thanks to the political and social atmosphere amid which they bave grown up, but rather that nature has benignantly made them proof against the contaminating influences by which they are surrounded.

Life in the country and life in the city are different. There is and need be little actual want in the country among those who are hard-working, thrifty, and out of debt. There is a steady demand for a certain amount of labor all the year round, and for more or less extra labor in spring, summer, and autumn. The township, village, and county elections are important to the community, and are all more or less partisan-political. The justices of the peace hold important offices. They are often as good as could be got from among the inhabitants, but are, of course, not exempt from common weaknesses. To illustrate how the wheels within wheels

are worked in townships and counties, take the case of Monmouth County in New Jersey, which is one of the richest farming counties in the state, and contains Long Branch and other celebrated seaside summer resorts; also Monmouth Park, a celebrated race-course started over twenty years ago by Mr. John Chamberlain, a professional gambler, who had a luxurious gambling establishment at Long Branch during the summer season, and an all-theyear-round one in New York city. Elberon, where President Garfield died, was not then in existence, and few villas were built on the then unsoiled sandy dunes stretching northward to Sandy Hook. Mr. Chamberlain made money, spent freely, and became popular with the freeholders and others who made money at the race-course and at Long Branch, by selling farm and vegetable garden products, etc. Care was taken that complimentary tickets for admission to the grand stand should be sent to all the county notables, including judges, prominent freeholders, the sheriff, the prosecutor of the pleas, and others; and these were warmly welcomed, invited to take drinks, and made much of. The result was that Mr. Chamberlain's gambling establishment and Monmouth Park were not disturbed, although both were run in direct contravention of the criminal laws of the state. After a few years Mr. Chamberlain, because of unfortunate investments, had to give up the race-course. It was bought by some wealthy New York gentlemen of the highest character and social position, who were interested in horse-racing as a sport. Because a New Jersey Company could not be legally organized for the purpose of horse-racing, a New York State Company was organized, and did business in New Jersey. Under the new management Monmouth Park acquired a greatname for horse-racing, and everything was conducted upon the highest-toned sporting principles. But horse-racing courses do not pay expenses in the United States without the income derived from leasing the privileges of selling pools, bookmaking, etc., on the course. A large majority of the citizens in the county were, notwithstanding the state laws, decidedly in favor of Monmouth Park, while only a few realized that there were great evils attending it. These few were, as is usual throughout the United States, averee