[Illustration: "Mother and Child, " by Lorado Taft

So strong is becoming the ambitions of the mothers of to-day to give theworld children that will be an honor to-morrow, that this piece ofmarble statuary was erected by the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago toexpress the ideal of the most wonderful thing that can come to anywoman--motherhood. ]

The Eugenic Marriage

A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies

By W. GRANT HAGUE, M. D. 

_College of Physicians and Surgeons (Columbia University), New York;Member of County Medical Society, and of the American MedicalAssociation_

In Four Volumes

VOLUME III

 New York THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS COMPANY 1916

 Copyright, 1913, by W. GRANT HAGUE

 Copyright, 1914, by W. GRANT HAGUE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXIV

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

The best age at which to marry--Incompatibility of temperament--A happymarriage need not be a successful one--The evils of early marriage--Thewedding night, its medical aspect--The honeymoon--When marital relationsare painful--Times when marital relations should be suspended--The firstweeks and months of wifehood--The formative period--A true marriage--Awife's true position in the household--Only 5% of happymarriages--Period of adaptation--Differences of opinion--Differences ofprinciple--The attainment of success--Arguing trifles--You must knowwhat you want--The right kind of wife--Contributing to her husband'sefficiency--What are the requisites of efficiency--Goodhealth--Thoroughly cooked meals--Rest at night--Having a system--Enoughexercise--Freedom from worry--Do your part--The first quarrel--Faultfinding--The husband's efficiency depends upon the wife--Work must beinteresting--The wife's part . .. PAGE 331

ADVICE TO YOUNG WIVES

CHAPTER XXV

HOW TO ACHIEVE

What the young wife owes to herself--Why was I born--What are thepersonal qualities necessary to success--What are the personal qualitiesnecessary to happiness--Self-control--What is a thought--The evil habitof hasty judgment--The bad thought habit--Training the mind--"Go aboutit in the right way"--Be sure your husband's friends are yourfriends--Be a good fellow--Two kinds of people in the world--Everythingdepends upon what we do with our mind--The most popular woman--The giftof flattery--Choosing your friends--True friendship expects and demandsnothing--True friendship is necessary--"By your friends shall ye beknown"--Making resolves--The formula of success--When fortune knocks. . .. PAGE 357

CHAPTER XXVI

SPARE MOMENTS

The study habit--The germ of self-culture--Millions of tiny cells in ourbrain--The economic value of the study habit--Two ways of gainingknowledge--Happiness in the company of those striving for higherideals--A young wife's incentive to self-culture--The difference betweenmoral and mental disloyalty--The study habit creates its owninterest--Nosophobia, or the dread of disease--"Keep still and be well". .. PAGE 375

THE HOME

CHAPTER XXVII

DOMESTIC QUALITIES

A good housekeeper and home-maker--What constitutes a goodhousekeeper--Preparation and selection of meals--Washing dishes--Potsand pans--Dusting and cleaning--Work cheerfully and be thorough--Don'tbe a dust chaser--Don't get the anti-sunshine habit--Air your rooms--Theideal home--The medical essentials of a good meal--What makes thehome--Working for something--The average housewife's existence isslavery--What shall we work for--Making ends meet--Rest andrecreation--Try a nap--Get enough sleep at night--Go out of doors--Takea vacation now and then--Life insurance--Owning a home--The cheerfulwife and mother--The indifferent wife and mother--Husband and wife . .. PAGE 389

CHAPTER XXVIII

HOW WE CATCH DISEASE

How we catch disease--How germs enter the lungs--How germs work in thebody--The function of the white blood cell--How an abscess isformed--The evil habit of spitting in public places--Sunlight andgerms--Why it is necessary to open windows--Facts abouttuberculosis--The tendency to disease--The best treatment fortuberculosis--Consumption is a preventable and a curable disease--Whendelay is dangerous--What to eat and wear in hot weather--Scientificdressing--Drink plenty of water--What to drink when traveling . .. PAGE409

DISEASES OF WOMEN

CHAPTER XXIX

DISEASES OF WOMEN

Diseases of women--The beginning of female disease--Ailing women areinefficient--as home-makers, as wife, as mother--_Few ailing womenbecome pregnant_--The chief cause of female disease--The existence ofthe average mother--Female diseases are avoidable--The story of thewife--Women who don't want children--Abuse of the procreativefunction--What the woman with female disease should do--Cancer inwomen--Cancer of the breast--Cancer of the womb--What every woman shouldknow about cancer--Change of life--The menopause--The climacteric--Theaverage age at which the change of life occurs--Symptoms of the changeof life--Importance of a correct diagnosis--Danger signals of the changeof life--Conduct during the change of life . .. PAGE 433

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

CHAPTER XXX

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

What mothers should know about the patent medicine evil--Tonics--Used bytemperance people because it could "stimulate"--Stomach Bitters--BloodBitters--Sarsaparilla--Celery Compound--Malt Whisky--Headacheremedies--Pain Powders--Anti-headache--Headache Powders--Soothingsyrups--Baby Friend--Catarrh powders--Kidney Pills--Expectorant--Coughsyrup--Lithia Water--Health, wealth and happiness for a dollar abottle--New Discovery for Consumption--Consumption Cure--Cancercures--Pills for Pale People--Elixir of Life . .. PAGE 451

CHAPTER XXXI

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL (_continued_)

The ---- Consumption Cure--Personals to Consumptives--Nature'sCreation--Female weakness cures--Various compounds and malt whiskies . .. PAGE 467

CHAPTER XXXII

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL (_continued_)

How patent medicine firms and quacks dispose of the confidential letterssent to them. Patent medicine concerns and letter brokers--The patentmedicine conspiracy against the freedom of the press--How the patentmedicine trust crushes honest effort . .. PAGE 481

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL (_continued_)

The patent medicine evil and the duty of the mothers of the race--"Bloodmoney"--The people must be the reformers--Mothers' resolutions . .. PAGE489

CHAPTER XXIV

 "The achievement of an object is dependent upon our determination. Effort is a matter of will. Failure is a product of misdirected determination. "

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

 The Best Age at Which to Marry--Incompatibility of Temperament--A Happy Marriage Need Not Be a Successful One--The Evils of Early Marriage--The Wedding Night, its Medical Aspect--The Honeymoon--When Marital Relations are Painful--Times when Marital Relations Should be Suspended--The First Weeks and Months of Wifehood--The Formative Period--A True Marriage--A Wife's True Position in the Household--Only Five Per Cent. Of Happy Marriages--Period of Adaptation--Differences of Opinion--Differences of Principle--The Attainment of Success--Arguing Trifles--You Must Know What You Want--The Right Kind of Wife--Contributing to Her Husband's Efficiency--What Are the Requisites of Efficiency--Good Health--Thoroughly Cooked Meals--Rest at Night--Having a System--Enough Exercise--Freedom from Worry--Do Your Part--The First Quarrel--Fault Finding--The Husband's Efficiency Depends Upon the Wife--Work Must be Interesting--The Wife's Part. 

THE BEST AGE AT WHICH TO MARRY

In order to determine the best age at which to marry, we must be guidedby certain fixed standards. We must find out from statistics the averageage of the parents of the best babies. We must determine and analyse thequalifications of what constitutes the "best" babies, according to theeugenic ideal. We should give heed to the fixity of temperamentalcharacteristics in order to determine their adaptability to conditionsthat prevail at certain ages. We should select an age in advance of theperiod at which science has determined individuals to have outlived anyhereditary tendencies. 

We have abundant proof that the best babies are born of parents betweenthe twenty-third and the twenty-sixth years. We know also that the agewhich responds, with the fullest degree of plasticity, to temperamentalcharacteristics, is in the early twenties. We know, likewise, thatinherited tendencies may be said to have been outlived at or about thetwenty-second year. The ideal marrying age, therefore, is, for both maleand female, approximately the twenty-third year. 

The physical, mental and moral development of both men and women, atthis period, evidence a high degree of adaptability, and are responsiveto the institution of marriage. Their hereditary traits, if anypreviously existed, assume a dormant form at this age. They havecultivated the temperamental qualities which they will retain, with fewmodifications, throughout life. On the other hand, their dispositionsare responsive to reason, and are capable of readjustment. Theirtemperamental characteristics are plastic, and under favorableconditions it is possible for both to evidence a degree of sympathy andtoleration that bespeaks future harmony and success. No marriage canresult in mutual happiness and success if one of the participants istemperamentally incapable of changing his or her convictions. One of thefundamental essentials to peace in the home is the quality of adaptationto circumstances, and no other virtue will be called into existenceoftener than this quality. At this age, a man is eager to contribute tothe contentment and happiness of his partner, even if it is necessary tosacrifice his own whims and opinions, and a woman, at this period, istemperamentally so constituted that she will respond to the sameimpulses. 

Incompatibility of temperament simply implies that two individuals areso constituted that they cannot, or will not, adapt themselves to thetemperamental characteristics of each other. This condition is one ofthe most prolific causes of unfortunate marriages. Age has a great dealto do with this situation. Men over thirty have unconsciously developedhabits of judgment and are too set in their opinions and ways toaccommodate themselves easily, or without friction, to the temperamentaldifferences that will undoubtedly exist in their wives. The spirit ofadaptation, which is a characteristic of younger years, is lacking, anda mental readjustment is scarcely to be expected. We, therefore, frequently observe in the marriage relations of certain individuals aspirit of friendship existing rather than that of companionship whichshould be the quality that binds them together. Statistics prove that"affinities" creep into the lives of those who marry early, or in thosewho marry after thirty. This form of domestic infelicity may be rightlyregarded as a product of "incompatibility of temperament. "

A happy marriage need not be a successful one. Some couples attainhappiness through sorrow, grief, and failure. The so-called happymarriage, like happiness itself, is only a myth, made up of anticipationand memory. You have only to look into the calm and wrinkled faces ofold women, and talk to them to discover that the outcome ofunselfishness and abnegation forms the nearest approach to happiness inmarried life or out of it. It is the bearing of the burdens of life thatconstitutes its happiness. 

THE EVILS OF EARLY MARRIAGE. --No woman has the vitality to stand thestrain of maternity before the twenty-third year. If a girl marries ateighteen years of age she gives the world children totally unfit tostruggle with its problems. At about twenty-two years she may give onechild of value to the world, but all others following will beincreasingly unfit. In early marriages children are apt to come toofrequently, and this is one cause of infant mortality. Statistics showthat children born with an interval between them of only one year have amortality of one hundred per cent, higher rating than those born with aninterval of two years. And if these children are the progeny of veryyoung mothers the percentage is even greater. The percentage of childrenwho are malformed and idiotic is greater among those born of too youngparents. It has been shown that the child can only inherit what theparents possess. If the parents are not of an age when all the powersare at their highest, the child is robbed of just this amount of growthand force lacking; no amount of education or training can supply thisloss. 

There is another feature of early marriages that should receive seriousconsideration. A girl of eighteen or twenty has not reached that periodof growth where certain inherited tendencies will show. If she hasinherited a predisposition to consumption she may outgrow this periodprovided she is permitted to reach her full growth without subjectingher constitution to any strenuous physical or mental strain. If, however, this girl marries and becomes a mother, the incident effectupon her health will most likely weaken her to the extent of bringing tothe surface the inherited tendency. Many mothers succumb to just suchconditions, where had they remained single until a later period theycould have assumed the responsibility of maternity without any evilconsequences. 

The idea that by an early marriage a woman can train and change theinborn characteristics of her husband is a mistake. Few women can reforma husband after marriage. If she cannot reform him before marriage shewill never do it afterward. These inborn traits will have their waydespite anything she may be able to do to change them--only the manhimself can control and govern them. During the period of thistemperamental transformation the function of parenthood should not beexercised. Only when a man's character is fully matured should he bepermitted to transfer it to another generation. 

The idea has been advanced that early marriages will tend to preserveyouth from sowing wild oats. The woman who is the victim of thisdelusion will reap a harvest of discontent and misery. Any man who needsthe sacrifice of a woman to cultivate the art of self-control is not afit citizen, far less a fit husband or father. A man who is willing tobring children into the world before he is a self-governed animal doesnot understand the first principles of race-regeneration, and it is theduty of parents to educate their sons and daughters in this fundamentalidea. To be an efficient parent one must be mentally, morally, andphysically developed. 

THE WEDDING NIGHT;--ITS MEDICAL ASPECT. --The fundamental object of truemarriage is the propagation of the species. Woman plays the moreimportant part in the consummation of this duty inasmuch as she is theorigin and depository of the future being. It is, therefore, mostimportant that she should not be wholly ignorant of the nature andresponsibilities of her position. Suffering, disease and death mayresult as a consequence of ignorance of these matters. It is the dutyand the privilege of medical science to state, in language which all mayunderstand, the facts regarding this interesting human event. 

It would seem as though suffering to some degree, characterized eachepoch in a woman's life; menstruation, marriage and maternity. Much maybe done, however, to lessen the pain necessary to the consummation ofmarriage. Not infrequently difficulty is experienced in this respect andgreat care, forbearance and gentleness must be exercised or unnecessarypain and injury may result. It is quite possible to cause serious injuryby unrestrained impetuosity and this must be guarded against. It issometimes absolutely necessary to consult a physician, especially incases where greater resistance is experienced than is to be expected. These are rare cases. 

The first conjugal approaches are usually accompanied by a slightbleeding. They may not be so, however, and the absence of blood has nosignificance or meaning. The most suitable time to select for marriageis midway between the monthly periods. This is a season of sterility, and as the first nuptial relations may be followed by indisposition, pain and nervous irritability, it would be well to select a time whenthese ailments shall have an opportunity to subside before theappearance of the disturbances incident to pregnancy. 

THE HONEYMOON. --From a medical standpoint there is great need of aradical change in the way in which this nuptial period is spent. Formany weeks previous to marriage the bride's existence is a longdrawn-out period of nervous tension. Instead of enjoying mental andphysical rest and repose, every moment of the time is crowded withexacting incidents, which, ordinarily, would wreck the nervous system ofa robust individual. If this exciting preparatory experience ended in aperiod of rest and recuperation, it might not prove physicallydisastrous, instead of which, however, we know that the bride issubjected to a series of physiological tragedies which few weather withimpunity. At no time of her life is she more in need of being surroundedwith all the comforts of home and the intelligent direction ofsympathizing friends who understand and appreciate the crisis throughwhich she is passing. Custom, however, dictates that she shall behurried from place to place at a time when the bodily quiet and themental calmness and serenity so desirable to her should be the onlyobject in view. 

Marital relations still continue painful and will be so for a few weeks. Too frequent indulgence at this period is a fruitful source of variousinflammatory diseases, and often occasions temporary sterility and illhealth. In many cases constitutional disturbances and nervous disordershave their beginning at this time and these unfortunate conditions aredirectly caused by the discomforts incident to the silliness of thesocial custom which deprives the woman of the rest and quiet necessary. 

The awakening of the sexual function is a tremendously important medicalincident in the life of any woman. The simplest mind may adequatelyunderstand why such an experience should be consummated in a cheerfulenvironment of domestic comfort and peace. To drag a girl aroundsight-seeing, when her nerves are on edge and supersensitive; when sheis physically unfit, weary and not at all interested; when her brain isapprehensively busy with secret conjectures in which her husband evenmay not participate, is a species of torture which the average bridesubmits to with the best grace possible because social custom dictatesthe stupid programme. 

Mothers should approach this subject with tact and diplomacy, but theyshould, nevertheless, approach it with firm intentions to persuade theirdaughters to consider the situation from a common sense standpoint. Thecustom of the honeymoon survives because young brides do not appreciatethe facts involved. It is the mother's duty to acquaint them with thetruth, and no sensible mother will plan, or agree to a honeymoon thatinvolves continuous discomfort and possible serious consequences to thehealth of her daughter at the beginning of what should be the happiestperiod of her life. 

WHEN MARITAL RELATIONS ARE PAINFUL. --Nature did not intend that the actby which the earth is to be replenished should be painful. If therefore, pain is a constant characteristic of this function, it is an evidencethat disease exists and it should be given attention at the earliestpossible moment. A displaced, congested womb is most frequently thecause. Such displacements most likely are a result of imprudence indress, constipation and general negligence on the part of the victim. Todelay or postpone assistance in such cases is dangerous, while on theother hand, relief is prompt and as a rule satisfactory if taken intime. 

TIMES WHEN MARITAL RELATIONS SHOULD BE SUSPENDED. --There are times whensuch relations are eminently improper. There are certain legitimatecauses for denial by the wife. 

Intoxication in the husband is a good reason for refusal. Idiots andepileptics have been produced as a result of one parent beingintoxicated when fecundation took place. Many cases are on record whosehistory is well authenticated where the mental faculties of theoffspring have been totally destroyed. 

Convalescence from a severe sickness is a just cause for sexualabstinence. The existence of any local or constitutional disease whichwould be aggravated by marital relationship is also a just cause ofrefusal. The existence of a contagious disease renders a refusal valid. Sexual intercourse should never be permitted during the menses. Pregnancy is unquestionably a just cause for refraining from allmarriage duties. 

THE FIRST WEEKS AND MONTHS OF WIFEHOOD. --The daughter is established inher own home: she is now the young wife, the prospective mother. Whatcan we say that will be helpful at this period--those wonderful firstweeks and months of wifehood? Her guiding star will unquestionably bethe unconscious lessons she has absorbed from the tactful talks withmother. She will unwittingly pattern her conduct, to a large extent, after her, and follow the routine mother adopted in the old home. Butthere is a new factor to be considered. Her life, present and future, her possibilities, her very happiness, is dependent upon the husband. The old saying, that, "you must live with a man to really know him, " shewill find to be all too true. The story of her future life might besafely told if we could know how she will meet the new vicissitudes. Shehas known her husband only as a sweetheart, she has clothed him withvirtues that exist only in her imagination, will he measure up to herexpectations? She is watchful and tactful, --the little mother-talks sheremembers. She did not believe when mother told her, that he hadqualities which she would only find out after marriage, but she knowsnow. She is learning that household duties are exacting and fretful;that, though married, life still has a few thorns. She finds out alsothat the long day, when husband is at business, affords manyopportunities for reflection and serious thought. These moments ofseeming leisure are the moments of destiny. They are the introspectivemoments, when she weighs and measures out for herself sympathy, if sheis not made of the right stuff, or she makes strong resolutions, andprepares herself mentally to win out in the new life. They are themoments when her subconscious intelligence is trying to express itselfin the spirit of truth and honesty, when she weighs and measures andanalyses the exigencies of the new environment. Her destiny depends uponthe inspiration that is impressed upon her brain as a result of theseself-communings. 

Most of us would not follow exactly the path we trod had we theopportunity to live our lives over again. The young wife has the chanceto "do it over again. " She has the opportunity of a new beginning. Sheshould regard this opportunity as the most precious gift she will everobtain. Many would give untold wealth for her chance. Happiness andriches lie at her feet. All the experiences that make life worth livingare within her grasp. It all depends upon herself. An enthusiast is aptto be insistent. If his cause is just we gain by his insistency anddetermination. We are enthusiasts on this subject, we want you tobelieve in our disinterested sincerity. We believe, --in fact we know, that the first few months after marriage is the critical period in everywoman's life so far as the attainment of happiness and success isconcerned. No physician can practice medicine for years and fail to havethis truth impressed upon him again and again. 

Every intelligent person knows that most young girls enter into themarriage relationship without a real understanding of its true meaning, or even a serious thought regarding its duties or its responsibilities. Maternity is thrust upon these physically and mentally immature youngwives, and they assume the principal role in a relationship that isonerous and exacting. We know that the duties of wife and mother requirean intelligence which is rendered efficient only by experience. We knowthat young wives acquire habits which undermine their health and theirmorals unwittingly. And we also know that the product of thisdiversified inefficiency is what constitutes the decadence and thedegeneracy of the human race. Is it any wonder that mistakes occur, thatheartaches abound, and that homes are degraded?

What is the remedy? Education! Systematized instruction; an efficientand everlasting propaganda of education carried into the homes of thethousands of young wives and mothers who are willing, but who do notknow how to play their part creditably and efficiently. 

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD. --The period prior to marriage is the formativeperiod, the character building years. Matrimony is to be the test of howwe have built our castle. The success of the matrimonial venture--forevery marriage is an experiment--depends absolutely upon the result ofthe first year. We would, therefore, seriously, and earnestly, requestthe young wife to think deeply upon this problem and not to ignore thefact that the success of the venture is absolutely dependent upon herefforts to a very large degree. Some may assert that the husband is theessential equation, so far as happiness and success is concerned in thematrimonial venture. We do not think so. A home is what the woman makesit. A man may not be an ideal husband, or even a good father, though hishome, to his children, may be heaven itself if the wife is a bornmother and a good woman. On the other hand a man may be patient, hardworking, self-sacrificing, good father, but he cannot make a happy home, for his children, if his wife is not the right kind of a woman. 

A true marriage implies love and confidence, and in the vast majority ofmarriages these qualities can be regarded as tangible, and may be usedas any other business equity is used, for a certain time. The length oftime depends upon the use to which this asset is put during the earlymonths of marriage. It is the utilization of this time, how best toemploy it, that concerns us here. 

A word as to a wife's true position in the household may be opportune. There is no question but that her status has changed in the lastgeneration. Whether this change is for the better is a matter ofopinion. It is too large and too intricate a problem to be fullydiscussed in a book of this character. Any opinion on such a subjectmust of necessity, in our judgment, be a warped one. There are few, veryfew, absolutely happy and congenial homes. It has been estimated thatonly five per cent. Of all marriages are successful. If five per cent. Make a success of marriage why could not the other ninety-five? Thereasons are not fundamental or serious--they are trivial as a rule. Itis making the right beginning that counts. If this is the secret, andevery married person of experience will testify to this truth, the youngwife should give the matter her serious consideration. In the lifehistory of every couple there is a period of adaptation, which is sooneror later passed through at the expense of one or the other, or both, resigning themselves to an acceptance of the stronger, or positive, elements in the other's disposition. 

DIFFERENCES OF OPINION. --If a woman discovers, for example, that herhusband has very decided views upon certain matters, and these views donot in any way conflict with the law, moral or otherwise, and theadoption of them does not necessitate the denial of a principle, itwould be far better for her to acquiesce in these views, rather than toobstinately adhere to her opinions, --especially if she cannot, in afriendly way, offer an argument strong enough to convince him he iswrong. One or the other of every married pair will have to be willing togive in, in all trivial matters that come up from day to day, if aharmonious degree of existence is to be reached. 

It is certainly natural to assume that ordinarily the wife will be theone to concede most. She is supposed to be endowed with all the gentlerattributes. Therefore our advice, --irrespective of all the argumentswhich may be made, and which we need not even hint at, here, but whichare at the tongue's end of every so-called advanced woman, --is for theyoung wife to gratefully concede a great deal to her husband. 

If a man's daily life is clean, and if his ambition is to work in orderto provide a comfortable home for his wife and children, he is deservingof the love and confidence of any true woman. And inasmuch as you havechosen this man for your husband, for your guide and for the father ofyour unborn children, it behooves you to find out how you may quicklyaccommodate yourself to be his helpmate, his friend, his confidant andcompanion, throughout all the years of your life. Let us assure youwithout fear of contradiction, that you will endear yourself to him byyour willingness to be advised and guided by him. Such an attitude willengender a tangible confidence that may be drawn upon to weathertemperamental contests that might otherwise prove to be seriousobstacles in building up a mutual respect and trust and which isessential to peace and happiness. He will look for your word of cheer, and he will willingly tell you more and more of his inmost thoughts andambitions, and unconsciously he will rely upon your judgment, yourwomanly intuition, your help, in every move he makes. The time when youwill have to "give in" will have passed away. You will have madeyourself part of his life, his mentality, you will have reached the goalof domestic happiness, and that is as near paradise as most of us reachin this world. It all depends upon "how you go about it" in the firstfew months of married life. 

Consider the other picture. If a wife cultivates, or has the inheritedinclination to argue trifles, to bicker over mere matters of opinion, even if she wins occasionally, what does she gain? Nothing! The husbandresents the tendency to argument. His pride is wounded at the thoughtthat his wife needs to be convinced of every opinion he advances. Suchan attitude completely breaks down the tangible confidence that isessential to peace and happiness. Soon he begins to keep his opinion tohimself; the serpent enters the home; the wife finds he is interested inthings of which he does not inform her. Jealousy, lack of confidence, doubt, --the skeletons of all domestic peace and happiness soonaccomplish their terrible and tragic work, and the end is not difficultto imagine. 

Most of the things regarding which husbands and wives quarrel are of nospecial moment. They are not momentous subjects, --it is usually a triflethat mars the domestic peace. It takes but a few years for most women toappreciate that many of the things that cause heartaches are not of anyconsequence at all. They originate, as a rule, in one or the otherfailing to appreciate that the other has certain individual rights whichdemand some degree of respectful consideration. The ego element in humannature is responsible for a very considerable portion of the domesticinfelicity that mars the home life of a large proportion of the people. 

TRIVIAL DIFFERENCES. --Many homes have been broken or renderedpermanently wretched by trivial differences. The husband may like toplay games, the wife may want to read. One may like to go out to partiesand theaters, the other may want to stay at home. Before marriage thesedifferences appear to merest trifles and are the subjects ofgood-humored bantering; after marriage they cause constant dissension, constant friction. A trifle is the usual beginning, a divorce may be theend. A little lack of tact, an unwillingness to sacrifice self in asmall measure "at the right moment" and friction would have ended. 

It is a reflection upon our intelligence, and it is rather significantthat it should be the little, trifling things that cause most of thetroubles and heartaches in the world. We rarely quarrel over theimportant episodes Of life; the real things, the things that constitutethe measure of our manhood and womanhood. Ask any of your friends, bethey Jew or Gentile, Catholic or Protestant, Baptist or Episcopalian, Democrat or Republican, whether, in their best judgment, it is better tobe honest or dishonest, clean or dirty, false or true, intelligent orignorant, an idler or a worker; whether it is better to be gentle andkind or brutal and cruel, a gossip and scandal monger or to mind our ownbusiness and to speak kindly of our fellow-man, whether, in short, it isbetter to be good or bad? And yet these are the real, the fundamentalqualities that brand a man, or a woman, or a race of people, as worthyand true and Christ-like. 

To the eugenist, a thought obtrudes itself at this point. It is thelogical, the link between the cause and the effect. Why do we waste somuch time arguing and fighting over non-essentials? Why is the worldsuch a big quarreling-pot over nothing? And the eugenist suggests, if itis not possible, that the explanation may be found, in the fact, thatthe human family, as a race, is below par; that so many of us areincomplete; that it is the product of the combined mental effort of theunworthy element that makes all the trouble? It is scarcely logical toassume, that an individual who has been brought into the world byhealthy, worthy parents, and whose ancestry for generations have beenclean, honest people; and whose upbringing and education has beenadequate to fit him to become a respectable, decent citizen, could, orwould be a trouble maker. On the other hand, can we expect, or are wejustified in hoping that an individual whose ancestral record is bad, whose environmental conditions are faulty, whose education has beenneglected, who is in all probability physically and mentally deficient, will be capable of conforming to the standards of the other individual?From an imperfect whole, may we not naturally expect bad parts? From adiseased body and mind, may we not look for a low standard of thoughtand action? And may not these conditions account for the greater part ofthe little, as as the big, troubles that mar the peace and progress ofthe race? Will not the elimination of the eugenically unworthy rid theworld of its heartaches and sorrows? It is not only a suggestivethought, it is an inspiration for the exercise of the supremeintelligence of the statesman, the sociologist, the teacher and thepreacher alike. 

DIFFERENCES OF PRINCIPLE. --There are more serious differences than thoseof taste, however. There are differences of principle. 

They do not reveal themselves before the promise "for better or forworse. " The sentimental days of courtship did not bring them out. Butnow that they have settled down to the routine of ordinary living, nature brings them to the surface and the issue must be met. It isdiscovered that the wife is a devout Christian and a faithful churchattendant while the husband insists on his wife spending Sunday in thecountry, or at the seashore. The woman tries to get her husband to go tochurch but she fails. He tried to get her to accompany him but he doesnot succeed. There is a rift in the lute, little sorrowful heart pangson the part of the woman, and the man feels sore and grouchy and wandersaway alone, then finally open quarrels and indifference. Two lives arepulling apart. Someone must give in; but which one? The observance ofher religious duties to the wife is a matter of principle. The husband'smethod of spending Sunday is simply habit. He has no right to interferewith her liberty in this respect. The one to give in is the one whoseconscience is not trampled upon. If the husband refuses to go to churchwith his wife, he can do so amicably, and in such a tactful way that hiswife cannot reasonably feel permanently offended, but he must not objectto his wife going to church, nor has he the right to insist on beingaccompanied in his outing by his wife. On the other hand, the wife mustnot nag or quarrel with him continuously on the subject of religion. Those little incidents will come up in the experience of every marriedcouple. They are not serious or insurmountable in themselves, but theycan be made serious by mismanagement. 

The true wife is the home-maker, not simply the housekeeper. She isresponsible for its attractiveness and its comfort, its morals and itsexistence. The marriage vow "does not make a wife, but comradeship inthe bearing of the burdens of life, does. " She must be Love and Justiceand Truth to her children, and companion and friend and helpmeet to herhusband. 

We, therefore, advise the young wife to begin wedded life with definiteplans and ideals. 

THE ATTAINMENT OF SUCCESS. --In the first place, you do want yourparticular matrimonial venture to be a success. Success in one sense isgetting what you want. You must, however, know exactly what you want. Very few people know what they want, but those few are the ones whomanage to "get there. " If you ask a dozen of your friends what theirplan of life is, what they are working for, what they really want, notone of them probably could tell you with any degree of exactness. Mostpeople go along in an indefinite way, working from day to day, more orless dissatisfied, and with absolutely no feeling of certainty as towhat the future holds in store for them. 

Human effort is an example of energy misdirected and it is the greatestpotential energy in the universe. Really to want something means that wemust be willing to sacrifice everything necessary to attain our wish, and to concentrate and direct all our efforts in its attainment. To dothis, we must be efficient, we must be healthy, we must strive day andnight, and we must want intensely to achieve success. 

During the first few weeks of married life the young wife, if she is awise little lady, will take stock. She will begin to think, and she willnaturally speculate about the future. She will try to determine thefacts in her particular life that are the important ones so far as theattainment of success is concerned. Her material success of course isdependent upon the efficiency of her husband. Now, a married man'sefficiency depends almost entirely on his wife. If a man attains greatmaterial success, he will acknowledge, if he acknowledges the truth, that his wife is deserving of most of the credit. The husbands of mostgood, sensible wives are successful. If a man is, unfortunately, marriedto a woman who is not a helpmeet, who is not a well-balanced wife andmother, and achieves success, he does so by reason of his innatestrength of character and in spite of the unjust drain on hisefficiency. Most men under these circumstances however lose heart andinterest and become failures. 

The young wife, therefore, will definitely plan in just what way she cancontribute to her husband's efficiency. 

WHAT ARE THE REQUISITES OF EFFICIENCY? GOOD HEALTH. --He must haveregular meals. The food must be carefully selected and suitable to hispersonal needs according to the character of the work in which he isengaged. The food must be properly and thoroughly cooked. If he does notunderstand the science of eating, the wife must educate him. Rememberhis success means your success, his failure, your failure. If you werein charge of a highly complicated machine, you would not allow it to beruined by careless misuse. You may have married a healthy animal, butanimals are tricky and uncertain. He is still your lover and he will doanything reasonable for you, if you "go about it in the right spirit andin the right way. " Be sure you "go about it in the right way. " Betactful, be patient, don't nag. Don't tell him of his faults, simplynote them then determine what you want to accomplish. In a little while, he will become enthusiastic and will be telling his friends how to eat, and what to eat, and, later, he may try to convince you that he thoughtof the idea first. This is the typical man. You will learn how to managehim, and your first success will encourage you--he will be a child inyour hands--if you only "go about it right. " And this applies toeverything you do that has any relation to domestic peace and happinessand final success. 

The woman who grasps the meaning of the following truism and determinesto practice it, is well on her way to happiness and success. "It is theman that has a system in both life and business that wins the battles. "The struggle of life has become so strenuous that most everyone's nervesare always near the explosive point, --the man who has a system in lifehas discovered that there is nothing to be gained by beingdisrespectful or discourteous, or by butting rough-shod into the affairsor interests of other people; tact, diplomacy, flattery, thetemperamental capacity to wiggle around the explosive corners of otherpeoples' irascible nerves to gain your point, is "having a system, " andit wins battles. The young wife who knows how to do this, is so farahead of the army of ordinary young wives, that she need not take timeto look around to see if the others are gaining ground. They will neverovertake her. 

REST AND SLEEP. --The husband must get enough rest each night, so don'tdrag him away to parties and balls and late suppers. Be aphilanthropist--give him the care you would give a thoroughbred horsewith which you hoped to win a big stake. Let him think, however, thatyou are doing it for his sake. To you the prize is a greater stake--itmeans life's failure or success. Remember you are in this fight to win. The gratification of whims and fancies during the first year of marriedlife leads to the establishment of expensive habits, and may be the onefactor that will mean failure in the future, when you will wish, withall your heart that you had begun differently. The time to sacrifice, towork hard, to plan ahead, is when one is young; when hope is strong andhealth is good--not when ambition falters, when age grows weary, whenefficiency is impossible, and when regrets crowd in on us and failurecrushes energy and hope and happiness. The struggle of life is a realone to every soul born, but it is worth the fight, and the glory of afight won is the greatest human satisfaction this side of the grave. Tryit, try to win. 

ENOUGH EXERCISE. --Be sure your husband is getting enough exercise. Ifhis work is desk work, think out some plan to compel him to take theexercise every healthy animal requires. Make up your mind definitelywhat is necessary and exactly what it is you want him to do, and thenbegin to work in your own successful way with that object in view. Itmay be systematized gymnastic work he needs. If so, suggest to him theadvisability of becoming a member of a club or gymnasium, or get twosets of exercisers and begin work on them yourself if necessary. Devoteten minutes every morning and night to exercise. He will soon followyou, and many happy contests you will have and profitable ones too. Working together is the secret of domestic peace. Even if this readslike slavery or self-immolation, what do you care? You are happy, youare working for something, the time will come when you will haverealized your ambition. Domestic happiness and material success areworth all we are asked to pay for them and they are never obtainable onthe bargain counter. 

It may be outdoor exercise he needs, try golf, swimming, baseball, tennis, anything to gain your point; and, all the time, remember you areleading him by your apron-string because you have discovered the secretof "how to go about it. "

FREEDOM FROM WORRY. --A man cannot work efficiently and worry at the sametime. Modern business methods are conducted on such a strenuous basisthat, to keep "in the ring, " a man needs every ounce of reserve he cancommand. Don't imagine your husband is totally free from cares andresponsibilities just because he is not at business. He may have lefthis office a few minutes earlier than usual to get away from trouble. Encourage the system. When a man feels in his heart that there is oneperson in the world to whom he can always turn, and be sure of a loving, sympathetic greeting, one who understands and believes in him, one placehe can always go and feel certain of enjoying peace, and comfort andcontentment, there is little danger of any friend supplanting the wife, or any club or saloon taking the place of home. 

DO YOUR PART. --The moment you know your husband is in the house, changethe expression on your face, smile, even if it pains you, and go to himwith a familiar word of greeting and give him a kiss. Do this every dayof your life, unless when you are sick in bed, when he will go to you. Establish this habit, and if ever the day comes when he returns fromwork and there is no greeting, no kiss, stop the whole domestic ship, regard it as a tragedy. Don't let the first entering wedge of discordcome into your life. If there is no first quarrel, there will never be asecond. If you are at fault you had better right matters at once ortake the consequences. Take our advice. Don't experiment with a man. Deep down, every man is a brute. There is a certain elemental devil inevery male animal. Don't rouse it. You are only a woman. Don't invite aquarrel. You will get the worst of it. Keep on the peaceful side of thestreet. It is always a mistake to talk too much. Words are poison whensilence is golden. You cannot make a mistake by leaving the husbandalone if he is at fault. Time is a wonderful physician; she will healalmost any wound. Your tact, your silence, your seeming fear (in otherwords, your method "of going about it in the right spirit and in theright way"), and an opportunity to think it over, will make him ashamedof himself. He will want to crawl back into your good graces and thelesson will be a long remembered one to him, --if, and this istremendously important--the wife does not glory in her triumph and naghim about it. The temptation to err is great and there are few youngwives who can resist it. Keep silent, however. Don't refer to it and youwill win more than you know. Blessed is she who can forget what is notworth remembering. 

You will have averted the first quarrel and, inasmuch as the "firstquarrel" is an historic event in every married woman's experience, itmay be worthy of a little further consideration. 

THE FIRST QUARREL. --Some women become weak in a crisis and spoil theirown chances of success, despite the fact that circumstances may havebeen working in their favor. Some women meet a crisis bravely and doexactly the right thing at the right time but falter and fail after thecrisis has passed. Take, for example, the incident we have justnarrated. When a husband brings into the home a sample of his real self, for the first time, it is not really an unexpected event, though it maybe an unpleasant shock to the young wife; and she must not render it animportant incident by mismanagement. Nevertheless, it is in itself amomentous occasion, and it may prove to be the moment of destiny. Thespirit of the lover has been the dominant spirit so far, the atmosphereof the honeymoon has continued, there has been no friction, no quarrel. To-night the husband has carried a business _grouch_ into the home, hismilitant impulses are just below the surface, the slightest unfortunateword, the least lack of tact, a failure to "sense" the situationcorrectly, will explode the mine and wreck a dream. Deep down in theman's heart he does not want a quarrel but the brute in him will fightif the environment invites it. It takes two to quarrel. Silence on thepart of the wife, therefore, is the only solution of the problem. If thefirst quarrel never takes place the second will never have to bedreaded. Silence, no matter what the provocation may be; no matter howacute the sense of injustice may be, silence is the only safe way out. The husband if left alone, will be ashamed of the situation his lack ofself-control has created, the lover spirit will conquer the brute. Hewill regret the pain he has caused; he will want to forget and beforgiven quickly though he may not go through the formality of anapology. A formal apology and reconciliation will, in his judgment, dignify the episode and make a mountain out of a molehill. The wife willbe wise to so regard it though it is an injustice to her. The husbandwill not underestimate the importance of the event, however, and in manyways will be a better husband in future, but he does not want to talkabout it or be talked to regarding it. This is part of the psychology ofthe male, and the successful wife discovers it early and actsaccordingly. 

Having safely piloted your craft through the troubled waters, don'tprove weak and silly when you reach a safe harbor. When the moment ofpassive reconciliation arrives, when it is necessary to resume thedomestic routine, don't show the spirit of resentment. Be pleasant, don't cry, don't become hysterical. Be strong, ignore the whole affair, leave it in the hands of time and forget it. The victory is yours, don'tlose it. 

FAULT FINDING. --At a later date, when, in all probability, the wife willbe the one whose conduct will incite trouble because of the worriesincident to her more or less monotonous, domestic existence, much carewill have to be exercised so that an unwitting fretfulness may not causequarrels. When a man comes home at night tired and hungry, longing forpeace, and comfort, and pleasant conversation, it is worse than anarchyto not only get no greeting, but to note the discontent on his wife'sface, and to listen to a tirade of fault finding. Your husband hastroubles of his own. The maid's impudence, the crossness of the baby, the noise of the neighbor's children, the toughness of the meat from thebutcher, do not interest him. He is hungry, he wants to eat, and aboveall, he wants rest and peace. We are considering this subject from theeconomic standpoint. The young wife must recognize that if she is afault finder, if she worries her husband, she interferes with hisefficiency and jeopardizes the attainment of success, --her own success. From a purely selfish standpoint, it is a bad investment. 

It may interest many young wives to know, that a number of largecorporations have recently begun to systematically investigate thedomestic environment of their employees. If it is found that they arenot happy, or that they do not enjoy a restful and congenial home life, they discharge them. They claim that a man who is worried cannot beefficient, and if he is not efficient he is not a dependable individualto have in their employ. Some railroads will not allow an engineer todrive a passenger train after it is discovered that he is unhappilymarried. The young wife should, therefore, appreciate that she may bedirectly responsible for her husband's efficiency and success. If awoman is guilty of conduct that interferes with the earning capacity ofher husband she is erecting an obstacle to happiness and success that isfundamental, permanent and insurmountable. In justice to herself and toher husband and to the future she should promptly decide if theconditions are such that a change is impossible, and if so she should, in order to avert a tragedy, seek a separation. 

WORK MUST BE INTERESTING. --No man can exert the highest degree ofefficiency if he is not interested in his work. This has become abusiness truism. How can the wife aid in this matter? By coöperation, bytactful advice, by suggesting new methods, by originating new ideas thatmay open the way to new possibilities. 

Even menial work is interesting if we regard it as a stepping-stone tosomething better. It must be done thoroughly, however, to justify thishope. Life is a struggle, a struggle in which many are vanquished andfew survive. Only those few survive who fit most perfectly to theirenvironment. If a man is getting proper nourishment and sufficientexercise, and is free from worry, if in other words he has vitality, hecannot possibly fail to give full value for what he receives. His workwill at least be satisfactory. If his lack of interest in his work isbecause it does not fully satisfy his ambition, this is a splendidopportunity for the tactful and resourceful wife. 

It was suggested to an enterprising little wife, whose husband wasearning a small salary as a bookkeeper, to advise him to studystenography and correspondence at the Y. M. C. A. He did so, and is nowthe private secretary of the president of a large corporation, at asalary of six thousand dollars per year. His wife encouraged and cajoledhim during the long winter nights when he studied late. She sacrificedherself by giving up all social entertainments and other pleasures. Shecatered to his tastes and comfort, and she talked so entertaininglyduring spare moments of what the future would be when he was a greatsuccess, that he was simply compelled to make good. She got her reward, and the very struggle and effort strengthened their characters, broadened their sympathies, and taught them the true meaning of love andaffection. 

Other young wives may achieve similar success if they "go about itright. " That is the secret. That was the secret of this young wife'ssuccess. She first knew what she wanted, she then prepared the way bytactfully showing her husband how he could increase his efficiency. Shekept the subject diplomatically before him by directly praising him, assuring him that he had the ability, that he would find it easy, thathe was meant for "higher things. " Then she drew word pictures of wherethey would live, the kind of house she would like and the new furnitureshe would buy, and where they would spend their vacations when he wasearning the salary which she knew he was worth. They began to live inthis future, it became part of their life, his pride was awakened, hewould be ashamed to fail, he was whipped to the post and spurred to thefinish and he won the race, because he had married the right kind of awoman. "The right kind of a woman, "--the woman who knows that "themarriage vow" does not make a wife, but that comradeship in the bearingof the burdens of life does. 

THE WIFE'S PART. --Having read the preceding pages some young wives mayask if that is really what being married means? If it is all work andsacrifice and no pleasure? That is exactly what it means and if there isno pleasure in work and sacrifice, then there is no pleasure in marriedlife. The young wife who fails to see the significance of thisinterpretation of what has been written has a fundamentally wrong ideaof what married life means. 

A woman who begins her wedded life with less loyal ideals than aredepicted in the performance of the duties we have enumerated is imposingon her husband and is false to herself. She will not attain happinessand success. To marry in order to have a good time should be a state'sprison offence. 

Happiness and contentment and success are products of duty well done. They are the logical recompense for effort and sacrifice. Individualhappiness is not the chief object of existence in this life. To workefficiently is the supreme obligation. It is naturally to desirehappiness and to labor for it; but it is absurd to be annoyed and angrybecause we do not find it. Happiness through marriage is never attainedexcept by never-ending self-abnegation and effort. 

We must struggle or we will degenerate. A correct interpretation ofracial progress proves this truth. Effort is the supreme law. All goodthings have been given to man at the price of labor. 

ADVICE TO YOUNG WIVES

CHAPTER XXV

 "Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance, self-control, diligence, strength of will, content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know. "

 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 

HOW TO ACHIEVE

 What the Young Wife Owes to Herself--Why Was I Born--What Are the Personal Qualities Necessary to Success--What Are the Personal Qualities Necessary to Happiness--Self-control--What is a Thought--The Evil Habit of Hasty Judgment--The Bad Thought Habit--Training the Mind--Go About it in the Right Way--Be Sure Your Husband's Friends Are Your Friends--Be a Good Fellow--Two Kinds of People in the World--Everything Depends Upon What We Do With Our Mind--The Most Popular Woman--The Gift of Flattery--Choosing Your Friends--True Friendship Expects and Demands Nothing--True Friendship is Necessary--"By Your Friends Shall Ye Be Known"--Making Resolves--The Formula of Success--When Fortune Knocks. 

WHAT THE YOUNG WIFE OWES TO HERSELF. --If the young wife is making aconscientious effort to do her duty, there are certain things she owesto herself, to her husband, to her unborn children. She too mustpreserve her health, her efficiency. In guarding the health andcontributing to the efficiency of her husband, she will have done muchin this direction. She will, however, have many spare moments at herdisposal. We have already remarked that these are the moments ofdestiny. In the coming years she will look back upon these moments withreal pride, or regret, according to how she spent, or misspent them. Letus begin all over again, with renewed interest and enthusiasm, and tryto understand just what is meant by this. 

Every human being asks himself, or herself, at some time in life, thequestions, "Why was I born? For what purpose was I created and put uponthis earth? Is there any real object or purpose in living, except topass the time from day to day, and year to year?" To most, the reply isperplexing, --and not at all satisfactory. All great minds who havedeeply studied this problem, unanimously agree that there is a purposein life. We are not a thing apart, --an isolated entity. We are part ofthe living whole; every thought, every deed, every spoken word, everysentiment, every passion, every prayer, is inter-related with everyother thought, deed, word, sentiment, passion and prayer of every otherliving thing in all eternity. We have an ideal to maintain, and if weare untrue or fail, we interrupt, we desecrate the everlasting scheme ofthe universe. We will therefore be held responsible for our manner ofliving, --for the sum total of our existence. We have a purpose tofulfill, a responsibility to sustain. If we are false to that purpose, and fail in our responsibilities, we rob the world of the help we shouldbestow, and, in a far larger measure, we deprive ourselves of benefitsand pleasures, every moment of our lives, greater than we can conceive. 

The world is many centuries old, and many millions of human beings havelived and died during that time. A certain percentage of these men andwomen lived lives which bettered the world. They left a thought whichwill live through all the ages. They proved the truth of some basicunchanging principle. They drew the attention of mankind to the realityof a certain immutable fact. These truths, these principles, thesefacts, have all been tested, and they have been found to be everlasting. In other words, we find there are certain truths, certain principles, certain facts, that every living thing must obey, must subscribe to, must live up to or perish. Every thought, every deed, every movement, ofevery living thing, is regulated by unalterable laws which govern ourlives and to which we must conform or pay the penalty in failure. Humannature is God's riddle!

WHAT ARE THE PERSONAL QUALITIES THAT EXPERIENCE HAS SHOWN TO BENECESSARY IN THE ATTAINMENT OF HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS?--Experience hastaught us that certain personal qualifications are essential to theattainment of success and happiness. We must, for example, be master ofourselves. We must have acquired the art of self-control. Self-controlis an evidence of a high intelligence. There are many gradations ofmental progress before complete self-control is reached. Completeself-mastery in matrimonial conflicts is a long and difficultacquisition. Probably it is fully acquired in the fewest possible cases. The one who acquires self-control, who gives in during the adaptativeperiod of which we have written, is not the weaker. The young wifeshould always keep in mind that the underlying principle to bevigorously adhered to in the home, is justice. There will arise manyoccasions that will severely test your disposition and your patience, but, if you have yourself well in hand, if you understand yourself, youwill emerge from the conflict successfully and as a consequence a littlestronger. When we acquire the determination to efface self in thesedomestic squabbles we begin the building of a character. 

WHAT IS A THOUGHT?--The greatest product of creative inspiration is thehuman brain. The very fact that each human being possesses one of thesemarvelous products implies responsibility, the responsibility of what wewill do with it. A thought is a creation of brain or mind activity. Itmay be a bad or evil thought or it may be a good thought. Let us now goback to the young wife just as she is about to begin the hour or so ofrecreation in the afternoon. Her work being done for the time, let ussuppose she elects to do a little fancy needle work. She finds acomfortable seat and is soon apparently engrossed in her work. Is she?Doubtless she is, and a very commendable, harmless, inviting picture shepresents, but a thousand thoughts are passing through her mind. It isnot the sewing that she does, that will be weighed in the balance, it isnot the patient stitch, stitch, stitch, that she takes, that will markthe hour well spent. It is the one thought that will predominate overall the others, that will tell the ultimate tale, because of its effecton her own mind. A thought once created, even if it is never expressed, is as much a created entity as a deed executed. 

Suppose this young wife attended a social gathering in some friend'shouse the evening before, and for some trifling reason she formed anunfavorable impression of another lady guest; during the hour of hersewing, which we are discussing, she goes over in her mind all theincidents of the gathering, and because of the previous impression, shestill thinks unkindly of the lady in question. She passes judgment uponher in her own mind. What has she really done? She has created a thoughtan opinion, which now becomes a part of her mind, because it is recordedin her brain cells forever, and, inasmuch as she was not justified inpassing judgment upon a person's character in this hasty way, she harmedherself by establishing a bad habit, --a habit of hasty judgment, --whichwill have an effect on her method of judgment as long as she lives. Theevil effect may not end here, --it seldom does. A chance remark, --stillthe product of the hasty opinion, --made to some other woman regardingthis lady, will give this other woman an unfavorable impression of theperson, and if you could trace all the little gradations of the firstunjust opinion, through all the stages of a gossiping community, youwould be astonished at the growth, and the evil accomplished by thethought, born amidst the apparently innocent and commendablesurroundings of an hour's sewing. If you educate your mind to create badthoughts you will become a victim of the habit. Each bad thought makesthe creation of another bad thought more easy, because a bad habit is, as we all know, a difficult thing to live down. Therefore a bad thoughtunexpressed does harm only to the individual who creates the thought. Ifthe bad thought is expressed to another party, it is impossible to tellor estimate the harm it may do. Life is what we make it. If we get intothe habit of thinking unjust, unkind, selfish, bad thoughts, we live inthat atmosphere. Your whole life will be a reflection of your mentalattitude. If you feed your mind on such food how can you hope to growinto a contented, happy woman? Let us not dwell upon the dark side. There is another picture, one more inviting, more difficult to realize, it is true, but more perfect as a consequence. 

TRAINING THE MIND. --There never was a time in the history of the worldwhen so many people were striving after definite knowledge, --some schemeof mentality, some mental atmosphere, --some spiritual or idealisticphenomena, --which would satisfy the craving, the hunger of the restlessand dissatisfied human mind for absolute enlightenment regarding themysteries of life. It is a curious fact that to attain such knowledge, all these various bodies, no matter how they may differ as to the methodof procedure, concede that the education of the human mind and therecognition of its exact capabilities is the ultimate province throughwhich final enlightenment must come. 

We must, therefore, recognize that on whatever we do with our mind, inour own little way, will depend the measure of success and happiness towhich we may aspire. Success is not attained without effort, but everylittle effort we expend will help wonderfully in the task. Train yourmind to think just, kind, good thoughts. Do not dwell upon the bad sideof any problem, search for the good side, because every problem has agood side. So also has every human soul. When the unkind, the unjust, the bad thought is conveyed to you by another, do not admit it, do notdwell upon it, render it negative at once by assuring yourself thatthere is another side to the question. We all know how easy it is tokick the under dog. We all have in mind some friend, some acquaintance, some old lady, perhaps, who is famous in her community for her kindlyways, and for her kindly thoughts. The two go together. It is well knownamong her friends that she will not tolerate any unkind, unjust, evilreport, of even the humblest or lowest member of society to be expressedin her presence, without instantly defending the maligned victim, bypicturing the possible other side. Her life has been an example, aninspiration in the community, because she has always exerted a kindly, sympathetic, helpful influence. It is this atmosphere, this environment, that checks gossip, stifles scandal, saves heartaches, and preventsdomestic tragedies. 

The most interesting study you will ever engage in, if you are true toyourself, will be the working of your own mind. 

The resourcefulness of your brain will be a constant pleasure to you. You will be aided by books and you will find a lesson in every thing yousee and hear. Life will appear different, and you will rise above theplane in which the little routine annoyances of daily life seem burdensand sorrows. A woman, if she goes about it "in the right way, " can dowith her lover-husband what she pleases. If she uses that power forselfish motives, or for a wrong purpose, in the end she will be theloser. If she is far seeing, and uses her power to build up a home, andis just, and respects her husband, and honestly gives him his true placein her scheme, and loves and honors him, and is tactful, there is nolimit to what she may accomplish, so far as the personal happiness ofherself and husband and children are concerned. We all know that law isnot always justice. We likewise know that there is no such anomaly as aperfect human being. The ability to gain a point, without apparentcoercion, or a sacrifice of truth or honor, depends upon the successfulqualities that go toward the building up of a complete and harmoniouspersonality. It is an axiom in psychology that to attain the highestsuccess, one must first understand, and, understanding, conquer the bad, and develop the good features in one's own temperament, beforeattempting to rule the conduct of any other person. You must understandyourself before you attempt to understand your husband. Many of his bestqualities, --qualities that if rightly understood, will go a long waytoward making your life a happy one, --can be misunderstood, misinterpreted, and become incessant factors for doubt, jealousy andquarreling. 

Because your husband prefers to do a thing in a way that does not quitesatisfy your taste, does not necessarily mean that he is wrong, and sucha condition does not justify an argument. Consider the matter seriously, in silence argue it out with yourself and give his side the same justiceyou hope to get. If you can develop convincing proofs, that his way isnot the best way, even though it isn't really wrong ethically, he willprobably concede the point, provided, --and don't overlook this, --you "goabout it in the right way, and in the right spirit. " It isn't likely youwill be given a patient hearing, if in the past you have been in thehabit of nagging and browbeating him. Don't look upon tactful ways ofgaining your point as evidence of weakness. It is distinctly an evidenceof strength of character, and, each time you win a point in a friendlydebate with your husband, you will have gained much. He will respect youall the more because of your justice; and will secretly admire youbecause of your ability to protect yourself. You will gain confidence inyour judgment, and you will see things in a broader, and from a lessselfish standpoint. 

YOUR HUSBAND'S FRIENDS SHOULD BE YOUR FRIENDS. --Be sure your husband'sfriends are your friends. Business or professional exigencies do notalways permit a man to choose or select his acquaintances. You can besure, however, he will not ask or expect you to associate with anydoubtful person, though it may be necessary to extend a welcome to anundesirable business, or professional associate, for the time being. When these occasions occur, do not mar the opportunity to help by anyexhibition of temper, or dissatisfaction. He may be trying to make thebest of an unfortunate incident. Help him. Do not discourage him for atheart his object is to gain some business advantage that will redound toyour advantage as well as his own. 

Nothing pleases a man more than to know that his wife is "a goodfellow, " that no matter what seems to be questionable on the surface, hecan rely upon her to know that everything is right underneath, --that hismotive is good. 

Do not invite him to tell a lie in order to avoid a scolding. Nothing ismore unfortunate, nothing is more easy for an ordinarily good, butmisunderstood man, than the tendency to fib about little things, if hefeels in his heart that his wife will scold, --that she will fail to seethe point. It wounds his self-respect to have to do so, yet he selectsthe minor evil as he sees it, he sacrifices his manhood in the interestsof domestic peace. 

TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. --Roughly, there are two kinds ofindividuals in the world, the individual who will, and the individualwho will not. There are individuals who will not see the truth, whofail to see the point in an argument, who are obtuse and obstinate. Thistrait is largely wilful perversity and ignorance. We cannot help notingthem in the passing, but we scarcely hope to interest them, though wecannot restrain our sympathy. 

Young wives who come within this category will remain the laggards, thedegenerates. Their evolution is revolution, they become thefault-finders, the discontents, the gossips. They do not love themselvesnor are they loved by any human being. They are the domestic failures. As wives they dishonor the sex, as mothers they dishonor God. 

In reality, there is but one thing in the universe--mind. By "mind, " wemean the ability to reason. Every human being comes into the world withthis ability. Our health, happiness, efficiency, success, dependsabsolutely upon how we utilize this birthright. There is no limitationto this ability. Heredity and environment have little to do with it. Itis a personal equation. "It depends upon how you do it, " has beenfrequently reiterated in the preceding pages. This implies, to what useyou put your mind, and this is the secret of the young wife's efficiencyand success. True happiness is a mind product. It is a creation of mindactivity. The evanescent pleasures are not character builders, but acreated thought is a pregnant possibility. The young wife who begins herwedded life with ideals with the determination to succeed, with certainwell thought out plans, will progress. Her world is her husband and herhome. Her husband must succeed, her home must be comfortable and happy. She must contribute her full share in achieving these results. If shepermits her personal amusement to be the dominant purpose she will fail. She cannot transgress the law and remain immune. How can she beginright? Give her best to her home. A woman who gives her most gracioussmiles and her most captivating manners to society, is false to herhusband and her home. The prettiest gown and the brightest jewels shouldgrace her own dinner table. To bring them out only to attend areception, or a tea party, is a desecration. Many women expend theirmoral and spiritual strength upon the "club, " and bring the witheringremnants as a sacrifice to the blighted home fireside. We have no rightto help build a church, or foster a philanthropy by depleting ourstrength and resources in the effort, only to give the frazzled ends ofour talents to home and home-making. Nor has a woman any right toexhaust her strength in the toil of mere housekeeping, and reserve forthe evening hour of conversation a bundle of quivering nerves and anexasperated temper. These women are not home-makers. Their ideal ofwifehood and motherhood is fundamentally wrong. Every power of the body, and of the mind and spirit, should be devoted to the achievement of ahome atmosphere. It is the creation of this quality that spellscontentment, peace, happiness, and no other. 

A young wife with an ideal, with a definite plan, and with a trueappreciation of her dignity and importance, will never find time todaily gossip over the back fence with her neighbor, nor will she jointhe sewing circle whose function is well known to be scandal bartering. "Give your best to your home, "--one of the great advantages of having aspecific plan is that it wholly engages our mind. If we have an objectin view, if we want something, it implies interest, and if we areinterested deeply in something we think about it. Every spare momentwill be used by the mind in devising ways and means to achieve ourpurpose. We will not find time to seek the questionable amusement ofgossip. The women who are eternally poking their noses into otherpeople's business, who burden their minds with other people's affairs, who are busybodies, always neglect their homes and their children. Theyhave no ideals, they are the derelicts of the community. Remember that"Satan finds some mischief still for idle minds to do. "

THE MOST POPULAR WOMAN. --The most popular woman is the one whom amajority of all women would vote for in a popularity contest. Many womenare so notoriously vixenish and jealous of members of their own sex, that, it would seem to be worth while to analyze the qualifications ofthe most popular woman, in an effort to discover the one quality whichappeals to her own sex. After exhausting the list, we find the mostpopular woman possesses, in a high degree, the quality of tactful, ordiplomatic flattery. The art of flattery is an acquired habit. Statesmenand politicians know its value. Even the little seekers after publicoffice cultivate it assiduously. It is undoubtedly an asset of muchvalue in every sphere of life, but it must not be overdone. Every memberof the human-family will tolerate a large amount of it without showingresentment. This is the reason why it is a valuable asset and of suchgeneral usefulness. Sometimes a woman will boast that she detestsflattery, yet she is highly pleased when you tell her that the onequality you admire in her is that she cannot be flattered. If, therefore, the young wife desires to become popular, for her own sake, or if she regards this as one way to contribute to her husband'sefficiency, should his success depend upon public approval, --she maycultivate the art of diplomatic flattery. The cultivation of any art isnot a one-sided accomplishment. It is beneficial in many ways, and aidsdistinctly in character building. No one, for example, can acquire theart of tactful flattery and retain a sour or mean disposition. Toflatter efficiently you must seem delighted, and the delight mustexpress itself in smiles and kindly words. These habits will impressthemselves upon your inner consciousness, and before you know it, thehabit will be a constituent part of your temperamental armamentarium. 

The most popular woman will acquire the habit of making some flatteringobservation every time anyone's name is mentioned, and she will never beguilty of criticising a living person or a dead one. She will make ither rule in life, in order to sustain her reputation, never to make anenemy. She will cultivate the insinuating art of shaking hands, ofsmiling sweetly, and of making apropos remarks. No one will ever leaveher without feeling that she is an exceedingly gracious person. She willeven convey to them, in her inimitable way, the impression that shethinks they are "just right. " She will use "blarney" as a science in anartful way. The flattering remarks she will make regarding others willbe passed along by those to whom she makes them, and she will beresponsible for an epidemic of egoism all over town. It is a wonderfulart. 

If the young wife keeps this up for some time she will begin to noticecertain things. She will be accorded much flattering attention herselfand she will be treated with marked consideration wherever she goes. Shewill be received cordially, and every aspiring other woman will makestrenuous efforts to include her among her friends. She will be invitedto participate in public functions when members of her sex take part, and she will be favored and her interests furthered in all socialorganizations. 

She will, without doubt, wear her laurels becomingly, and her successwill be easily acquired. Her spirits, and her health will promptlyrespond to the elixir of her interesting labors. Life will be full ofnew and surprising interests and it will be well worth the effortexpended. Sleep will be more refreshing, she will not be troubled withnerves, and her appetite will be a source of profound thankfulness toher. She will radiate a quality of good-fellowship that will beinfectious, and her whole philosophy of existence will be charityitself. Surely it is worth while. 

CHOOSING YOUR FRIENDS. --The young wife should choose her friends withcaution. Remember you are beginning a new life in which even trivialmatters may exercise an influence that will be bad. One shouldappreciate the difference between true friendship and indulging infriendly relationship with promiscuous acquaintances. A physician has abetter opportunity of observing the conduct of the feminine element of acommunity than any other person. We have come to divide young wives intotwo types: those who attend strictly to their own affairs, and those whomostly attend to their neighbors' affairs. It is not too much to saythat a young wife's time will be wholly occupied if she has begun herhousekeeping career with the intention of becoming a home-maker. Shecannot, therefore, afford to waste her time with promiscuousacquaintances. Women who become promiscuous in their friendships havetime to waste for a number of reasons, --

1st. Their husband and home is not their whole existence. If success andhappiness depend upon how the first year of wedded life is employed, then husband and home should be the young wife's whole existence. 

2nd. Women with time to waste have no ideals. Women without ideals arenot home-makers. A home-maker cannot acquire any information from awoman who wastes her time in idleness. 

3rd. Idleness creates mischief. One who is idle is a mischief maker. Anidle brain is looking for amusement, and as the impulses of an idlebrain are evil, these women are gossips, and scandal-mongers, andhome-breakers. 

4th. True friendship demands nothing. Promiscuous friendship on theother hand does demand something, and as these women live in the evilatmosphere, they live mentally on scandal and gossip. This is theirmental plane and they give and take nothing higher than that which theyunderstand. 

The young wife will, therefore, be wary of this form of friendship. Infinite harm is being done in every community in the country in thisway. No home, no person is too sacred for the vituperative tongues ofthese scandal-mongers. They are densely ignorant though they may befluent talkers. They ingratiate themselves into the confidence of awilling victim, learn the victim's secrets, and rend her to pieces onthe next street corner. Many a man has begun wedded life with thelaudable intention of helping to mold his young wife's mentality, ofpreserving her innocence and purity of thought, only to be undone by theevil machinations of these human derelicts. He will be amazed andastonished at the opinions she gives utterance to, and if he does notfind out where she is getting them, and check the desecration going on, she will be beyond his reach in the very near future. No self-respectingwoman will tolerate such acquaintances. There are, however, manyinnocent, pure women, who are innately too gentle to assert themselvesby insulting another woman at this stage of their experience, who havethe makings of a good wife and mother, who wittingly become victims byreason of their very gentleness, and consequently lose their ideals, anddrift into failures. 

True friendship is necessary. Many men and women rightly attribute theirwhole success and happiness to having had the right kind of a friend orfriends. Charles Kingsley when asked by Mrs. Browning to tell her thesecret of his life, said, "I had a friend, " A friendship that is not aninspiration, an incentive to higher thoughts and nobler deeds, is nottrue. "True friendship demands nothing. " It gives. We should cultivatethe friendship of those who know more than we do, so that we may learnand profit by the relationship. Some people radiate sympathy andhelpfulness and inspiration. Instinctively we can tell those people whenwe come into their presence. We leave them, not once, but always, withthe feeling that there is something about them that energizes andinspires. They draw out our better selves. We are conscious of ourshortcomings and faults, and in their company we strive to giveutterance to worthy thoughts. We feel capable of great deeds. If wecould surround ourselves with these friends, we feel that life wouldmean more, and that we could accomplish much. "He that walketh with wisemen shall be wise. " This is where true friendship is valuable. Thesemoments of inspiration help us to pull ourselves together. We climb alittle higher; we see further and clearer; we learn the meaning oflife's duty; they change the whole complexion of living. The littlethings, the annoyances, the disappointments, the failures, the pains, the sorrows, the passions, we see in their true perspective and they nolonger usurp importance, because we are beginning to learn thesignificance of the things beyond. The incidents of life are no longerlife itself. 

One friend, one true friend to the young wife, will indeed be a tower ofstrength to her. Every young wife needs a friend. The desire forsympathy dwells in every human heart. Even the assiduous person needsencouragement and a little praise. It is wonderful how a mite oflaudation will prod us to be more worthy. Even our joys neverintoxicate save in the telling. By sharing our happiness and joys withanother we double them. True friendship means confidence, affection, harmony, love. To be in harmony with one person means that we invite theharmony of all mankind. 

If man is made in the image of God every human being must be more orless divine. Confidence, affection, harmony, love, --the attributes oftrue friendship, --are the divine sparks in our humanity. Truefriendship, therefore, is growth in the divine sense. There are realthings in life which we seldom acknowledge but which are, nevertheless, real. We do not often admit the existence of the divine in ourselves, but it is there. If we did acknowledge it oftener we would live nearerthe truth, nearer God. 

When we read in the public press the story of the _Titanic_ disaster, how after all the boats had gone, and the ill-fated ship poised, beforeshe took her awful plunge, how the doomed souls stood on her decks andlifted their trembling voices in unison with the brave orchestra to thestrain of "Nearer My God to Thee, "--something clutches at ourheartstrings, and we find the divine reality trying to come to thesurface to express itself in that universal friendship out of whichheroes are made. When we stand by the bedside, watching the fitful, final breaths of a well-loved child, or of an old, honored and faithfulmother, there creeps into our consciousness feelings with which we arestrangers, but they are ours, part of the divinity in us which in thework-a-day-world we stifle and crush. Friendship and no other humanquality brings this divine element into our actual life. Those who havenever had a friend have never solved the riddle of human nature. 

We must remember, however, that there are those whose lives are denialsof this divinity. They are incapable of true friendship, and they, inprosperous days, deride the sentiment involved and consider anyreference to such matters as silly and mawkish. These blustering heroes, however, are the ones who shriek the loudest when fate places them onsinking decks. 

Strive to be worthy of a true friendship. Be willing to give of the bestthat is in you. We need the inspiration of the divine that is hidden inus, we should not crush or fail to acknowledge the presence of thestill, small voice that speaks of love and for love. Remember, that, "Byyour friends shall ye be known. "

EXPLANATION OF SYMBOLS

Used in the Following Three Illustrations

[Illustration]

A Alcoholic--meaning decidedly intemperate, a drunkard. B Blind I Insane Sy SyphiliticC Criminalistic M Migrainous Sx Sexually immoralD Deaf Neu. Neurotic T TuberculosisE Epileptic Par. Paralytic W Wanderer, trampG Goitre

HEREDITARY FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS[A]

[Illustration]

The above chart illustrates the first great law of hereditaryfeeble-mindedness; that if both parents are blighted all offsprings willbe blighted. The family represented is plainly very low grade. It is oneof that kind found in every community, growing like rank weeds to menacesociety. It is small wonder that with production like this permittedcriminality springs full-fledged into the world. 

[Illustration]

This chart is particularly interesting, showing as it does the marriageof a normal man with, first a normal woman, and subsequently withfeeble-minded women. The taint of the feeble mind is inevitable. Whereasthe grandchildren by his second marriage appear normal there is alwaysthe danger of their progeny being blighted by the taint that is in theirblood. The horror of the third marriage is too evident. 

[Footnote A: "Feeble-mindedness; Its Causes and Consequences, " Goddard, The Macmillan Company. ]

MAKING RESOLVES. --In a preceding chapter I remarked, that every humanthought, deed, act, prayer, etc. , must conform to certain laws, if bytheir use we desired to achieve results. We know this is true, but we donot always obey the rule, and in the end we wonder why we are failures. 

Psychology has formulated laws, based upon actual experiment, regulatingevery department of mental endeavor, or every branch of systematizedmental achievement. These laws show that there are fixed rules, by whichmental effort is regulated, systematized and classified, and that thehuman mind conforms to these laws even when working in ignorance ofthem. No matter how we may deduce facts, or reason from analogy, we obeyfundamental principles. 

In a recent magazine article I read the following:

 "This is my own story of why and how I rose, fell and rose again. It would not be told but for the fact that I have learned by an Experience mixed with some bitterness, that all such things are governed by fixed business laws and rules and move always in obedience to them. There is as I know, a law of failure and a law of success. There is even a law of mediocrity. Every man is controlled by that one of these three laws which he elects to invoke and to follow. "

 "The laws themselves are fixed and unchanging; man is the only variable unit in the equation. He succeeds, he fails or he slumps into mediocrity according to the law with which he voluntarily or by predisposition puts himself in harmony. This is my belief, based on my own adventures with these laws and my observation of other men who have dined and lived with them on intimate, though not always friendly, terms. "

This was written by a successful business man in an article reviewingthe "ups and downs" of his business experiences. It does one good toread such confessions. To the thinking individual it suggests the needof serious, whole-souled, conscientious effort. If these laws exist, --asthey most certainly do, --what is the use of trying to achieve resultsin a wrong way? Why not conform to these laws and concentrate our effortin the right direction? A prodigious amount of energy is wasted inefforts to beat the game. One may scheme and contrive until all ambitionwithers and hope fades, but no one will ever find a satisfactorysubstitute for hard work. Many lives have been frittered away in thefoolish attempt to find the "easy road. " It is doing the little thingsof life conscientiously that counts. The humble hen does one thing well. She lays eggs to the extent of three hundred million dollars per year, in this country alone. If we combine her egg yield with her chickenindustry we find her harvest yields the enormous sum of six hundred andtwenty million dollars per year. 

We are precisely what we deserve to be: we fit for what we are fittedfor. Weaklings are sent to the rear, fighters are always in front. 

The young wife may resolve to win; it depends upon how she begins tomold herself for larger possibilities. If she cannot succeed in smallthings she will not fit when the task is bigger. Suppose you resolve tobe considerate and agreeable to every soul you meet for one month. Forone month you will subject yourself to a rigid test, you will beconsiderate and agreeable, no matter what the conditions are or theprovocation may be to break your word. 

It is a fact that most failures are directly attributable to lazinessrather than to lack of ability or poor health, or any other cause. It isthe most difficult thing in the world for some people to exertthemselves to "make the effort" to succeed. They just do enough to "holdtheir job" or to earn a living, though the possibilities around them arerich in promise. Many know what they ought to do, but they don't seem tobe able to do it. Their ambition is lacking; they elect to travel theroad to failure. 

If the young wife resolves to be considerate and agreeable for onemonth, she is the right kind of young wife. The right impulse is workingwithin her. The very fact that she makes the resolve proves this. Mostpeople are influenced by two motives, necessity and pleasure. They workbecause they have to work to exist. But a great deal of the work isindifferently done. The woman who skims over her household duties in adisinterested and frequently slovenly way, will spend much thought and agreat amount of time to excel in appearance and in attaining results ata church fair, for example; or she will work assiduously sewing everyafternoon and evening on dresses, etc. , to shine during a two weeks'vacation at the sea shore, while her husband is being indifferently fedand her home all but neglected. To attain pleasure one will actuallywork efficiently though the method and the motive may be ethicallywrong. So, when a young wife actually resolves to do something which hasa high moral significance and which she is not compelled to do she isbeing actuated by the right kind of principle, she is following the lawor instinct of success. 

THE FORMULA OF SUCCESS. --Successful men and women are frequently askedto give their formula of success. There is no formula of success excepthard work. Every successful man or woman is a hard worker. There is noexception to this rule. We often personally know of men or women who"rise in the world" and sometimes we look upon them as lucky dogs, andwonder why fortune does not favor us. If we analyze the daily life ofthese seemingly lucky individuals we will find that they plan and workand scheme while you and I play and amuse ourselves. They have a certainsystem which they adhere to under all circumstances. They have workedhard so long that it has become a habit, --a habit that brings happinessand success. All of them have had their ups and downs, their worries andbattles, but they have faced them in the front ranks, they have neverbecome discouraged, they have been inspired and impelled by theconviction that some day the tide of battle would change. On that daythey were determined to be ready and willing to take advantage of theturn of the wheel of fortune. 

Study the work of the next successful man or woman you meet, and see ifthe rule does not hold true. It isn't the kind of energy that isgenerated that makes the distinction between success and failure: it isthe way in which the energy is used. To win means concentration ofenergy; let the energy be dissipated over many things and failurebecomes a certainty. There isn't a really successful man or woman inexistence who does not deserve success, and who has not worked hard forit. 

Success, fame, and the efforts of friends may not give us the happinesswhich we yearn for, but there is one thing that will always steer ussafely into port--one thing that will bring us the blessing of happinessthough all things else fail us--and that is hard work. 

WHEN FORTUNE KNOCKS. --Fortune is said to knock at the door of every manonce in a lifetime. That once is all the time, for the truth is thatfortune is knocking at our doors every day. The trouble is that we arenot prepared to take advantage of her importuning habits. Fortune hasher laws, and we cannot enter her chariot except by obeying these laws. The young wife who resolves to be considerate and agreeable for onemonth is obeying one of her laws, because, if she keeps her promise, shewill have learnt more than she ever did in any preceding month of herexperience. She will find, for example, that people are really moreamiable and agreeable than she ever thought they were; that, because ofthe restraint she is exerting on her temper and self-control, she isgrowing stronger temperamentally. She has more patience, and she is morethorough in little things; her environment is enlarging and life is moreinteresting. The month's experience will teach her something of her owncapabilities and resources, and she will be so interested and encouragedthat she will determine to experiment more and in other directions. Sheis experiencing the psychology of character building--the mostfascinating study of that most fascinating riddle, human nature. Fortunealways favors the brave--it will favor her because she is working in theright direction--she is obeying the law of success. 

To resolve is to obey--to know what you want, to desire to succeed, tobe willing to sacrifice self, to attain results, to smile at adversity, to be patient, truthful, honest, unselfish, sympathetic, in short towork hard every minute and all the time. 

CHAPTER XXVI

 "Habit is a cable: we weave a thread of it each day, and it becomes so strong we cannot break it. "

 HORACE MANN. 

SPARE MOMENTS

 The Study Habit--The Germ of Self-culture--Millions of Tiny Cells in Our Brain--The Economic Value of the Study Habit--Two Ways of Gaining Knowledge--Happiness in the Company of Those Striving for Higher Ideals--A Young Wife's Incentive to Self-culture--The Difference Between Moral and Mental Disloyalty--The Study Habit Creates Its Own Interest--Nosophobia, or the Dread of Disease--Keep Still and Be Well. 

THE STUDY HABIT. --Every individual differs from every other individualaccording to his habits. The nature of our habits fixes our status inthe struggle of life. If we get into the habit of thinking evilthoughts, we live in that atmosphere. Health is a habit, so also issuccess. Honesty, virtue, vice, procrastination, contentment, fault-finding, grumbling, candy eating, gossiping, drinking, sleeping, religion, friends, life itself, are habits. Life is what we make it. "Asthe man thinketh in his heart, so he is. " Some habits are good, othersare bad. Certain habits are constructive, others are destructive. If weget into the habit of doing our work thoroughly and regularly, accordingto some definite system, we encourage the habits of contentment, calmness, efficiency, and happiness. If we do our work spasmodically, irregularly, without system, if we gossip between times, we areeternally trying to catch up, so we encourage the habits ofprocrastination, discontent, inefficiency, fault-finding, and failure. We must be master or victim of our habits. We must succeed, or we mustfail. The immutable law of life permits of no standing still. We areeither progressing or we are retrogressing. One of the best habits, ifnot the very best, that the young wife can cultivate in her new home isthe study habit. It is eminently a constructive habit. 

The germ of self-culture is latent in every healthy mind. It is anexceedingly virile microbe. It may begin as a fad but intrinsically itgrows as a virtue. Environment may give it birth but its roots may notbe circumscribed. They seek nourishment from every far and near springand well, and its branches spread out to the north and south, and eastand west, and its leaves suck into its heart, health and strength andcolor and fragrance, from the everlasting sun. 

In our brain are millions of tiny cells. Each cell is capable of asingle thought. When we begin as children, we learn letters first, thenwords, then sentences or thoughts. In due time we have a sufficientnumber of cells, each with its photographed letter or word or thought. From this stock we reason and think and plan. These are the letters andwords and thoughts of ordinary life. We have millions of cells left, andthe brain is a tireless, ceaseless worker. If we keep on feeding it moreletters, more words, more thoughts, it is satisfied, but if we stop, ifwe stagnate, it keeps on working, but it can only use the words andthoughts we have given it. Ceaselessly it rearranges these words in itseffort to live. We are feeding it nothing, its circulation becomes poor, its vitality weak. Some day it arranges its limited number of words intoa new thought, a bad thought, our idle mind grasps the significance ofthe new thought, and we give birth to a new piece of scandal, or wecommit a crime. The brain is pleased, because the execution of the newbad impulse brought more blood, more vitality to it, and it gets thehabit of thinking bad thoughts and conveying evil impulses. They werethe product of idleness of mind. And as a matter of statistical fact, all tragedies, crimes, vices, scandal, gossip and misery are directproducts of mental inertness or idleness. 

The minds of the grumbler, the gossip, the thief, the criminal, arepoor, empty, starved, wayward minds, and their brains are small, poorlynourished, sickly brains. The young wife with a moment of leisure whohas a starved, empty mind, is a victim of her passions, hersurroundings and her ungoverned impulses. The young wife whose brain isbeing fed by the study habit, is self-contained, is master of herimpulses and her passions. The mental latitude of one is limited tocaprice, envy, discontent, hate and jealousy; the other islight-hearted, charitable, just, contented, and happy. 

Shut the two in a dungeon and the owner of the starved, empty brain willgo mad. The other will find hope in her heart, and in her brain, thechildren of her thoughts will troop in, bringing solace and cheer andcourage. 

From a practical standpoint the study habit has an economic value. Itpreserves health and peace of mind, it enhances efficiency, it broadensour sympathies and charities, and it unifies the home circle. It is aneasy habit to acquire, and it sustains its interest: it is inexpensive. The Carnegie libraries, correspondence schools, the university extensionplan of lectures, etc. , contribute in a large measure to its easyacquirement, and to the success with which it may be pursued. 

TWO WAYS OF GAINING KNOWLEDGE. --We gain knowledge in two ways. First, byexperience, which means mingling with people, exchanging ideas, discussing topics, listening to lectures, sermons, talks, etc. Second, by reading and studying. We must read and study in order to reallyunderstand and assimilate what we learn from experience, and what wehear discussed in lectures, sermons and talks. As soon as we becomeinterested in a study we begin to rise above what we may call theeveryday plane. We desire to know more, and when we know a good dealabout one subject, we want to know something about kindred subjects, sowe extend the latitude of our knowledge. It is marvelous how the habitgrows. It is not work, it is pleasure. We long for spare moments torenew the study, and as we experience the pleasure the growth of ourmind affords, we improve in all directions. Every cell in the brainsends out vibrant impulses, new life, new hope. Health means more, lifehas a meaning. We find happiness in the company of those who arestriving for higher ideals. We perform even our menial tasks with morecare and with more interest, because we grasp their true meaning, andwe know that we cannot aspire to higher ideals if we are dishonest inlittle things. So the study habit makes better men and better women ofus, and it adds to the pleasure of life all the real pleasure there isin living. The power to analyze, to conceive, and to create are thehighest pleasures mankind possesses, and they can only be attained inany degree by education and cultivation. 

It is not easy to explain to the average superficially educated personthe satisfaction to be derived from original or creative thinking. Onemust progress far enough in mental self-culture before it becomes apleasure, almost an intoxication. Up to a certain point the acquirementof knowledge is a task, an effort, a seeming self-sacrifice; beyond thatpoint it is a labor of love, a pleasure, a consecration. The crude, discordant efforts of a child, when it first begins to acquire a musicaleducation, very convincingly illustrates the condition of mind of thebeginner in self-culture. The task is a toil and the results do notstimulate further spontaneous effort. The same child, however, maysuccessfully pass through the various gradations of a musical career andarrive at a time when effort will submerge itself; when the result ofthe knowledge acquired will be so gratifying that it will no longer be atoil; when the study will be pursued because of the actual pleasure itaffords. 

The only worthwhile thing in life is mind. If one does not develop themind, it is possible to live an entire lifetime and not really live atall. To exist is not to live. All the amenities of life contribute toexistence, not to life itself. To live is to create, to give, to endow. 

If a book contains one original thought, it will live. Few books containmore than one thought, one inspiration. If it, however, suffuses thatone thought into the hearts of men its existence will have beenjustified. We have no criterion or standard by which to judge theethical value of a thought. If a thought conveys an inspiration toanother and is productive of moral growth it has life and value becauseit creates. 

To exist is to blindly follow the primal instincts. To live is tothink, to reason, to grow mentally. Consequently we must have ideals, wemust cling tenaciously to these ideals, and, "We must know what wewant. "

THE YOUNG WIFE'S INCENTIVE TO SELF-CULTURE. --A young wife has a realincentive to self-culture if she hopes to maintain her position in thehome and in the affection of her husband. A man has always the advantageof being actively engaged in one of the two ways of acquiring knowledge. He mingles with people. He gains considerable knowledge and frequentlycultivation unwittingly. He grows with his business, and as it increaseshe becomes more important in the community. He mingles with keener, wide-awake business men, his wits are sharpened, his brain must be alertand virile. A healthy active brain grows, it is responsive, it absorbsknowledge. As he climbs higher, he wears off the crude corners andassumes a worldly cultivation, which men of sound business sense canadapt to suit any social exigency. The wife does not have theseadvantages, and, unless she appreciates this point, she is very apt toremain where she was when she married, so far as mental culture isconcerned. Now to be wife in a true sense, she must be companion. Shemust keep pace with his prosperity on the one hand and with hisintelligence on the other. The more culture and knowledge a man attainsthe more critical he becomes, the more cultivated his tastes, the morecultivation he demands. Qualities that did not always grate upon hissensibilities become acutely objectionable in his higher mental state. Aman may be loyal at heart, but he resents the inaptitude of a wife whofails to keep the mental pace. He is willing to give his wife thebenefits of his material prosperity, but he cannot give her the finerevidences of his higher mentality, because, while she may have provedtrue as a wife, she failed as a companion. She fell behind in culture. He cannot give that which she cannot receive. The young wife shouldappreciate the difference between moral disloyalty on the part of herhusband, and mental disloyalty. He is the transgressor in the first, andshe is the culprit in the second delinquency. We must meet a situationas it exists. Moralizing does not change the conditions. A man andwoman may be temperamentally suited to each other to-day, and in a fewyears may be wholly dissimilar in tastes. If being a wife simply impliedmore loyalty and domestic efficiency there could be no just cause forcomplaint if she failed in every other respect, but it does not. To be awife more than in name, one must be friend, companion, confidant. Noone, much less a husband, selects as a friend, companion, and confidant, an individual whose tastes are not in sympathy with his own, who doesnot understand the viewpoint, one in whom he cannot confide, or onewhose intelligence is crude. A man can obtain a housekeeper anywhere, but he cannot buy a home-maker, a companion, a friend, or a confidant. 

The study habit will create the interest. If you once get it, only deathcan take it from you. If you become interested, no man can grow awayfrom you, and no man can take from you the worlds it will open up. Youmust, however, begin the study habit with the determination to acquireknowledge. You must want intensely to succeed, and you must be willingto sacrifice self, and to work diligently. "If you quit, it simply showsyou did not want an education, you only thought you did, --you are notwilling to pay the price. "

NOSOPHOBIA, OR THE DREAD OF DISEASE. --There is one disease I would warnthe young wife not to acquire. It is called nosophobia. It is withoutdoubt the most serious sickness with which any member of the humanfamily may be afflicted. 

In another part of this book I have written the story of the agedphilosopher, who, on being asked to name the worst troubles he had inlife, answered, "I am quite sure my greatest worries, and my worsttroubles were those that never happened. " This reply is well worththinking about; it contains matter for serious reflection, and whatmakes it so suggestive and valuable is that it can be proved true by theexperience of our own lives. 

Nosophobia means dread of disease. It may astonish many to know thatsuch a condition is regarded as a disease, and that it has been given aname. Instead, however, of it being a rare disease, or an unusualcondition, we find it is one of the commonest diseases, and one of themost easily acquired conditions. In fact, it is so easily acquirednowadays that we have to be constantly on guard against it. Though wemay not be its victim, we have all felt its influence at some time, andeven one experience of it is sufficient to satisfy the most exacting. Itis an absolute medical fact, that the dread of disease will render onemore profoundly miserable and unhappy, and will cause more mental andphysical incompetents than will any severe, prolonged, actual sickness. People who are victims of nosophobia are probably the most miserable andwretched individuals on earth. This is essentially so because of thepeculiar characteristics of the disease. It is an insinuating andinsidious ailment and its progress is cumulative. When we begin to worryabout our health the germ of nosophobia takes up its habitation in ourmidst and we never know another happy moment. 

The dread of disease is probably more common now than it used to be, partly because people know more about it, and, therefore, have morematerial out of which to manufacture dreads, and partly because a largenumber of people have the leisure to worry about various symptoms andsensations that come to them, and the significance of which theyexaggerate by dwelling on them until they become positive torments. Itis particularly those who have not much to do, and, above all, those whohave absolutely nothing to do who suffer most from the affection. Children never suffer from this malady because pains and aches have nosignificance to them. The probability of death through sickness neverbothers them. Their minds are always occupied. They are always busy, they think only of life and of living. As we grow older, however, webecome introspective and we permit conditions to favor the developmentof a wrong mental attitude. We accentuate the seriousness of eachtrifling pain and illness, and the specter of death looms up in the pathof each ailment. Soon we spend needless time in worry and we imagine weare not as healthy as we ought to be and that we may probably die in thenear future. This affects our temperament and our efficiency. Life isno longer tolerable or attractive, and we shortly are numbered with thefailures and the incompetents. 

One of the unfortunate consequences of nosophobia is that a victim of itnot only renders her own life miserable, but she unfortunately affectsthe happiness of every member of the household. She is as a rule gloomyand morose, and this constant depressive environment is not conducive tothe success of any effort toward creating moments of amusement andhappiness. Her presence acts as a deterrent and repeated failures toovercome this domestic cloud finally result in a complete cessation ofall effort. Things fall into a rut and each member of the family seektheir various forms of diversion outside the home circle. 

These individuals are sometimes spoken of as "trouble seekers. " In asense, the term is appropriate, because the troubles which wreck theirpeace of mind never occur. In the beginning there is usually some slightphysical ailment. As a rule, it is some form of nervous indigestion. Under appropriate and adequate treatment such forms of indigestion arereadily curable in ordinary individuals, but these patients are notordinary individuals. They are perverse and opinionated. They have theirown ideas. It is impossible to convince them that they are not as sickas they imagine. They think the physician fails to quite comprehendtheir cases, --that he does not recognize the serious side of theailment, and so they are never wholly satisfied with medical assistance. The little incidental pains of the indigestion are indications of heartdisease to such a patient and she acts in sympathy with this awfulaffliction; the real explanation being that the gas produced by theindigestion bothers the heart for the time being. She is very apt todiet as a consequence, one article after another being avoided until sheis living on a starvation diet. She fails to appreciate the fact thatshe needs more nourishment, not less; that her stomach is in goodcondition, the fault being with her nerves. She finally becomes anemicand neurasthenic and a misanthrope. 

The young wife can readily appreciate that, to expect domestic successand happiness under such circumstances, would be impossible. Yet thereare young wives who develop this habit of accentuating their littlepains and ailments inordinately, to their husbands, on every occasion. They adopt this dangerous means of exciting extra sympathy andcaressing. Some do it in explanation of their failure to perform theirhousehold duties efficiently--a laziness plea pure and simple. 

These inefficient and tricky little ladies find that it is easy toimpose upon their unsuspecting husbands, so they proceed to work out thedetails to their own satisfaction. After spending the day sight-seeingor shopping or gossiping, and having neglected their work and feelingtired, they assume a becomingly abandoned position on the big, new, comfortable couch, practice a few heartbreaking sighs and experimentwith the tear supply. These details are arranged and timed to beeffective just as Jack opens the hall door with the latchkey. We canpicture what follows without making any effort to dramatize theincident. But if the reader will try to create mental pictures of thefrequently recurring home-comings under the same circumstances, she willdevelop interesting studies in domestic psychology as she watches theeffect upon Jack when the truth begins to dawn upon him. 

It needs no oracle to assure these women that they are traveling along aroad that has only one ending. Love is as old as the hills, and theolder it gets, like the wise old hills, a wiser old love it becomes. Itexacts its price, and its price is an equal love. There never was a loveborn--except maternal love--that will sustain itself after the knowledgedawns upon it that it is being bartered away and imposed upon. The dayof reckoning comes in time and the dream is over. 

Do not forget that the first year of married life is the trial year--thereal test of your soul-merit. During that first year you carve, as itwere, on a monument, in a thousand different ways, the ineffaceablerecord of whether you deserve success and happiness in the struggle oflife. In what should be the after-glow of love's young dream--the firstprecious weeks and months as a young wife--no element will be moresubtly dangerous than the art of duplicity. Before a young wifedetermines to practice deception she should fully appreciate theinevitable consequences. If, under the mistaken idea that she can easilydeceive her husband, because "he trusts me so, " she believes she maycontinue to do so with impunity, she is the most elementary of all sillylittle fools. She has failed to observe that the great law of theuniverse acts in the interest of the rich and poor, the fool and thephilosopher alike. She will become too clever and like all fools andcriminals she will give herself away. She will wake up to find that shehas been playing with the sacred things of earth--home and a husband'slove; that, never again can she reëstablish the affection and confidencewhich she has trampled upon and defiled; that the future is a mortgagedhope and she herself an unclean and unworthy thing. 

Practicing the art of duplicity in simulating physical ailments will, ifpersisted in, establish nosophobia. The patient will come to believethat she is not exactly well. She will establish the habit of feelingsick. This will render her mind diseased and the diseased mind will inturn suggest new and additional aches and pains, and she will soon notknow whether she is sick or well. The dread of disease will effect itsretribution and soon she will be, in fact, an unhappy and anunsuccessful young wife. 

Modern conditions unfortunately favor the easy development of nosophobiain young wives. Our larger knowledge of the symptoms of diseasedconditions tends to render the analysis of localized pain moredefinitely and more suggestively. Certain pains, we are told by hearsaybusybodies, mean certain serious conditions, and the category of thesediseases extends from indigestion to consumption and to cancer. To thevictim of nosophobia this suggestive knowledge is a constant terror andan ever present nightmare. To the normal healthy mind they mean nothingand suggest less. 

The modern young housewife has a superabundance of spare time. Theutilization of the young wife's spare time is of the most momentousimportance as we have previously pointed out. It is the one commoditywhich will speak in the after years in words of solace and cheer or inregret and condemnation--according to how these precious moments arespent. If these moments are not spent in a way best fitted to whollyoccupy the mind, the mental attitude--to which we previously referred, and which is conducive to the cultivation of nosophobia--will have beendeveloped. 

There are certain kindred conditions that may partly explain, to theordinary healthy person, the real distress of mind into which theseself-centered sufferers sink. The fear of a thunder storm, for example, creates profound dread and distress of mind in some people. The dread ofdirt, of sharp instruments, of certain insects and animals, of darkness, of an ocean voyage, and of great heights, are common examples of thistype of mind-distress of which the characteristic symptom is aninexplicable and uncontrollable dread. The same system ofself-discipline and self-control is necessary to effect a cure of thesevarious forms of mind-distress as is necessary in the successfultreatment of dread of disease. To none of these other forms, however, isattached the same degree of seriousness by the laity as they attachunjustly to nosophobia. The conditions are all the same, but they reasonthat the dread of darkness or dirt or mice or height cannot possiblybring death or seriously affect the health or happiness, while sicknessand the dread of it, means--so they imagine--pain and maybe death. Medically, nosophobia has no such significance. The condition existsonly in the mind and the same effort at self-discipline will cure thedread of disease as well as the dread of any other possible condition. It is this element of mind, however, that lends itself to the cure ofthis condition by other means than legitimate medical advice and so wehave had "healers" and "miracle workers" who have sprung up from time totime in the history of the world, who have cleverly taken advantage ofthis element in human nature, and reaped a rich reward. 

"KEEP STILL AND BE WELL. "--To instruct the young wife how she may guardagainst acquiring this habit, we would suggest that she "keep still andbe well. "

When the world appreciates better the psychology of thought, itstremendous significance will have a concrete meaning. We are too apt toregard the thought we give utterance to as a meaningless thing, so faras its influence is concerned. The woman who harps upon her ailments, who appears at the breakfast table with a depressed and melancholyvisage, who regales us with an account of how poorly she slept, thenightmares she experienced, the pain she suffers, and who puts into herinflection the poison of self-pity is an emissary of Satan. I have seena whole family's happiness for the day destroyed by the meaninglessranting of a hysterical woman. Life is hard enough for all, for each ofus to at least wish each other well. 

The individual who cultivates the habit of carrying sunshine and goodcheer to the breakfast table belongs to the sort of folk who help andinspire the whole world to a greater achievement. If one is sent awayeach morning from home with a cheery word and a radiant good-by he isinspired with the virtue of success and his efficiency is ensured. 

Cultivate the art of contentment and remember that relationship does notimply liberty; you have no right to send out into the world a member ofyour family depressed and miserable because of your irritability andevil habits. 

"Keep still and be well. " If you cannot say a good word about afellow-being, say none at all. Don't become a scandal-monger. We canforgive those who talk evil about us--they talk to hear themselves talk. The gossip germ is born of ignorance and vacuity and breeds best in idleminds. No one is influenced by the vaporings of a gossip, her words diein empty air. She injures herself only. The loquacious pest who bringsto us the tales which the scandal-monger manufactures is the one whorobs us of our peace and is unforgivable. To dignify the maliciousintentions and idle nothings of an evil mind by carrying them further isan expression of degeneracy that is urgently in need of activedisinfection. To vilify another is foolish; to repeat it, is thefunction of a rogue. Your friends bring you the glad tidings of the goodthings that are said about you: your enemies are those who, in the holyname of friendship, bring to you the poison of evil gossip. "Keep stilland be well. "

THE HOME

CHAPTER XXVII

 "If we are eager to do something to lighten the load of another, eager to sacrifice self; to cheer, and counsel, and inspire; to leave unsaid some unkind word, to forget our own troubles in the larger trouble of a friend, we are home-builders. "

 "A married woman can't decently spend her life in playing bridge, and in running ribbons through her underclothing She hasn't any right just to camp on her husband's trail. 

 "No woman on earth has a right to maintenance unless she gives value received. "

DOMESTIC QUALITIES

 A Good Housekeeper and Home-maker--What Constitutes a good Housekeeper--Preparation and Selection of Meals--Washing Dishes--Pots and Pans--Dusting and Cleaning--Work Cheerfully and Be Thorough--Don't Be a Dust Chaser--Don't Get the Anti-sunshine Habit--Air Your Rooms--The Ideal Home--The Medical Essentials of a Good Meal--What Makes the Home--Working for Something--The Average Housewife's Existence Is Slavery--What Shall We Work For--Making Ends Meet--Rest and Recreation--Try a Nap--Get Enough Sleep at Night--Go Out of Doors--Take a Vacation Now and Then--Life Insurance--Owning a Home--The Cheerful Wife and Mother--The Indifferent Wife and Mother--Husband and Wife. 

A GOOD HOUSEKEEPER AND HOME-MAKER. --If the young wife carries out thesuggestions made on the preceding pages and thereby contributes her partto establishing the material success of the co-partnership, will sheprofit in any other way?

She will have become a good housekeeper and home-maker. 

Housekeeping is an acquired art, home-making is a moral quality, aninstinct. Housekeeping conducted as an art is superfluous. Home-makingis a triumph under any circumstances. There are many good housekeepers;there are few competent home-makers. Housekeeping may easily beoverdone; home-making can never be overdone. A beautiful house is notnecessarily a beautiful home. Housekeeping should be conducted with aview to home-making and never for any other reason. Sometimes we seehousekeeping brought to its highest perfection by the same woman whonever did understand the simplest rudiments of home-making. The womanwho becomes the victim of the housekeeping mania never realizes it; itis an insidious art. 

There can be no doubt that a well-kept house is a thing of beauty. Soalso is a marble statue, but it is cold and bloodless. 

The young wife must strive to combine the two faculties. She should bean efficient housekeeper in a happy, comfortable home. 

WHAT CONSTITUTES AN EFFICIENT HOUSEKEEPER?--An efficient housekeeper isone who has acquired the knowledge necessary to perform all the dutiesof housekeeping, and who executes these duties efficiently, with theleast possible expenditure of time and labor. 

It is an absolute fact that most young wives begin housekeeping with thecrudest ideas as to what housekeeping means. It has been pointed outmany times, that many mothers bring their daughters up withoutinstructing them in the elementary principles of keeping house. It isnevertheless necessary to repeat this statement over and over again, andto point out the enormity of the injustice done. Even if a daughter isfortunate enough to marry a man who is capable of supplying all the helpnecessary, a wife should know enough to intelligently discern if thework is properly done. If she does not understand the rudiments ofhousekeeping, and has no help, her inefficiency may be directlyresponsible for breaking up the home. 

PREPARATION AND SELECTION OF MEALS. --Thoroughness and simplicity are thetwo essentials to a satisfactory meal. If the articles are thoroughlycooked and the selection simple, there is no chance for trouble. Abreakfast of fruit, a thoroughly cooked cereal with cream, a boiled eggand toasted bread and butter, is simple and is adequate. Freshlyprepared hot biscuits sound good, but, unless you know your oven andhave had a lot of experience, they are apt to result disastrously. Evenif you are an expert, don't make them. They are very bad for digestion. 

For dinner, lots of thoroughly cooked vegetables, a small piece of steakor two lamb chops, bread (at least one day old), and good butter, abaked apple, stewed prunes, or rice, boiled for three hours, is enoughfor any one. Have your meals on time. Be sure the table cloth andnapkins are clean, and your dishes hot. Establish the habit of beingcheerful at meals, of eating slowly, and of coming to the table with aclean, fresh dress. 

WASHING DISHES. --While your husband is reading the evening paper, washyour dishes. Washing dishes is an art. Few young wives acquire it. Thesecret is, a big basin, lots of hot water, lots of soap, and a desire towash them clean. If you wash them clean, don't smear them over by dryingthem with a greasy dishcloth. Wash your dishrag and drying towel everyday, and hang them up to dry in the sun. 

POTS AND PANS. --How they are neglected! If you have any pride as ahousekeeper, be clean. Hot water, soap, a cleansing powder and a littleeffort, and your pots and pans will be a credit to you. Have a system. Take time. Keep your kitchen tidy. Don't let work accumulate from mealto meal or from day to day. It is astonishing how lazy and dirty somewomen are. We have seen young women on the street, dressed tidily andsmartly, and we have gone into the homes of these women and have beendisgusted and nauseated with their general appearance. There isabsolutely no excuse for this, and a young wife who gets into the habitof being indifferent is a disgrace to her sex. She cannot hope forsuccess or happiness. 

DUSTING AND CLEANING. --Every home should be thoroughly cleaned once aweek. A certain day should be selected for the purpose. A certain systemshould be followed. After it has been done a number of times, you willdevise ways and means of doing it quicker, easier and better. Newmethods will suggest themselves from time to time, so, by planning andsystematizing, you will get rid of the drudgery part, and there will bea constant incentive present to beat your past record. You must get ridof the feeling that it is uninteresting drudgery and slavery. A womanwho looks upon her work in that light is not deserving of any betterfate, and she will not get much further. If you are one of theseperverse individuals who resent advice; if you object to being told thetruth; if you do not want to profit by experience; if you are satisfiedas you are, don't waste your precious time reading books. No author cantell you how to get something for nothing; no teacher can instructothers in anything. He can only awaken thought and arouse impulses. Thelaw of life is harmony. An individual who wastes God's precious time ingrumbling and fretting is the most pitiful object in the universe. Tryto appreciate that you are part of the divine problem, regarding theconduct of which certain implacable laws have been formulated. To obeythese laws means continued life, health, strength, power and success; todisobey them means weakness, sickness, incapacity, unhappiness, discontent and premature death. 

Some people learn quickly how to conserve strength, how to systematize, how to be cheerful and hopeful and to radiate thankfulness. From aselfish standpoint this is the only method that pays. Some people willnot see the point. They will put it aside by some such sophistry as:"Oh! it does not apply to me. " It does, nevertheless, and probably at alater date, when the chance of achievement has withered, they will seethe point through the mist of regret. 

Work cheerfully, therefore, and be thorough. Don't overdo it. Fussinessis objectionable, useless and unhealthy, because it is a constant drainon nerve energy. Some women are dust-chasers. They are eternally pokinginto corners with a feather duster. They chase dust from one room toanother and back again, and the sight of a few grains on the piano makesthem sick. Dust with a moist cloth and when your dusting is over leaveit and forget it. Don't buy a feather duster. 

Don't get the anti-sunshine fad. Let the sun in. Don't pull your shadesdown to save the parlor carpet. Your husband would probably sooner buyanother than pay for a funeral. 

Air your rooms always, night as well as day. You cannot overdo it. Buymosquito screens, keep the flies out, but let the air in. 

THE IDEAL HOME. --It is difficult to describe an ideal home, but we knowone the moment we are in it. Its atmosphere instinctively breathes thepersonality of the home-maker. Its individuality distinctlydifferentiates it from the ordinary impersonal home. Its housekeepingdress is inviting; its furnishings harmonious; and it exhales repose, and comfort, and peace. When we meet its mistress we are welcomed in alow, gentle, cordial tone of voice, and in a manner which radiateshonesty and unaffected simplicity. We discover the source of the unusualatmosphere. It is herself, the wife, the mother, the home-maker. She isthe mystery of the ideal home. Each day her divine art grows moreperfect because her heart is consecrated to the work. She may not besurrounded with material splendor. The miracle is in the soul shepossesses. Love is the magic wand she yields. She loves her home, herchildren, her husband. She is the queen mother in the paradise shecreates. 

We have seen that a good housekeeper may not be a home-maker. Everyhome-maker, on the other hand, is a good housekeeper. The ideal homecould not exist unless presided over by a home-maker. A home-makernecessarily implies being a good mother; but a good housekeeper, who isnot a good mother, will never be a home-maker. 

A good housekeeper will keep house for the art's sake and will resentany domestic event which upsets her housekeeping sense of decorum, eventhough the event may have splendid home-making possibilities. The motherwith the home-making instincts will invite, and aid, and will conceiveevents, which, though they upset her housekeeping routine, willcontribute to the happiness and edification of the home circle. Thehousekeeper's sense of duty ends when a good dinner is served; thehome-maker's real duty and incidentally her pleasure begins, when dinneris on the table. 

THE MEDICAL ESSENTIALS OF A GOOD MEAL ARE: Pure food, judiciouslyselected for two reasons. First, that there may be an adequate dailyvariety--in order to stimulate the individual taste and appetite;second, that the food supplies may be adapted, in nourishingequivalents, to the work and age of the diner. The food must bethoroughly cooked, eaten slowly, and masticated with care anddeliberation. Every meal should be served and eaten when cooked andready. Food should never be allowed to stand when cooked to the properdegree. Overdone food is not desirable. The dishes should be heated tothe proper degree; the table linen, napkins, etc. , clean and fresh; andthe family should all eat at the same time. 

A meal should never be hurried. Interesting conversation is, therefore, a necessary and a commendable feature while dining. There is less desireor tendency to hasten through a meal when one is interested or is beingentertained. The intervals between courses will be welcomed rather thanresented under these circumstances, and the appetite will be keener andthe enjoyment greater. 

The wife and mother, who is the home-maker and consequently responsiblefor the _esprit de corps_ of the family, will direct, suggest, and guidethe conversation into profitable and interesting channels. By thussupplying the atmosphere necessary to the efficient eating of a meal, the digestion and the assimilation of the food will adequately take careof itself. Overeating is never a part of any meal and should bereligiously avoided. 

WHAT MAKES THE HOME. --We know it isn't the house we live in that makesthe home. Many have lived in humble dwellings and have carried allthrough life the memory of home as a sacred legacy. Wealth does not makea home, nor culture, nor any of the intellectual attainments for whichwe may strive unceasingly. We may have all these and yet not know thejoy of "home. " "Home" conveys to every heart the same tender memories. To have known the blessings of a "home" is to be fortified for life'sbattles. No one can deny its importance in humanizing mankind. A boy whohas never known what it was to have a home, whose substitute for thehome associations was an "institutional mother, " may have all thenecessary potential qualities for success, but he will be foreverdeprived of the inspiration that memory of home kindles in every humansoul. 

The secret of the sources of home is its atmosphere. The atmosphere ofhome is the sum total of the kinship and sympathy radiated by itsmembers. It is a tangible something which is capable of being felt, which is capable of inspiration and which is capable of being carriedaway into the years beyond, exerting a helpful influence over themilestones of worry, and trouble, and defeat; and it is always afragrant, soothing, energizing influence. Every human heart needs thememory of a home and the presence of a friend at all times and in allplaces. 

We must contribute our share to form the right kind of home-making"atmosphere. " The two qualities which are essential to this task aresympathy and peace. Each contributor must be more than a negative unitin the home. It is not enough to simply desire peace--a deaf mute couldfill that part. We must desire to please and we must be an active agencyworking for harmony and peace. If there is in our heart enough sincereaffection for brother and sister, father and mother, the desire toplease will be the bond of sympathy that will weather everytemperamental storm. If we are eager to do something to lighten the loadof another, eager to sacrifice self, to cheer and counsel and inspire, to leave unsaid some unkind word, to forget our own troubles in thelarger trouble of a friend, we are home-builders. We must control ourmoods in the home, we must submerge the instinct of selfishness, ofimpatience, of pride, and of obstinacy. We must not be opinionated, wecan many times conform to the opinion of others in trivial matters andpreserve peace; we thereby minister to the happiness of others, becauseto give happiness is the surest way to be happy. Temper is the stingthat poisons many homes. Its possessor is an impossible associate andwill defeat the work of the angels in the effort to make homes. 

WORKING FOR SOMETHING. --At various times we have emphasized thenecessity of having definite plans, of "knowing exactly what you want, "of "beginning wedded life with ideals"; in other words, we believe thatto combine the maximum efficiency with the greatest degree of happinessit is necessary for all of us to "work for something. "

It is not necessary to prove that the average human life isuninteresting; most of us know that. As a matter of fact the averageexistence is a monotonous, hopeless dreary stretch of time, dotted atmore or less frequent intervals with physical pain and suffering, andwith mental sorrow and anguish. 

While this is undeniably a true epitome of the average life to-day, itis not to be accepted as the only possible average existence. Everyagency that is working for the betterment of the conditions whichsurround life is helping to elevate the status of the averageindividual. As individuals, the question whether our life will conformto the average, or be individualized, rests with ourselves. 

The ordinary average housewife's existence is slavery in its loneliestand most wretched form. Its utter hopelessness is its most depressingfeature. If we could hope for some glint of sunshine, some day in thefuture when conditions would change, some circumstance which would giveus the opportunity which we have never had, some test of ourwomanhood, --anything to relieve the crushing, hopeless inertia of thedaily routine, --we imagine we could go on again, hoping that thingswould permanently change eventually. Don't "hope things will change. "Change them! Don't get in a mental rut; don't be an "average" housewife. If you really can't do anything else, if things are so abjectly hopelessthat there is no other way out, if your path is leading to nowhere, start a rebellion. When the smoke has cleared away you may see a newpath to follow, and it may lead to somewhere. It is not necessary to dothis often, because the fault is usually our own, and not that ofenvironment or conditions, or our husbands. All we need to do is tothink things over, and begin something, and all the other conditionswill take care of themselves. The moment we step outside the humdrumpath of existence, the moment we are curious enough to do this, there ishope for us. A little mental fresh air will dissipate a good many brainfogs. The instant we begin "working for something" definite, we ceaseto follow in the procession of the average helpless and hopelesscitizen. So to the young housewife we would strongly suggest that she"think things over" and decide what she is going to work for. 

Now, what will it be? Of course it will be different with eachhousewife. With many it will be "a home of our own. " It may only be apiano for the children, or it may wisely be more insurance. Possibly youlive in the country, and you long for the social and other advantages ofthe city. You may be a city wife and may long for a farm in the gloriouscountry. It may be a trip to Europe; or a college education for the boy;or a musical career for the daughter. It does not matter what it is, the"it" is the thing itself, and, having found it, the world for you haschanged. The lonesomeness, and the hopelessness, and the wretchedness oflife have disappeared. There is always in the future the "it"; no matterhow dark and gloomy the road may be, it is illuminated at the far endwith the realized "it. " It is the bearing of the burden of life thatmakes a wife, and when we have "something to work for" we begin to live. Love is the explanation. We don't want the home for ourselves. We wantit for those we love, we want those we love in the atmosphere, which I, as mother, will make in "our home. " It is the elemental mother thatspeaks, --the motherhood spirit that pours out eternally inself-sacrifice and keeps no debit account. It is the cry of the primalmother that echoes through all the ages and which has kept the race saneand safe and hopeful. Having something to work for supplies the elementnecessary to cheerfulness. In the darkest moments, when everything seemsto go wrong, the thought that we can look forward to a time when a greatchange is coming, when we will move to the new home, when we go to thefarm or the city as the case may be, or when John will finish hiscollege course and start out as a lawyer, --when the strain of skimpingand making ends meet is over we feel that the struggle will let up andwe can rest in peace for a little while. It is sharing these burdensthat counts, and brings out the best elements of human nature. Thestruggle of making ends meet draws the young couple closer together, and adds that touch of divinity that is essential to confidence andlove. It strengthens character, curbs the tendency to unnecessaryexpenditure of money and time, and teaches frugality and patience. Theincentive to win out is ever present, and it is the anchor that meansfinal satisfaction and success. 

Try to see the point. Work for something, --something worth while, andwhen you have once begun never turn back. "Nothing-succeeds likesuccess. "

REST AND RECREATION--A young couple should find time for rest andrecreation as well as for work. This part of the domestic problem shouldbe carefully and systematically utilized, and just as faithfully carriedout as any other part. Both husband and wife should participate in thesehours of enjoyment, and the husband should assiduously try to make ofthese respites periods of real mutual benefit. No matter in what stationof life one may be, it is always possible to find congenial means ofpassing many happy and profitable hours together, if the spirit ofcompanionship and mutual interest is kept alive. It is the incessantstrain upon the nervous system that constitutes the real danger of homelife. The struggle to make ends meet; to keep the children neat and wellfed; to look respectable; to provide clothing and education; to nursethe sick; to tolerate gossipy neighbors; to put up with ugly tempers; tomeet the constant drain of society, business, politics andreligion, --the wonder is that so few remain outside the lunatic asylums. 

There are certain inevitable daily happenings in the life of everyhousewife that must be tolerated though they are not pleasant. A certainnumber of interruptions will come at the most inopportune moments. Thechildren will come in with muddy feet and walk over the clean floor;some days the stove works splendidly, other days it acts as if it wascrazy; the milkman is late to-day and too early to-morrow; some days theiceman comes, some days he stays away, and these are the days we wanthim most; the upstairs work is not quite done when cooking must bebegun; the grocer forgot to send the butter; a dish or two will crack orbreak every day; doors will slam; the rain begins to fall just when theclothes are all hung out; baby needs nursing just when the pie must beturned; a visitor calls before the dishes are washed. These areinevitable. The cure does not lie in some impossible revolution. We mustrest the nerves and take the strain off. 

Try a nap in the middle of the day. Lie down and relax even if you donot sleep. In some countries this is a national custom. It should be alaw in America. One cannot appreciate the amount of good that can begained from one-half hour's sleep. Medically it is a wonderfulrejuvenator. 

Get enough sleep at night. Late hours in the home is a bad habit and apoor investment. It affects the health and the efficiency. One extrahour means all the difference between frayed-out nerves, exasperateddispositions and home peace and contentment. There is a certain fixedratio between sleep and good nature that has been formulated into a lawby psychology. Keep early hours and the whole complexion of life willimprove. 

When indoor work becomes irksome go out of doors, try a walk. Nothingwill dissipate tired-out nerves quicker than a brisk walk. Everyhousewife should walk in the open air every day of her life. It is anabsolute necessity if she hopes to retain her health and spirits. Shewill be in better shape and in a better mood to carry out her part ofthe daily programme. 

Take a vacation now and then. Go to the seashore or into the mountains. When a housewife is run down and irritable; when the disposition comesto indulge in a lonely cry; when she wishes she had never been born;when the cook stove and the children are hysterical irritants; it istime for a day off. The husband should find time to take his wife intothe country for a week end, even a day at the seashore will work likemagic. 

Resting and recreation are necessary. If we do not recognize this fact, and adopt the habit as a preventative, we will be compelled to take itin an effort to cure a malady that has established itself as aconsequence of the neglect. It, therefore, is a time and money saver, and it saves friction, and home, and maybe life. 

LIFE INSURANCE. --Every young wife should insist upon her husbandcarrying life insurance upon his own life. She should make this a partof the prenuptial agreement. We would go further and state that a manwho will not willingly agree to this is not a safe man to marry. Thekind of insurance is immaterial, so long as it guarantees to the wife anadequate sum of money in the event of his premature death. The wifeshould regard the payment of the premiums as one of the necessities, andshould personally know that they are promptly paid. 

OWNING A HOME. --It should be the hope of every married couple to owntheir own home. It has been the regret of many, when in later years theyhave figured up the money which they have spent in rent, that they didnot think of this plan earlier. Nowadays, it is possible to pay a verysmall sum down, and certain monthly payments, which apply on thepurchase of a house. By beginning this way, when the family expenses aresmall, it is comparatively easy, and without any deprivations, to ownthe home outright in a few years. Many couples foolishly buy gaudy andunnecessary furniture, and live in more expensive homes than their meansjustify, in order to create an impression, when first married, whichthey later regret. If part of the money, which the young husband hasundoubtedly saved, --or he should not marry, --was paid down on thepurchase of a house it would be paid for before the extra expense whichnecessarily comes with children had to be met. The plan works to theadvantage of the couple both ways, because, if no rent has to be paidout after a few years, the extra expense of children would not then be ahardship. 

THE CHEERFUL WIFE AND MOTHER. --How many happy memory pictures we see bysimply reading the name, --the cheerful wife and mother, --we might callher the optimistic mother. No matter what we did as children, we werenever afraid of her. She always saw the bright side, and if we didsomething wrong she never scolded angrily; she talked to us convincinglyand made us slightly ashamed of ourselves. If we had any plan or projectwe took it to her, she listened, and she suggested, and before we knewit she had solved our problem and the plan was possible, --away we wouldgo, enthusiastic and happy, to work out the details as she suggested, and shortly our "party was on its way. " If any of us had anaccident, --we didn't go home, we were afraid of a scolding, --the victimwas rushed to her, she would wash the blood and tears away, bathe thewounded part, put on a bandage and then take the little patient up toher room. A cake and a story would soon have us feeling good and help usforget our pain. Oh! she was an angel to us. On rainy days she found away to amuse us, our dirty feet didn't count, the floor was to be washedup anyhow. To keep in her good graces, however, we had to be reasonablygood. She told us stories, and we soon found out that she didn't like amean or stingy boy, and a boy or girl who would tell a lie she would nottalk to for a week. Her stories always proved that the mean boy, or thebad little girl, or anyone who told lies, never had a good time, that noone liked them, and most everybody kept away from them, if they didn'tstop being bad. She was a wonderful mother, and every boy and girl formiles around knew her and loved her. 

And so it is that children soon learn who their real friends are. A homeis what the mother makes it. Cheerfulness does not cost anything, andhow much better it is if happiness abounds. You can get infinitely moreof the confidence of a child by being gentle, and by showing that youhave his or her real interest at heart. They will trust you more andrely upon your forbearance in the event of anything going wrong. As weboys and girls grew up the interest of the angel mother didn't cease; wemet her often, and she would ask "how things were going. " She knewexactly what each of the boys and girls was doing, and we always toldher the truth, and all the truth. If anything did go wrong, she wouldknow of it from one of the others, and she would "look up" theunfortunate one. Many times to my knowledge she has helped anothermother over a crisis; when a boy was about to go wrong or showed atendency to do some foolish thing. She did so because she "had a way" ofgetting round the boy, that even his own mother did not possess, and hewould listen. A mother who can preserve her own cheerfulness under allcircumstances is a jewel. The influence she wields is beyond estimation. A radiant cheerfulness is something akin to Christlikeness, it is aninspiration. People who live together frequently feel out of sorts inthe presence of each other without a feeling of compunction, withoutrealizing that they are guilty of a social discourtesy. If there is inthat home an optimistic, cheerful mother, how different the atmosphereis! The cross look, or the touchy word, is quickly observed and all thepower of her infectious cheerfulness is brought into battle array andthe discontent is chased away, the vitriolic spirit of quarrel, slumbering so near the surface, is made to feel ashamed of itself. Itshrinks into the darkness, and we begin the day all over again, thankfulthat mother is so good, so considerate and patient. 

It isn't exactly by the children that such a mother is best appreciated. Father knows the real value of her cheerfulness. He knows just what ithas meant in the past, and he knows what it means now. He can look backand he can recall many instances in which the optimism of his wife wasthe agency which turned the tide. He knows of many business dealswherein the cheerful advice of his wife changed his viewpoint and sochanged failure into success. He can recall many instances during theearly days of his business career when the outlook was gloomy anddoubtful, when its success depended upon so small a matter astemperament and disposition, when the cheerfulness, the love and tact ofhis wife dispelled the gathering clouds, strengthened the waveringspirit and instilled new fight, new purpose, new hope, into thesituation. Oh, yes, he knows that cheerfulness, and optimism, and tact, and love, have a definite economic value, but it cannot be estimated indollars and cents. He knows they are an asset in the domestic problem, but they are sacred, holy, consecrated. 

Cheerfulness is such a potent reality that it has a definite, concretevalue. Life is a product of environment to a very considerable extent. Our surroundings very often dictate our attitude, and temperamentally atleast we radiate whatever spirit our environment generates. 

HEREDITARY FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS[B]

[Illustration]

Here is the law. The blood of the father was tainted. For severalgenerations it lay dormant, and then smote this little child, Bertha. Itis the terrible, the inevitable law of heredity. 

[Illustration]

Not so much now, as years ago, is there intermarriage. It is fortunate, for the results of in-breeding are far worse in human beings than inanimals; chiefly because of man's more highly developed nervous system. New, pure blood above all things else is a re-energizing force which maygo far toward eventually eliminating any trace of taint. 

[Footnote B: "Feeble-mindedness; Its Causes and Consequences, " Goddard, The Macmillan Company. ]

One cheerful home will radiate, will send out into the world, certaindefinite, concrete influences which will encourage and stimulate, andstrengthen and give new hope to every living thing it reaches. Theatmosphere of cheerfulness will exert a specific influence upon everydisposition within its zone. The children of a cheerful mother and homewill radiate happiness, contentment and love. The husband of a cheerfulwife will carry into life's struggle a more just, a more equitable, amore humanizing influence as a direct, concrete result of thatcheerfulness, and who can tell into how many other homes the spirit ofcheerfulness will be carried as a consequence of the justice, andequity, and charity of that husband and father? To return after a day'swork and worry to a fireside, to a home, in which cheerfulness is theradiating element is to inspire contentment and peace and thankfulness. Out of the joy of thankfulness, out of the satisfaction of peace, andthe fulness of contentment, the kingdom of Heaven is born, and whenhuman hearts feel like this they are living near the borderland of greatpossibilities. The cheerful wife and mother needs little advice. Shedoes, however, need our love and the knowledge that we are true toourselves and that we are fighting an honest fight. She will be happy inthat knowledge. 

THE INDIFFERENT WIFE AND MOTHER. --The home over which an indifferentwife and mother presides is a "happy-go-lucky" home. There is somethingradically wrong in the make-up of a woman who is wife and mother and whois indifferent. It is not a natural condition, and it is frequently aproduct of simple ignorance. Such a woman may be exceedingly amiable andcharitable; she may take an active interest in church and socialaffairs, and may be regarded as a kind and model housewife. Herinterests are outside the home, however, and since the home is a placeof apathy and indifference she feels she must "keep busy" elsewhere. Sheis out of touch with her husband and his affairs, and the children "getalong somehow. " If they come in for meals and report for bed that is all"any one can expect. " There is seldom any acute friction, because everyone is indifferent and selfishly attends to his own affairs. 

Such a home is devoid of the domestic atmosphere. The mother touch islacking: sentiment and love have long ago taken wings: the temperatureof the place is cold and forbidding. The children "exist" and may behealthy animals, but their souls are empty and there is no comradeshipor affection in their make-up. They do not know what human sympathymeans, and they either grow into successful machines, or indifferentcitizens. As human beings they are failures. It would be astonishing toknow how many of this type of mother and wife the present strenuous ageis producing. They are certainly on the increase, and the unrest, whichis a growing characteristic of the sex, is tending to still furtherincrease this type of womanhood. The mother element is being subvertedand in its place we find "Justice" with her scales, but with a marbleheart. 

These women do not realize that the citadel of motherhood is a sacred, holy citadel, and that its responsibilities cannot be met by a negativeallegiance. A child's character, its training, its physical equipment, its mental development, its body and soul, its heredity and acquiredinstincts, its virtues and its vices, its environment, are all mothers'cares, mothers' duties, mothers' responsibilities, and if they areneglected part of the eternal scheme is frustrated and recompense willbe exacted. When a woman marries she assumes responsibilities which shecannot and dare not neglect. If she does, she will have to give anaccounting of her stewardship. 

The indifferent mother and wife does not fit. She is incompetent, she isone of nature's sarcasms. She is a mistake as a wife, as a mother, andas a member of society. She is not sincere or she would not be guilty ofsuch fundamental injustice. As a human being she is a parasite, and inthe Master's vineyard she is a weed. 

HUSBAND AND HOME. --As sponsor for the welfare and efficiency of thefamily and the home, the wife and mother should occasionally give somethought to the husband and father. 

William Muldoon, one of the greatest physical efficiency experts in thisor any other country, who has intimately known hundreds of our greatmen in every walk of life, recently stated that American men to-day donot appear to have the same amount of physical endurance and nervousenergy that men of forty years ago possessed. In other words, as a racewe are degenerating. In his opinion the condition is due to the factthat commercialism has taken such a firm hold upon the American peoplethat everything else is cast aside to make a success in business orprofession. 

This is a serious indictment coming from such a source and should be ofintense interest to the wife and mother of to-day. 

The over-worked business man, when he gets into the hands of thephysician, is a neurasthenic. He has gone just as far as his vitalitywill take him. His mind is fagged and worn out and will not concentrate. He is nervous, irritable, and wretched. His appetite is capricious, andhe sleeps fitfully. For a few days he pulls himself together and plungesinto work, but the effort exhausts him and he falls back further thanbefore. He is unhappy and despondent, his viewpoint changes and thefuture looks uninviting and he loses his courage and his faith inhimself. He hides all this from his family, he does not want wife andchildren to know that he is losing his hold. He even makes desperateefforts to keep fit while at home, and for a time he succeeds. 

All this has been brought about by tremendous concentration of effort todo ten times as much work as he should do, and it has all been done inorder to acquire riches and independence, not so much for his own sakeas for his family's sake. 

Now, a wife who fails to see the handwriting on the wall is no wife atall. Any wife who cannot tell, by a single look, exactly how her husbandfeels is not quite what she should be. Some women may question thisdeclaration. They may regard it as a far-fetched indictment. The truthnevertheless is, --and all good citizens are thankful that it isso, --that if a man and woman live together for years, and during thattime work together in sympathy and love, and share the burdens of lifetogether, they grow toward each other; there is a psychic force thatbinds them so that when the clouds begin to settle over one the otherpromptly sees the mist and brings all her subtle skill and solicitude toguard and fight in the other's interest. The "two hearts that beat asone" are old hearts, hearts chastened by experience and mellowed by thesorrows and joys of life, hearts that have gone through the dark spotsand the deep spots of affliction, and have loved and helped each otherall through the long journey to sunset's old age. God never inspired aholier picture than the wrinkled face of a good old mother. The oldeyes, with the peering promise of a near peace in them; the toothlessmouth, whose words of cheer are records of the past; the wrinkled face, the sad token of human frailty; the gentle word of welcome which agetrustingly bestows, all speak to younger hearts with hungry words, andwe hope that their lot is one of peace and contentment and happiness. 

A wife, therefore, who has shared the burdens of life honestly andwillingly with her husband will promptly note when life's struggle isbecoming dangerous to her helpmate. 

The true wife will insist on rest, and quiet, and recuperation. No manhas the right to sacrifice himself for his family and no family shoulddare to expect it. A wife should frequently inquire and find out whattheir success is costing her husband, find out the price he is paying. No success is worth while if a man is undermining his health andstrength to attain it. Men do it, however. American business men do itall the time. 

Maternal sacrifice is admittedly the supreme or Christ-like instinct ofthe human race, and it has been accorded the glory which is its due, butthe unsung song of father love is a more pathetic incident of thisstrenuous age than we are apt to believe. America is building a breed ofmen with a dual passion, the passion for riches, and the passion toprotect. The one is a wrong ideal, the other is a wrong principle. Askany of the worn-out men who are inmates for the time being of thesplendid institutions in the country devoted to the recuperation ofhealth: ask the medical superintendents of the large sanitariums; askMuldoon; ask the busy men of big business why they keep in the harnessafter they have made enough to retire upon; why they strive and fightand sacrifice themselves, and you will be told that the force whichimpels them is the desire to protect, with ample fortune, wife andchildren, and those dependent upon them. The average well-balanced manof America is never happier than when he can give to his loved onesevery comfort and luxury possible. He is willing to work and sosacrifice self to the utmost to consummate his ambition. The right kindof a wife will see that her husband is getting a square deal. 

The right kind of solicitude and the right kind of argument will tend todivert her husband's attention away from business, to the advantage ofall concerned. The children of America need closer fellowship with thefathers. We should read fewer tales of the profligacy of rich men's sonsand less lurid accounts of the doings of the daughters of society. Thesons of poor men would profit by a freer companionship with the moreexperienced father, and the daughters would be less apt to wander awayfrom the fireside of a home that was knit together by the broadersympathy of father love. 

The training and education of our children is far more important thanstoring up money for them to spend recklessly. We all need help andcheering words and encouragement to do justice to ourselves and others. Nothing will inspire and stimulate youth more to achieve, to be clean inmind and body, and to succeed, than the knowledge that he is loved, andtrusted, and has the implicit confidence of parents and of brothers andsisters. His pride is awakened, he would hate to fail, or to disappointthem, so he makes a conscientious effort to be worthy and to succeed. 

The mothers are at the helm. They must be the harmonizing factor in thehome, and they must bring their human ships into safe harbors. Thestorms and the battles of life will only unite the crew together if the"captain" is the right "man" in the right place. 

CHAPTER XXVIII

 "All that I know, I owe to my mother. "

 Abraham Lincoln. 

HOW WE CATCH DISEASE

 We Catch Disease--How Germs Enter the Lungs--How Germs Work in the Body--The Function of the White Blood Cell--How an Abscess Is Formed--The Evil Habit of Spitting in Public Places--Sunlight and Germs--Why It Is Necessary to Open Windows--Facts About Tuberculosis--The Tendency to Disease--The Best Treatment for Tuberculosis--Consumption Is a Preventable and a Curable Disease--When Delay Is Dangerous--What to Eat and Wear in Hot Weather--Scientific Dressing--Drink Plenty of Water--What to Drink When Traveling. 

A simple explanation of how we "catch" disease may be interesting andprofitable. Let us take, for example, a case of consumption. In order to"catch" consumption it is necessary to breathe into our lungs the germof consumption. 

How do we "catch" these germs?

If a consumptive patient spits or expectorates on the street, or on thefloor of a railroad car, or in a room, or store, or theater, after atime the spittle becomes dry, and because of the wind or a breeze whichmay be caused by opening or shutting a door, or it may be the skirts ofwomen walking about, the dried sputum in which the germs are becomesmixed with the dust of the air. If we happen to be around, just at theparticular time when the germs are blown into the air, we may breatheinto our lungs enough of them to produce consumption. If we are in goodhealth, and if we do not happen to get too large a dose of the bacteriaat one time (and that is only a matter of luck), we can overcome them, as will be shown shortly. If, however, we are not in good health, if weare just recovering from some serious or depressing disease, such asGrippe, the bacteria will overcome our reserve vitality, and consumptionwill graft itself on our weakened system. 

How do these germs work?

They lodge on some part of the lung tissue and burrow into it. They makea nest for themselves and begin work immediately. They live on the lungtissue, they multiply rapidly, they produce--as a result of theiractivity--a poisonous substance. Because of their eating up, as it were, the lung tissue we often find holes (cavities) in the lungs ofconsumptives. By breeding rapidly they require more and more room, sothey invade more and more of the lung tissue and destroy it. Thepoisonous substance which they produce is absorbed by the blood. Itseffect on the blood is to weaken it, and when the blood becomes weak thevitality declines, so that the patient loses weight, appetite, andstrength. The poison also produces fever, and so the long, weary fightgoes on till death claims the patient. 

WHAT HAPPENS IF WE INHALE THESE BACTERIA, AND CONSUMPTION DOES NOTDEVELOP. --In order to understand the answer to this question it isnecessary to explain certain facts concerning the white blood cells. Thewhite blood cells can pass through a blood vessel and back into it againwithout leaving any hole in the wall of the blood vessel. 

The function of the white blood cells is to wander around and if theydiscover any stray bacteria, whose presence is undesirable, it is theirduty to get rid of it as quickly as possible. The white blood cell maytherefore be likened to a detective whose duty it is to arrest anysuspicious character who comes into the city. When a white blood celldiscovers a strange microbe it immediately surrounds and encloses itwithin itself, just as your hand can enclose any small object, such as acent or a dime. It then promptly goes to the nearest blood vessel, enters it, and is carried away in the blood stream. If we are in goodhealth our blood cells are alert, active, and capable of defending usagainst any invading foe in the form of a microbe or bacteria. If we arenot in good health the bacteria may overcome the white blood cells. Ifwe inhale a large number of the consumptive bacteria at one time, andthey succeed in getting into the lung substance, they are immediatelymet by an army of blood cells, all bent on capturing them. An actualbattle is fought and the deciding factor of the battle will be thecondition of the patient. If there is plenty of strength and reserveforce, if the patient is in good health, the blood cells will win thebattle; if the condition of the patient is poor, the blood cells willlose the battle and tuberculosis, or consumption, has its beginning inthat patient from the time the blood cells lose their fight. We know thebattle has been lost because the well-known symptoms of the disease soonappear. The blood cells do not retreat when defeated; they go onfighting to the best of their ability. Whether they ever succeed inovercoming the bacteria, depends upon the treatment the patient gets, and his personal conduct. We give him a maximum of fresh air andsunlight because these are the great enemies of all kinds of bacteria. We force his feeding and try to stimulate his appetite, hoping therebyto give him strength so that his blood cells will fight actively in hisinterest. We take steps to reduce his fever so that his strength may notbe wasted and burned up. If we succeed, with the necessary activecoöperation of the patient, the blood cells finally overcome thebacteria and the patient recovers from the disease. 

This is the story of the invasion of almost every disease. It is thestory of the white blood cell. 

The white blood cell is active in another way and it is a veryinteresting way. When you cut yourself the blood cells immediatelysurround the entire cut. They line up like an army defending a city. They form a perfect wall, millions of them, ready to pounce upon allenemies in the form of bacteria or microbes, that have the temerity totry to creep into the wound unseen. 

This is the reason that so very few of the hundreds of little surfacewounds and scratches which every one gets, ever become infected or gowrong in any way. 

When a microbe does get inside, under the skin, and becomes active, asthey sometimes will, the white blood cell, appreciating that it cannotdefeat the enemy, begins to build a wall around him and locks him in. This compels the enemy to limit his activity within the wall, which hedoes, and so an abscess is formed, which bursts when the bacteria fillit so full that the wall gives way and empties the poison out on thesurface of the skin, thus saving the body from the poison of the microbewhich would spread all through the body, were it not for the wall formedby the active, busy little white blood cell. 

The foregoing simple explanation of "how we catch disease" will no doubtbe suggestive to the interested and careful reader. The first and mostobvious question that suggests itself is: If we "catch" tuberculosis byinhaling germs from some other person's dried spittle, why areconsumptives allowed to spit where it will do harm? Consumptives are notallowed to spit where it will do harm, but they do and they always will. 

Every department of health in every civilized corner of the globe hassecured the enactment of laws making spitting unlawful in any publicplace. Every sanitary society, every agency whose aim is to work in theinterest of public health, has actively aided, and is aiding, in thepropaganda for a better universal understanding of the principles ofsanitation and hygiene. The individual must be educated to understandthe tragic need of such a law. You cannot legislate virtue into thepublic conscience. It is a profound reflection upon human intelligenceto appreciate that the great white plague, for the stamping out of whichso many thousands of lives are annually sacrificed, and so much money isspent, could be forever stamped out, if the human race would agreeabsolutely to stop spitting. 

It is the duty of every person to take an active personal interest inthis crusade of education and emancipation. We appreciate and concedethat a large number of those afflicted with consumption do not willfullyspit, knowing that others may be affected as a consequence. They do itin ignorance. Our aim is to educate the victim to an understanding ofthe true condition. The knowledge must be carried into every home, andthe story must be told in a simple, convincing way, to attain results. The mothers of the country can aid to a very considerable degree, inthis commendable work. Every mother can tell her children the story ofhow disease is caught. She can tell them that the danger spots ofinfection are where people congregate together, in church, school, theater, street-cars, and railroad trains. She can teach them to breathethrough their nostrils, especially when in these public places, becausethe nostrils are so constructed that they act as a sieve or strainer, they clean the air we breathe, and when we blow the nose after being inone of these places we blow out thousands of germs and other impuritieswhich would have gone straight into the lungs if we had breathed throughthe mouth. She can teach them the value of deep breathing when in theopen air, and of standing and walking erect so as to get all the lungspace possible. By constantly reminding children of these little pointsyou will be amazed at the progressive improvement which goes on both intheir bodies and in their minds. They will become little missionaries, they will tell the story to others, and a real good can be accomplishedin this simple way, that will grow in strength and vigor as the yearsroll round. 

The next suggestive feature in the reading of "How we catch disease, " isthe significant emphasis which is put upon sunlight and fresh air in thetreatment of consumption. Sunlight, as already stated, is the greatenemy of microbes and germs of all kinds. Where sunlight is, germs donot want to be. How wrong, therefore, is the habit of lowering theshades, when the sun shines into your home, because it "spoils thecarpet. " Let it spoil the carpet; it is much cheaper to buy a new carpetthan to pay for a funeral. Let the sunlight stream into your rooms forthe few hours it can every day. Germs love the dark, sunless cornerswhere the dust is. Housewives should, therefore, go into the darkcorners with a moist duster, and wipe them clean, then boil the dusterand hang it in the sunlight to dry until needed again. If you choose touse a feather duster instead, as the lazy woman does, you only chase thedust and the germs from one corner to another, and in doing so youafford yourself the opportunity of swallowing a few germs in thepassing. One may, therefore, be punished in an unexpected way for beinglazy. 

For the very excellent reason that corners and angles are unsanitary, there are to be no more of them in the construction of houses and officebuildings of the better class. They are being built with "round"corners; even the ceiling and walls, and floor and walls, meet in acurve, --no square crevice or corner where dust or germs can gather. 

If we add moisture to a sunless spot, we have the ideal environment forgerms to breed and flourish in. There is always moisture or humidity inthe air if the altitude is low, and if it is near the ocean, or anylarge body of water, the moisture is relatively greater. For this reasonwe send patients with pulmonary disease to the mountains, where thealtitude is much higher, where there is no moisture, and consequentlywhere there are practically no germs. We cannot move our homes to themountains, however, so what must we do to get rid of the moisture andthe germs where we are compelled to live? What do we do with the familywash when it is wet? We hang it up in the yard, in the sun and in thebreeze, because we know from experience that the wind and the sun soondry anything wet. They do more; they freshen everything, so thatanything exposed to the sun and air smells fresh and sweet and is freshand sweet and pure. So to make our homes sweet and fresh and dry we mustchase the stale air away, and the moisture with it, by opening ourwindows and letting in the sunlight and the breeze, every day, and foras long as possible every day. Open windows and sunlight and freshair, --all you can get, --this is the song of health, the joy of life, theonly agents that will keep the eager, busy, little white blood cellhealthy and willing and alert. This is the reason you must keep thewindows of your bedrooms open at night, as well as by day, so you andyour children will get fresh, pure, sweet air, and not stale, moist, germ-laden air to breathe. 

FACTS ABOUT TUBERCULOSIS

Tuberculosis, or consumption, is a disease of poor air, dusty quarters, insufficient nourishment, and, above all, of ignorance with regard toits dangers and what we now know of the possibilities of its cure. Themore we know about it the better chance there is to cure it, and betterstill, prevent it. 

Not very long ago the death rate from consumption was one in six, thatis, every sixth person who died in this country died as a result oftuberculosis in some form. It is now about one in eight. This is aremarkable decrease--about one-third of its former ratio of victims arenow spared. Not so very long ago the disease was regarded as practicallyfatal; now it is classified as one of the eminently curable diseases. The universal dissemination of this knowledge will do much to rob the"Great White Plague" of its terrors. 

Investigation and observation have demonstrated that there is in thegreat majority of people a definite tendency successfully to throw offthe disease. It is a curious and astonishing fact, which we have learnedfrom the study of the results of autopsies; we find, in nearly everyinstance, that every person in whom death occurred after thirty had hadconsumption at one time and resisted it and died of some other disease. We mean by this that at some time, in all likelihood during one of the"colds" of childhood, every one of us contracted consumption, butbecause of our vitality we successfully resisted and conquered it. Inother words, the white blood cells won their fight. 

This knowledge is of great value; it taught the scientists who werestudying the characteristics of the disease that there were conditions, possible of attainment, under which the human organism could definitelyand victoriously defeat the invasion of the tubercle bacilli. 

The public mind, until recently, was imbued with the fallacy that thedisease was hereditary. It was thought that if it "ran in the family"the victims of it were almost certain to die. We know definitely nowthat consumption is not hereditary, and that, instead of death beingcertain in a patient in whose family it has been, this fact aloneensures the victim a much better prospect of cure than if it had neverexisted in the family. The explanation of this seeming paradox is quitelogical from a medical standpoint. The theory of the vaccine treatmentof disease is that if you infuse into the blood the products of thegerms of certain diseases, the individual in whose blood the vaccine hasbeen put, will wholly resist that particular disease, or if he acquiresit, it will be in a mild and more modified form. If a family for anumber of generations has had various members die of tuberculosis, theblood stream of the family will have become so impregnated with thetoxins, or poisons, of the disease, that, in time, a certain immunitywill have been established. Consequently, tuberculosis in an individual, the blood of whose ancestors has been accustomed or habituated to thepoison of the disease, will run a milder course, be more modified in itstype, and will respond to treatment easier than in an individual whosefamily history is free from the taint of tuberculosis. 

In proof of this principle, it is a well-known fact that consumptionruns a rapid, fatal course among those nations which have not hithertobeen exposed to it. The death rate among our American Indians when itwas first introduced among them was enormous. 

The same truth applies to syphilis. The blood of the civilized race hasbecome so thoroughly syphilized, that it is no longer so susceptible tothe disease as it once was: and the disease as we know it to-day doesnot manifest the same virulency as it did years ago, or as it does in arace in whom it is grafted for the first time. 

These ideas of the curability of the disease and of its non-heredity areextremely important and supremely suggestive. Tuberculosis takes onlythe quitters and the supine. Anyone who will fight bravely against thedisease can always resist its ravages for many years, if not to theextent of living out a normal life. 

THE TENDENCY TO DISEASE. --Mothers should understand just what is meantby "the tendency to disease. " We assert that consumption is nothereditary, but we know that certain individuals are born with thetendency to tuberculosis. Just what does this mean?

Let us suppose a tubercular mother gives birth to a child. It would befoolish to assume that this child comes into the world with a normalstandard of resistance; but it is certain he is not tubercular anddoomed at the moment of his birth. He may be what is ordinarily termeda weak, puny, sickly infant, but the germ of disease is not implanted inhis constitution. If he is taken from his mother, taken away from thetubercular environment, and brought up under the best hygienic andsanitary surroundings, it is possible for him to become a robust, healthy, normal man. 

The tendency to disease in this case will not materialize. If, however, we permit him to remain with his tubercular mother, to nurse her milk, to live in what necessarily is an unhygienic and unsalutaryenvironment--the presence of the consumptive mother renders it so--theprobability is that the tendency to disease, which in his case is thetendency to weak lungs, will materialize, because of his weakresistance, poor nourishment, and unfavorable surroundings. If, therefore, his method of living does not contribute to building up andstrengthening what is in the first place a weak structure, the structureitself will, during the first strain put upon it, give way, andnaturally the weak spot will be the point of election for the invasionof disease. This strain may be one of the infantile diseases, --scarletfever, or measles, or whooping cough, or it may be bronchitis. Insteadof convalescing from these conditions, as a normally constituted childwill, this child, whose potential resistance is below standard, willfail to reach the rallying point, will afford a fertile field for germinvasion, and will develop tuberculosis, --not directly, however, as aresult of having had a tubercular mother, but because he was not removedfrom the tubercular environment and given a fair chance. The high infantmortality is, to a very large extent, caused directly by this "tendencyto disease, " plus unfavorable environment, and this is wherein theeugenic propaganda has found its field of promise and is unassailablereason for active existence. 

Let us take another illustration, so that mother may have a fullunderstanding of the far-reaching effect of the "tendency to disease. "

We cannot justly assume a child to have outlived its hereditarytendencies until it has reached the period of its full growth, physically, mentally, and morally. We know that this period is aboutthe twenty-third year. Now a young girl of eighteen, or even twenty, whois successfully resisting an inherited tendency, is likely to reach herfull physical and mental growth, providing she does not subject hervitality to a serious physical strain, or providing she is not thevictim of a serious illness. Suppose this young girl marries and becomespregnant; this condition immediately changes the fighting or resistingequation; she is no longer conserving her strength and energy; she isspending it out, wasting it so far as it applies to her own upbuilding. The percentage in favor of a successful fight against the inheritedtendencies is greatly reduced, and as a matter of fact, statisticsshow--as is fully explained in the article on "The Evils of EarlyMarriage"--that many of these young mothers succumb to disease as aresult of pregnancies at this period of immaturity, when they could haveotherwise lived. The "tendency to disease" has therefore an economicvalue and the state should build along the line of the conservation ofhealth in its broadest sense. 

THE BEST TREATMENT FOR TUBERCULOSIS. --The most important factor in thepresent-day treatment of consumption is the right kind of nourishment. This cannot be emphasized too strongly. In the first edition of thiswork, it was stated that the most important factor in the treatment ofthis disease was fresh air. The author has had very good reasons tochange his opinion radically in this respect. 

So emphatically may this truth be asserted that it is now not at allnecessary to seek a change of climate in the hope that such a change mayaid the patient. It must not, however, be understood that this reasoningapplies to charitable cases. If the patient is so situated that it isnot possible to provide a proper environment, a change may do good. Itis not the change of air that is responsible for the improvement, however, though it no doubt contributes in these cases; it is thealtered environment. 

Patients who in their own homes enjoy sanitary and hygienic care; whomay have a room of ample size for their exclusive use, which isthoroughly aired, day and night; who are provided with the "right kindof nourishment, " and who will obey implicitly the rules which thephysician, who is conversant with this particular method of treatment, will lay down, may be assured that a prompt response will ensue. Theintelligent reader will understand that this statement does not apply topatients in the last stages of the disease. The assertion, however, mustrightly be regarded as revolutionary. It is not what we were taught--itemphasizes, nevertheless, what every physician already knows, that, theoretically, consumption is a disease that should respond totreatment. That we have not had greater success with it in the past, must be attributed to our method of treatment. The fact that most of ushave had the disease, and have recovered, conclusively demonstrates itscurability. Those individuals who fail to recover promptly do notpossess the vitality to throw it off spontaneously. If at this time--thereal beginning of the disease--it is discovered, and the right treatmentinstituted, we immediately supply the organism with the ingredients itis deficient in and we are justified in looking for favorable results ifthe patient adheres to the instructions. 

The second essential in the treatment of consumption is an abundance offresh, pure air. We therefore direct the patient to remain in the openas much as is possible. If circumstances permit him to sleepout-of-doors, so much the better; if not, he must sleep in a room withthe windows open to the fullest extent, winter and summer. There are noexceptions to this rule. If it storms, the outside blinds may be closed, but the windows must remain open. The city air is just as efficient forour purpose as is the air of any other vicinity--the point is, to getenough of it from a mechanical standpoint. The advantages from sendingpatients away, even under the old belief, were more than discounted byconditions incident to the new environment that were detrimental totheir progress. Now that we know it is not necessary or essential toprocure any other kind or quality of air than exists in any city, allour efforts may be concentrated in the interest of the patient indirecting the "right kind of nourishment" and in supervising hisconduct. In few instances is it necessary to prescribe any medicine. 

In exceptional cases the cough may require some sedative remedy, especially if it disturbs the patient at night. Experience has taughtus, however, that to live twelve hours in the open air and to sleep withthe windows wide open, will do more for the cough than any medicine wepossess. 

Pleuritic complications may cause pain, but this feature is best aidedand permanently relieved by fresh air also. Very recently there weremade exhaustive experiments in this connection in St. Thomas' Hospital, London, England. It was decided to subject patients to open-air testsfor pleuritic pains in the course of consumption. This particularhospital is situated on the River Thames, in a notoriously damp andfoggy part of the city; despite this drawback it was conclusively shownthat the patients who lived night and day on the balconies breathingthis heavy, murky, damp atmosphere, were relieved of their painsquicker, and more permanently, than those who were shielded in the wardsof the hospital. 

Inasmuch as the patient must be adequately nourished, his cure dependsupon the condition of the stomach. It is known that the germ works moreactively in a patient who is losing weight. When the germ is veryactive, its poisons, circulating in the blood, cause fever and feverresults in tissue waste. We must therefore bend every effort towardovercoming this tendency. If we can get the patient to take sufficientfood and if he digests it thoroughly, the weight will increase, thefever will subside, and the tissue waste will stop. Patients must beextremely careful, therefore, what they put into their stomachs. Onlysimple, tasty, highly nutritious food should be taken, and digestiveenergy should not be wasted on less nutritious materials. For thisreason incalculable harm has been done by indiscriminatemedicine-taking. Medicines exert a bad influence on the stomach andthose patients who take them lose their appetites. Drugs should never betaken except for a definite purpose and only on the advice of aphysician. These patients should particularly be guarded against the useof advertised patent medicines. They are always bad, and never under anycircumstances are they of any advantage, as is clearly shown in thechapter on "Patent Medicines. " Thousands of persons die of consumptionevery year who would have lived had they not taken such remedies. 

The following article is sent out by the New York Department of Healthas a Circular of Instruction regarding Tuberculosis. 

INFORMATION FOR CONSUMPTIVES AND THOSE LIVING WITH THEM

 CONSUMPTION IS CHIEFLY CAUSED BY THE FILTHY HABIT OF SPITTING. --Consumption is a disease of the lungs, which is taken from others, and is not simply caused by colds, although a cold may make it easier to take the disease. It is caused by very minute germs, which usually enter the body with the air breathed. The matter which consumptives cough or spit up contains these germs in great numbers--frequently millions are discharged in a single day. This matter, spit upon the floor, wall or elsewhere, dries and is apt to become powdered and float in the air as dust. The dust contains the germs, and thus they enter the body with the air breathed. This dust is especially likely to be dangerous within doors. The breath of a consumptive, except when he is coughing or sneezing, does not contain the germs and will not produce the disease. A well person catches the disease from a consumptive only by in some way taking in the matter coughed up by the consumptive. 

 Consumption can often be cured if its nature be recognized early and if proper means be taken for its treatment. In a majority of cases it is not a fatal disease. 

 It is not dangerous to live with a consumptive, if the matter coughed up by him be promptly destroyed. This matter should not be spit upon the floor, carpet, stove, wall, or sidewalk, but always, if possible, in a cup kept for that purpose. The cup should contain water so that the matter will not dry, or better, carbolic acid in five per cent. Watery solution (six teaspoonfuls in a pint of water). This solution kills the germs. The cup should be emptied into the water closet at least twice a day, and carefully washed with boiling water. 

 Great care should be taken by consumptives to prevent their hands, face, and clothing from becoming soiled with the matter coughed up. If they do become thus soiled, they should be at once washed with soap and hot water. Men with consumption should wear no beards at all, or only closely cut mustaches. When consumptives are away from home, the matter coughed up should be received in a pocket flask made for this purpose. If cloths must be used, they should be immediately burned on returning home. If handkerchiefs be used (worthless cloths, which can be at once burned, are far better), they should be boiled at least half an hour in water by themselves before being washed. When coughing or sneezing small particles of spittle containing germs are expelled, so that consumptives should always hold a handkerchief or cloth before the mouth during these acts; otherwise the use of cloths and handkerchiefs to receive the matter coughed up should be avoided as much as possible, because it readily dries on these and becomes separated and scattered into the air. Hence, when possible, the matter should be received into cups or flasks. Paper cups are better than ordinary cups, as the former with their contents may be burned after being used. A pocket flask of glass, metal, or pasteboard is also a most convenient receptacle to spit in when away from home. Cheap and convenient forms of flasks and cups may be purchased at many drug stores. Patients too weak to use a cup should use moist rags, which should at once be burned. If cloths are used they should not be carried loose in the pocket, but in a waterproof receptacle (tobacco pouch), which should be frequently boiled. A consumptive should never swallow his expectoration. 

 A consumptive should have his own bed, and, if possible, his own room. The room should always have an abundance of fresh air--the window should be open day and night. The patient's soiled wash-cloths and bed linen should be handled as little as possible when dry, but should be placed in water until ready for washing. 

 Rooms should be cleaned daily, but in order to prevent the raising of dust, all floors must be well sprinkled before sweeping, and all dusting, etc. , done with damp cloths. 

 If the matter coughed up be rendered harmless, a consumptive may frequently not only do his usual work without giving the disease to others, but may also thus improve his own condition and increase his chances of getting well. 

 Rooms which have been occupied by consumptives should be thoroughly cleaned, scrubbed, and whitewashed, painted, or papered before they are again occupied. Carpets, rugs, bedding, etc. , from rooms which have been occupied by consumptives, should be disinfected. Such articles, if the Department of Health be notified, will be sent for, disinfected, and returned to the owner free of charge, or, if he so desires, they will be destroyed. 

 When consumptives move they should notify the department of health. Consumptives are warned against the many widely advertised cures, specifics, and special methods of treating consumption. No cure can be expected from any kind of medicine or method except the regularly accepted treatment, which depends upon pure air, an out-of-door life, and nourishing food. 

 Consumptives having an opportunity of entering a sanatorium, should do so at once. 

WHEN DELAY IS DANGEROUS. --Inasmuch as it is mother's duty to watch overthe health and the efficiency of all members of the household, she woulddo well to establish a rule to err on the safe side in every case ofsickness. That rule should be never to delay too long in obtainingmedical aid. 

In nearly twenty years of active general practice I have had hundreds of"hurry" calls to "come at once. " In not over a dozen of these calls didany of the cases demand immediate attention from a medical standpoint. Most of them, however, should have had earlier aid. People wait too longin the hope of spontaneous recovery, and when, instead of recovery, theyrealize that the patient is quite sick, they become conscience-strickenand send a "rush" call for the doctor. After delaying from day to daythey decide to get professional advice and send a messenger for aphysician with instructions to "go for another if he can't come atonce. " It is imperative he should come instantly, though they havedelayed for a week in requesting his services. Every physician has thesecalls every week of his life. If an individual has survived a week'sneglect, it is quite within reason to assume that he will surviveanother hour, --and during that hour the physician may have time tocomplete whatever he may be doing when the call comes. 

If you have been guilty of bad judgment in not sending earlier for aid, don't add discourtesy to your sins. The world demands of us, and everyperson has the right to expect, a certain degree of consideration andcourtesy. If we do not give it, we only harm ourselves because the lackof cultivation is a detriment which limits growth and happiness. Thedegree of attainable happiness is limited by the degree of "goodness"that is in us. If you are not considerate, depend upon it, there is anelement of happiness which escapes you, and you cannot attain it tillyou are considerate. 

It is inconsiderate and it is discourteous to send an immediate demandfor a physician "to come at once" if there is no urgent need for hisservices, and if you have just been inspired for aid after a week'sblindness, there is no urgency in the matter. A call in an hour woulddo just as well. 

Take the following case: A mother discovers a small quantity of blood inthe diaper of her two months old baby. There is a larger quantity in theafternoon and she decides to give the baby a dose of castor oil. Duringthe night it slept fitfully and in the morning it has a large stool as aresult of the castor oil and there is a large quantity of blood in thestool. She sends a "rush" call for a physician. The physician discoversthe following facts: The baby is being artificially fed; it has beenvomiting its food for a week; its stools have been green, foul andcontained mucus; it had a fever for a number of days; it has lost muchweight and looked pale and sickly. The physician obtained this historyfrom the mother--she therefore knew the baby's condition. Why did shedelay sending for a physician? How sick did she want the child to bebefore the need for aid seemed justifiable to her? Why didn't the sightof blood in the stool suggest the need of assistance? What do the publicexpect of physicians in such cases? But why ask questions? Many motherswill doubt the existence of such a mother as is described above. Theyneed not; she was one of my own patients. I do not understand suchwomen; I only know that such mothers exist in quite large numbers. Thisparticular mother has other children; she is a good housekeeper, ispersonally attractive, and is thought well of in the community. If suchseemingly heartless conduct can spring from such a source is it notevidence of the fact that the average mother needs instruction, needseducation, and does it not bespeak the need of eugenics being sownbroadcast throughout the land?

Delays are dangerous in all sicknesses that last, despite a thoroughcleaning out of the bowels. To wait, hoping that "things will change, "is bad practice. It is unjust to the medical profession, and it isinfinitely more unjust to the victim. 

There are two kinds of surgical operations--those of choice and those ofnecessity. 

Every one knows about the operations of necessity, most of which mustbe performed as a result of accident, but few people understand thedangers of delaying what are termed "operations of choice. " These arefor such conditions as appendicitis, cancer, and stomach and boweltroubles. 

Delaying an operation of choice lessens the chances of living, andreally makes an operation of necessity with fewer chances of recoverythan from the operations that must promptly follow injuries. 

When we feel that an operation is needed, or are in doubt about it, thewise thing to do is to consult medical authority. Then, if it is foundthere should be an operation, there is plenty of time to make everyarrangement. We can begin to diet, which is generally necessary andthere is every chance for speedy recovery. 

If a man breaks a leg and it has been set badly, the surgeons do notrebreak it at once, but allow it to heal and the patient to regain hisstrength, when it is again broken and reset properly. This is anoperation of choice. 

But if a terrible fracture of the leg results from a fall, with theshattered bone protruding, an operation of necessity must follow to mendtorn arteries. 

It has been learned through recently gathered statistics that aboutthirty per cent. Of the people operated on for appendicitis die simplybecause they delay the operation. This should have been an operation ofchoice, when every arrangement could have been made long beforehand; thedelay makes it an operation of necessity, with the victim in such poorphysical condition that he has not half the strength to recover that hewould have had if he had been wise enough to consult a physician when hefirst suspected that something was wrong. 

These same statistics go to show that fully 99 per cent. Of theappendicitis cases, when taken in time, are cured by means of theoperation, thus affording the strongest proof of the folly of delayingsuch things. 

The total number of deaths from appendicitis each year, due to delay inoperating, is greater than the number of deaths during theSpanish-American War. There are instances where the doctors do notadvise operations soon enough. 

Above all things, when a reputable physician advises operation, do notthink you know more than the physician, but have the operation performedat once. Nine times out of ten this will be the means of saving yourlife. 

WHAT TO EAT AND WEAR IN HOT WEATHER

No faith should be placed in the so-called "hot-weather" foods. Thecereals and other manufactured foods advertised as possessing marvelousqualities, have in reality no advantage. Some of them have more or lessvalue as ordinary food, but they certainly possess no unusualsuperiority. Home cooking is the best in summer or any other time. 

Great care should be taken to keep the system in the best possiblecondition. This will prove the most effectual safeguard against theheat. Some foods do not agree with certain individuals, and these shouldbe carefully avoided in summer. Every person will have to judge forhimself in this matter. Otherwise the diet should be balanced carefullyso that enough, and yet not too much, is eaten. As much fruit aspossible should be eaten, and meat never more than once a day. It is notwell, however, to omit it entirely. 

Food sustains the body through the heat it generates chemically, and itis therefore impossible to eliminate a certain heating effect. If thesystem is kept normal, however, and the diet properly balanced, thisshould not be felt. Work is performed by the body and energy expended. This must be replaced with the heat value of food. A certain amount offat, starch, and the other constituents of a well-balanced diet isessential. 

Fat meats and other forms of fat are the most heating of all foods andmay be minimized in summer. The amount of food necessary is, of course, largely governed by the nature of the work performed by the individual. Brain workers can eat very little in the morning and during the day, reserving until evening the single heavy meal. If they have been doingthis the year around they probably will be cooler during the morning andafternoon if a light breakfast and luncheon are eaten. It is not well, however, to make any radical change from one's regular habits. 

Manual workers require more food, and the heavy meal had best be eatenin the middle of the day. All three meals should be substantial. Thereis no danger of eating too much if the system is not overburdened. 

Not only is pork rich and fat, and therefore very heating, but it is thequickest of all meats to spoil. Veal also spoils very quickly if notkept at the proper temperature. Of all meats mutton has the best keepingqualities. Beef also keeps well and is a safe meat to eat in summer. 

Flies are dangerous under any conditions, but particularly should theybe avoided where meat is kept. The bacteria they carry thriveparticularly on meat, and therefore are apt more rapidly to multiplythan if deposited on some other food. Care should be taken to buy meatonly from places where adequate protection is provided against flies. 

It is of the greatest importance to keep the meat at a uniform coldtemperature. It should not be allowed to become heated, and then cooledagain. Some meat shops still keep the meat on open counters or hooks andreplace it in the refrigerators at the close of the day. These shopsshould be carefully avoided. Modern methods provide glass-coveredrefrigerating counters which keep the meat cool while it is on display. 

Meat should be kept at as low a temperature as possible. The ordinaryrefrigerator is at a little above freezing and temperatures at or belowzero are preferable. 

SCIENTIFIC DRESSING. --By dressing scientifically it is possible tominimize the effect of the heat. The heat from the sun must be kept awayfrom the body and the heat generated by the body permitted to escape. These results can best be accomplished by having the clothes very loosefitting, so as to leave ample air space, and by having the outer clothesof a good non-conductor of heat. The cloth, of course, should be aslight in weight as possible, but it is more important to have it a goodnon-conductor of heat and of porous weave. 

Not enough attention is paid to the selection of colors for resistingthe heat. Two cloths identical except in color will show a greatdifference in the comparative amount of heat they let through. Lightshades should be chosen, but care should be taken to see that they arenot glaring, so as to irritate the eye and increase the mental effect ofheat. 

Linen and silk are better non-conductors than wool. And the weave of acloth has a great deal to do with the amount of heat it lets through. Smooth, hard weaves absorb much less heat than fuzzy weaves. For thisreason, serge is much cooler than worsted of the same shade and weight. A mistake is often made, however, in getting serge of a dark blue. Itshould be of as light a color as possible; gray is much cooler thanblue. A white serge is much cooler than white flannel, because it isless fuzzy. 

Linen is much cooler than woolens, because it is a better non-conductorand is of more porous weave. The linen thread is rough, which causesinequalities in the weave, permitting a more thorough circulation ofair. Cotton is a still better non-conductor than linen, and would bepreferable for summer clothes but for the fact that it neither wears norholds its shape so well. 

Mohair is very light in weight and cool looking. As a matter of fact, however, it is a fairly good conductor of heat, is closely woven, andusually comes in dark shades. It is a woolen cloth, and any woolen hasits threads woven more closely on account of the process of manufacturethan linens, cotton, and silk cloths. Linen is perhaps the best materialfor summer wear. It is porous in weave, light in color, and of fairlylight weight. 

It is well to remember that the safety valve of the body in hot weatheris the evaporation of perspiration, not the act of perspiring. If thehand is put in a glove, for instance, it will perspire much more than ifin the open air, but it will not be as cool. It is the evaporation thatis a cooling process. If the perspiration is absorbed it cannotevaporate. That is why loose fitting undergarments are cooler than tightones. It is also the reason why cotton is cooler next to the skin thanlinen or silk; it absorbs moisture less freely. 

DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. --Water, and a great deal of it, is desirable atany time during the summer. It should be drunk freely during the day. Lemonade also is good, the slight acid being an aid to digestion. It isbest to have beverages cooled only to a moderate temperature. Ice wateris not bad, but it would be preferable if it were not at so extreme atemperature. Ice is resorted to only as a convenient means of securing apalatable temperature; the system does not crave extreme cold. Water atthe temperature of the air is nauseating, so ice is put into it and theother extreme secured. Sixty degrees is the ideal temperature fordrinking water. If this could be conveniently obtained it would bepreferred to a greater degree of cold. Not only is it less harmful tothe system, but it is more satisfying and thirst-quenching. Water put inbottles and left in a refrigerator until properly chilled is the bestway of preparing a summer beverage. When any beverage is sufficientlycold to cause a pain in the head or throat when drinking it the resultmay be harmful. Cold water poured on the wrist or head has a coolingeffect and tends to reduce the ice water habit. 

If one could afford it, it would be well to drink nothing but mineralwater in the summer. Not only does it assure purity, but the gas is anaid to digestion and serves to render the water more palatable. Thisresults in more of it being drunk than if it were flat water, and it isdesirable to drink as much water as possible in hot weather. By mineralwater I mean carbonated bottled waters intended for table use. Careshould be taken that the water is only lightly impregnated with salt. 

It is much safer to drink a well-known water. The water may not bebottled at the spring or it may be bottled under unsanitary conditions. In many cases mineral water is not all that it should be in cleanliness. Unless one is sure of the purity of a bottled water good hydrant watersupplied through the city pipes is safer. 

In traveling, however, and at summer resorts it would be well to drinknothing but mineral water of a well-known brand. Only by doing this andby being certain that the bottle has not been refilled can one be safe. The supplied on trains and in resorts frequently is not as pure as thatsupplied in large cities. 

On the whole, however, mineral water has no particular advantage overordinary water except that the well-known brands are sure to be pure, and the carbonization makes it more tasty and so increases the amountconsumed. It is much safer and more healthful to drink a well-knownmineral water than the so-called soft drinks, many of which are uncleanand harmful. 

DISEASES OF WOMEN

CHAPTER XXIX

DISEASES OF WOMEN

 Importance of Diseases of Women--The Beginning of Female Disease--Ailing Women Are Inefficient--As Home-makers, as Wife, as Mother--Few Ailing Women Become Pregnant--The Chief Cause of Female Disease--The Existence of the Average Mother--Female Diseases Are Avoidable--The Story of the Wife--Women Who Don't Want Children--Abuse of the Procreative Function--What the Woman with Female Disease Should Do--Cancer in Women--Cancer of the Breast--Cancer of the Womb--What Every Woman Should Know About Cancer--Change of Life--The Menopause--The Climacteric--The Average Age at Which the Change of Life Occurs--Symptoms of the Change of Life--Importance of a Correct Diagnosis--Danger Signals of the Change of Life--Conduct During the Change of Life. 

No conscientious physician can give thought to this subject withoutbeing profoundly stirred. It may justly be said that all types ofdisease affecting the general health, the happiness, and the efficiencyof the people are equally important, and should elicit the same degreeand quality of kindly consideration. For many reasons this is not so, asI will endeavor to show. The dominating reason which renders diseases ofwomen an exception to this rule may be mentioned here, however, so thatthe reader will keep its supreme significance prominently in mind whileconsidering the subject in its various other aspects. "Diseases ofwomen" rank first as a eugenic problem. They have a direct andfar-reaching influence on posterity. They affect the environment of thehome and thereby the health and the efficiency of all concerned. 

The diseases which form the basis of the statements in this article areas follows: leucorrhea, displacements, or malpositions of the internalorgans; lacerations, ulcers, tumors, sexual incompetency, and thevenereal complications. 

It is not possible or desirable to tabulate the symptoms which resultfrom these conditions. They would not convey to the average individual ajust picture or an intelligent summary of the life of a victim of theseailments. An actual description of the life of a patient will be moreeffective because it will depict the incidental domestic atmosphere inwhich most of these patients live. 

THE BEGINNING OF FEMALE DISEASE. --When a woman first begins to feel theeffects of so-called "female weakness" she is conscious of not feeling"fit. " She wonders what the matter is. She may not have actual pain atthis time, simply the consciousness that "she is not what she used tobe. " Her work seems harder and more tedious, she worries without cause, she begins the day with less energy and ambition than she used to, herdisposition is more uneven, more irritable and she tires easier and ismore willing to retire earlier than formerly. After a time she has moreor less undefined pains. It may be an occasional headache, or backache, or she may have various severe neuralgic twinges. She gets nervous andmoody; her appetite is not good and she is troubled with constipation. Alittle later, the general condition growing worse, her nervous systemsuffers most. So she drifts into neurasthenia and has fits of crying andperiods of melancholia. She is more irritable, more impatient, moredissatisfied with herself, her family, and her friends. She loses faithin herself, in the future, and even in her religion, and she maycontemplate self-destruction. 

There are thousands and thousands of just such women in the world, andthe pity is that many of them are mothers. It is surely self-evidentthat these women must be failures as efficient factors in many ways. 

NEUROPATHIC ANCESTRY[C]

[Illustration]

From a first glance at the chart it would appear that Daniel was anaccidental case of feeble-mindedness. His progenitors were, however, decidedly neuropathic. The presence of apoplexy, paralysis, alcoholismin a family should be watched for with vigilance because of theirpossible effect upon the nervous system of the offspring. 

[Illustration]

Parents would do well to scrutinize the man who "led a fast life" beforeallowing him marry their daughter. The world would be shocked if it knewhow many men with disease enter into conjugal relations. David's fatherhad syphilis. David's feeble-mindedness was probably only one of theawful results. 

[Footnote C: "Feeble-mindedness; Its Causes and Consequences, " Goddard, The Macmillan Company. ]

AILING WOMEN ARE INEFFICIENT

FIRST OF ALL AS HOME-MAKERS. --No woman can possibly be expected tosuccessfully conduct a home if she is not enjoying a reasonable degreeof good health. A home inefficiently supervised is an instrument forevil. It engenders discord and discontent, and it is lacking in thespirit which is essential to the cultivation of good-fellowship andwhich encourages harmony. 

AS WIFE. --Most men resent the burden and the discomfort and the expenseof an ailing wife, no matter how well-intentioned they may be. It is afailing of the male species to be cursed with the inability tounderstand any type of nervousness in a wife. Being inexplicable to himhe attributes the symptoms to an evil imagination or to a baddisposition. He believes he is being imposed upon and proceeds to resentit. Many homes are rendered permanently miserable and unhappy by afailure to comprehend the real source of the trouble and to apply theremedy. Being inefficient as a home-maker the wife is not able to carryout her part as housekeeper. The home atmosphere is wrecked, the husbandseeks comfort and congenial fellowship elsewhere. His efficiency iscompromised and his earning capacity interfered with. 

AS MOTHER. --Anyone familiar with the exacting obligations andresponsibilities of motherhood can well appreciate that normal health isan essential requisite to its successful consummation. The success ofmotherhood depends upon the proper exercise of many diversifiedqualities, and those in turn primarily depend upon an adequate degree ofphysical fitness, otherwise failure is certain to ensue. A woman, therefore, cannot exercise her function of motherhood if she is aneurasthenic. 

Inasmuch as it has been proved that the regeneration of the race isdependent upon the maintenance of mentally and physically fit mothers, any condition that interferes with this standard is contrary to theeugenic requirement. Children sent out into the word unfit physically ormorally are factors detrimental to the best interests of society and totheir own progress and prosperity. A mother rendered incapable throughsickness is, therefore, a menace to the home and to the eugenic promise. 

FEW AILING WOMEN BECOME PREGNANT. --Nature fortunately seems to apprehendthe true condition because few of these women become pregnant. Thissuggests an inquiry into the cause, or causes, underlying thisunfortunate situation. 

Are women responsible for these ailments?

Most married women whose health is broken down by some disease peculiarto their sex refer the commencement of their suffering to a confinementor premature birth. The large majority of those women whose health isaffected, because of some "female weakness, " suffer from a displacement, or malposition of the internal organs, and as this condition is mostfrequently a product of maternity, there would seem to be somereasonable degree of justification for the assumption that the wreckedhealth is the result of a legitimate physiological act, and consequentlya natural phenomenon. This is not, however, altogether true. Adisplacement is not, under any circumstances, a natural process. It isthe result of causes which are avoidable. Most of them are the penaltiesimposed by nature because of the infraction of her laws. We will notconsider those causes which have their beginning in wrong methods ofdress or conduct during the years prior to maternity. Many such casesexist, but they are too few in number to justify consideration at thistime. They are frequent enough, however, to suggest to mothers that itis always wise to keep a close watch over the tendencies and conduct oftheir daughters. 

THE CHIEF CAUSE OF FEMALE DISEASES. --When a woman has given birth to achild her womb begins to contract and in a very brief space of time willresume its normal position, provided nothing interferes with theprocess. Nature will do exactly what is right if she is permitted towork in her own way. In another part of this book I have explained whyit takes time for the recently pregnant womb to contract to its normalsize. There is a 600 per cent. Increase in volume to be got rid of byabsorption. This takes time and nature can not be hurried without"taking chances. " This is just where the "cause" exists which we havebeen looking for. Women do take chances. 

Every woman should stay in bed for at least three weeks afterconfinement and should spend another three weeks convalescing before sheassumes any domestic duty. This is a reasonable proposition when oneconsiders the actual situation. There is an enormous amount ofreadjustment to be undertaken, and there is no way of hastening thisprocess. There is, however, a way to assist nature and to preventmistakes. That way is to remain in bed a sufficient length of time toallow proper contraction of the womb. While the ligaments and musclesare still lax, to not undertake any muscular effort that will overtax oroverstrain them, --a condition that favors displacement by weakening thesupport of the womb. A woman cannot understand why she should stay inbed when she feels well enough to get up. It is, however, unjust tocensure the sex on this account. I am convinced the fault lies with themedical profession who do not take time to explain, in language which awoman may understand, the important reasons why they should stay longerin bed despite the fact that they do feel well. 

THE EXISTENCE OF THE AVERAGE MOTHER. --In considering this subject it isnecessary to give some serious thought to the domestic and financialcircumstances of the thousands and thousands of average mothers. Everyobserving, thinking person knows that the average mother's existence ismore or less of a never-ending tragedy. Physically, mentally, andspiritually, they are victims of unalterable economic and socialexigencies. They are compelled, because of ignorance, to live anunsanitary and unhygienic existence. The care of home and children, andmaybe the unappreciative and inconsiderate attention of a careless andvindictive husband, add to the incidental worries, --fraying her nervesand disposition, --of the ordinary routine of a cheerless, hopeless life. Add to this experience the enormous drain of frequent child bearing uponher vitality, and we have a picture with which every physician isfamiliar. 

Can such a woman possibly observe the essential rules of the hygiene ofpregnancy? Has she the time and the means to build up her reserve energyand strength to competently undertake the duties of maternity ormotherhood? Is she physically fit to give birth to a child? After it isall over can she devote the time to permit nature to do her share of thephysical readjustment? Can she afford, or will she be permitted toremain in bed long enough to allow conditions to be favorable togetting up without "taking a chance"? Inasmuch as her muscular tone ispoor, her strength depleted, her vitality wasted, her ambition and hopeat a low ebb, nature should be given a longer time, under the mostfavorable hygienic and domestic conditions, to help in the problem ofreadjustment, because her whole future, as an efficient machine, aswife, as mother, as home-maker, and as an economic individuality, isdependent upon how this crisis is met. This is the most importantproblem which an enlightened civilization has before it. It is thesupreme eugenic task, and it is the most pressing and the most vitalquestion for statesmen to solve. No man can deny that the permanency ofthe state is dependent upon the function of motherhood, yet motherhoodis conducted by unskilled labor--labor, the quality of which no businesswould tolerate. We also know that the health of the workman has becomean economic problem. Capital finds that labor is of better quality, andconsequently more remunerative in every sense, if the environment isconducive to happiness and health. Yet motherhood, the most importantlabor in the world, upon which the very existence of the state depends, in addition to being performed by unskilled labor, is undertaken byphysically unfit and frequently unwilling laborers, in an environmentwhich is a disgrace to civilization and which cannot be duplicated inthe whole realm of the brute world. This is the quality of labor, theproducts of which constitute the state. 

If anyone is disposed to believe that this is an over-drawn picture, lethim study the facts brought out in the recent patent medicineinvestigation. It was found that one small, unimportant, quack medicalcompany had under treatment at one time (the day the government closedit up) 200, 000 women, suffering exclusively from female diseases. Howmany similar cases must there be to support the large advertisingconcerns, whose tentacles reach to the remotest corners of the countryand who limit their activity and cater to "diseases of women" only. Lethim also give some thought to the fact that no specialty in the wholefield of legitimate medical practice has grown with such enormousstrides, or is as remunerative to the ordinary physician as thedepartment of "diseases of women. "

FEMALE DISEASES ARE AVOIDABLE. --If, as has been asserted, the greatmajority of these ailments are traceable to causes which are avoidable, what is the remedy? In one word it is "Enlightenment. " We must educatethe ordinary mother who is so busy over her wash tubs and babies thatshe has no time to seek information upon subject which she doesn't evenknow exist, who does not even know how to feed her baby as well as thescrubbiest cat does her kitten, who does not know what eugenics meansand is interested in it even less. We must stop limiting our talks totheorizing in clubs and societies. We must carry the tidings to thefiresides of those hundreds of thousands of women who would listen andact, but who do not know what to do or how to correct their faults. 

There is another feature of this subject which should be recalled inthis connection. It has already been gone into in detail in the articleon eugenics. There are many thousands of women who are compelled tofight the battle of life, upon whom an unjust disease has been grafted, which is sapping their strength and vitality, and which they do notappreciate or understand. Husbands infect wives unwittingly, wreck theirconstitutions, blast their hope of ever having a child, and then heapupon them abuse for an inability for which they are themselves directlyresponsible. Many homes are desecrated in this way and the real culpritis never suspected. Many women, who begin their married life under themost auspicious conditions so far as physical fitness or temperamentalquality is concerned, have their health, and happiness, and successutterly ruined, and after spending a miserable, wretched existence, havetheir hope of maternity forever blasted on the operating table. Thestory of "the wife" has never been told. It is God's riddle. 

WOMEN WHO DON'T WANT CHILDREN. --Sometimes the woman is at fault. Manyyoung wives begin married life with the intention of not having a childfor a year or two. They don't want to be tied down too soon. They wantsome fun themselves. They are willing to become the legal mistress of aman, but they are not willing to assume the responsibilities of marriedlife. It is difficult to understand the ethics of this type of morality. I have always given these young wives credit with simply not knowingwhat they were doing. Either their education or their common sense islamentably deficient, or what is still worse, their mother was the wrongkind of a woman. If these unfortunate young wives have no regard for thecultivation of a good conscience, they should at least have some regardfor their own health. From a purely selfish standpoint, --the standpointof efficiency and success, --one would imagine these women would beunwilling to risk their whole future physical welfare on the chance ofimmunity--and it is a small chance. 

ABUSE OF THE PROCREATIVE FUNCTION. --In order to carry out thisprogramme, various means are brought into requisition. In many cases Ihave known the wife has compelled the husband to wear devices whichrendered conception impossible. This is a highly reprehensibleprocedure. If continued for any length of time it will seriously affectthe husband's nervous system and general health, as this act is simply aform of self-abuse. Any husband who will tolerate such imposition isbeginning married life wrong. He will pay a high price for hiscomplacency. Any woman who suggests or acquiesces in such an arrangementis a moral degenerate and is absolutely unworthy of ever becoming amother. 

Some women buy expensive and fantastic syringes and proceed to abusethemselves with strong antiseptic solutions. This will result in killingthe sensitiveness of the terminal nerves and end in depriving themselvesof the pleasure with which a wise Providence endowed the procreativeact. If the element of sexual incompetency enters the home of a youngcouple, it is the beginning of the end and each chapter of the storywill be a worse hell than the one just ended. The wise husband will seethat its cause will not be tolerated or begun in his family. 

If pregnancy should unwittingly occur they do not hesitate to adoptdrastic means to "bring themselves around. " They will procure someprescription which may have gone the rounds as a "marvel" but whichalways fortunately fails when they need it most. Thus they subject theirsystem to the shock of violent medication and lay up for themselves inthe future untold miseries. If these means fail, they go to "a womanwhom they know" who "brings them around. " If these young wives only knewwhat they were doing they could not be bought at any price to submit tosuch surgical tragedies. The least probable result will be that when thetime arrives and circumstances are opportune to have a baby, and when itis their dearest wish to be a mother, they will discover that they nolonger possess the ability to conceive. Many homes have been renderedchildless in just this way. You cannot violate the laws of naturewithout paying the penalty in some way, and it is usually a sadreckoning. 

WHAT THE WOMAN WITH FEMALE DISEASE SHOULD DO. --To those wives who aresuffering with "female weakness, " or who are in poor health withoutapparent or known cause, I would strongly advise a visit to their familyphysician or to an expert in diseases of women. Tell him exactly how youfeel and submit to a thorough examination. Most of the diseases of womenare readily curable, and if treated right all the symptoms which haverendered life miserable will disappear. It may be stated with thestrongest emphasis, however, that no treatment from an advertisingconcern, or any patent medicine ever made, will in any sense cure any ofthese ailments. Every cent invested in any of these nostrums is moneywasted. Medicine by the mouth is never necessary to affect a cure of theactual ailment. A physician will doubtless prescribe a tonic for yourgeneral rundown condition. But even this would totally fail if the causeof the ill health was not removed, and this necessitates an examinationand special local treatment. For any advertising concern to assert thatit can tell what ails a patient by simply filling out a symptom blank isutter nonsense. It is worse. It is obtaining money under falsepretenses, and should be punishable by imprisonment at hard labor for along term. 

CANCER IN WOMEN

My only object in referring to this disease is to direct the attentionof women to its symptoms. 

The only cure for cancer at the present time is the knife. If thedisease can be reached it can be cured, if taken in hand early. 

In women, cancer occurs most frequently in the breast and in the womb. 

CANCER OF THE BREAST. --Of all the tumors which affect the breast, canceris the most frequent. Any tumor in the breast of a woman forty years ofage or more is quite likely to be a cancer. A tumor (or lump) which hasremained small for years and then begins to grow rapidly has changed itstype and become cancerous. Many such tumors change in this way duringthe "change of life. " Any tumor of the breast, at any age, which remainsdespite effort to dissipate it should be removed by operation. Aphysician is not justified in assuring a woman that a lump in the breastis harmless. It should be cut into and examined to positively decide itscharacter. Early operation of tumors of the breast has greatly reducedthe percentage of deaths from cancer. 

CANCER OF THE WOMB. --Occasional slight hemorrhages becoming morefrequent, and later more abundant and offensive, constitute one of thefirst symptoms of cancer of the womb. Between the actual bleedings thereis a discharge resembling dish-water. This discharge has a foul odor. Pain is as a rule a late symptom. Sometimes a severe pain extending intothe hip or abdomen is an early symptom but it is very infrequent. Everywoman over thirty who has a persistent leucorrhea, or any irregularityof the menstrual function, should be examined for cancer. 

WHAT EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CANCER. --Inasmuch as cancer iscurable if taken early, every woman should take steps to be on the safeside. 

If cancer is not taken early, it is certain death. A very large numberdie who could have been saved. 

Every lump in the breast should be positively diagnosed by cutting intoit and examining it. It would be safer to remove every tumor of thebreast at an early date. 

Any discharge from the privates of a woman which has a bad or foul odoris suspicious; any irregular bleeding is more than suspicious. Any womanhaving these symptoms should be examined by a competent physician. Everywoman over thirty-five years of age should be examined by a physicianevery six months. No woman should enter the change of life without avery thorough examination. Cancer is a disease which does not permit"taking a chance" with. It is far better to be certain, since it iscurable if caught early, than to find out about it when too late, because, "too late" means death. 

"CHANGE OF LIFE. " THE MENOPAUSE

The average period of life during which a woman menstruates is fromthirty to thirty-two years. When this period is about to expire sheenters what is termed the "change of life, " or the menopause, or theclimacteric. 

The average age at which "change of life" occurs in this country isabout the forty-sixth year. It may normally occur, however, at any timebetween the fortieth and fiftieth year. There are cases on record whenit has occurred earlier than the fortieth and later than the fiftiethyear. When menstruation in a girl begins early, the menopause occurslate. On the other hand, if a girl does not have her regular monthlyperiods until she is older than usual, --about the eighteenth ortwentieth year, --the "change of life" will set in at a very early age. Women who are victims of certain exhausting diseases, as, consumption, Bright's disease of the kidney, diabetes, or whose health is poorbecause of general physical debility from any cause, or who have had alarge number of children in rapid succession, enter the "change of life"earlier than they otherwise would if their health was good. In women whoare excessively fat the menopause is apt to occur at an early age. Onthe other hand disease of the generative organs, or the presence oftumors of the womb may retard the process. Women in the higher walk oflife, those living in cities those who do not labor or exercisesufficiently will enter this period at an earlier date than those wholive in the country, who work and are physically more healthy. 

SYMPTOMS OF "CHANGE OF LIFE. "--When the menopause begins, the monthlyperiods are less profuse, the flow is scanty. As the months pass, menstruation becomes less and less until it ceases entirely. In acertain number of cases it stops abruptly and never appears again. Sometimes a period misses altogether, or a number of periods are passedover without any sign of menstruation, after which it may reappeareither as a scanty flow, or as a profuse discharge. This may be followedfor a number of months by irregular appearances of the menstrualphenomenon and then by its total cessation. 

These may be the only symptoms or signs of the "change of life, " andthis is the normal state if the health is good. It cannot, however, besaid that this is the average experience. Unfortunately the women of thepresent time do not live lives which conduce to robust health at thisperiod of life. We find as a rule that the general health is below par. So they suffer from headache, "flushes, " digestive disturbances, andmany nervous symptoms which appear to be directly caused by the processthrough which they are passing. The "flushes" are disagreeableexperiences. They consist of a feeling of heat which spreads over theentire body as if the blood was rushing to the surface and to the head. These flushes are followed by sweating and chilly sensations. Thenervous symptoms may be quite marked. The woman loses her interest inthe daily happenings. She may have mental vagaries, she is irritable andoften melancholy and periods of seeming insanity may occur. 

IMPORTANCE OF A CORRECT DIAGNOSIS. --It is a mistake to attribute everysymptom a woman may have at this time of life to the menopause. She isjust as liable to develop conditions at this time, which she would atany age, and which have no relation to the "change of life. " Everysymptom should, therefore, be carefully investigated, because seriousconditions may complicate the menopause, and if attributed to it andneglected, may end disastrously. 

During the "change of life, " the generative organs become smaller or, asit has been termed, "dry up. " The breasts also are involved in theshrinking process. It is quite a common experience for women to "lay on"fat, to become "flabby, " at this age. 

It is important that women should become familiar with the ordinarysymptoms of the "change of life, " in order that they may be constantlyon guard against conditions that may indicate danger. Medicalinvestigation has conclusively proved that many women lose their livesbecause they regarded the presence of certain symptoms as common to the"change of life. " There is a tendency to disease at this time which mustbe intelligently considered, and if women are not posted to note unusualsigns or symptoms they may neglect or ignore them, only to find when toolate that these signs and symptoms were no part of the "change of life. "

THE DANGER SIGNALS OF THE CHANGE OF LIFE. --There are certain "dangersignals" which should warn every woman that something is amiss, theseare:--

(1) Profuse bleeding during the process of the "change. "

(2) Bleeding occurring between the regular menstrual periods. 

(3) The reappearance of slight bleedings or hemorrhages aftermenstruation has ceased for a number of months. 

These symptoms are always suggestive of the presence of conditions thatshould not exist. They may indicate cancer, or some less seriouscondition that is amenable to cure by prompt and efficient treatment. Inasmuch as they may mean the beginning of cancer, --as explained in thepreceding chapter on cancer, and which should be read in thisconnection, --immediate steps should be taken to find out the actualfacts. Delay means death if it is cancer, while the most recentstatistics show that in many cases a complete cure is possible if thesurgeon gets the case early. 

CONDUCT DURING "CHANGE OF LIFE. "--When a woman enters the "change oflife" she is approaching a crisis that demands the most conscientiousattention on her own part, and the sincerest consideration by all aroundher. She has reached the time of life when she owes herself something, and if she is wise she will willingly pay the debt. If she is not ingood health she must make every effort to regain it promptly, even ifradical measures must be employed in doing so. Nothing will contributeto her mental and physical comfort more than robust health during thisperiod. 

She must employ every hygienic measure that experience has taught uscontributes to our well being. She must live an outdoor life as much aspossible, taking sufficient exercise to keep the muscles and bodilyfunctions in good condition. If she cannot exercise enough she shouldsit out of doors, dressed in seasonable clothing, and she should make upthe deficiency in exercise by employing a competent masseuse. A thoroughmassage twice a week is sufficient. If her physician recommends anoccasional Turkish bath it is a desirable aid as it helps the skin tothrow off any excess of waste matter that may be circulating in theblood. 

The home environment of these women should be congenial, and they shouldbe relieved of the work and worry incident to domestic life. The nervouscondition demands this degree of consideration, and the husband shouldmake it his business to see that the wife, who has toiled to aid himduring all the long years of married companionship, is accorded everypossible help through the most trying and important period of her life. It is not to be understood, however, that she should be left withoutoccupation. It is possible to indulge in congenial work which willoccupy her time and attention without overtaxing her strength or frayingher nerves. A certain amount of amusement is desirable, and helps totide over periods that might lag and encourage introspection and worry. An entire change of scenery and surroundings. A visit to the seashore orto the mountains is to be commended. 

During this period the diet should be simple and the bowels should bekept open regularly. Inasmuch as these patients frequently suffer fromdigestive disturbances, it is wise to refrain from those articles ofdiet that ordinarily cause indigestion. Such articles are, sweet dishes, pies, pastries, candies, fresh bread, fried food, sugars, and therelishes and seasoning extras which constitute the et ceteras of thetable. Meat should never be taken to excess, alcohol and all stimulantsare to be avoided. Water may be taken freely to advantage. 

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

CHAPTER XXX

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

 What Mothers Should Know About the Patent Medicine Evil--Tonics--Used by Temperance People Because it Could "Stimulate"--Stomach Bitters--Blood Bitters--Sarsaparilla--Celery Compounds--Malt Whisky--Headache Remedies--Pain Powders--Anti-headache Powders--Headache Powders--Soothing Syrups--Baby's Friends--Catarrh Powders--Kidney Pills--Expectorant--Cough Syrup--Lithia Waters--Health, Wealth and Happiness for a Dollar a Bottle--New Discovery for Consumption--Consumption Cure--Cancer Cures--Pills for Pale People--Elixir of Life. 

WHAT MOTHERS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

Much has been written about the patent medicine evil during the past fewyears. One very thorough crusade has been instituted and efficientlycarried through, exposing the evils of the patent medicine business. Whatever legislation is in force to-day which has for its object theregulation of the evil, is largely a product of that crusade. Notwithstanding these efforts, it is a fact that scarcely any of thegreat majority who should be interested in the subject, because they areits victims, have any knowledge of the nature or extent of the evil, orappreciate its far-reaching and pernicious influence. For two reasons Iregard it as peculiarly fitting, that the subject should be givenadequate consideration in this book:--

First, because mothers should be told the whole truth about allconditions that have any influence on the health of the members of thehome. 

Second, because though we are the victims of many evils and many formsof "graft, " which directly or indirectly affect our pockets and ourmorals, we submit to them because they have no bearing on the physicalwell-being of the race. As mothers, however, and as the conservers ofthe fitness of the family and the home, we are directly and rightlyinterested in an evil which deeply affects the health and the efficiencyof members of the family as the patent medicine evil does. It is throughthe mothers of the race that this enemy of the home must be finally andcompletely overthrown. If every mother in the land could be taught tounderstand even a fraction of the truth of the insidious wrong hiddenunder the mask of the nostrum advertisement, we would witness arighteous resentment that could only be satisfied by legislativeenactment that would wipe out forever the whole infamous business. Nospasmodic or localized effort will ever succeed against this publicenemy. Its very strength is the people whom it dupes and despises, because they supply the money with which the patent medicine combinefights its battles. 

It has been estimated that three hundred millions of dollars are spentannually on patent medicines and fake medical cures in the UnitedStates. Three hundred million dollars fraudulently obtained every year, mostly from the poor, is surely a subject deserving of honest andcareful consideration. 

The pure food and drug act compelled the manufacturers of patentmedicines to publish the formulæ of their remedies on their labels. Thisis a big step in the right direction. Many States have helped thepropaganda in one way or another, but much remains to be done. When theformulæ were demanded it was discovered that all nostrums belonged to acertain class. For example it was found that the soothing syrups--whichare fed to babies--all contained opium in some form, or an equallydangerous drug. The headache remedies were all dangerous, every one ofthem containing ingredients which affect the heart seriously. Theso-called tonics owed their chief virtue to their stimulating effect, which was due to the alcohol they contained and which in many instancespractically equaled ordinary whisky in quality, quantity, and effect. 

It has been authoritatively stated that more alcohol is consumed in thiscountry in patent medicines than is dispensed in a legal way by licensedliquor venders, barring the sale of ales and beer. 

Many so-called remedies were found to contain absolutely no medicationat all. They were simply sugar, or starch, or some harmless substance. But they were being sold to cure anything from kidney disease to cancer. It was an astonishing revelation and in a way it showed how far men willgo to attain financial success. 

A well-known tonic was at the time of the investigation one of the mostprominent proprietary nostrums in the country. The actual cost includingbottle, label, contents, and packing is between fifteen and eighteencents. It costs in the drug store $1. 00 per bottle. It was found tocontain alcohol and water and a pinch of burnt sugar for coloringpurposes, and one-half of one per cent. Of mild drugs. It was claimedthat it would cure all or any of the diseases listed in the book, andthat list practically includes all the ills of man. It is within thelimits of truth to assert that this tonic, though advertised as amedicine, was largely in demand as a stimulant and intoxicant, --just asa certain famous malt whisky is to-day. Voluminous evidence is on recordwherein it is shown that it was used in enormous quantities as astimulant, in exactly the same way as ordinary whisky is used. The doseof any medicine is, as a rule, seldom over a tablespoonful three or fourtimes a day. The average individual would imagine that there would besome risk attached to increasing the dose from a tablespoonful to thecontents of a large size bottle. The only risk was that the patient gota more profound and maybe a more satisfying "jag. " In "no license" townsthis tonic was bought by the druggists in gross lots and usedexclusively for its intoxicating properties. In southern Ohio, and inthe mountain districts of West Virginia the "---- jag" was a standardform of intoxication. In many Southern newspapers there appearedregularly advertised cures for the "---- habit, " brought on by the useof this preparation, --and no doubt the cure was a stronger percentage ofliquor as this scheme was frequently worked to steal the patients fromone remedy to another. 

The following communication was sent out by the Department of theInterior, as a result of the alarming reports which were regularlyreaching Washington regarding the prevalence of drunkenness among theIndians, despite the fact that "no liquor" was sold in these governmentreservations. The fact was that the Indians had discovered this pleasanttonic. 

 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

 Office of Indian Affairs. 

 Washington, D. C. 

 To Indian Agents and School Superintendents in charge of Agencies:

 In connection with this investigation, please give particular attention to the proprietary medicines and other compounds which the traders keep in stock, with special reference to the liability of their misuse by Indians on account of the alcohol which they contain. The sale of ----, which is on the lists of several traders, is hereby absolutely prohibited. As a medicine, something else can be substituted; as an intoxicant, it has been found too tempting and effective. .. . 

Mr. S. H. Adams in "The Great American Fraud" writes as follows: "Theother reason why this or some other of its class is often the agency ofdrunkenness instead of whisky is that the drinker of it doesn't want toget drunk, at least she doesn't know that she wants to get drunk. I usethe feminine pronoun advisedly, because the remedies of this class arelargely supported by women. Several of the others of these well-knownproprietary medicines depend for their popularity chiefly on theiralcohol. One celery compound relieves depression and lack of vitality onthe same principle that a cocktail does, and with the same necessity forrepetition. I know an estimable lady from the Middle West who visitedher dissipated brother in New York--dissipated from her point of view, because she was a pillar of the W. C. T. U. , and he frequently took acocktail before dinner and came back with it on his breath, whereon shewould weep over him as one lost to hope. One day, in a mood of brutalexasperation, when he had not had his drink and was able to discern theflavor of her grief, he turned on her: 'I'll tell you what's the matterwith you, ' he said, 'You're drunk--maudlin drunk!'

"She promptly and properly went into hysterics. The physician whoattended diagnosed the case more politely, but to the same effect, andascertained that she had consumed something like half a bottle of acertain swamp root that afternoon. Now, swamp root is a very creditable'booze, ' but much weaker in alcohol than most of its class. The brotherwas greatly amused until he discovered, to his alarm, that his drinkabhorring sister couldn't get along without her patent medicine bottle!She was in a fair way, quite innocently, of becoming a drunkard. "

Another famous stomach bitters was found to contain, according to anofficial State analysis, 44 per cent. Of alcohol; another mixturecontained 20 per cent. Of alcohol; a certain blood bitters contained 25per cent. Of alcohol; a sarsaparilla 26 per cent. ; a celery compound 21per cent. ; the malt whiskey is in this class and is a particularlyobnoxious fraud, for it pretends to be a medicine and to relieve allkinds of lung and throat disease. It is especially favored by temperancepeople because in this way they get their "grog" in the guise of amedicine. It is sold in many places across the bar of saloons at 15cents per drink, as many other brands of rye and Bourbon whisky aresold. 

Think of treating any disease of the stomach with the famous stomachbitters containing 44 per cent. Of alcohol, --just 6 per cent. Less thanthe amount of alcohol in an ordinary bottle of whisky. Yet all of thesepatent medicines have made fortunes for their owners, some of them havemade millions in a few years. 

A number of years ago a company with a keen vision for profits conceivedthe idea of bottling the water of the Great Lakes and selling it atalmost champagne prices. When delivered to the druggist ready for salethe "remedy" contained 99 per cent. Water, the other 1 per cent. Consisting of a few drops of an inert acid, used simply to give it aslight tart taste. The preparation had absolutely no medical utility ofany description. 

One of the greatest advertising crusades ever carried out in theinterest of a patent medicine was inaugurated and in theseadvertisements it was claimed that it would cure:--

 Asthma, Bronchitis, Coughs, Colds, Cancer, Dyspepsia, Fevers, Hay Fever, Leucorrhea, Piles, Quinsy, Skin Diseases, Throat Troubles, Abscess, Blood Poison, Consumption, Catarrh, Dandruff, Gallstones, Influenza, Malaria, Rheumatism, Tuberculosis, Anemia, Bowel Troubles, Contagious Diseases, Dysentery, Diarrhea, Eczema, Erysipelas, Goiter, Gout, La Grippe, Neuralgia, Scrofula, Tumors, Ulcers, all diseases that begin with fever, inflammations, all catarrh, allcontagious diseases, all the results of impure or poisoned blood. "Innervous diseases this remedy acts as a vitalizer, accomplishing what nodrugs can do. " These are the exact words of the advertisement. It oughtto take a stronger vitalizer than water from the Great Lakes to induceanyone to believe such a story; and yet this company attained aremarkable success and had no difficulty in obtaining thousands oftestimonials. 

We are certainly a nation of dupes, and Barnum's dictum, that "thepublic loves to be fooled, " is literally true. In a number of instancesthe proprietor of a successful remedy has been asked under oath if hispreparation had any curative value and he has refused to answer thequestion, while thousands of foolish people have sent him unsolicitedtestimonials asserting its remarkable merits as a cure in all kinds ofconditions. Some of these ignorant people actually believe what theywrite, but most of them write "to see their name in the paper, " whilemany of them are paid for it. 

It was stated in the literature sent all over the country by thiscompany that their remedy was really liquid oxygen. It would be nearerthe truth to state that the moon was made of green cheese. The oneassertion can be disproved, the other cannot with scientific exactness. Liquid oxygen practically does not exist. Assuming that it could beobtained in teaspoonful doses, and assuming that some dauntlessindividual made the attempt to take a dose, he would never swallow itfor the reason that it would freeze his teeth, tongue, mouth, andthroat, so that they would be useless to him for the remainder of hislife. If by any miracle it could be swallowed, the undertaker would haveto thaw him out over a stove in order to assure him a respectableburial. We may safely feel certain that the nostrum was not liquidoxygen. It is, however, a very fair sample of the foolish kind of lieswhich all of these nostrum venders employ, --they are after, and appealonly to the ignorant. I am informed that the directors of this companydecided to retire as ordinary millionaires rather than risk the chanceof developing nervous prostration, in which event they might have feltit somewhat disloyal not to have taken their own medicine. 

HEADACHE REMEDIES. --Most headache remedies are dangerous. The followingare in this class; orange powders, bromo powders, pain powders, headachepowders, anti-headache, and practically all headache powders or remediessold in drug stores. 

Many deaths are on record from the use of orange powders and fromothers. There are many examples of what an unthinking individual may doto helpless little children. 

Orange powders were recommended for the cure of asthma, biliousness, headache, colds, catarrh, grip, diarrhea, hay fever, insomnia, neuralgia, seasickness, and sciatica. There is no known cure for anumber of these diseases, and apart from the malicious assumption of theclaim, orange powders will not cure any of them. 

Another dangerous headache nostrum, widely advertised all over thecountry, is responsible for many deaths as a result of its use. It isabsolutely unsafe, as previously stated, to use any of these remedies. Death by heart failure is on the increase in this country and it maysafely be attributed to the indiscriminate use of these powerful andtoxic nostrums. 

The "soothing syrups" depend upon opium to effect their result. Thedrugging of helpless infants has been a source of profit to the venderof patent medicines for many years. A certain Baby Friend, --a touchingname, and in which one would not expect to find an enemy in the guise ofa deadly poison, --is a combination of sweetened water and morphine. Thisdisgraceful mixture, considering the use for which it was designed, would be bad enough if it was the evil concoction of a man renderedirresponsible by a strenuous craving for blood-money, but to know thatits proprietor is a woman seems beyond belief. I wonder if she wouldfeel sufficiently respectable and decently clean enough to stand on theplatform and face an audience of American mothers? I think not. 

Catarrh powders contain, as a rule, cocaine, one of the most insidiousand dangerous of drugs. None of them cure catarrh, they simply relievefor the time being at the expense of injuring more vital parts. Theiruse also very frequently disposes the victim to postpone treatment thatwould be beneficial until too late. M----'s Kidney Pills were said tocure Bright's disease, gravel, all urinary troubles and pain in the backor groins from kidney disease. Analysis showed them to consist ofordinary white sugar. They contained absolutely no medication, and yetthey were freely sold to cure the above serious conditions. A famousexpectorant and an equally famous cough syrup contain opium and whentaken for the cure of cough are distinctly dangerous. 

It is foolish and unnecessary to name any other patent medicine in thelist of those that are distinctly harmful and dangerous to use. Thereare hundreds of them. It would take a book of a thousand pages to givetheir names and write the data that have been obtained against them. Every advertised medicine should be absolutely avoided. I could fillthis book with the death certificates of those who have died as aresult of the indiscriminate use of advertised nostrums. It is anappalling record; the unfortunate part being that it is impossible toacquaint every citizen with the facts. 

Duplicity and misrepresentation are not confined to patent medicines. Even the mineral waters are misrepresented and lied about. Amuch-advertised lithia water, before the passage of the pure food anddrugs act, was highly vaunted as a uric acid eliminant because of thelithia it was said to contain. Thousands, probably millions of gallonsof it have been sold during the past twenty years, to people who couldnot very well afford to pay for it, because of this claim, despite thefact that it is well known that lithia is not a uric acid eliminant, anddespite the additional important fact that the government analysis ofthis lithia water proved that it practically contained no lithiawhatsoever. It is now being sold as an "alkaline diuretic. " This claimis no better supported by facts than the former claim that it was alithia water. Of course it is a diuretic, because water is the bestdiuretic we possess, but any ordinary pure water, which costs nothing, will just as effectually accomplish all that this lithia water could asa diuretic. 

It is a fact that the judgment of a sick person is not reliable. Forthis reason a physician never tries to treat himself when sick, nor willa physician treat any member of his family for much the same reason. Hissentiment overrules his judgment and he cannot depend upon hisdecisions. An individual who is not well may be influenced by anirresponsible person, or by a clever, subtly worded advertisement, touse remedies that are not only dangerous in themselves, but which arewholly unsuited to the condition for which they are taken. 

Quite a common characteristic of sick people is unreasonableness. Theybecome irritable and discouraged, and not being able to rely upon theirown judgment they fail to render to themselves the degree of justicethat is essential to peace of mind and a favorable convalescence. Theymay place themselves in the care of a reputable and thoroughly qualifiedphysician, but if they do not observe distinct evidences of improvementwithin a very brief period they lose faith in him and change theirdoctor. They may do this a number of times, until finally they reach theconclusion that the entire medical profession is a fraud. They are thenthe legitimate victims of the patent medicine shark or the fake-curist. Probably ninety-nine per cent. Of the victims of these parasites areobtained in this way. The statement often seen in testimonials to theeffect, that "the best doctors failed to cure me, " is not true in anyinstance. The truth is, that the individual failed to give the doctorsthe opportunity to cure him, and the reason he did not give them thechance was because they treated him as a man and as a human being, whichhe proved not to be. Had the first doctor he consulted adopted thetactics of the quack he would have cured him in a much shorter time. Instead of doing that, he told him the exact truth and charged him anordinary office fee, while the quack told him lies and charged him alarge sum of money to cure him. The latter gentleman, knowing thetendency to vacillate which these individuals have, ensured himself thetime necessary to a cure by compelling him to pay the entire sum inadvance, which is their universal custom. The patient, therefore, couldnot afford to change his doctor this time, and as time was all that wasnecessary to his cure, the wily and oily quack gets all the credit foreffecting a cure, which "the best doctors could not accomplish. " It is asimple game, and the explanation is just as simple, but there are thosewho will not see, and there are those who cannot be told. 

It is not simple justice, however, to blame these individualsaltogether. We must keep in mind the irresolute judgment which is to acertain extent a product of the ill-health with which the patientsuffers and the consequent easy tendency to be persuaded one way oranother. The way in which these people are influenced is always thewrong way for the following reason. No person with any judgment orcommon sense or justice or sympathy would be fool enough or inhumanenough to give advice to a suffering sick man or woman as to what he orshe should do or take. These individuals do not lack advice, however. There is always the pestering idiot around who knows exactly whatshould be done, and who does not hesitate to enter where an angel wouldfear to tread. 

In the columns of almost every newspaper one may find promises ofhealth, wealth and happiness for a dollar a bottle. Even consumption hasbeen vaunted as an easily curable disease by a hundred differentnostrums, though the truth is that it is incurable by any known drug. Men who advertise these remedies are deliberately trafficking in humanlife, and they are thoroughly well aware of it. It is difficult toconceive of the type of manhood who would advertise a remedy as "Theonly sure cure for consumption in the world;" this was extensively doneby the concern that put a certain "New Discovery for Consumption" on themarket. Further announcement was made that "it strikes terror to thedoctors, " and that it was "the greatest discovery of the century. " Everysuch assertion is a lie. It was found to be a mixture of morphine andchloroform. It is a wicked concoction to give to any human being in goodhealth. To a consumptive it is admirably designed to shorten the life ofanyone who will take it steadily in the hope of a cure. It certainlystruck terror in the hearts of the doctors after its composition wasknown and when it was remembered to whom it was to be given. 

"Consumption Cure" was found to contain one of the most deadly of knownpoisons, --prussic acid. In a booklet which was sent out by theproprietors of a certain cough syrup the following contemptibleassertion is made: "There is no case of hoarseness, cough, asthma, bronchitis, or consumption that cannot be cured speedily by the properuse of this cough syrup. " Such a cruel and dangerously fraudulentstatement is absolutely inexplicable to any honest mind. Dr. ----'s---- pills for pale people, were advertised to cure paralysis. They werefound to be made of green vitriol, starch and sugar. 

Those who bought these nostrums not only wasted their money, but theythrew away any chance of relief they have, by failing to adopt theproper treatment until it was too late. 

In directing the attention of mothers to the evil of the patent medicinebusiness it is my earnest hope that they will give to the subjectsomething more than a mere passing interest. To an intelligentindividual no lengthy argument, --other than the recital of such facts asare given in this article, --is necessary to prove that it is an evilwhich is deserving of the most serious consideration. 

The business is one that appeals only to the ignorant. This is a plainand probably a harsh assertion, nevertheless it is absolutely the simpletruth. The language and the reasoning of the nostrum vender are notdesigned to appeal to the trained, educated mind, or to an individualpossessing innate common sense. Even though the average person isunacquainted with the constituents of a remedy that apparently enjoys alarge success, the absurd claims made for it should safeguard themagainst its use. Few would have purchased ordinary water at $1. 00 abottle had they known what they were buying. But an individual with anyreasoning ability or ordinary common sense, should have been scepticalregarding the merits of any remedy that was claimed to "cure, " amongother diseases, consumption, cancer, rheumatism, malaria, gallstones, asthma, blood poison, dandruff, and all contagious diseases. It would beimpossible to conceive a more mendacious and absurd claim, and it wouldbe impossible to concoct a more impertinently foolish assumption than toassume that such a claim would receive the consideration of a sane mind. 

Unfortunately, however, we are compelled to recognize that there aresome curious people in the world, people whose reasoning methods areinexplicable, whose conclusions are not based upon any system of ethicsor of logic. They believe what they choose to believe, irrespective ofthe quality of the testimony which may be advanced to refute theirbelief. The following incident illustrates this peculiar perversity: Awoman patient of mine suffered from an obstinate and harassing cough. Though her general health was rather poor, her lungs were not affected. The cough persisted in spite of all efforts of specialists to alleviateit. The nervous condition of the patient, and an unusually long spell ofinclement March weather, were directly responsible for the intractablecharacter of the ailment. I advised her to visit Florida. This advicewas given because her parents were then residing in that State. She didgo to Florida and her husband informed me a few weeks later that she wasentirely free from the cough and was enjoying good health. A number ofmonths later, shortly after her return home, I was called to attend herhusband. During the conversation incident to the call, she asked if I"knew what cured her awful cough. " Somewhat amazed, I replied, "Certainly, Florida. " She answered, with positive emphasis, "No, sir, Florida did not. " I then asked her to please explain the mystery and wasregaled with the following interesting information:

A few days after she reached Florida she met a woman--one of thoseirresponsible individuals who meander through life giving free adviceupon subjects which they know nothing about, who talk eruptively andvoluminously because talking is an easily acquired habit. Thisparticular missionary of evil immediately confided to her the secret ofher life, how she was made a well woman and cured wholly of all physicalills. She told her there was a man in Kansas who had discovered aliquid, which, if dropped into the eye twice daily, would cure anydisease afflicting any member of the human family. This exuberant spiderinduced her victim to enter her parlor where she convinced her at herleisure that she was preaching the gospel. The result was that ourfriend sent to Kansas for the "Elixir of Life. " Meantime the climate ofFlorida was doing its work. But just at this psychological moment the"elixir" arrived. Two drops of the precious liquid were, with duesolemnity and deliberation, instilled into her eye and in a few days hercough began to mend. It would have been waste of time to have asked ifshe really believed the drops to be responsible for her cure. She spokewith the enthusiastic conviction of a disciple of a worthier cause. Iinquired if she possessed any literature explaining the method of cure, and she presented me with the printed matter which is sent with thebottle. I told her I would look it over and tell her what I thought ofit later. 

The _Message of Facts_, which was the title of the newspaper, (it wasprinted like a newspaper and of the size of an ordinary paper), contained complete information regarding the "wonderful remedy" and itsdiscoverer. He assumed the title of Professor and candidly admitted thathe had been arrested a number of times for practicing medicine without alicense. He asserted that the reason of his numerous arrests was becausethe medical profession in the State of Kansas, being jealous of hissuccess instigated a course of insistent persecution against him. Hefurther asserted that he offered to sell his discovery to the State, butthe State refused to purchase it, consequently he had to go onpracticing to earn a living. With reference to his method of treatmenthe stated:

"Despite the fact that medical men are too unfair and too prejudiced toaccord Professor ---- the credit he has justly earned, there is nogetting away from the plain truth, that the great scientist hasoriginated a method of conquering human ills that has completelyrevolutionized the long-cherished theories of the medical schools. "

And further, ". .. Being the discoverer of my system and the only man inthe world practicing it, and having all cures and no cases of injury asmy record shows . .. "

Note that, in the first quotation, he asserts that his methods haverevolutionized the old-time theories. This would surely imply that themedical schools, having been compelled to note his successful ways, werecompelled likewise to change their theories and teach his way of curingdisease. Despite this strong and robust assertion he states, in thesecond quotation, that he is the only man in the world practicing hismethods. Evidently he did not revolutionize to any very great extent. 

He claimed to be able to cure any human ill, and particularly emphasizedhis ability to cure consumption, Bright's disease, diabetes, epilepsy, asthma, stomach troubles, nervous prostration, blindness, femalediseases, paralysis, heart and kidney diseases. 

He, of course, does not state the nature of his remedy. It consists of aliquid which is dropped into the eye, and the procedure is the same, nomatter what disease afflicts the patient. It is not essential to writeat length his explanation of the way in which this "marvelousdiscovery" effects its cures. Suffice it to say, that it is a tissue ofanatomical and physiological misrepresentation. He admittedly isuneducated and possesses absolutely no knowledge of even elementarymedicine. His explanation is, therefore, to a medical mind, a ludicrousand an absurd attempt to tell what he does not understand. Of course, his explanation is not supposed to fall into the hands of a physician, and to a lay person, who understands as little as he does, it sounds allright. We must again fall back on the foolish claims he makes and on thebasis of common sense we fail to understand how anyone can believe suchstuff. Yet the woman who firmly believes that her cough was cured bythis man has enthusiastically recommended the nostrum to a number ofother women who have various ailments, all of whom are using it underher experienced instructions. 

This is a very good illustration of how these impostors and charlatanssucceed. This woman was approached at the psychological moment and wasinfluenced to buy. It did not necessarily have to be these drops. Itmight just as well have been any other patent medicine, or any fakecure. It would have worked just the same for the reason that it was theclimate of Florida that did the work. It is absurd to devote time evento consider the probability of the drops having aided in the cure. Thisman's whole scheme is a fake, pure and simple. No part of it has anymerit. In other words, his remedy is no remedy at all, it is simply themildest, ordinary eye wash, which may be bought in any drug store forten cents. He charges $5. 00, but think of the story he writes, think ofthe promises he gives and the claims he makes, and the paper heprints, --these all cost money and time and labor, and you must pay forthem. And I know a woman who is putting these drops in her eye twicedaily in the hope of correcting a displaced womb. Could the brain of themost facile weaver of romance conceive a more utterly absurd and pitifulcondition of affairs than that an adult human being should be guilty ofdoing what an intelligent ant would not do under any circumstances?

When the "professor" claims that he refuses to "give up" his secretunless the State of Kansas adequately remunerates him for it, which, ofcourse, it rightly refuses to do--he demonstrates how absolutely devoidof horse sense he is. No man with a "cure" for consumption--withoutmentioning the many other equally remunerative "cures" which this wizardowns, and which may be appended to the consumption "cure" just as theside-shows journey in the wake of the big circus--need waste hisprecious time dickering with the unappreciative State of Kansas. If his"cure" is anywhere near twenty-four carat gold he can own the State ofKansas and he may add another one to it for good measure. Any mancapable of doing one-thousandth part of what this wily "professor"claims to be able to do, would make so much money that it wouldembarrass him all the rest of his life. One of his claims is that he cancure epilepsy. If he could cure epilepsy he wouldn't be allowed to staytwenty-four hours in the State of Kansas. Every civilized country on theface of the earth would bid for his services as an economic necessitybecause as an investment he would be cheap at any price. 

CHAPTER XXXI

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL--Continued

 The ---- Consumption Cure--Personals to Consumptives--Nature's Creation--Female Weakness Cures--Various Compounds and Malt Whiskies. 

FRAUDULENT TESTIMONIALS

It would indeed seem to be an act of supererogation to compile furtherevidence of the infamy of this entire business: what additional proof isnecessary?

A certain Dr. H. Of ----, Mich. , published widely the followingadvertisement:

"Gains 17 Pounds After Every One Gave Her Up. 

"Miss I---- S---- had a terrible case of consumption, together withcatarrh and bronchitis. With this terrible complication, given up todie, she took the H---- treatment. She is now cured. "

 Dear Doctor: I have been gaining rapidly. Have gained 17 pounds; weigh 150 pounds now and am getting quite strong, too. I wish you could see me. You would be surprised. I look just fine. Everybody says they never thought I would get well. I can't thank you enough for it. I am feeling just fine, so I will close. 

 Yours truly, Miss I---- S----. 

The above testimonial reads quite convincing and doubtless was the meansof influencing many other unfortunate victims to put themselves underthe "professional" care of Dr. H----. Investigation, however, revealedthe fact that this optimistic young lady died shortly after giving thetestimonial and that her death was, according to the transcript of hercertificate of death issued by the State of Wisconsin, due to"consumption. " The testimonial therefore cannot possibly have any valueunder the circumstances. Unfortunately, however, this doctor does notpublish the death certificate with the testimonial, which latter hecontinued to use after her death. 

After an exhaustive inquiry into the personality and business of theabove mentioned M. D. , the _Journal of the American Medical Association_said:

 First. The H---- consumption cure is chiefly owned and controlled by men whose only qualification for treating disease is that they are business men financially interested in other medical fakes. 

 Second. The claims made in the advertisements, either directly or by implication, that these "remedies" will "cure" consumption are cruel and heartless falsehoods. 

 Third. The methods employed to capture victims, by means of speciously worded circular letters disguised as personal communications, are an imposition, if not an actual fraud, on the ignorant and credulous. 

 Fourth. The drugs sent out by this concern as a "trial treatment" are worthless as a cure for consumption. 

 Fifth. In printing endorsements of himself, which this M. D. Received from ministers of the gospel, he grossly abused the confidence of men who did not know the use to which their letters were to be put. 

 Sixth. The testimonials from physicians which he publishes have been shown to emanate in some cases from men who themselves are employed in exploiting medical fakes. 

 Seventh. The claim he makes of being a graduate of Edinburgh University has been shown to be as false as the claims made for the nostrum he exploits. 

 Can a much more disgraceful business than the various "consumption cure" humbugs be imagined? Founded on fraud, maintained by deceit, perpetuated by falsehood--the sick are exploited to pay dividends on corporate quackery. How much longer will this outrage on the unfortunate victims of the White Plague be tolerated? If not for humanitarian reasons, then for its own protection, at least, society should demand that such cruel frauds be suppressed. Their existence is a menace to public health and a disgrace to modern civilization. 

Many fraudulent nostrums are advertised as blind advertisements in the"Personal" columns of the daily press. The following recently appearedin the "Personal" columns of papers all over the country:

 PERSONAL--TO CONSUMPTIVES: I possess information which cost me a fortune, and feel that I should let every consumptive know about my experience. Mrs. R. , Ohio. 

To those who answered this advertisement was sent a letter written onpale blue stationery, such as is used for social correspondence, withthe initials --. R. Embossed, monogram style, in gilt on the paper andenvelope, signed "Mrs. --. R. " It is asserted in this letter that thewriter has cured herself "in defiance of the world's scientists, " by thediscovery of "a combination of certain roots and herbs. " As aconsequence of having made this discovery, and after spending a fortunein the quest of a cure according to the advertisement, we are informedthat "I am now devoting my life to saving others. " According to furtherinformation, her effort is apparently successful, because she "finds itimpossible to attend personally to the multitude of inquiries with whichshe is favored. " She finds it necessary, therefore, "to refer yourletter to my secretary, Mr. C----, from whom you will no doubt hearsoon. " The secretary is very evidently on the job, "for in the next mailthere is delivered a letter from the ---- Company, signed H. W. C----, Sec'y. "

We can estimate the degree of Mrs. R. 's solicitude for the welfare ofthe race when we learn that the same concern was engaged in exploiting asyphilis "cure" in Chicago a few years ago. In all probability the cureis the same for both diseases. It is difficult to tell of which diseaseit was that Mrs. R. Cured herself. 

Among the testimonials published by this concern in its booklet arequite a number in which the statement is made, frequently in glowingterms, that the writer has been "cured" of consumption by ----. A few ofthese were investigated and in every instance the writer died ofconsumption. This mixture is, in the strongest terms that can be used, afake, a fraud, and is not a "cure" for consumption, as, of course, everyintelligent person knows. 

 TO CONSUMPTIVES. 

 The undersigned having been restored to health by simple means, after suffering for several years with a severe lung affection, and that dread disease Consumption, is anxious to make known to his fellow sufferers the means of cure. To those who desire it, he will cheerfully send (free of charge), a copy of the prescription used, which they will find a sure cure for Consumption, Asthma, Catarrh, Bronchitis, and all throat and lung maladies. He hopes all sufferers will try his remedy, as it is invaluable. Those desiring the prescription which will cost them nothing, and may prove a blessing, will please address Rev. ---- W. , ----, N. Y. 

A reply to this advertisement brought the information that the Rev. W---- contracted tuberculosis while in charge of a church in Maine, andafter trying various treatments was finally cured by "a famous Dr. C----, of Paris, France. " It was now his intention to "devote his life"to aid suffering humanity, in a spirit of thankfulness, by giving away, free of all charge, a copy of the famous prescription. 

Investigation proved that the Rev. E. A. W---- did not exist, consequently he never had a church in Maine, nor did he contracttuberculosis, or consult Dr. C----, of Paris. The individual whoconducted the business was really one C. A. A----, who, it is to beinferred, conceived the whole fake. The scheme was a simple one. Whenthe prescription was received it was discovered that the ingredientswere not known to the drug trade and it was necessary to send to Mr. A---- for a supply before it could be tested. The literature sent withthe prescription was of such a character that the average ignorantsufferer from consumption, hoping against hope for a "cure, " fell intothe trap and sent the money for a trial shipment. 

"FEMALE WEAKNESS" CURES

Dr. D----'s "---- Compound": This nostrum is sold to relieve the pain ofchild-birth. It is surely not necessary to state that it will notrelieve the pains of child-birth, nor will any drug or drugs ever do so. The irresponsible group of quacks who claim to have solved the problemof "painless child-birth" through the use of various "compound's" hardlymerit the consideration of ordinary individuals. It is almost impossibleto believe that a man would print over his name such a puerile orfantastic story as the following. Dr. D---- asserts that the value ofhis compound is proved because a certain woman patient tells how, afterlosing her first child, she had a vision. A "white-robed angel"appeared, who, after speaking to her in beautiful language, said, "Go, sister, and seek freedom and peace in the use of ---- Compound and infollowing the teachings of that book. "

The book is entitled "Painless Child-Birth, " it sells for $2. 00 and itsimply extols, in unnecessary flowery language, the merits of thecompound. 

If we heard such stories in every-day life we would smile credulously atour informant and doubt his sanity, but in a patent medicineadvertisement we expect to read of miracles and we almost hope to betold of impossible happenings. The more glaringly false and silly theyseem to be, the more they seem to exert their subtle hypnotic influenceon anyone whose physical or mental temperament lends itself to theappeal. 

This compound "speedily cures all derangements and irregularities of themenstrual function, congestion, inflammation, ulceration anddisplacement of the womb, and other things too numerous to mention. " Itis claimed that it is made of the purest and most carefully selectedherbs which can be obtained. If, however, one picked up two handfuls ofdried leaves in the woods and put them in a package, the average mancould not distinguish between such rakings and "Dr. D----'s---- Compound" at $1. 00 a package. 

The _Journal of the American Medical Association_ in commenting on thisfake, states:

 ---- Compound is, in short, but one more of the innumerable cure-alls on the market in which discarded, unrecognized or useless drugs are pressed into service and invested with miraculous virtues. What shall be said of men who prey on pregnant women? Who create in the mind of the expectant mother the fear of untold agonies and then offer immunity to these supposititious tortures at the price of their worthless nostrums? Who, with the help of such publications as will accept their lying advertisements, do more to encourage abortion than even the professional abortionists themselves? There seems to be but one remedy: Speed the time when in their acceptance of advertising those publishers who fail to recognize decency as a moral obligation may be forced by public opinion to recognize its value as a business proposition. 

The C. B. M. Remedy Company: In a small town in Indiana there is a"lady" who has been spending a fortune in giving medical treatmentabsolutely free to suffering women. The letters, literature, andadvertisements by implication lead one to suppose that a woman is incharge of the business of this concern. The advertisements have apicture of a lady giving away packages of medicine. The business wasconducted by one F. D. M. The name of his wife was simply used as anadvertising asset; the idea, of course, being that a woman would be morewilling to write to a business concern telling of her private illnessesif she understood that she was confiding in a woman than she would ifunder the impression that her letter would be read by a man. This is anold scheme which was employed by others for many years with greatsuccess. 

M. Himself is not a physician and is in no way qualified to give adviceto these women who write in response to the advertisements detailingtheir symptoms and telling of their troubles. Investigation showed thatthe medicine was compounded by the clerks and stenographers in theemploy of the company, and that all communications were answered by formletters. It did not matter what ailed the patient, the treatment was thesame. 

The claims made by this concern for their remedy, and they had only one, were along the usual line--everything they could think about which has aremote connection with the specialty in which they wereinterested--leucorrhea, ulceration, displacement or falling of the womb, profuse, scanty or painful periods, uterine or ovarian tumors orgrowths, and piles from any cause, no matter of how long standing; alsopains in the back head and bowels, bearing down feelings, nervousness, creeping feeling up the spine, melancholy, desire to cry, hot flushes, weariness, uterine cancers in their earlier stages. 

Analysis of the remedy showed it to be a combination of two weak, commonly used drugs, one a very mild antiseptic and the other a mildastringent. These were held together with cocoa butter into which a dropof carbolic acid may have been put. There is nothing unusual in thecombination, nor has it any wonderful qualities which would justify theclaims made in behalf of it. The remedy contains nothing which couldunder any circumstances effect the removal of cancers, fibroid growths, or polypi, or which is capable of radically relieving laceration of thewomb due to child-birth. 

The following is one of the specious appeals which this meretriciousconcern sent to the ailing women of America:

 Mrs. M. Receives more mail than any other woman in the state. 

 How would you like to receive so much mail that it would be necessary to use a grindstone in order to open the letters as fast as they come in. This is the way Mrs. C. B. M. Opens her mail. She gets tons of mail, and to save time has the letters opened by a large grindstone, which occupies a conspicuous place in her office. No other person in Indiana receives so much mail as she. 

 Mrs. M. 's aid and advice is as free to you as God's sunshine or the air you breathe. She is always glad to lend her assistance to every suffering woman, and she is a generous, good woman, who has suffered herself as you suffer, and she wants to prove to you that her common sense home treatment will cure you just as surely as it cured her years ago in her humble cottage before riches and fame came to her. 

 If you are a sufferer from any female trouble, no matter what it is, send the coupon below to Mrs. C. B. M. At once. 

 I am a woman with all a woman's hopes and fears. I have known what it is to be sick in body and mind. Sick in a way that I couldn't bring myself to explain to a man, even though he were my physician, and I am thankful beyond the power of words to express that I have been given the power to extend to you, my sisters, the priceless boon of relief from the burden of pain and suffering. 

 I only pray that this little book may be the means of saving some woman from years of such agony as only a woman can know. 

 I dedicate this book to you. 

 WOMEN'S DISEASES

 I doubt if you can realize the full meaning of these two little words. I, who come in contact with the pitiful wrecks of womanhood wrought by female complaints, know, as I hope you will never know, what shattered lives and broken hearts they cause. 

 Only a sensitive woman can realize how hard it is to bring one's self to undergo the ordeal of examination and treatment by a physician. 

Every letter sent out by this concern was signed, "Mrs. C. B. M. " Allliterature, every booklet, and every advertisement was ingeniously andseductively "built up" to convey by implication the impression that thebusiness was conducted by a woman, and hence the inference followed inthe minds of the simple, trusting victims, that they were writing theirsecrets, to be read by one of their own sex, and that this woman wasprofessionally qualified and temperamentally capable of giving competentadvice and adequate treatment. 

Nothing was further from the truth. It was simply a trick, a fraudulent, venal imposition. Mrs. C. B. M. Herself admitted that she had absolutelynothing to do with the conduct of the business, nor did her previousexperience in any way fit her to give advice in such matters. Herhusband established the business under the name of the ---- MedicineCompany, and continued under this name until after his marriage, when itwas reorganized and incorporated in his wife's name. Benefiting by theexperience of similar concerns, he then used his wife's name simply as abusiness asset. How capably and efficiently he utilized this opportunityis shown in the beguiling literature he sent out as the above quotationamply demonstrates. 

Think of a man writing, "I am a woman with all a woman's hopes andfears, "--and then proceeding to play, with consummate skill, upon thesensibility and credulity of a sick and neurasthenic woman. It is around-about way to reach the public pocketbook, but experience hastaught these harpies that it is an eminently successful method. Mr. M. Himself admitted that the gross receipts from the business were inexcess of $100, 000 a year, and that 200, 000 people were taking treatmentfrom this concern at one time. 

Mention has been made of a certain famous compound--which has beencharacterized by a well-known authority on drug addictions as "adangerous drug used largely by drinkers. " For 23 years after the deathof the woman founder, ---- and ----, the owners of the concern, advertised, inviting women to "write to L. P. For advice in regard totheir complaints, and being a woman"--though a dead one--"it was easy, for her ailing sisters to pour into her ears every detail of theirsuffering. "

The advertisement as generally printed runs:

 No physician in the world has had such a training, or has such an amount of information at hand to assist in the treatment of all kinds of female ills. 

 This, therefore, is the reason why Mrs. L---- P----, in her laboratory at ----, Mass. , is able to do more for the ailing women of America than the family physician. Any woman, therefore, is responsible for her own suffering who will not take the trouble to write to Mrs. P---- for advice. 

Does any woman need any further evidence of the fraudulent intent ofsuch concerns? Keep in mind also that this particular remedy isexclusively recommended for "the diseases of women, " and contains enoughalcohol to render its users victims of the alcoholic habit. 

MEDICINE CONCERN RUN BY WOMEN

Dr. D---- runs a mail order business in another town in Indiana. Herspecialty is "diseases of women. " The business is really owned by W. M. G----, a dealer in teas, coffees, etc. In the advertisements of theconcern Dr. D---- emphasizes the fact that she is "a woman--a wife--amother--a successful physician--a specialist on diseases of women. " Inmany places in the literature of the company the "vast experience" ofDr. D---- is intentionally elaborated. 

"Her vast experience as a physician is only one of the qualificationsshe possesses. .. . "

"Her training and vast experience as a physician enables her to do morefor suffering women than any woman can who is not a physician. .. . "

"During several years of active life as a general practitioner sheacquired a vast amount of valuable experience that very few everpossess. .. . "

These three quotations emphatically assert that Dr. D. Has had "vast"experience "as a general practitioner. " Where did she get thisexperience as a general practitioner? Inasmuch as she graduated as aphysician in 1907 and was licensed to practice in 1908, and as the"---- D---- Company" was chartered in 1908 and began active businessthen, we ask again, where did she get her "vast experience?"

The following letter, sent by Dr. D---- to one of her prospectivepatients, gives a general idea of how the "game" is worked. Theseletters are "form" letters, printed by the thousand, though they areintended to convey the impression that they are personal--the patient'sname being inserted. It will be observed that Dr. D---- has acquired thespecious and oily art of the quack, and the seductive diction of thosewho live by their wits:

 Dear Friend: Since it is your misfortune to be afflicted, I am glad you wrote to me, because I sincerely believe that I can completely cure you if you take my treatment now. Realizing the serious nature of your condition, I at once arranged to give your case my prompt personal attention. 

 After years of success in curing practically every form of woman's ills, I am devoting my life to my sister women. Being a woman and a mother, I know your every ache and pain and sympathize with you as only a woman can. As a physician, as a specialist in diseases of women I know the causes of your trouble and the most scientific method of curing you quickly. Since you have in me a sympathetic friend as well as a physician I trust you will read carefully my plan for your complete recovery. 

 A careful diagnosis of your case shows you have Female Weakness. 

 I have mailed a copy of my book, "Diseases of Women and Home Medical Guide. " Be sure to read a description of your condition on pages 25-47. 

 As requested I have mailed you a free trial of my successful treatment. It is bound to help you and you should take it at once according to my directions enclosed herewith. The free medicines will last you for three days and are suited to your condition, but you should not expect them to cure you. Some of the ingredients contained in the remedies you need are very costly and I cannot afford to give you enough of these medicines to completely cure you. 

 Your case seems to be of long standing and you really should have a Complete Course of Treatment at once if you are to be completely cured. As I want to do everything possible for you I have prepared a Special Course of Treatment for you and am sending it, postage paid, in the same package with the free remedies. 

 Please remember that the free remedies are yours to take at once without charge or obligation, but if you use the Special Treatment I shall expect you to send me $3 for it. You need not feel under obligation to me to accept the Special Course, but I know it is just what you need and need NOW, so I feel sure your good judgment will cause you to accept it at your earliest convenience. By sending now I save you some time and . .. 

Dr. G. M. B. , of ----, Mo. , advertises to cure deafness, catarrh, asthmaand head noises. He offers to send two months' medicine free to provehis ability to cure. In reply to inquiry he practically informs everyapplicant that his case is so bad that there is no use of sending thetwo months' treatment. In order to effect a cure in "your case" it isnecessary for you to take the regular treatment. He accepts the chancethat the literature and the testimonials accompanying his letter willinfluence the victim to bite. Inasmuch as he admits that his income isabout $5, 000 per month and that he gets three hundred letters every day, it may be assumed that he knows his business. 

It is not necessary to go into details regarding his methods. Thefollowing summary of his business was made by the district attorney whoinvestigated it:

 I find that the business is being conducted through the post office at ----, Mo. , under the names of Dr. ---- Remedy Company and Dr. J. M. B----, and is a scheme and device for obtaining money through the mails by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises, and I therefore recommend that a fraud order be issued prohibiting the delivery of mail and the payment of money orders to such addresses. 

A certain "pure" malt whiskey is advertised as:

"A reliable all-round household remedy. "

"It should be in every family medicine chest. "

"It is manufactured for the purpose of supplying the profession andpublic in general with a reliable tonic and stimulant. "

"It is a recognized specific to enrich the blood and build body andmuscle, and in the prevention and relief of coughs, colds and stomachtroubles it has no equal. "

Previous to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act it was advertisedin the following terms:

 BEST SPRING TONIC. 

 DOCTORS OF ALL SCHOOLS AGREE THAT THE BEST TONIC-STIMULANT TO BUILD UP THE SYSTEM, RUN DOWN AND WEAKENED BY THE LONG STRAIN OF WINTER, AND TO DRIVE OUT SPRING FEVER AND MALARIA IS ----'S MALT WHISKEY. 

 As a tonic and stimulant it is the greatest strength-giver known to science. It destroys disease germs and by its building and healing properties restores tissues in a gradual, healthy, natural manner. It is a wonderful specific in the treatment and cure of consumption, pneumonia, grippe, bronchitis, coughs, colds, malaria, low fevers, stomach troubles, and all wasting, weakened, diseased conditions, if taken in time. 

 It is recognized as the world's leading medicine everywhere. 

By a decision of the Supreme Court of the State of New York this "pure"malt whiskey has been declared a liquor. It is simply a sweetenedwhisky. To advertise it as a CURE for consumption or as a cure for anydisease was malicious, and should be punishable by a long term inprison. It would be possible to take every statement of the aboveadvertisement and prove each one to be false. 

This "pure" malt whiskey is a favorite "booze" of so-called temperancepeople. Since it is advertised as a medicine, they can get drunk fromits use and still be "temperance" advocates. One of the favorite methodsof advertising the product was to draw the public's attention to thefact that

 CLERGYMEN ENDORSE MALT WHISKY

 DISTINGUISHED DIVINES AND TEMPERANCE WORKERS WHO HAVE spent their lives in uplifting their fallen brethren and placing their feet upon the solid rock use and recommend ----'s pure malt whisky. Honored and respected preachers of the gospel and advocates of temperance, without regard to creed or prejudice, make frank and outspoken statements of what ----'s pure malt whisky has done for them. 

Then follow the testimonials and the photographs of three aged andinert-looking preachers. 

It made an impressive advertisement, as most nostrum "ads" are, because, unfortunately, the art of the liar is best expressed in the superlativedegree. His word-pictures are therefore more lurid, more diversified, more romantic. But when they are investigated and the facts brought tolight the advertisement falls to pieces. For example, compare the actualfacts relative to the three "distinguished divines" with the fiction inthe following advertisement:

 The Rev. ---- D----, over 82 years of age, practised medicine for many years, when he moved west. He became a minister and did preach for ten years in the State of Wyoming. He then retired from the pulpit and opened a marriage bureau. He received $10. 00 when he gave his testimonial "to get his picture taken. "

 The Rev. ---- H---- occupied the pulpit of the Church of Eternal Hope of B----, Pa. He retired to enter politics a number of years ago, and is now a deputy Internal Revenue collector. He is a spiritualist. He owned race horses and was a patron of the turf. 

 The Rev. McL---- lived in G----, Mich. There are 893 people in the township and it is not even on the railroad line. Mr. McL---- was allowed to resign from the fellowship after being called to trial for endorsing ----'s pure malt whisky. 

If these three gentlemen were brought on the stage of any cityvaudeville theater and introduced as distinguished divines it would beregarded as a joke--which it really is. If we relegate our"distinguished divines" to marriage bureaus, or the race track, or tothe Internal Revenue service, or to preach to flocks in townships ofless than one thousand and not on the railroad, the outlook for theministerial profession is far from encouraging. To tell us that thesemen spent their lives "in uplifting their fallen brethren" is imposingupon the good nature of one's audience. It is simply one more evidenceadded to the long list already noted that one does not readily acquirethe habit of expecting to read the truth in a patent medicineadvertisement. Rather the reverse. We examine them in expectantcuriosity to note their unique and devilish ability to tell picturesquefalsehoods. 

Certain famous pills are advertised extensively in Great Britain and inthe United States. It is claimed by the manufacturers that they are"composed entirely of medicinal herbs" and that they will "cure"constipation, pains in the back, cold chills, bad legs, maladies ofindiscretion, kidney and urinary disorders--and several other things. 

These pills were analyzed by the British Medical Association's chemists, who reported that they consisted of ginger, soap, and aloes. Where the"medicinal herbs" were it was hard to say. 

In large and lurid letters we are informed in the advertisements thatthese pills are "worth a guinea ($5. 00) a box. " The retail price is 27cents a box. The British Medical Association's chemist states that thecost of these pills is one-quarter of a cent per box. Quite a fairmargin of profit considering the high cost of living these days!

CHAPTER XXXII

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL--Continued

 Patent Medicine Firms and Quacks Dispose of the Confidential Letters Sent to Them--Patent Medicine Concerns and Letter Brokers--The Patent Medicine Conspiracy Against the Freedom of the Press--How The Patent Medicine Trust Crushes Honest Effort. 

HOW QUACKS DISPOSE OF THE CONFIDENTIAL LETTERS SENT TO THEM

When you write for information--which is usually the first step--inreply to an advertisement of this character, you receive in reply aletter, which addresses you in an intimate way, as, "Dear or EsteemedFriend. " It informs you that "we are devoting our lives in the interestof suffering humanity, " and requests you to waste no time in writing afull account of your symptoms and sickness; that such information willbe sacredly regarded as confidential and filed away from the prying eyesof everyone except the "doctor" who reads it. 

Every art is used to give the writer the impression that she is doingbusiness with responsible and reputable people; that what she writesabout her health, her affairs, and her person, are to be read by anexperienced medical adviser and by no other. The truth, as we haveshown, is that she writes her secrets to a man, who is not even aphysician, who in turn passes the letter over to be answered by anoffice clerk. 

When the fake doctor, or the patent medicine man, has exhausted his"jollying" tactics, his lies, and his promises, and he can no longerinduce the victim to send more money, he sells the victim's letters toanother quack in the same business. These harpies, knowing what ails theindividual, begin sending her their specious and insinuating literature. The woman reads, becomes interested, and, having bitten before, concludes to try once again, and so the story goes--one after anothertrying to drain the life-blood of an ailing, irresponsible foolishwoman. 

The selling of letters has become a business, so much so that there areregularly established medical letter brokers from whom you can buy theseletters by the thousands. In a single medical letter broker's office inNew York City there are upwards of seven million of these confidentialletters for sale to the highest bidders. This incidentally gives one aslight idea of the tremendous business this is, and of the hundreds ofthousands of dupes and victims there have been. 

The following extracts are taken from a well-known woman's journal, which at various times has been interested in this subject, and are ofspecial interest in this connection:

 One of the most disgusting and disgraceful features of the patent medicine business is the marketing of letters sent by patients to patent medicine firms. Correspondence is solicited by these firms under the seal of sacred confidence. When the concern is unable to do further business with a patient it disposes of the patient's correspondence to a letter broker, who, in turn, disposes of it to other patent medicine concerns at the rate of half a cent for each letter. 

 One of these brokers assured the writer that he could give me "choice lots" of "medical female letters. " . .. Let me now give you, from the printed lists of these letter brokers, some idea of the way in which these "sacred confidential" letters are hawked about the country. Here are a few samples, all that are really printable:

 55, 000 "Female Complaint Letters" is the sum total of one item, and the list gives the names of the "medicine company" or the "medical institute" to whom they were addressed. Here is a barter then, in 55, 000 letters of a private nature, each one of which, the writer was told, and had a right to expect, would be regarded as "sacredly confidential" by the doctor or concern to whom she had been deluded into telling her private ailments. Yet here they are for half a cent each!

 Another batch of some 47, 000 letters addressed to five "doctors" and "institutes" is emphasized because they were written by women! A third batch is:

 44, 000 "Bust Developer Letters, "--letters which one man in a patent medicine concern told me were "the richest sort of reading you could get hold of. "

 A still further lot offers: 40, 000 "Women's Regulator Letters, "--letters which in their context any woman can naturally imagine would be of the most delicate nature. Still, the fact remains, here they are for sale. 

 Is not this contemptible?

 In the same article is exposed the inhuman greed of patent medicine concerns that turn into cold cash the letters of patients afflicted with the most vital diseases. 

 To quote again: "All these are made the subject of public barter. Here are offered for sale, for example: 7, 000 Paralysis Letters; 9, 000 Narcotic Letters; 52, 000 Consumption Letters; 3, 000 Cancer Letters, and even 65, 000 Deaf Letters. Of diseases of the most private nature one is offered here nearly 100, 000 letters, --letters the very classification of which makes a sensitive person shudder. "

The deeper one delves below the surface of this business the nastier itgets. It is impossible to conceive of vipers and sharks being endowedwith more contemptible and brutish qualities than those whichcharacterize the vultures of the patent medicine and quack medicalconcerns. 

THE PATENT MEDICINE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

It is estimated that the newspapers of the United States get about$100, 000, 000 per year from the advertisements of patent medicines andfake medical concerns. 

There is an association composed of the manufacturers of patentmedicines and the owners of advertising medical concerns. It wasprimarily formed for the single purpose of strictly looking after the"interests" of those concerned. 

If we concede, as we must concede if we study the facts, the wholemedical advertising business to be disreputable, dishonorable andunjust, in that it is detrimental to the health and welfare of the race, the only protection it could possibly need would be protection againstany movement which had for its object the interest of the people who areits victims. This is exactly the key to the workings of the P. A. OfAmerica. When one begins to know something about the patent medicineevil, his sense of justice immediately asks why "something" has notbeen done to crush it. When the reader understands more about thisoctopus, he will learn that its tentacles are far-reaching and that ithas a mysterious and efficient way of crushing in its incipiency anyembryo movement directed against it. It would be a long story to givethe facts in detail--they are all a matter of record--the easiest way toexplain the procedure is to give an illustration of how the machinery isworked. 

Let us suppose a Congressman conceives the idea of introducing a bill inCongress to compel newspapers to refuse advertising matter that isobviously false and that misrepresents facts, and cites, as an example, a patent medicine advertisement. The agent or lobbyist of theassociation in Washington immediately telegraphs the intent of the billwith the name of its author to the home office of the association. Thegentleman in charge of the executive department of the home office looksup the facts regarding the political connections of the Congressman, wires to the papers published in his district suggesting to them theadvisability of using their influence to change the Congressman'sopinion. The newspapers do as they are bid (though there are a few whohave refused to do this kind of work, but only a few); they may intimateto him that he is committing political suicide, or they may adopt othertactics. The result, however, is that the representative usually seesthe point and permits his bill to die in committee. The quacks are notsatisfied with this single effort to ensure the death of the bill. Thematter is taken up with other Congressmen through their home papers; thewhole machinery of the system is set in motion. Their attention iscalled to the bill. They are told that the public does not demand suchlegislation, and that, if this bill passes, it will deprive of manythousands of dollars for advertising the papers which are friendlytoward the political future of the particular Congressman in question. The facts are thus brought to the attention of many Congressmen. Theysee the point also. It suggests to them that they will do well not totrample on this monster or they may suffer themselves. Thus are thepeople deprived of what might have been a great step forward in thefight for pure food and drugs and, incidentally, in the preservation ofthe public health. 

One may pertinently ask why the newspapers lend themselves to suchinfamous and dishonorable dealings. The answer is that, inasmuch as theyderive a very large part of their total income from patent medicineadvertisements and as these advertisements are contracted for undercertain conditions, it can readily be seen that they are made a party tocrushing legislation which would interfere with the patent medicinebusiness. 

 It is agreed in case any law or laws are enacted, either State or national, harmful to the interest of the ---- Company, that this contract may be cancelled by them from date of such enactment, and the insertions made paid for pro rata with the contract price. 

There is another feature of the contract that is of the utmostsignificance and importance to the mothers of the race. It is the onlyinstance we know of which effectually muzzles the public press. Thispart of the contract reads as follows:

 It is agreed that the ---- Company may cancel this contract, . .. In case any matter otherwise detrimental to the ---- Company's interest is permitted to appear in the reading columns or elsewhere in the paper. 

This means that the newspapers bind themselves, under contract, not toprint any matter in their reading columns which would be detrimental tothe interests of the patent medicine manufacturers. Under the samestipulation they cannot even accept matter to be paid for, if it in anyway reflects upon the patent medicine business. In other words, thesovereign people, whose servant the public press should be, is, underthis contract, deprived of its rights of representation in the columnsof the daily newspapers. 

The grave significance of this condition of affairs will be adequatelyappreciated when it is remembered that every popular movement to rightpublic wrongs must have the fullest publicity or the effort is doomed tofailure. The patent medicine business has been shown to be amonstrously evil institution, yet every effort to enlist the publicpress in an effort to arouse the necessary degree of indignation whichprecedes every public demand for the righting of a wrong has failed, because, "it is agreed that the ---- Company may cancel this contract incase any matter otherwise detrimental to the ---- Company's interest ispermitted to appear in the reading columns or elsewhere in the paper. "

There is another feature of this ugly business which is of the deepestinterest to women. The patent medicine territory is the whole country. It is a large, profitable field. A movement was once started by certainreputable New York physicians, who were deeply interested in thisquestion, to discover a means to aid the class who buy patent medicinesand support the fake medical concerns. It was thought that if anadvertising propaganda was instituted, offering to give legitimate andadequate medical advice, at the lowest possible cost, there would bemany who would avail themselves of the opportunity. The followingadvertisement was prepared and given out for publication, with theresult that it could not be advantageously placed:

 RELIABLE MEDICAL ADVICE. 

 Government investigation of the PATENT MEDICINE BUSINESS and of the advertised MEDICAL CURE CONCERNS, has demonstrated that they are worthless and dangerous; that they are money making schemes only, and that they acquire business by misrepresentation, by falsehood, and by fraudulent testimonials. Most of these concerns are owned by men with no medical education or experience. 

 These are facts attested to by the highest authorities in the United States, and apply to every advertised remedy and to every system of advertised treatment in the newspapers to-day with no exception that has come to our knowledge. 

 A BUREAU OF PHYSICIANS, each in good standing and in active private practice, has been established in NEW YORK CITY, to extend advice to those requiring medical assistance. 

 The object of the bureau is to prevent patients from placing themselves in the hands of incompetent, expensive and fraudulent schemers. The character of the advice furnished will be exactly the same as if you visited the office of any up-to-date reputable city consultant. We will simply direct what should be done in each instance to effect relief of the diseased conditions. 

 The charges will be the ordinary fees charged by reputable physicians anywhere for similar services, and will in no instance be unreasonable or excessive. 

 We invite the correspondence of those in need of honest advice. Ask for information which will be sent free of charge. 

Here was a tremendously lucrative field in which there was everypossibility of doing a large amount of genuine good, which, however, could not be reached by men whose only object was to benefit the people, because the public press did not dare publish anything detrimental to"the combine. " If this isn't monopoly, what is it?

This is not the only instance of this kind that has taken place. Oneindependently wealthy gentleman, for certain business reasons of hisown, conceived the idea of inserting a trustworthy article exposing thepatent medicine combine in the newspapers of the country, for which hewas, of course, willing to pay the usual advertising rates. He gave thecontract to a large advertising concern which began the crusade inTexas, the _intention_ being to cover the country working the States oneafter the other. What was the result? As soon as the system's attentionwas directed to the plan the mandate of "silence" was flashed to thenewspapers and the propaganda died an unnatural death in Texas, whoseborders it never crossed. The columns of the public press were tightlyclosed to it. 

Is it any wonder that it has been so difficult to pass a Public Healthbill? I am hopeful, however, that the women will solve this problem. Itwould seem to be a subject in which they could become strenuously andeagerly interested. Women as voting factors, or as legislators, willnever succeed in the subtle fights of ward politics, or in the coarserslugging battles of graft and patronage, but in the moral finesse, necessary to achieve success in public health and purity legislationthey should prove to be enthusiasts. If the regeneration of the race isentangled in legislative procedure or political subtilties, its onlysalvation is to find emancipators whose heart strings are of finer andtruer fiber than those in the breasts of men. We hope to find them inthe mothers of the race. 

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL--Continued

 The Patent Medicine Evil and the Duty of the Mothers of the Race--"Blood-Money"--The People Must be the Reformers--Mothers' Resolutions. 

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL AND THE DUTY OF THE MOTHERS OF THE RACE

It may be emphatically asserted that the patent medicine evil and thefraudulent medical cure more directly concern the mothers of the racethan any others. No matter who the ailing victim may be, some woman isdeeply and sincerely interested in his, or her, recovery and welfare. Ifthe proper influence is exerted at the right time, and if it is basedupon adequate knowledge of the danger involved, it is certain that thesufferer will not become a victim of the fraudulent and dangerousadvertised nostrum, or a fake medical course of treatment. If eachmother, therefore, possessed an adequate knowledge of the patentmedicine evil, and exerted the influence which would naturally resultfrom the possession of such knowledge, we should soon see the end of thewhole business. 

Most people are honest and sincere. It is difficult, however, to arousethe majority to concerted and sustained action. If the honest andwell-intentioned element in society could be influenced to a sustainedeffort to correct existing evils, in any department of human effort, thefraudulent and dishonest members of society could be effectuallyrendered harmless. If the suggestion which I have advanced in thearticle on Eugenics, to form Eugenic Clubs in every community, should beadopted, the members could, in a definite way, contribute to thepropaganda, by insisting that the members of the legislature andCongress inform themselves upon these subjects, and act and vote inaccordance with the sentiment of their constituents. It is only by somesuch systematized, concerted effort that any hope may be reasonablyentertained that this question will be satisfactorily and finallysolved. That it is capable of being solved satisfactorily there is nodoubt whatever. It depends upon the women. 

The passage of The Pure Food and Drugs Act, caused, for a brief period, a cessation of the strenuous activity which had previously characterizedthe patent medicine business. It was not, however, to be expected thatany single legislative act would permanently strangle such aparasite, --for we must remember that it is an easy and a highlyremunerative calling. Nor was it to be expected that men who are adeptsin sophistry and experts in quibbling could not find a way to circumventthe intent of the law. 

This was proved to be so because they are again beginning to advertisemore freely and with more assurance. One of the best known has assumed anew advertising garb. Its new diction is specious and clever, but it isa satanic cleverness when its history is weighed in the balance. It isquite probable that its formula may have been slightly changed, but atthe end of each advertisement the following suggestive paragraphappears:

 "SPECIAL NOTICE--Many persons are making inquiries for the old-time ----. To such would say, that this formula is now put out under the name of ----, manufactured by ---- Company, C----, Ohio. Write them and they will be pleased to send you a free booklet. "

The old time ---- was condemned by the United States Government as anintoxicant and stimulant, and cures were sold in various parts of thecountry for the ---- "jag, " yet in the new advertisement the followingappears:

 "---- is a remedy that should be kept in the house. Its virtue as a preventive to disease is the thing I wish chiefly to emphasize. 

 "When once the value of ---- as a household remedy is understood no home would be without it. Cathartics, pills and powders would be discarded. Irritating tonics would be no longer taken. ALCOHOLIC DRINKS WOULD HAVE NO PLACE. .. . "

If "alcoholic drinks would have no place" in the household, why shouldone want this "remedy, " which has no medical value except as astimulant? It is as if a drunken man should deliver a temperancelecture: it would really be funny if we did not know the tragedies thathave gone before as a result of its use. That is an example of the typeof argument which must be legislated against. 

There are two specific points in this crusade against the patentmedicine fraud which should be the objective issues of all concertedeffort to crush the evil. These could be taken up by mothers in theireugenic clubs and developed until successfully legislated upon. It wouldbe the greatest immediate contribution to constructive legislation thatwomen's suffrage could bestow upon the race. 

First, to enact a law which would make it a felony for a newspaper toprint a fraudulent patent medicine advertisement, or a fake medicalcure. A national board of competent authority should be constituted todetermine the question of fraud. 

Second, to amend the law which permits the registration of a fancy namefor a combination of drugs, without at the same time giving the formula. 

The mothers of the race must recognize that it is not only a question ofeconomy, but a vital issue in health preservation, to regard alladvertised remedies and medical "cures" as absolutely dangerous andworthless, and consequently not to be used at all. There is no safeexception to this rule. The records teem with evidence condemning thewhole discreditable business. Almost without exception, every advertisedremedy and cure has been, when actually investigated, found fraudulentand worthless. The great majority of these concerns are owned and run byindividuals, who have had no medical experience, and no training to fitthem to advise patients in any sense. It is a money-making scheme pureand simple, and anyone who asks further proof is not open to conviction. 

I believe the truthful and the just interpretation of the success of thepatent medicine business is to be found in the ignorance of thepeople, --not the kind of ignorance that reflects upon theirintelligence, but real, honest ignorance regarding the true characterand merit of the patent medicine business. It would be an unwarrantedreflection upon the intelligence and acumen of the American people toassert that they would wittingly support a fraudulent proposition, especially a proposition whose success meant their own physicaldegeneration. The reflection is rather an indictment of the inefficiencyof those in authority. 

We must not deny that there exists in the minds of the lowly a feelingthat what is printed is true. This is as it should be; it is an instinctand it is fundamental. We must remember, too, that there are thousandsand thousands of homes, into which absolutely no literature of any kindever penetrates except the weekly, and it may be stray copies of thedaily newspaper. These people are primitive and credulous. They haveailing members in the family, and they have not always accessiblemedical service, or they may be too poor to avail themselves of suchservice as exists. When, therefore, they see glaring promises of reliefand "cures" for whatever may ail them, in the oft-read paper, week afterweek, it is an easy step to become enrolled as a victim. These peoplebelieve in their newspaper. They have no reason to question the truth ofits contents. They unconsciously put their trust and dependence uponthose in authority, those who should see to it that the instinct oftruth and honesty is reflected in the justice and protection which ismeted out to the helpless and the poor. Is it any wonder, therefore, that we have victims, when the only voice that comes to them from thegreat world beyond is a tissue of false promises and fraudulentpretensions? The law is a cumbersome vehicle to move. It cannot bedriven by inspiration--no matter how crucial the incentive may be thatcreates the inspiration, --it moves only by the potential force of agreat conviction, the voice of the people. It seems a pity to waste timein the education of all the people before their voice shall be raised todemand protection, when the authorities know now of the wrong that isbeing perpetrated and could right it without the waste of this precioustime. 

Since we cannot hope for legislative assistance until the people arearoused to demand it, every mother who has an opportunity to learn thetruth about the matter, must become a member of the propaganda ofeducation and must spread the knowledge to others. We must educate thearmy of innocents who fall because they do not know the truth, and wemust reach that vaster army, whose gullibility permits these frauds toflourish. We must show them the false foundation and the hollow pretenseupon which such schemes are founded. We must show them that each detailof the business is inspired by a wrong motive; that the so-calledpersonal letters even are printed by the hundreds of thousands, andfilled in to appear as personal communications by office clerks whopossess absolutely no medical knowledge; that the "diagnosis" blanks areworthless and frequently dangerous, and simply sent to the prospectivevictim to impress him and draw him on; that the medicine furnished, is, as a rule, made of the cheapest of drugs, bought in large quantitiesfrom parties, whose reputation in the drug trade is not of the best;that the medicine has no special potency nor value, that it is in alllikelihood a worthless mixture, which in the advertisements is givenfalse and lying properties; that when they have got all the money out ofthe victim possible they will sell his letters to other nostrum venders. It is a sorry reflection on our civilization that the sick, often theincurably ill, cannot be protected against their own credulity and thedevices of those who would fatten on their misfortune and profit bytheir sufferings. 

If every mother who reads this article would quietly think the matterover and reach a definite conclusion as to just how she may contributeher share to the educational crusade to crush the patent medicinemonster, I am certain it would not be long before we would begin to feelthat there were the "mutterings of a storm brewing. " If each motherwould subscribe to the following resolution, and obey it, she wouldreally be an agency for much good in her community:

 I resolve never to advise an ailing friend or acquaintance to purchase or use an advertised remedy or "cure" of any kind whatsoever; nor will I permit any other person to advise the use of such remedies or "cures" without, in a friendly way, protesting, and thereby converting this person, who undoubtedly is ignorant of the facts. 

 I further resolve, always to advise an ailing friend to consult someone, whose education and experience qualifies him to give competent advice. 

I would suggest that the above resolution be printed on cards in theform of a motto, to be hung on the wall, and distributed from house tohouse by the eugenic clubs. At the bottom of the card, the word "over"should be clearly printed. On the reverse side, in ordinary reading typeshould be a condensed and efficient argument against the use of patentmedicines. This argument should be complete and convincing in itself, sothat one who may casually ask what the card means may be told to readwhat is on the back of the card, and may, thereby, be convinced that "itis a good idea. " This would be an inexpensive way of exciting thecuriosity of the community, and when the psychological moment arrives itwould probably be possible for one of the members of the club to give anaddress or lecture on the patent medicine evil. Inasmuch as thecuriosity and the sympathy of the audience would be with the speaker, itwould only be necessary to state facts to make converts. It seems worthtrying, and the suggestion is given with the hope that the women inevery community who are capable (and there are capable leaders in everycommunity) will take this club idea up and develop it far beyond thelargest hopes which I conceive for them. 

If eugenics means anything, and if the women are what they claim, muchwill be accomplished by each doing her part intelligently, and by eachcommunity standing upon its own record.