its growth. For example, the moisture freezing in the surrounding soil, envelopes the roots in ice. The ice expands, rupturing the vessels of the roots, or tearing the roots from their place, and the plant is destroyed. If a previously moist soil is completely frozen, the rupture of the finer rootlets is an inevitable consequence of the attendant swelling and heaving of the soil. The direct freezing of plants is due probably to the formation of ice in the cells, and the rupture of the cells by expansion of the ice. But it is easy to observe that, for example, buds with thick sheaths frequently freeze and thaw again, W1 out incurring injury, while delicate leaf-buds are frequently destroyed in a single frosty night. It is unquestionably the sap on which the frost operates. Thick envelopes, and concentration of the sap are the natural means of protection. But in spite of all this, the cause of the death of the plant is attributable not so much to the direct operation of the freezing, but rather to the disturbances in the sap generated by a too sudden subsequent thawing. As is well known, the animal organism is similarly influenced in freezing. The cold causes a contraction of the capillary vessels by which the flow of blood is impeded, and the blood corpuscles themselves undergo a corresponding disorganization. If this condition has not progressed so far as to involve the death of the whole organism, the circulation of the injured corpuscles through the system will result in the recovery of the frozen part. But if this operation proceeds with too great energy, the blood intermixture will create disturbances attended with fatal effects, similar to what is observed in the too rapid thawing out of frozen plants. Hence it follows that an unintelligent zeal in the resuscitation of frozen persons may result in the sacrifice of life, or, at least, of a limb. RELIGIOUS. THE RELIGION OF PERSIA, AND ITS SECTS. AHMED BAY. PERSIA La Nouvelle Revue, Paris, December 1. ERSIA was finally conquered by the Arabs under Omar, the second Caliph or Representative of Mohammed. The battle of Nehaverd (a little south of the old high road from Babylon to Ecbatana) which was fought in the twentieth year of the Hegira and the 640th of the Christian era-four years after the death of Mohammed-put an end to the political independence of Persia. The ancient religion of Zoroaster was condemned to disappear before the triumphant march of the children of the desert. With astonishing rapidity the people of Persia abandoned their old faith and became converts to the new faith. The reason of this, according to Mr. Darmesteter, a high authority on the subject, was that Mazdeism, the religion of Zoroaster, had taken root in the intellectual minority of the nation only, and the great mass of the people was weary of the minute daily practices enjoined on them by their traditional faith. Nevertheless, old Persian ideas were not long in asserting themselves. After Abu-Bekr, Omar, and Othman had been Caliphs, they were succeeded by Ali, the cousin and son-inlaw of the Prophet. The son of Ali married the daughter of the last of the Sassanides, the princely family which had given kings to Persia for more than four hundred years. Persia restored the crown to the sons of Ali, and easily convinced itself that he had been unjustly deprived of his rights when his three predecessors had been chosen as Caliphs. From this was but a step to declare that Abu-Bekr, Omar, and Othman had never been rightly Caliphs at all. Hence arose the great schism in Islam, which is called Shiism, of which the fundamental dogma is the recognition of Ali and his descendants as the immediate successors of Mohammed. The orthodox Mussulmans recognize Ali as the fourth Caliph only and do not utter his name in their daily prayers like the Shiites. This is the first fundamental distinction between Shiism and Sunnism. Another distinction between the two, borrowed from the venerable traditions of the Persians, is that the Shiites have, in a manner, doubled the Arabian Allah, whom it divides into two, of whom one is the only source of Evil, and the other the only source of Good. When the Persians had accepted the preeminence of Ali, they made him a part of their ancient mythology. Ali became the incarnation of the divine spirit; he is omniscient, uncreated, eternal, pervading nature. For him neither time nor space exists, and he is the first cause of creation. Ali came down to the earth in order to save sinners. It is he who will preside on the Day of Judgment. It is he who will intercede with God for the pardon of his followers. The day of the Persian new year, the Naurouz, which coincides with the vernal equinox, and which has been made a religious festival as the anniversary of the first day of Creation, will be, in the eyes of the Shiites, the future Day of Restoration, when Ali will ascend the throne of the Caliphate, after having triumphed over his enemies. The tombs of Ali and his descendants, the eleven Imaums, have become, for the faithfub of Persia, the object of annual pilgrimage. In Persia to-day there is an innumerable quantity of holy places. The pilgrims to these places are called Zovars and a pilgrimage is organized in a manner very similar to that in which a band of crusaders was got together in Western Europe in the time of Peter the Hermit and Urban II. I have described in a preceding article the mollahs or clergy of Persia.* A word should be said, however, of the class of people known by the name of dervishes. These are ordinarily men of some learning, vagabonds by profession, speculative philosophers by nature. They are recruited among all classes. of society. The dervishes of each place are under the orders of a chief, whose title is morchid, and who is the most refined among them, and most versed in Arabian and Persian literature. The only means of living for the dervishes is the recital of a kind of Persian poetry called Kacida, which is devoted to celebrating the victories of Ali, his adventures, and his miracles. One of these dervishes. will chant a Kacida to a circle of people about him in a town,. and then take up a collection, which will yield enough to buy some bread, a candle, and a glass of wine, or a little hasheesh, with which a dervish prides himself on being content. dervishes are not bound by any oath or vow or sacramental consecration. They retire from the order when they please,. without incurring odium. What their religious beliefs are it is difficult to say, since they do not themselves explain the matter clearly. They pride themselves-and with justice, since they are not in the least hypocrites-on the purity of their morals, the nobility of their hearts, the elevation of their thoughts, in which respects they are directly opposed to the mollahs, who are credited with having each "six stomachs and sixty-four teeth." The Among the Shiites there are three sects officially recognized. What is sometimes called a fourth sect, the Babys, is rather a political and social party than a religious sect. The three sects. spoken of are: 1. Ali-Allahi.—According to this sect, Ali is an independent God, omniscient, omnipotent, uncreated, eternal, present everywhere, seeing everything, judging everything. He took the form of a man in order to come down to the earth and expiate our sins by his martyrdom. For this sect Mohammed was the Forerunner of Ali, and sent to announce the latter's coming to the earth. Ali will preside at the Day of Judgment, and distribute to mankind rewards and punishments. II. Schéikhe. This sect maintains the idea of the trinity, the divine spirit being incarnated first in Mohammed, and afterwards in Ali. The faithful of this second sect believe, *See LITERARY DIGEST, Vol. III., p. 351. salem, the city of the God Uras, (whose) name (there) is Salim." like those of the first, that Ali is omniscient, uncreated, eternal. The two sects differ in their ideas about Mohammed. The first sect believes Mohammed to have been but a simple mortal, who merited by his acts the honor of being the Forerunner of Ali. The second sect regards Mohammed as the equal of Ali. III. The Moutécherri represent orthodox Shiitism. According to the belief of these, both Mohammed and Ali were created like ordinary mortals, and have even committed sins; only they deserved, by their life and actions, the divine favor, which can, at their desire, grant them omniscience. The orthodox Shiite believes, also, that both Mohammed and Ali will preside at the Day of Judgment, and will intercede with God for the pardon of the faithful. To the unhappy land of Persia one thing alone remains to guarantee its national existence. Its literature is dead, its government corrupt, its peasants bend under the yoke of the burden which weighs on their shoulders so heavily, its merchants, for the sake of security, expatriate themselves, Everything is in ruins save the Iranian traditions formulated in the Shiite religion. In that religion is comprised the whole Persian soul with all its good qualities and defects; moreover, it is conscientious in its formation and progressive in its spirit. Destroy this last refuge of the Persian's soul and you will destroy him altogether. Yet this is precisely what Christian missionaries are doing. I do not doubt for an instant the good intentions of these missionaries. They come to Persia solely to cure the sufferings of souls, by bringing them what they believe to be the truth. As good friends of humanity, however, would it not be better for these missionaries to remain at home, and leave every one to conceive of his God as he understands Him? Sometimes an awkward friend is more dangerous than a clever enemy. A MELCHIZEDEK, KING OF SALEM. gave an illustration of the way in which recent Oriental research has vindicated the historical character of the Old Testament. I took the earlier part of the fourteenth chapter of the Book of Genesis, describing the campaign of Cherdorlaomer and his allies in Palestine, and compared it with the facts revealed to us by the decipherment of the Babylonian monuments. I showed how the two confirmed and supplemented one another. But I had little idea that before a few months were passed, the latter part of the same chapter of Genesis would receive a startling confirmation from the progress of archæological discovery. If the account of the campaign of the Babylonian kings has excited the mistrust of critics, the account of “Melchizedek, King of Salem,” and “Priest of the Most High God," has excited still greater mistrust. As the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews expresses it, Melchizedek comes before us "without father, without mother, without descent." The very name of the city over which he ruled seems to invite suspicion. The mention of "the King's dale" shows that Jerusalem is meant; nevertheless, it is Salem, and not Jerusalem, of which, we are told, Melchizedek was king. Three years ago a remarkable discovery was made in Upper Egypt among the ruins of Tel el-Amarna. This discovery consists of a portion of the Archives of Amenôphis IV. and his father. Among the documents are several letters from the vassal-prince of Jerusalem, whose name was Ebed-tob. He declares that his authority was derived neither from the Egyptian monarch nor by right of inheritance, "but the oracle of the mighty king established me in the house of my father." The "Mighty King" was the title given to the patron-god of Jerusalem. His actual name is found in one of the letters of Ebed-tob, where we read of "the city of the Mountain of Jeru The King of Jerusalem was not so much a king as a priest of the God of Peace. He held his power independently of human authority or sanction. It was not derived from his ancestors; the god himself appointed him. Can anything express more exactly the position which was occupied by Melchizedek, according to the Book of Genesis? He was not only King of Salem, but also “priest of the Most High God." The letters of Ebed-tob tell us what Salem means, and why Melchizedek is called "King of Salem and not "King of Jerusalem." He was not king of "the city of the god Salim," because he was not a king in the ordinary sense of the word, and only so far as he was a priest of the god of Peace. He was Prince of Peace," not the king of a Canaanitish town. What a world of meaning lies for us in this title, sar Salim, the Hebrew sar Salôm, or “prince of peace." Through Isaiah it became the prophetic name of the Christian Messiah. We know from the letters of Ebed-tob that the title was no new one. It had come down from the earliest age of Jerusalem; it was a title coeval with Abraham, and it was in virtue of the fact which the title expressed that Abraham had paid tithes to its possessor. He was, The priest-king of Jerusalem had probably submitted to the Egyptian arms without a struggle. On this account he was allowed to retain both his civil and religious power. however, required to pay a fixed tribute, to admit an Egyptian garrison within his city, and to receive from time to time a sort of commissioner-resident, who represented the Egyptian king. Two of these commissioners are mentioned by name in the letters of Ebed-tob. We cannot say that the line of priest-kings or pontiffs died with the changed fortunes of Jerusalem; we may, however, gather from the account of David's conquest of it (2 Sam., v. 7-9) that, although he captured the Jebusite fort on Zion, the later "City of David," he did not take the upper city itself, and that the Jebusite prince, Araunah, was allowed to keep his title and office until his death. The old name of Salem clung to the city, down at least to the age of Moses, since one of the conquered cities of Canaan mentioned by Rameses II. at Thebes is Sholam or Salem. Historical criticism is still a new science, and the assertions so often and so loudly made on its behalf must be tested before we can accept them. It has appealed to the monuments of the past, which it believed were lost forever, and behold these monuments have risen as it were from the grave, and have confuted or moderated its pretensions. intimate friendship: all golden opportunities for imparting to them their share of the divine heritage of the true religion of Jesus Christ. The Press is the layman's Apostolate. It is an altar upon which every man and woman may stand in a holy priesthood and distribute the bread of life to hungry souls. It is a pulpit from which every Catholic can preach, and whose evangel can be heard by countless thousands. The laity are to assemble, therefore, to take counsel together, to learn ways and means of practical success from each other's experience, and to be mutually enkindled with the fire of missionary zeal. The press is the readiest and most universal means of spreading the truth. We have questioned many converts as to how they were led to the church, and have scarcely found any who had not read themselves into conviction of the truth. Who can calculate the power of a good book? It is not well enough known that over 200,000 copies of Cardinal Gibbon's Faith of Our Fathers have been sold, making multitudes of converts; that the sale of Father Lambert's Notes on Ingersoll has approximated to the same number, saving the faith of thousands in God and immortality. The blessed art of printing won its best victory in rescuing the sacred Scriptures from religious anarchy. The Biblical controversies induced by Luther's apostasy may seem dreary enough to us who must fight for the Book's very existence as a valid witness of truth, and even for the validity of the reilgious sense. Catholic victory is largely due to the fact that the printing-press gave us a fair and a broad field of battle. In every phase of religious life the Press has exercised among civilized nations an influence so beneficent and so wide-reaching as to deserve the name of the Catholic Apostolate by excellence. In our own country, God has raised up men in the clergy and laity who in printed words have shown the power of the Holy Spirit. The movement under the inspiration of the late Father Hecker twenty-five years ago, was a powerful engine for good. It would be a mistake to suppose that because no great central organization has existed the press is not largely used for the diffusion of Catholic truth. There is not a community in the country in which Catholics, priests as well as men and women of the laity, are not continually feeding the fires of the Holy Spirit in the souls of honest non-Catholics by the printed truth. The Convention is not to be one of societies as such, but of the Great Apostolate itself. There is less need of zeal being organized than of its being awakened. The supreme need is personal zeal. The intention is to stimulate the entire Catholic public to take part in the Apostolate of the Press. Nor is it intended that the members of the Convention shall be asked for any contributions of money. The expenses of the convention will be paid by one generous patron of our Apostolate. It is desired to bring the best men and women of the laity together to counsel upon the best means of using the press for the good of religion, especially with a view to the conversion of the non-Catholic American people. It is not only about such doctrines as the Real Presence, the Communion of Saints, the Divine Unity of Christendom, that our separated brethren are astray; their ignorance of the simplest and most fundamental principles of Christianity is simply appalling. The spirit of doubt, allying itself to "the higher criticism -a pompous name for learned skepticism-is gradually undermining what is left of reverence for the Bible, What stands between us and our honest neighbors, thus tossed about in the wreckage of Protestantism? Two things: prejudice on their part; apathy on ours. The force of the former is due to the awful vis inertia of the latter. The prejudice of non-Catholics in America, no longer fed by race antagonism or political passion, rests upon ignorance, which, had we been vigilant and active, might have been dissipated long ago. The following, addressed to the writer by an earnest nonCatholic seeking for truth, is in evidence: You may not realize the difficulty which Protestants have in getting the truth. They have really no idea what the Church is, what the Mass is and what it means, what the Christian life really is in distinction from being vaguely good. Judging from my experience, they don't know where to learn. .. I have expounded Catholic truths of the strongest kind to New England Puritan Congregationalists, and I found them delighted, longing for just such things, and so I believe tens of thousands are longing for just such knowledge. Why should not the Paulist Fathers meet that want by a series of tracts on the common Catholic truths? People by the thousand want what Rome has to give, but they don't know that they want it. The tracts, leaflets, pamphlets, books, etc., giving this knowledge, are ready; but the laity must be ready to distribute them. Are they ready? A MISCELLANEOUS. ANURADHAPURA: A PRE-CHRISTIAN CITY. Gentleman's Magazine, London, December. MONG the many scenes of interest to the traveler in Ceylon, none is more startling than those presented among the ruins of the far-famed pre-Christian city Anuradhapura, the once mighty capital of the isle. These ruins are totally unlike anything which I have seen in other countries. For my own part the feeling they inspire is not so much admiration as wonder and bewilderment, as one wanders in every direction, walking or riding, only to come to more and more ruins-ruins wrought by war, and by ruthless treasure seekers, but far more extensively and effectually by the silent growth of vegetation, which, fastening into every neglected crevice, has overthrown massive masonry, which, but for these insidious parasites might have defied time. Two characteristics are especially striking-the incalculable number of tall monoliths, not rude stone monuments, but accurately hewn pillars of granite or other stone which, in some cases, must evidently have supported roofs or some sort of building, while a great number, capped with a beautifully sculptured crown, form the ornamental surroundings of the cyclopean dagobas or relic shrines, brick structures which, estimated to contain millions of feet, are provided with a secret chamber in which is concealed some worshipful fragment of Buddha or one of his saints. Most of what remains of this once mighty city lies buried beneath from six to fifteen feet of soil. And yet, although the forest now overgrows the whole plain so that the only break in your long ride is an occasional open tract where fine old trees grow singly as in an English park, enough remains above ground to enable you to récall vivid pictures of the past. For a space of sixteen square miles, the somewhat scrubby jungle, stunted by the prevalence of droughts, is but a veil for the masses of masonry and brick work. You see on every side the same wilderness of hewn stones, heaped up in dire confusion, all overturned by the iusidious growth of vegetation, and at last you emerge at some huge bathing tank, all of carved stone work, or, it may be, on the brink of a great artificial lake formed by an embankment of cyclopean masonry; or else you find yourself in presence of some huge figure of Buddha, perhaps reclining in the dreamless repose of Nirvana, perhaps sitting in ceaseless contemplation of the lovely forest—a mighty image of dark stone brought from afar when worshipers were legion. The oldest of these great buildings dates B.C. 307. One building, the Jetawanarama, built by King Maha Sen, who succeeded to the throne B.C. 275, was 316 feet high, and is now 249 feet, with a diameter of 360, and according to Sir James Emerson Tennant's calculations contains enough material to build a wall from London to Edinburgh one foot thick and ten feet high. At Chi-Chen in Central America there are ancient buildings which in size, form of dome, and the invariable tower of Tee on the summit, are said to be apparently identical with those of Ceylon. It would be interesting to known whether they have the square platform invariable in Ceylon. How strange it is to reflect that when our ancestors sailed the stormy seas in their little skin-covered wicker boats, or paddled canoes more roughly hollowed from trees than those quaint outriggers which here excite our wonder, Ceylon was the chief centre of Eastern traffic, having its own fleet of merchant ships with which to export (some say) its superfluous grain-certainly other products-to distant lands. Possibly its traffic may even have extended to Rome to whose historians it was known as Taprobane, and of whose coins as many as eighteen hundred, of the reigns of Constantine and other emperors, have been found at Batticola. Think, too that while Britons wore a full-dress of woad, and lived in watch huts, these islanders had vast cities with stately palaces, and monuments vieing in dimensions with the pyramids of ancient Egypt. Knox wrote of these wonderful ruins through which he passed when making his escape from his long captivity in Kandy, but they continued unknown until they were rediscovered by Lieut. Skinner about 1833. At that time the site of this great city was the haunt of elephants, sambur, and fallow deer, buffalo, monkeys, and jackals. Porcupines and leopards sought shelter among the ruins, the tanks were alive with pelicans, flamingoes, and other aquatic birds, and large flocks of peafowl sought refuge in the cool shade or sunned themselves in the open glade; but, of course, with the return of so many human beings these shy creatures have retreated. Imagine such a fate as this creeping over the capital where a hundred and sixty-five successive kings reigned in all the pomp and luxury of an Oriental court! The founders of the great dynasty were Singalese-conquerors from Northern India, whose downfall dates from the enlistment of mercenary troops from Malabar-The Tamils. They rebelled, slew the king, and held the throne for twenty years, driving ont the Singalese, who returned and again occupied it for forty years; but the Tamils poured in in fresh hordes from Malabar, and the strife between the two races continued with unabated energy and varying success, until it was further complicated by the contentions between Portuguese and Dutch, French and English. The consequence of all these fightings was the frequent removal of the seat of government from one part of the island to another, so that in many a desolate jungle there still remain the ruins of ancient cities which successively claimed the honor of being the capital for the time being. SHOULD OUR HARBOR DEFENSES BE CONTROLLED United Service, Philadelphia, January. OR the past sixty years there have been those who have FORgitated the subject of relying on the Navy mainly as a defense for our sea-coast in time of war. The impossibility of accomplishing this, without having a navy many times stronger than the strongest foreign navy, is manifest. For, as we could not anticipate the point of the enemy's attack on our great extent of sea-coast, we should have to be as strong at any one of our important harbors as the enemy's entire fleet. Again, the vulnerability of floating defenses to torpedo attack, their rapid deterioration, and the greatly disproportionate cost of guns afloat, as compared with those on land, would seem to have forever settled this question; but again it crops up. The navy, as such, does not assume any such task; but the suggestion comes first from one and then from another of its officers, that an appreciable part of the navy should come ashore, and assume the functious of our land forces, particularly those of the artillery, in the control of our sea-coast defenses. The Germans do so. They have assigned the defense of their sea-coast entirely to their navy. They have but a limited sea-coast; but few harbors to defend; and their land frontier is far more likely to be attacked than their marine frontier. It was found that the engineers during mobilization were overburdened, and the marine artillery which formed part of the army, and in 1875 consisted of less than five hundred men, was insufficient for the defense of forts and management of torpedo boats. Although the navy has control of their sea-coast defenses, the Germans recognize the necessity of assigning special duties to their marine artillery. As a rule they do not serve aboard ships, being primarily intended for service in the coast fortifications; and it has been found necessary to specialize the torpedo-boat service, by training sailors and firemen for that service only. In England the fortifications are under control of the army. In naval ports they may be manned partly by the marine artillery and marine infantry. The entire army of England is stationed with a view to rapid concentration on the coast. In England, too, certain naval officials have discussed the advisability of securing the coast defenses for themselves. It would seem that because certain auxiliary and most useful duties will probably be performed by the navy in defense of the harbors, this affords a pretext with them as with us for reaching out to absorb army functions. The defense of our coasts from the shore presents important advantages over its defense by floating batteries. It is much more economical, and the firing is beyond all comparison more accurate. Submarine mines, too, should undoubtedly be controlled by our sea-coast artillery. The training at the Artillery Schools is more thorough in the subjects of high explosives, electricity, and submarine mining, than in the Naval Torpedo Schools. There would remain for the navy, in harbor defense, the "cavalry of the sea," torpedo boats. Nor can we understand that there is any more reason for assigning the defense of an important harbor to the navy because they control the torpedo boats, than for giving the command of an army in the field to the officer who commands its outposts. Further, there is the impossibility of saddling any additional duties on our navy. Naval duties are as much as officers and men can possibly acquire proficiency in, and it would seem that if a line-officer's duties were confined to his duties on board sea-going men-of-war, it would embrace quite as much as he should be expected to know, and even more than he could learn thoroughly by application or experience. In order that the navy may always assume and maintain that active and energetic deportment in offensive operations which is at the same time so consistent with its functions, and so consonant with its spirit, it must not be occupied with mere coast defense. As remarked by Colonel Jos. G. Totten, U. S. E., in his report of the defense of the Atlantic frontier, our ships scattered everywhere over the ocean, penetrating even to the most remote seas, everywhere acting with the most brilliant success against the enemy's navigation, rendered benefits a thousand-fold greater, to say nothing of the glory they acquired for the nation and the character they imparted to it, than any that would have resulted from a state of passiveness in the harbors. We are aware that some of our ships have been blockaded within our harbors, but we are not aware that any of the high distinction achieved by that service has been gained in these blockaded ships." I will now close in the words of the same high authority: Confident that this is the true policy as regards the employment of the navy proper, we doubt not that it will, in the future, be acted on as it has been in the past, and that the results, as regards both honor and advantage, will be expanded commensurately with its own enlargement." Books. THE NEW WOMANHOOD. By James C. Fernald. With Introduction by Marion Harland. 12m0, pp. 369. Boston: D. Lothrop Company. [What the author means by "The New Womanhood" is the Old Womanhood with modern improvements. As these improvements are not all quite completed, the volume is one of practical advice, to mothers how to bring up daughters, to daughters how to arrange their ideas and comport themselves either before or after marriage, and especially, if they are obliged to be winners of bread for themselves or others. There is a great deal in the book that many American girls and women will find to their advantage to ponder over. Mr. Fernald's creed is one that ought to meet with favor among people of all religions, for he believes in the morality of the table, in salvation by cookery, in the dignity and respectability of household service whether those who perform it serve with or without wages, in families where new sons or daughters are always welcome. Marion Harland in her Introduction, after telling us that "the battle for Woman's Rights is over," highly praises the work she introduces. We give Mr. Fernald's picture of a breakfast prepared by the woman who has not yet "attained "-a picture so vivid that it seems to be the result of personal experience-and his judicious counsel to native-born girls in the United States who disdain to be house servants.] WHAT and " " HAT right has "the average young woman to " go to a home. of her own with few practical ideas on the subject of cookery, dyspepsia waiting in the shadow of her table"? And, still worse, to inveigle into it an innocent young man, who supposes the domestic accomplishments come to all women by nature? For her home is not all "her own," but her husband's by at least an equal partnership. We will warrant a good, solid chronic dyspepsia to make havoc with the strength of his arm, the power of his mind, and the amiability of his disposition-and of her own as well. For breakfast she provides biscuits a little sour, a little soggy, and underdone. She takes the beefsteak and beats it, as if it were her worst enemy—as it is-then cooks it in the frying-pan till it is brown on the outside and white in the middle, and all that was ever good in it is trying to get out of the first open door or window. Then she pours water-a harmless, but somewhat innutritious fluid-upon the dessicated animal fibre, to "make gravy," and moisten the mass, in place of the natural juices she has burned away. She made her coffee, with provident forethought, the first thing. It has been boiling hard all this time, and sending a charming aroma into the room—all it had to send. It has now become a scalding decoction of tannic acid, with a large amount of "solid matter held in solution," as the chemists say, so that it pours out a muddy stream and leaves a heavy precipitate at the bottom of the cup. To garnish this feast, potatoes that were boiled yesterday till they were water-soaked-though she did not know it—are sliced and fried in greasc until they have taken up all they can absorb, and the rest has burned upon the outside. The hungry man devours this mixture, which would ferment in the stomach of an ostrich, and goes out to his work. When the average Ameriean girl is asked to accept, with honorable submission, the position of subordinate in a household, she utters a perfect shriek of wrath, scorn, and defiance. That an American woman should be asked to be subordinate to anybody! Very well. When the shriek has ended we would simply remark, that is what nineteen-twentieths of American men are doing every day. Clerks do not gnaw their hearts with envy or slight their work, because not made at home at their employer's table or introduced on equal terms to those who visit their master's drawing-room. All men understand this, even in the United States; but it is something to which the "American girl" has not yet attained. If she goes to work in a shop, she accepts all the limitations mentioned without a murmur. She does not expect to sit down in the counting-room, to entertain or to be entertained; to be introduced to all her master's friends, and so on, but simply to deliver so much service for so much money. It is in the household only that she considers this intolerable. The question which most vexes the soul of the American girl is that of sitting at the table, which is the special badge of " liberty, equality, and fraternity" in most rural districts in the United States. City readers will smile, but in our villages, on our farms, and in our country parsonages, it is a fact that the American girl will stand almost anything, if only you allow her to sit at meat with you. many of our middle-class families who would rather have it than not, on ordinary occasions, because then the whole family finish together, and the work can be "done up" so much the sooner-if only the There are requirement be not elevated into a threatening Nemesis overshadowing the whole domestic economy. There are exceptional cases. When the morning work has been of such a character that the worker cannot be in presentable condition to sit at any table, there is no way in which she can so well show that she has some of the instincts of a "lady," as by remaining away from the table. It is one of the honorable sacrifices of honorable toil. Or there is a fretful baby, who will convert the dinner into pandemonium. He must be kept from the table in the name of civilization. Who shall do it? Shall the master of the house take Baby into another room and amuse him while his wife and her domestie eat dinner? Or, shall the mother take the little one and walk about with it, while her husband eats with her "help"? To an unbiased mind this would seem a reversal of the true conditions. It would appear most appropriate that the person who is paid to 'help" should render just the kind of 'help "that is needed. When girls who are pupils at high schools use their summer vacations at Franconia in waiting on table, it does not hurt them to wait literally-until the guests have eaten. That is part o the unwritten contract, and why should it hurt them in a private family It is necessary for some one to pass and remove dishes, and, in short, spend the whole meal time in attendance upon the comfort of guests at a private table. Who shall it be? The answer is plain enough. The only degradation, one who really has some right to be considered a lady could find at such a time, would be in sitting at table, letting her employer wait on her—and then taking pay for it. Since receiving pay from another implies subordination, the truest independence is to be found in taking the position of a subordinate, asking no favors, but only pay for honest work; and the highest dignity is in rendering so thorough an equivalent as to oblige by the work more than you are obliged by the pay. THE HISTORIC TOWNS. NEW YORK. By Theodore Roosevelt. ! Pp. 232. London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co. 1891. HE history of New York City is a striking object-lesson in Americanism. The absorption of foreign elements in the growth of civic freedom, and the sharp transformations of social, commercial, and political life are nowhere better illustrated than in the gradual change of a little Dutch trading hamlet into a huge American city. The original visit of Hendrik Hudson, in 1607, to the river which bears his name was succeeded by the trading ships of the New Netherlands Co., who established permanent posts. They were, however, only clusters of huts, and the settlement did not become an organized community till after the arrival, in 1626, of Director Minuit of the West India Co., with a few colonists, who purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for about twenty-four dollars in 1626. Under the Dutch Governors, Van Twiller and Kieft, appointed by the great trading companies, friendly relations with the Indians were maintained, encroachments from New England and Virginia repelled, the great landed estates of the Patroons established, and new settlements made on the Hudson, the Sound, and the Jersey shore; but it was only under Peter Stuyvesant, who remains the typical figure of the period, that New Amsterdam, in 1653, became an established Dutch colonial town. Under him negro slavery was introduced and both Huguenot and German elements were added to the diversity of the population. Stuyvesant's imperious nature embroiled him constantly with the colonists, whose tendencies were increasingly democratic. The sentiment of loyalty was feeble, and when, in 1664, three or four English frigates appeared in the harbor, New Amsterdam was surrendered to them without resistance. From this time onward, with the exception of fifteen months in 1673-74, the English rule was continuous, and under the administration of Sir Edmund Andros, in 1674, English was made the official language. During the interval between the overthrow of the Stuarts and the arrival of the new officials of King William, a popular faction, under Jacob Leslie, a German, secured control of the city for two years, but Leslie was overthrown and hanged, and the government was more completely a class or aristocratic government than that of any other of the Colonies until after the revolution. For the next half century, in spite of almost continual wars between England and France or Spain, New York continued to grow. The population from the first had been one of various races, differing widely in blood, religion, and social condition. Class distinctions were, however, without irritation. The Huguenots were readily |