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In spite of the prophecy, prevailing in many quarters, of a business depression, the year closes with good promises for a number of large engineering projects which will be begun in 1911 or soon thereafter. proving the transportation systems will probably call for the greatest amount of work, as the facilities in and around Boston, especially as far as the transportation of passengers is concerned, are inadequate, and there is several years' work ahead in that direction. The reports so far issued regarding the electrification of the various steam roads in and around the city have been adverse, but the matter has not yet been finally settled. The river bank subway, extending towards Brighton, will probably be commenced some time during the ensuing year, as it has been authorized by the legislature. A subway connection between the Park street station of the present subway and the south terminal will also be started in 1911. This may be extended at a later date through South Boston to Dorchester, the estimated cost being $7,000,000. With the completion of the Cambridge subway in the near future the Boston Elevated Railroad will start on its proposed elevated railway to Malden. Part of this will be over a private right of way.

The Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn R. R. will undoubtedly be changed to standard gauge and the road extended in a northerly direction. A tunnel connecting the present terminal in East Boston with the South Station is projected. There is also a proposition to build a freight tunnel connecting the North Station and the South Station in Boston.

Important grade crossing elimination schemes are in prospect-that of the Boston and Maine in Lynn, the New Haven through Dorchester and the Boston and Albany in

conjunction with other railroads in Worcester. A trolley line from Boston to Providence across private right of way is probable. Work of securing the necessary land has already begun.

A large amount of building is expected in Chelsea, as only one-third of the area burned in the great fire of 1908 has been rebuilt. Probably $1,000,000 will be spent for building construction in that city. Several bridges connecting Boston with adjacent towns will be rebuilt.

The fire line system of Boston will be materially enlarged. About eight miles of old sewers will be reconstructed and numerous additions made. Schoolhouse construction alone in the city of Boston will involve approximately $1,000,000. Numerous towns in the vicinity of Boston are finding their water supply suspicious in quality or inadequate in supply and are contemplating joining the metropolitan water district. A filtration system in Lynn is planned at an expenditure of $300,000.

Proposed Work in Chicago.

Following the repeated objections of navigators and the endorsement of such objections by government engineers to the old type of bridges now spanning the Chicago and Calumet rivers, the city has planned a comprehensive policy of bridge building.

It is proposed to remove the old structures and replace them with modern bridges. Federal engineers have ordered the removal of those which are now blocking the river channel, and attention will first be given to bridges of this class. Immediately after the passage of the annual appropriation bill some time in January five bridges will be erected. These are to be located at Chicago avenue, Indiana street, 30th street, Washington street and 92d street. Plans for all of these except the Chicago avenue bridge are now ready. For the remaining bridges to be constructed bond issues will be voted on at the spring election for several millions of dollars. As soon as the funds are available from these issues bridges will be built at Lake street, Belmont avenue, Fuller street and Blackhawk street. Plans are to be prepared for the Webster avenue, Weed street, Clarke street, Madison street and 106th street structures during the next year.

No serious complaints have been registered

against the Rush street bridge, and the bridge at Wells street will be cared for by the elevated railway companies. The sanitary district will take care of the bridges at 12th, Van Buren and Adams streets and Jackson boulevard. The Park Board, it is expected, will look after the driving boulevard bridge which connects the park system. New bridges at Fullerton avenue on the north branch of the Chicago River, and Torrance avenue and Riverdale avenue on the Calumet River will not be urged for the present.

Coincident with the policy of bridge construction, plans for overhauling and reorganizing the water works system are being outlined. It is proposed to install two 25,000,000-gallon electrically operated centrifugal pumps as an auxiliary to the steam pumping station at 22d street, and an appropriation of $325,000 has been asked for the installation of new feeder mains.

Track elevation in the outlying district will call for a large expenditure in the near future, and plans are now being considered for the erection of a new union passenger station.

Ticklish.

"How many ribs have you?" asked the teacher. "I don't know, ma'am," giggled Sallie. "I'm awfully tikli.h. I could never count 'em."-Lip pincott's.

Try Smiling.

Your burden is heavy, I haven't a doubt;
But others have loads they must carry about,
And they are not whining.

Some people are glad if but half of the way
Lies out of the shadow, or part of the day
They see the sun shining-

Suppose you try smiling.

This funny old world is a mirror, you know, Turn its way with a sneer or the face of a foe, And you will see trouble.

But meet it with laughter and looks full of cheer, And back will come sunshine and love, true and dear,

With blessings to double--
Suppose you try smiling.

All doors open widely to those who are glad;
Too many lack courage; too many are sad;

Those near you need cheering.

So laugh with your burden the way is not long; And if you look upward your heart will grow strong,

And skies will be clearing-
Suppose you try smiling.

-Selected.

Abraham's Predicament.

The Sunday-school class had reached the part in the lesson where "Abraham entertained the angel unaware."

"And what now is the meaning of 'unaware?'" asked the teacher.

There was a bashful silence; then the smallest girl in the class piped up, "Un'erware is what you takes off before you puts on your nightie."-Lippincott's.

The Subjection of Women.

After all, the greatest obstacle to the advancement and progress of women is their own apathy. Deplorable as it is, truth compels the admission that only the exceptional women intelligently desire a change in affairs. The majority seem, if not perfectly contented with the idea, to feel that their creation was a secondary matter and only accomplished for the benefit and pleasure of men, at least to acquiesce in the decision of the mas-. ters and make no special effort for freedom.

So long as women believe themselves inferior by creation to the other sex, so long will they remain in slavery to the idea. Surely it is time to try the matter out. What women have done women may do, and there is scarcely an achievement in the annals of time that some woman has not accomplished. That the number to win fame is small compared with men is only true because the one sex has been ever taught expression and the other repression of vital forces, and all the power of church and state has been ruthlessly used to keep women in subjection.

A symposium on the divorce question in California was held recently and the consensus of opinion of the lawyers was that the clubs of women were responsible, one even going so far as to say that, even the church societies helped to take woman from her proper sphere. Funny?

Well, perhaps it would be if the idiots were not so deadly in earnest in their attempt to replace the fetters that are so insecure upon the necks of women.

Without doubt, divorce always has a long trail of sadness in its train, but it is one of the greatest boons thus far vouchsafed to women. The man could always throw off his matrimonial yoke if it galled him, and the thousands of deserted wives are evidence that he frequently did so, but only in comparatively recent times has the wife been accorded the privilege of escaping from a brutal, tyrannical or drunken beast and still retain a semblance of respectability.

Am I advocating divorce? Not at all. You might as well ask if I was advocating amputation because I stated that it was necessary in some cases. Happily married people are not candidates for the divorce court, and those who are there have usually good reasons for being there. The worst possible use society can make of a man or woman, unless it hangs them, is to compel them to live together in the close relation of husband and wife when they do not wish to do

So.

My sisters, will you wake up? Will you stop believing or accepting as gospel truth the old fables that men have ever taught to keep you contented slaves.-Victor Gage Kimbut, in Wilshire's.

Love's Privilege.

A woman should be able to tell by glancing at her husband if things have gone well or ill with him. His voice, his walk, his bearing, all tell his secrets to the woman who loves him and by virtue of the special study she has made of him she should be able to go straight into the secret chambers of his heart and find there the sorrow he has hidden from her, and give him the sympathy he craves.

It was more than beauty, more than youth and charm that made Djemil the Azra say to his beloved :

"While I live my heart will love thee, and when I shall be no more, still will my shadow follow thy shadow athwart the tombs."

Women are much more given to the use of verbal endearments than are men, and they often overdo it. They should try to learn the wisdom of economizing in terms of endearment, lest they become commonplace.-Home Chat.

Son of Brother H. C. Morton of Local No. 21, Omaha, Nebraska.

Editor Bridgemen's Magazine:

Cleveland, Ohio.

It has been some time since I have written a letter for the Cozy Corner, and as I seldom see a letter from our city, I thought I would venture to contribute a few lines, just to show that we are still on the map and that Local No 17 is by no means behind the times.

When it comes to business, Cleveland is beginning to make quite a showing, where large buildings are concerned, and the year just past was a busy one for the iron worker. There was plenty of work for home guards and some to spare for floaters, and I feel justified in saying that our

boys extend the hand of welcome heartily to such, strangers or otherwise.

The coming year looks good so far, and let us hope it is also a prosperous one for all. May the year 1912 find many new unions of Labor and the old ones stronger than ever. I hope the year will bring more organization among women workers, for there is such a large field, and also a very difficult one to work in, as they either deliberately close their eyes to the advantage of unionism, and, as Miss Hazlett says, "look forward to marriage as a release, or else are ignorant and are satisfied to eke out an existence instead of a real living." Marriage does not always come and even so, one should be anxious to earn decent wages as long as she is compelled to work while waiting for the Prince Charming to come along, and so being united in labor, make better conditions and better wages. Among no other class of female labor is unionism so badly needed as among those who sew, especially the shop workers. The wages handed out in some of those places is pitiful, with the present high prices of food, yet I know that just those very people would be hard to manage. I don't see why, with brains enough to do their work, that

they cannot see the benefit of being organized; yet it seems to me some one can and will take the matter up and make it go through. I think it needs women to help, also. I am not a suffragette, by any means, but I am a seamstress, and I speak from experience when I say it is a shame that a woman must be compelled to wear out her eyesight and body for a mere existence. I believe there are a few unions among the sewers, but not nearly enough.

I fear I have already taken up too much space, so hoping my letter will escape the waste basket and wishing success and prosperity to the International and all connecting locals, I am

I have just finished reading the December Magazine, and have only one fault to find with it. As the Editor is kind enough to allow us space in this valuable Magazine, I think we should all try to appreciate it enough to write for it at least once a year. Everything else about the Magazine is fine and I enjoy reading every word of it.

Weren't those baby pictures in the December number the sweetest ever? They are just what should be in the Cozy Corner, too, and I hope we will have the pleasure of seeing more of them each month.

I enjoyed reading the article, "Women in the Labor Movement," and agree with the author that women must do more work in the Labor cause than they have been doing. I have worked in union factories and know what little interest most of the girls take in their union. It is true that they regard their working days as a matrimonia! waiting room, but they should have the interest of the union at heart while they are in it, for (as was told them recently at one of their meetings) they might be working in the same old shop a great deal longer than they expect to. As for the married women that begrudge the time and money their husbands spend in the union, I think they should be classed with those women in Racine, Wis., who are taking the striking iron molders' places in the foundries. I am sure that most of the women are proud that their husbands belong to any good organization, and I am especially glad that mine belongs to the Iron Workers. No. 18 is to give a ball February 25, 1911, and I hope it will be the most successful ever given.

Wishing success to all locals for the New Year, I remain as ever

THE UNION GIRL.

The eleven-months-old son of Brother E. H. Hogan, Local No. 5, Washington, D. C.

Is Man Ever Lonely?

Women should by nature make much better agents for renting furnished houses than men do, as they can point out the desirable features with persuasive and dulcet insistency, and suggest remedies so simple and practical for the undesirable things that any man and most women would be keen to begin on the suggested "doing over." Every woman is really at heart a born