necessary to go into the world and make their own way. Self-dependence, self-reliance, energy, ambition, were all developed in this way. How rarely do we find these qualities in the children of wealth. How rarely do great philosophers, great statesman, great thinkers and great characters develop from the wealthy classes. Pauperism-infant labor-the wage-earning women are all evils which ought to be abolished. But next to that evil I believe the worst thing possible for a human soul is to be born to wealth. It is an obstacle to greatness which few are strong enough to surmount, and it rarely results in happiness to the recipient. H Obstacles OWEVER great the obstacles between you and your goal may be or have been, do not lay the blame of your failure upon them. Other people bave succeeded in overcoming just as great obstacles. Remove such hindrances from the path for others, if you can, or tell them a way to go around. Even lead them a little distance and cheer them on. But so far as you yourself are concerned, do not stop to excuse any delinquency or halfheartedness or defeat by the plea of circumstance or environment. The great nature makes its own environment, and dominates circumstance. It all depends upon the amount of force in your own soul. While you apply this rule to yourself and make no scapegoat of "fate," you must have consideration for the weakness of others, and you must try and better the conditions of the world as you go along. You are robust and possessed of all your limbs. You can mount over the great boulder which has fallen in the road to success, and go on your way to your goal all the stronger for the experience. But behind you comes a one-legged man a blind man-a man bowed to the earth with a heavy burden, which he cannot lay down. It will require weeks, months, years of effort on their part to climb over that rock which you surmounted in a few hours. So it is right and just for you to call other strong ones to your aid and roll the boulder away or blast it out of the path. That is just exactly the way you should think of the present industrial conditions. In spite of them, the strong, well-poised, earnest and determined soul can reach any desired success. But there are boulders in the road which do not belong there, boulders which cause hundreds of the pilgrims who are lame or blind or burdened, to fall by the wayside and perish. It is your duty to aid in removing these obstacles and in making the road a safe and clear thoroughfare for all who journey. Do not sit down by the roadside and say you have been hindered by these difficulties, that is to confess yourself weak. 66 Do not mount over them and rush to your goal and say coldly to the throngs behind you, "Oh, everybody can climb over that rock who really tries-didn't I?" That is to announce yourself selfish and unsympathetic. No doubt the lame, the blind and the burdened could attain the goal despite the rocks if they were fired by a consciousness of the VICTIMS OF THE DOCTOR HABIT BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX [Copyright. 1903, by W. R. Hearst.] N spite of the fact that ill health is unfashionable to-day, there are hundreds of women to be found who regard their ailments with fond reverence and who anticipate the coming of the "doctor" as the event of the day, or week. These women have nothing the matter with them but their unoccupied or perverted minds and their craving for distraction. They are found in all classes and localities, but flourish in comfort and opulence, rather than in poverty, for poverty as a rule, enforces labor, and labor leaves no time for imagination or hysteria. Once let a woman acquire the "doctor habit," and she is as difficult to cure as an opium victim, and as hopeless to reason with. She resents being told she looks well and time drags heavily when she has no occasion to send a hurry call for the doctor. But a slight cold, a little fatigue, overeating or a late cup of coffee or tea and consequent wakefulness will open the way for this hurry call, and she dons her most becoming negligee gown, sits bolstered up in bed, and with an eager, expectant eye watches the door for the entrance of the one human being who is not bored and wearied with her description of her symptoms-the doctor! How sympathetic he is, and how sweet such sympathy is to her, and he tells her what she knew was true, but what her coldhearted family would not believe, that she is a very sick woman and needs a nurse, and afterward a change of air and freedom from all care. a measure been instrumental in bringing a bout these conditions. He has allowed business to absorb his whole time and energy and he has had no leisure to give his wife. She has pined for distraction, for entertainment, and, not being rich in resources, she has turned to the contemplation of her physical sensations until she has become a monomaniac upon the subject. To be ill and have the household upset about her condition is her only diversion. But with the world at woman's feet to day, and every possible opportunity for selfimprovement within her grasp, what a pity, that she should waste one day of this beautiful life in thinking of physical disorders which her own mind has caused and can heal. A half hour given each day to systematic Dear, good doctor! How bleak the world deep breathing, a cutting down of her food would be without him and his kind! Meantime the husband, who is working twelve hours a day in order to keep his business up to the standard where he can pay employees for working eight, comes home with his head in a whirl, longing for a quiet evening of domestic happiness, and finds the house all excitement. Madame has had "a bad attack," and the doctor and nurse are both with her. The husband realizes what this meansweeks of loneliness and expense and discomfort; dining alone, coming home to desolation and gloom-but he knows how useless it is to utter one protest. He will only seem heartless and precipitate another attack of hysteria. So he puts on his most serious expression of concern and visits the invalid and hears all about the complicated symptoms and is duly sympathetic and tells the doctor to supply to a few simple, nutritious dishes, right exercise and baths and right thoughts and nature would bring harmony, without drugs or doctors or nurses. But how useless to preach these truths to the hysterical victims of doctor dissipation. Then the pleasure of talking about the illness afterward to callers is such a satisfaction! In country places one finds the same type of woman. She is frequently single and past her first youth, and the doctor's visits are a solace to her lonely hours. While we can sympathize with her situation, yet we must think she would be better off were she to be thrown out upon the world and forced to forget her ailments in an active battle for existence as a "bachelor girl." Work-a purpose-cheerfulness-a desire to make happiness for others-these are a few of the antidotes to the "doctor habit." |