BIG WORK AHEAD FOR MAN, KIND FRIENDS There is a great deal of water on this earth of ours and a great deal of land underneath it. All the treasures of these hidden plains are simply put away for our future use by bountiful nature, as prudent parents put money in the savings bank for […]

We all have our moments of imagining ourselves INDEPENDENT characters. We take pride in our independence and are never as foolish as when trying to prove how independent we are. Every man, to begin with, is born absolutely at the mercy of his ancestry. You have not a thing in you, and you never will […]

HOW WILD SUPERSTITION SETTLES DOWN INTO SCIENTIFIC REALITY Everybody knows something of the peculiarities of the magnet. As a boy you led tiny painted ducks around the water basin, holding a magnet in your hand, or you owned a horseshoe magnet that would pick up nails and needles. You know now in a general kind […]

DID THIS VIEW OF IT EVER OCCUR TO YOU? Much interest just now in CRIMINALS. Much horror aroused by depravity. Many plans more or less appropriate for making the air pure. Many good men, politicians, women and bishops, who spent the Summer at the seaside willing now to spend a few days wiping “CRIME” off […]

On a corner of Rector street, down near the river, a loud drum was beating. A guitar and a tambourine competed shrilly with the drum’s dull booming. Slowly a careless crowd gathered round the Salvation Army workers. There were bare-headed women, little girls holding little babies in their arms, sailors drunk, and one or two […]

For six million years, during the carboniferous period, the tree ferns dropped their pollen dust to the earth forming coal beds which now cook our dinners and incidentally make J. Pierpont Morgan so prosperous. A good deal of useless anxiety has been devoted to the questions: What will the human race do when the coal […]

What a fortunate thing it is that men want to work and like to live! Suppose for a moment that the out-of-work, hungry, unlucky creatures, numbering one hundred thousand in New York City, should suddenly change their character. It is a harmless supposition, as it implies that a great body of good, though unlucky, men […]

HAPHAZARD REFLECTIONS ON GRAVE TOPICS. At stated times we mortals have stated visitations. One day it is the grippe, next day the financial problem. Just now it is the marriage and divorce question, with much learned expounding by the good and the pure, such as bishops and members of Sorosis. —- What is marriage? How […]

LET IT BE SCATTERED AS IT WAS GATHERED Did you ever think about the construction of the body which you inhabit? Did it ever occur to you that your shoulders and hands and chest and legs and lungs are made of contributions from widely different parts of the earth? Your brain, a wonderfully complex machine, […]

Time has no real existence. Yet time is man’s most precious possession. Time is defined as a “succession of events.” What we call an hour means certain movements in the machinery of a watch. What we call a day means one revolution of the earth upon its axis, the turning of its surface toward the […]

We inflict a piece of advice upon our readers. It is intended especially for the young, who have still to get their growth, whose characters and possibilities are forming. GET AWAY FROM THE CROWD WHEN YOU CAN. KEEP YOURSELF TO YOURSELF, IF ONLY FOR A FEW HOURS DAILY. —- Full individual growth, special development, rounded […]

If you had choice of all qualities which man can possess, which three would you declare most important? This question is submitted as interesting every man. We give our answer; if yours is different, send it here. —- SELF-CONTROL. JUSTICE. IMAGINATION. Those we think the most important elements in the human character. A man fully […]

A half-developed being like man, hanging midway between primitive barbarism and ultimate perfection, should study the insect tribes which appear to have realized the possibilities of development in their line. The study of the ant and the bee, the spider and the scorpion should fill us with hope. We should say to ourselves: “If these […]

We talk of civilization as though it necessarily implied improvement. Civilization means the school and the library, but it also means the prison and the poorhouse. Two short stories illustrate different views of what we call civilization: Aristippus was a young Greek gentleman of large means, genuine intellectual power, a sense of humor and a […]

Two centuries back a young man of twenty-three sat in the quiet of the evening–THINKING. His body was quiet; his vitality, his life, all his powers, were centred in his brain. Above, the moon shone, and around him rustled the branches of the trees in his father’s orchard. From one of the trees an apple […]

If you live in the suburbs you devote perhaps two hours each day to travel. Two hours per day means practically one-fifth of your active life. How many readers make any use of those two hours, and feel each day that they have been well spent? —- Instead of being wasted, those hours should be […]

For “buyers” in big stores, For clerks in little stores, For office boys, For typewriters, reporters, car conductors, household domestics, for all who are hired to work for others, this article is intended. There is no greater mistake than skimping your work–BECAUSE YOU ARE WORKING FOR ANOTHER, AND FEAR YOU MAY DO TOO MUCH. For […]

This editorial is not written for women. It is written for MEN, and for boys; for the millions who fail to appreciate the work that mothers do, for the millions that ignore the self-sacrifice and devotion upon which society is based. On a hot night, in the dusty streets of a dirty city, you see […]

Men were working on the roof of a Pennsylvania ferryhouse, overhanging the North River on the Jersey side. The passengers on one of the big ferryboats watched with admiration the work of the fearless young mechanics. The men stood on a board not more than a foot wide. They had nothing to hold to. Sixty […]

THERE’S A GOOD DEAL OF NONSENSE TALKED ON THIS SUBJECT An honest, well-meaning clergyman talked the other day on labor unions, and wandered out of his depth. As a rule, clergymen, having studied the teachings of Christ, are aware that they ought to be on the side of the workingman. Hence the strongest supporters of […]