xcept
with restrictions, as a bedroom or a nursery. The emigrant, puzzled but
obliging, picks his progeny out of the gutter and lays it on the
fire-escape. He then makes acquaintance of the fire department, and
listens to its heated arguments. So perhaps he, still willing to please,
reclaims the dead cat and the cabbage stalk, and proceeds to cremate
them in the privacy of the back yard. Again the fire department, this
time in snorting and horrible form, descends upon him. And all these
manifestations of freedom are attended by the blue-coated police who
interdict the few relaxations unprovided for by the other powers. These
human monsters confiscate stilettos and razors; discourage
pocket-picking, brick-throwing, the gathering of crowds and the general
enjoyment of life. Their name is legion. Their appetite for figs, dates,
oranges and bananas and graft is insatiable; they are omnipresent; they
are argus-eyed; and their speech is always, "Keep movin' there. Keep
movin'." And all these baneful influences may be summoned and set in
action by another, but worse than all of them, known as the Gerry
Society. This tyrant denies the parent's right in his own child, forbids
him to allow a minor to work in sweatshop, store, or even on the stage,
and enforces these commands, even to the extreme of removing the child
altogether and putting it in an institution.

In sharp contrast to all these ogres, the board of education shines
benignant and bland. Here is power making itself manifest in the form of
young ladies, kindly of eye and speech, who take a sweet and friendly
interest in the children and all that concerns them. Woman meets woman
and no policeman interferes. The little ones are cared for, instructed,
kept out of mischief for five hours a day, taught the language and
customs of the country in which they are to make their living or their
fortunes; and generally, though the board of education does not insist
upon it, they are cherished and watched over. Doctors attend them,
nurses wait upon them, dentists torture them, oculists test them.

Friendships frequently spring up between parent and teacher, and it
often lies in the power of the latter to be of service by giving either
advice or more substantial aid. At Mothers' meetings the cultivation of
tolerance still goes on. There, women of widely different class and
nationality, meet on the common ground of their children's welfare. Then
there are roof gardens, recreation pi