unsavory stories of artificial
careers and abnormal affections, and all that sort of thing.

They would sell more books, too. I never yet heard that anybody got
tired of "The Cotter's Saturday Night." I think it quite likely that
the Book of Ruth will outlast all the short stories that will be
written during the present decade. Yes, decidedly, our public men, and
our writers, too, ought to "get down to earth." There is where the
people live. The people walk upon the brown soil and the green grass.
They dwell beneath the apple-blossoms. How fine a thing it is that our
American President is preaching the doctrine of the American home so
forcefully that he impresses the Nation and the world with these basic
truths of living and of life.

It is a good deal more important that the institution of the American
home shall not decay, than that the Panama Canal be built or our
foreign trade increase. So, in considering the young man and the new
home, we are dealing with an immediate and permanent and an absolutely
vital question, not only from the view-point of the young man himself,
but from that of the Nation as well.

Of course nobody means that young men should hurl themselves into
matrimony. The fact that it is advisable for you to learn to swim does
not mean that you should jump into the first stream you come to, with
your clothes and shoes on. Undoubtedly you ought first to get
"settled"; that is, you ought to prepare for what you are going to do
in life and begin the doing of it. Don't take this step while you are
in college. If you mean to be a lawyer, you ought to get your legal
education and open your office; if a business man, you should "get
started"; if an artizan, you should acquire your trade, etc. But it is
inadvisable to wait longer.

It is not necessary for you to "build up a practise" in the
profession, or make a lot of money in business, or secure unusual
wages as a skilled laborer. Begin at the beginning, and live your
lives together, win your successes together, share your hardships
together, and let your fortune, good or ill, be of your joint making.
It will help you, too, in a business way.

Everybody else is, or was, situated nearly as you are, and there is a
sort of fellow-feeling in the hearts of other men and women who once
had to "hoe the same row" you are hoeing; and it is among these men
and women you must win your success. It is largely through their favor
and confidence that you will get on