why
My dear 'Daddy' had to go
And my mother had to die!

"You've a father, I suppose?
And a mother--maybe--too?
You can laugh and joke at life?
It has been all right for you?
Spin your top, and wave your fan!
You've a home and folks who care
Laugh about it those who can!
Joke about it--those who dare
--But excuse me--if I'm glum
I can't bluff it off--like some!"

Then I sadly came away
And felt guilty, all the day!

Dr. Frederick Winters was a great believer in personal liberty for
every one--except, of course, the members of his own family. For them
he craved every good thing except this. He was kind, thoughtful,
courteous, and generous--a beneficent despot.

There is much to be said in favor of despotic government after all. It
is so easy of operation; it is so simple and direct--one brain, one
will, one law, with no foolish back-talk, bickerings, murmurings,
mutinies, letters to the paper. A democracy has it beaten, of course,
on the basis of liberty, but there is much to be said in favor of an
autocracy in the matter of efficiency.

"King Asa did that which was right in the sight of the Lord"; and in
his reign the people were happy and contented and had no political
differences. There being only one party, the "Asaites," there were no
partisan newspapers, no divided homes, no mixed marriages, as we have
to-day when Liberals and Conservatives, disregarding the command to be
not unequally yoked together, marry. All these distressing
circumstances were eliminated in good King Asa's reign.

It is always a mistake to pursue a theory too far. When we turn the
next page of the sacred story we read that King Omri, with the same
powers as King Asa had had, turned them to evil account and oppressed
the people in many ways and got himself terribly disliked. Despotism
seems to work well or ill according to the despot, and so, as a form
of government, it has steadily declined in favor.

Despotic measures have thriven better in homes than in states. Homes are
guarded by a wall of privacy, a delicate distaste for publicity, a
shrinking from all notoriety such as rebellion must inevitably bring,
and for this reason the weaker ones often practice a peace-at-any-price
policy, thinking of the alert eyes that may be peering through the filet
lace of the window across the street.

Mrs. Winters submitted to the despotic rule of Dr. Winters for no such
reason as this. She submitted