blic generally, and I still seriously question if
these wonderful inventions and the extra expense incurred by adopting
them are not a mistake.

The working of the telephone has become, of course, a farce, and the
sooner the Government take it up the better. Several large business
houses have given it up, and in the working of the telephone London,
which ought to be the most favoured, is probably the most unfortunate
city of any in the world. I have tried half-a-dozen times in one day to
ring up different people on the telephone without succeeding in getting
through, and have had to send notes by hand.

The electric light is another disappointing "improvement." It has gone
out four times in one week, and we had to use candles and lamps.

Then the District Messengers' wire, which I had in communication with my
house, would not act. I rang up for a cab; no response. I rang up again;
nothing came. I sent out for a cab, and was late for dinner. The next
day a representative called casually to inform me that we could not use
the wire for two or three days, as something had gone wrong.

I then tried the phonograph; but I had more correspondence about it than
I had through it.

[Illustration: DO WOMEN FAIL IN ART? THE CHRYSALIS.]

A plague on these experiments in the advancement of science intended to
facilitate our work and add to our comfort! The electric light kills our
sight; the telephone destroys our temper; the District Messenger call
ruins our dinner; and, conjointly, they waste our time and deplete our
purses.

When there was a controversy in the _Daily Graphic_ I wrote in the
interests of women to make one confession:

Do women fail in art?

Confession--Certainly not.

In the opinion of many, women fail in nothing, but base man fails in
appreciating women in art as in everything else where appreciation of
talent is due. The fashion-plate young lady, with her doll's face, her
empty head, and her sawdust constitution, monopolises all the attention
that selfish man can afford to give outside thoughts about his own sweet
self.

Every year we see some work in the Academy from the easel of a woman
which is far better than many of the works exhibited by Academicians,
and although when that selfish body was being formed there were not
enough men to supply the number of figure-heads required, and two women
were requisitioned to launch the ship, all the gratitude shown to the
sex has been years of continued insul