t
and fast. Fast horses, fast boats, fast runners are all good things for
the human race.

The great yacht races of September 7, 1886, in which the "May Flower"
distanced the "Galatea" by two miles and a half, was a spanking race.
Our sporting blood was roused to fighting pitch, and we became more
active in every way of outdoor sports. Lawn tennis tournaments were
epidemic all over the country. There were good and bad effects from all
of them. Those romping sports developed a much finer physical condition
in our American women. Lawn tennis and croquet were hardening and
beautifying the race. From the English and German women we adopted
athletics for our own women. Our girls began to travel more frequently
in Europe. It looked as though many of the young ladies who prided
themselves upon their bewitching languors and fashionable dreaminess,
would be neglected by young men in favour of the more athletic types. It
had been decided, in the social channels of our life, that doll babies
were not of much use in the struggle, that women must have the capacity
and the strength to sweep out a room without fainting; that to make an
eatable loaf of bread was more important than the satin cheek or the
colour of hair that one strong fever could uproot. I was accused of
being ambitious that Americans should have a race of Amazons. I was not.
I did want them to have bodies to fit their great souls. What I did wish
to avoid, in this natural transition, was a misdirected use of its
advantages. There is dissipation in outdoor life, as well as indoors,
and this was to be deplored. I wanted everything American to come out
ahead.

In science we were still far behind. The Charleston earthquake in
September, 1886, proved this. Our philosophers were disgusted that the
ministers and churches down there devoted their time to praying and
moralising about the earthquake, when only natural phenomena were the
cause. Science had no information or comfort to give, however. The only
thing the scientist did was to predict a great tidal wave which would
come and destroy all that was left of the previous calamity. Science
lied again. The tidal wave did not come; the September rains stopped,
and Charleston began to rebuild. That is one of the wonderful things
about America; we are not only able to restore our damages, but we have
a mania for rebuilding. Our chief fault lies in the fact that we
rebuild for profit rather than for beauty of character or mora