he good action will command its own reward.

_Miss A._ Do you comprehend, Jenny, what the full duty of woman is? For my
part, I think it is better to go on in the old way, since it is said that
"a mill, a clock and a woman always want mending." I think women have
their own little requirements.

_Mrs. M._ (who has left her seat and gone round to her husband, and is
cracking his almonds with an air of being anxious to conciliate him). The
fact is, Ethel, you unmarried women know nothing at all about it.

L.W.

ORGANIZATIONS FOR MUTUAL AID.

A French gentleman, M. Court, has lately published in _La Religion Laique_
a series of articles upon this subject that have attracted much attention.
He proposes the establishment of a national fund for the support of the
aged and infirm, managed by eight members chosen annually, half by the
Chamber of Deputies, half by the Senate. The fund is to be raised by
legacies and donations; by a gift from the state of ten millions of
francs; by a percentage deducted by the state, the departments and the
communes from the pay of those who contract to furnish materials for
building, to do work, etc.; by a tax upon all who employ servants or other
laborers (one franc a month for each employe); and by a deduction from
collateral inheritances (_successions collaterals_). In time, about every
member of the community would be subjected directly or indirectly to
taxation for the support of the institution, and would have a right to its
benefits.

To the ordinary mind the plan appears wholly impracticable from its
magnitude, if for no other cause; but it is evidently presented in good
faith, and is further proof of the general growth of the sentiment that
capital owes a debt to the labor of the world which cannot be satisfied
with the mere payment of wages. Most of the "sick funds" or other
provisions for the care of disabled workmen in great industrial
establishments owe their origin to the initiative of the proprietor. M.
Godin, the founder of the _Familistere_, a palatial home for the families
of some five hundred men employed in his iron-works at Guise, was one of
the first to institute a fund for mutual assistance and medical service,
supported by means of a tax of twenty cents a month on the salary of each
workman. Foreseeing the troubles that would arise should he attempt to
manage this fund in the interest of his men, he wisely refused to have any
share in this work, and induced them to