Max O'Rell should have exclaimed with such unction that if he were to
be born over again he would choose to be an American woman. He has
never tried being one. He does not realize that she not only has in
hand the emancipation of the American woman, but the reformation of
the American man and the education of the American child. If that
triangular mission in life does not keep her out of mischief and make
her the angel of the twentieth century, she is a hopeless case.

Spencer says, "It is a truth yet remaining to be recognized that the
last stage in the mental development of each man and woman is to be
reached only through the proper discharge of the parental duties. And
when this truth is recognized, it will be seen how admirable is the
ordination in virtue of which human beings are led by their strongest
affections to subject themselves to a discipline which they would else
elude."

Women have been fighting many battles for the higher education these
last few years; and they have nearly gained the day. When at last
complete victory shall perch upon their banners, let them make one
more struggle, and that for the highest education, which shall include
a specific training for parenthood, a subject thus far quite omitted
from the curriculum.

The mistaken idea that instinct is a sufficient guide in so delicate
and sacred and vital a matter, the comfortable superstition that
babies bring their own directions with them,--these fictions have
existed long enough. If a girl asks me why, since the function of
parenthood is so uncertain, she should make the sacrifices necessary
to such training, sacrifices entailed by this highest education of
body, mind, and spirit, I can only say that it is better to be ready,
even if one is not called for, than to be called for and found
wanting.

CHILDREN'S PLAYS

"The plays of the age are the heart-leaves of the whole future life,
for the whole man is visible in them in his finest capacities and his
innermost being."

Mr. W.W. Newell, in his admirable book on "Children's Games," traces
to their proper source all the familiar plays which in one form or
another have been handed down from generation to generation, and are
still played wherever and whenever children come together in any
numbers. The result of his sympathetic and scholarly investigations
is most interesting to the student of childhood, and as valuable
philologically as historically. In speaking of the old round