oduct of a French or Japanese worm.

One woman's coat is woven from the covering of a sheep, and she is not
content because it has not cost a greater number of silver pieces and
more bits of green paper, besides the life of an Arctic seal, that never
harmed her nor hers.

Vanity allows a tender-hearted woman, who cannot see a child or a dumb
brute in pain, to order the tails of her horses cut to the fashionable
length and to wear upon her hat the pitiful little body of a song-bird
that has been skinned alive.

Vanity permits a woman to trim the outer garments of the little stranger
for whose coming she has long waited and prayed, with pretty, fluffy fur
torn from the unborn baby of another mother--who is only a sheep. Vanity
permits a woman to insist that her combs and pins shall be real
tortoise-shell, which is obtained from the quivering animal by roasting
it alive before a slow fire.

[Sidenote: All is Vanity]

"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" The mad race still goes on. It is
insatiate vanity which wrecks lives, ruins homes, torments one's
fellows, and blinds the clear vision of its victims. It harms others,
but most of all one's self.

[Sidenote: The Conqueror]

There is only one place from which it is shut out--from the union with
that other soul. Great as it is, there is still a greater force; there
is the inevitable conqueror, for Vanity cannot exist side by side with
Love.

Widowers and Widows

[Illustration]

Widowers and Widows

Next to burglars, mice, and green worms, every normal girl fears a
widow. Courtships have been upset and expected proposals have vanished
into thin air, simply because a widow has come into the game. There is
only one thing to do in such a case; retreat gracefully, and leave the
field to her.

[Sidenote: The Charm]

A widow's degree of blandishment is conservatively estimated at
twenty-five spinster power. At almost every session of spinsters, the
question comes up for discussion. It is difficult to see just where the
charm lies.

A widow has, of course, a superior knowledge of ways and means. She has
fully learned the value of silence, of food, and of judicious flattery.
But these accomplishments may be acquired by the observing spinster who
gives due attention to the subject.

The mystery lies deeper than is first suspected. It is possible that the
knowledge of her own limitations has something to do with it. A girl
who has been flattered, ado