h Mr. Williams.

Mr. Williams came out and said: "Mr. Hitchcock, this is Mr. Fred Miller,
the composer of 'The Golden Wedding.'"

Mr. Miller then asked me if I could play the part of an English lord, and
I said I did not know any one in the whole world who could play it any
better than I could.

It was a little after twelve o'clock. Mr. Miller looked at his watch and
said: "Can you catch the one o'clock train?"

"If it is necessary, I can catch the twelve o'clock train," I replied.

He then gave me a ticket to Boston, and a ten-dollar bill. It was so long
since I had seen a ten-dollar bill I had to ask what it was. I caught the
one o'clock train, and in two days was playing the part of _Sir Tobin
Tobax_ in "The Golden Wedding" before an enthusiastic audience in
Worcester, Massachusetts, and from that time to the present day I have not
asked for an engagement.

It is true I have been without ten-dollar bills--in fact, have been
without most everything--except an engagement. I was a poor boy, and
started out in life at three dollars per week in a shoe store. The first
one-hundred-dollar-a-week engagement I ever had seemed like millions of
money to me, so I never saved a cent.

I soon found out that I had to learn the value of money, and how true the
old adage: "Any fool can make money, but it takes a wise man to save it."
I wonder if I am growing wise?

SOME OF THE CHANCES OF MARRIAGE.

The minimum age at which marriage is permitted varies in different
countries. In Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, and Greece a boy may marry at
fourteen, a girl at twelve years of age. In Austria the age is fourteen
for both sexes. In France, Belgium, and Germany the age is eighteen for a
youth and fifteen for a girl, though the rule in Germany is modified by
the special law in Saxony, where girls are required to be at least sixteen
before marriage. The minimum in Russia is eighteen for the youth and
sixteen for the girl.

A physician drew up an exhibit of the registered cases of 878 married
women in France. Of that number there were married--

14 at 14 years 36 at 25 years
16 at 15 " 24 at 26 "
43 at 16 " 28 at 27 "
45 at 17 " 22 at 28 "
77 at 18 " 17 at 29 "
115 at 19 " 9 at 30 "
118 at 20 " 8 at 31 "
86 at 21 " 5 at 34 "
85 at 22 " 7 at 33 "
59 at 23 " 5 at 32 "
53 at 24 " 3 at