uasi_-patent of nobility in this country to have a distinguished
father, it must give a larger halo of social splendor to have a
distinguished grandfather, etc., etc. Now, Mrs. Blaine, Jr., had a
grandsire who was a power in his day, a forceful, brilliant man,
Samuel Medary, who was successively governor of three States, Ohio,
Kansas, and Minnesota. Mrs. Blaine, Jr., apart from her marital
misfortunes, deserves much sympathy for her physical fate. Just lately
her leg was broken again and her surgeons fear that her lameness must
be perpetual. Yet the talk about her going on the stage has some
basis, and no one who ever talked with her, and enjoyed the prismatic
play of her facial expression and the flexions of her vibrant voice,
could doubt her fitness for certain popular roles. Nor need her
lameness defeat her of success. A play of mingled pathos and humor
could be written for a lame heroine. One excellent writer has offered
to do it, and Hamlin Garland could do it excellently. Balzac in his
marvellous book, "The Alkahest," declares that she is blest among
women, who, having some great bodily defect, nevertheless wins a man's
affections, for she never loses her hold on them, and it might very
easily be the same with a lame actress and the affections of the
public.

As to Mrs. Blaine's case an immense interest is felt, an interest
which lies not alone in the points of law. Mrs. Blaine, Jr., is a
Catholic, and her example in taking this step contrary to the custom
of her church is likely to be fruitful. It is a pretty safe prophecy
that the next Pope will see the advisability of returning to the
policy of the church prevalent before the Council of Trent, and will
allow a wiser freedom to his spiritual subjects in this matter of
divorce. Hearts were created before creeds, and the primal laws of God
still possess, and exert in emergencies, their ancient vigor of
eminent domain.

It is noticeable that nearly all the women in the colony have
children, and nearly all are women of unusual grace or beauty, or
mental gift--sometimes all three in one.

A very interesting person occasionally seen on the streets with a
little golden-haired boy is Mrs. Mina Hubbard, formerly of Redbank, N.
J. She has one of those olive, oval faces so often met in the south of
Spain, and she has a voice whose beauty and volume are equally
impressive. One day in the cosy, dozy little Methodist Church last
summer she happened to join in the singing,