vigorous sport. Among
the crowded dwellers in the closer sections of the city such life has
been so nearly impossible that no ideal of vigorous manhood or of
radiant womanhood has had a chance to grow up. With the oncoming of
the parks and play-grounds, all of this, we may hope, will change.
Health and vigor will be no less attainable and hence no less adorable
in the city than in the country. Rich and poor alike will be attracted
by rosy cheeks and an elastic gait.

Our aim, however, should not cease with a vigorous body. We must teach
our young men and young women the glory of a well disciplined mind.
This should seem quite as admirable to them as a vigorous body. To
them, straight thought ought to be as lovable as a firm and supple
body. In this matter our young people are less exacting. The ordinary
conversation of people gathered together for social purposes is not
particularly intellectual, and any attempt to make it so at present
seems priggish. With a broader education, will come keener demand for
intelligence. We may hope the time is not too far distant when a
question of governmental policy, a new book or play, or a new
discovery in science will stimulate as much conversational zest as now
seems to be gotten from a pack of cards.

A third feature of the ideals which should be instilled into the minds
of our children is the moral phase. There seems little doubt that this
is on the way. We must not mistake an evident laxness of religious
observance as being synonomous with moral looseness. The revelations
which our recent periodicals have brought us concerning the habits of
business men, of politicians, and of society, have left on many minds
the impression that this is distinctly an age of decadence. Exactly
the reverse is the truth. This is the age of intense sensitiveness to
wrong. In almost no particular is it worse than any previous age in
the history of our country. We openly discuss things which we left
untouched a little while ago. We insistently demand that business
practices to which nobody particularly objected a dozen years ago must
now certainly cease. All of this has produced an erroneous impression
that the times are out of joint. But the dust and dirt in the air is
the unavoidable accompaniment of house cleaning. When doubtful
practices simply have publicity many are awakened to the sense of
their duty to society. Persons who, of themselves, might be willing to
live low and godless lives, dare