and maidenhood
looking up to my wife and me for guidance and counsel, though they
pretend to be sufficient to themselves in matters of judgment. A word
of encouragement or of disapproval from us may be the turning-point in
their destinies, may set the seal on what they are to become. Even as
the flowers are drawn by the sun and the willows follow the prevailing
wind, their young lives may be turned to good or saved from ill by our
loving sympathy or remonstrance in the nick of time. We clinch our
fingers in the stress of uncertainty. Good counsel? Yes, a thousand
times yes; but who will counsel the counsellors?

How the world has changed since Josephine and I were their age! More
particularly that choicest section of it which we were taught to think
and speak of as the land of the free and the home of the brave. As I
look back now in philosophic mood, simplicity seems to me to have been
the keynote of our day. Not merely had the gladsome flannel costume
and the Indian pajamas not yet begun to force an issue with the
oratorical black broadcloth coat and the up-and-down white nightgown.
There were no shingle stains to speak of but those of time and
eternity, and he who owned a vehicle of any kind must needs be careful
that it was of sombre hue and homely pattern. Among the fixed truths
which we imbibed with the maternal milk, and from the prejudice of
which I never expect to be wholly free, were these: That though the
blatant blast of the Western politician offend the sensitive ear of
culture by exaggeration, it is still true that we are the greatest
nation under the sun by virtue of our total disregard of everything
which other nations have held fast to; that the American woman is a
newly created species; that George Washington never told a lie; that
though France was on our side in our struggle for Independence, for
which we should ever be profoundly grateful, the custom of handing over
young people to be married at parental dictate, coupled with certain
hoarse suspicions of an unmentionable character, must be an everlasting
barrier between us and the Gaul; that, nevertheless, if a man will have
his fling, he may do so in Paris once without being held to strict
account for it, provided that he comes home and lives a respectable
life ever after on this side the water; that Russia's ill-treatment of
the serf and general barbaric conditions are to be overlooked on
account of the friendliness she displayed toward