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And she sobbed, till the roll of the rumbling gun

And the swinging tramp of the marching

men

Were a memory only, and the day was done,

And the stars in the fold of the blue again.

(Thank God that the day of the sword is done,

And the stars in the fold of the blue again!)

HELEN GRAY CONE.

From Lippincott's Magazine.
CHILDISH TERRORS.

A child rarely, if ever, speaks of its fantastic fears. We must fall back upon our own memories if we would study this aspect of the childish mind. And so, encouraged by the example of the good ladies in "Cranford," who whisperingly confessed, the one a secret horror of Eyes, the other a life-long dread of being caught by her "last leg" as she got into bed, I recount some of the vividly remembered terrors under which I myself once trembled in silence. For, I repeat, the child does not speak of these things, which to his own soberer judgment seem unreasonable and even preposterous.

Once, as a very little child, I was for some reason alone in a wide treeless place in the country. I suppose I was in reality not far from the house, but there seemed to me an endless expanse around. As I looked about me I suddenly became conscious of the overpowering immensity of the sky and its awful unbroken blueness. A crushing horror and dread seemed to pin me to the ground. I stood, a shuddering mite of a girl, alone under that stupendous weight of blue, feeling that it might descend and swallow me up. I have forgotten everything but that, how I came there, how I got away; but I know now the precise shade of the terrible intense blue that seemed to be engulfing me.

I should mention that I was a city

child and unused to an unobstructed view of the heavens.

Standing out as distinctly in my memory as the day on which I first became vividly conscious of the sky is another day when, whether for the first time or not I do not know, another form of fear seized upon me.

I was a little older then, I think, but how old I do not remember.

I was in an unused up-stairs room in my own home, sitting upon the floor and sailing a little paper boat in a basin. In the water I had put scraps of paper of various shapes and sizes to represent sea-monsters. I had amused myself, for a long time, blowing the boat about and pretending that the passengers were afraid of the whales and sea-serpents, when suddenly it went down,-why, I could not explain. It seemed to me that it was "coming true," -the sea, the ship, the sea-monsters; that I might be overpowered by the horror-haunted waters then and there; and I fled panic-stricken.

I think there must have been in my mind a half-belief that there was a latent life in all inanimate things. I know I had a general dread of things "coming to life" or turning to other things.

Springing, I think, from the same attitude of mind toward the inanimate world was a rooted dread which I had that some day when I was alone with a rocking-chair it should all at once begin to rock. This, I early decided, I positively could not stand.

None of these terrors, it may be remarked, had to do primarily with my personal safety. It was horror rather than fear which possessed me in contemplating these imaginary lapses of the laws of nature. Even a fancy which haunted me that some day my bath-tub might suddenly turn into a narrow, infinitely deep dependency of the ocean is hardly an exception. The dreadfulness of the mere idea of a bottomless pit of dark water with seaserpents in it opening in one's floor outweighed all personal considerations. From "The Fantastic Terrors of Childhood." By Annie Steger Winston.

From Harper's Magazine.

THE REPUBLIC OR NOTHING.

No one really doubts the adequacy of the republic to any imaginable emergency; or if there is here and there one whose heart misgives him, he has nothing to suggest in place of it. In a completer sense than we always realize, it is the republic or nothing for us. In the same completer sense, there is no past for us; there is only a future. Something that is still untried may serve our turn, but nothing that has been tried and failed will serve our turn. If we think, what for us is almost unthinkable, the end of the republic, we think chaos. Our minds cannot conceive of the rise of the nation from such a downfall in any prosperous shape of oligarchy or monarchy; we can only grope in the unexplored regions beyond the republic for some yet more vital democracy, or equality, or fraternity, to save us from the ruin into which our own recreancy may have plunged us.

Love of the republic with us is something like royalty in the subjects of a king, but it is loyalty to the ideal of humanity, not to some man, self-elected prince in the past, and perpetuated in his descendants through the abeyance of common sense. It is not the effect of any such affirmation as loyalty is constantly making; it is the result of that wary and calculated assent by which alone republics can exist. We may not think the republic is the best thing that can ever be, but we feel that it is the best we can have for the present; and that anything better must be something more rather than something less of it.

We see that the republic measurably exists wherever any sort of popular check is put upon the will of the ruler; and we think it more becoming reasonable men to choose their prince than to let his ancestors choose him; we regard an election, grotesque and vulgar and imperfect though the process often is, as a civic event; and we regard a parturition, though surrounded by all the dignity of state, as a domestic event, not logically of political significance, and comparatively inadequate as an ex

pression of the popular will in the choice of a prince. Our opinion and our usage in this matter are what mainly distinguish us from such monarchical republics as England, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, and Holland; and with all our diffidence we cannot help thinking that, as compared with ours, their way of choosing a ruler is of the quality of comic opera, though, in its order, we look upon the birth of a fellow-being as a most serious and respectable incident. Where the republic does not exist at all, as in China and Russia and Turkey, or as in Germany, where it exists so feebly and passively that any violent impulse of the prince may annul it, we find indefinitely greater cause for satisfaction with our own democratic republic. So far as the peoples of these countries acquiesce in their several despotisms, they appear to us immature; so far as the English, Italians, Swedes, Dutch, and Belgians limit their respective republics by the birth-choice of a prince, they seem to us not fully responsive to the different sorts of revolutions which called their republics, like our own, into being. Even the elective French republic, where the outlawed titles of nobility are still permitted social currency, strikes us as retarded in its fulfilment of the democratic destiny. But we make excuses for France, as we do for England, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, and Holland, though we cannot help seeing our own advantage in these respects over republics which are each in some things freer than our own.

We believe that the republic as we have it is, upon the whole, the best form of government in the world; but we no longer deny that other peoples have the republic because they have hereditary princes. We believe that the republic as we have it, and the yet more fully developed republic as we shall have it, is the destined form of government for all nations, but we are no longer eager to thrust our happiness upon them; and we do not expect them at once to prefer our happiness when it is quite within their reach. We perceive that in none of these free states called kingdoms is the divine right of kings recog

nized, and if in the freest of them the form without the fact of recognition is still kept up, if the queen's ministers go down upon their knees to her in assuming the powers of government which she cannot really bestow, and can never exercise, and can scarcely influence, still we see that it is merely a form. It is a droll anomaly which we are rid of, and the spectacle of it in a monarchical republic might perhaps foster an inordinate pride in us, if the democratic republic, as we have it, were not so essentially unflattering.

cost of the property desired, the sum he can afford to pay monthly and his references. The family's record is looked into, and if there is nothing against it and the applicant seems likely to be a desirable patron, the application is approved and placed on file. When one hundred such applications have been approved, the parties are notified to select lots and choose house plans, and undergo an examination for life insurance. The applicant is given a close estimate of the cost of his property when completed, and if he is ac

From "The Modern American Mood." By Wil- cepted by the life insurance company,

liam Dean Howells.

From The Review of Reviews. SUBURBAN HOMES FOR WAGE EARNERS. The City and Suburban Homes Company aims to invest its resources for the benefit of those who are relatively in the least favorable position to help themselves. I do not mean men who have a hard time to get along as tenants, because it would be a mistake to encourage such persons to incur obligations they would almost certainly be unable to perform. But mechanics, letter-carriers, policemen, firemen, clerks, bookkeepers, in fact that great body of persons earning from, let us say, $800 to $1,500 a year-these are the ones whose patronage is chiefly sought. The avenue frontages being more desirable, and purchasers there being obliged to take at least two lots, it is probable that residents thereon will be a little better off. Indeed, the company would be glad to build for any one who wanted a very desirable residence on Seventeenth avenue, and give them the same advantage of saving in point of cost that it would to its other clients, but in such cases it would expect immediate cash payment.

The process of securing a suburban home begins with inquiries at the office, when the general plan is outlined. Then if the party desires to purchase he signs an application, setting forth his name, nationality, size of his family, amount of his earnings, character and

he then signs a provisional contract and deposits ten per cent. of the purchase price in cash or presents a surety for that amount. Among a number of applicants, the preference is always given to those who have the ten per cent. in cash. This preliminary payment or guarantee is required in order to make purchasers feel that they have a sufficient interest at stake to cause them to continue their contracts. If no preliminary payments were required, it would doubtless be difficult to guard against a class of people who would be glad to get such homes in the springtime, live in them during the summer, and depart with the snows of winter, leaving behind a house which would have to be put in order before a new purchaser would take it. Where a surety is accepted, the first sums paid in are counted on the ten per cent. of the purchase price, and whenever that proportion is reached the bond is discharged. A guarantor does not, therefore, undertake anything very onerous. In reality, he runs very little risk, for few men will enter upon a contract of this kind without meaning to continue. An enlightened employer ought to encourage an employee to buy a home from the company and offer to guarantee the ten per cent. in whole or in part. Common experience teaches that it is economically advantageous to keep such men. They are more faithful and assiduous in their duties. Indeed, it may be asserted that any man is made better by purchasing a home or taking out life insurance for the benefit of his family. What shall we say of the ef

fects of an arrangement which combines the two?

The City and Suburban Homes Company insists on life insurance as a cardinal feature of its operations. In the first place, no man ought to undertake the purchase of a home or an obligation to pay a large amount of money without assuring his family in the event of his death in the interim. This principle has particular force in the case before us, because the purchaser has so little real capital and must depend upon his monthly earnings to carry out the bargain. Now, if he dies the family is placed in a very unfortunate position. Probably it will not be able to complete the transaction. Therefore, for the sake of the family, as well as for the company's protection, it is wise to insist on a life insurance policy taken out at the time when the original contract is entered into, and covering the purchase price.

As soon as one hundred houses are ordered, a contract is made for their erection. In this way important economies are effected. The company in buying a large tract of land and building at wholesale saves very considerable sums. After a fair allowance for expenses of management the entire saving reverts to the purchaser. The company's profit consists in six per cent. interest on deferred payments. Five per cent. of this is distributed to stockholders and one per cent. is carried over to surplus. Residence in a desirable neighborhood, durable construction and the offer of such favorable terms combine to make the scheme exceedingly popular. There is an immense constituency in Greater New York who are desirous of acquiring homes on a fair basis. The rare opportunities offered by the City and Suburban Homes Company, when once known, will attract large sums of capital to be invested through it for this purpose. Still, its aim will not be to secure a monopoly of business, but to fix a standard.

The company is perfectly secure. It builds upon order and has its clients' lives insured before the order is exe

cuted. If one of them should die even before the house was completed, the face value of the policy would pay for the house, and the family would be provided for. All policies are assigned to the City and Suburban Homes Company, and in case of death later the sum owed would be deducted and the balance handed over to the estate.

The contract between the company and its clients stipulates a monthly payment during ten, fifteen or twenty years, at the choice of the purchaser. This sum includes an instalment on account of principal, six per cent. interest on deferred payments, and the life insurance premium. Taxes and repairs are paid by the purchaser. Clients are advised to obligate themselves for a twenty-year period rather than ten or fifteen, because in so doing they are the better able to provide against contingencies arising from non-employment, sickness or other unexpected events. That is, a man need not mortgage his income beyond a safe point. The company gives him the privilege of paying sooner if he wishes. Either the whole or a part of his indebtedness is receivable at any time, and his interest account properly adjusted. This plan permits a man to provide for "lean" years. There is also the encouragement to save, and thus get the home more quickly. Both are important considerations, because habits of thrift thus engendered are likely to become fixed. Payments made in advance are a most effective guarantee against dispossession. The life insurance policy has also a loan value in any year after the third. Purchasers of suburban homes under this scheme are in every respect most favorably placed as regards crises, sickness and other ordinary economic misfortune.

From "Homewood, a Model Suburban Settlement." By Dr. E. R. L. Gould.

From The Arena.

THE ORIGIN OF WALL STREET. The twenty-seven respectable citizens of New York who, in 1792, met under a

buttonwood tree in front of the premises now known as Number 60 Wall Street, and formed an association for the purchase and sale of public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a proviso of mutual help and preference, committed themselves to an enterprise of whose moment and influence in the future they could have formed no adequate conception. At that date Wall Street was a banking district, small indeed when compared with its present condition, but important in its relations to the commerce of the nation. This transaction of the twenty-seven-among whom we find the honored names of Barclay, Bleecker, Winthrop, Lawrence, which in themselves and their descendants were, and are, creditably identified with the growth of the community-added the prestige and power of the stock exchange to those of the banks, and fixed for an indefinitely long period the destinies of the financial centre of the Union.

During the earlier part of this century the banking interests of Wall Street quite overshadowed those of the stock market. The growth of railway securities was not fairly under way until the opening of the fifth decade. Elderly men can recall the date when the New York Central existed only as a series of connecting links between Buffalo and Albany, under half-a-dozen different names of incorporation; and passenger cars were slowly and laboriously hoisted by chain power over the "divide" between the latter city and Schenectady. Since there were but few railways in the entire country, there were few opportunities for speculative dealings in their shares. These shares, too, were as a rule locally held, and were more frequently transferred by executors under court orders than by brokers on the stock exchange.

Prior to 1840 and 1845, however, the members of the stock exchange were not idle. Public stocks were largely dealt in. The United States government frequently issued bonds, and the prices of these bonds fluctuated suffi

ciently to afford tempting chances of profits. State bonds also were sold in Wall Street in larger amounts than today. About the year 1850 the sales of Missouri sixes and Ohio sixes frequently amounted to millions of dollars daily. During that uncertain epoch of finance when the United States Bank was both a financial and a political power, the shares of that institution were a favorite subject of speculative dealing. The shares of Delaware & Hudson, and of the original Erie Railway, the latter laboriously constructed over a rough, barren, and thinly settled portion of the State, partly by State funds, had also become actively exchangeable in the market.

During this period a relatively enormous quantity of banking capital had located itself in and near Wall Street. The Bank of New York existed before 1800, and later, although not long after, the Street witnessed the erection of buildings of a now obsolete, and yet at that time an attractive, style of architecture, devoted to the uses of the Manhattan Banking Company, the Bank of America, the Merchants, the Union, the Bank of Commerce, and others. Were it not that land in the banking district is so valuable, and that the need of upstair offices is so great, one might be tempted to regret the demolition of the graceful money temples occupied by three of these corporations on the north side of Wall Street. In each of them the entablature rested upon two fluted stone pillars with Doric capitals, in addition to the supports of the side walls. Between the steps and the doors of the temple extended a marble-paved court which often served as a convenient place of 'change for borrowers and lenders. Entering the doors you found yourself in a large, airy, dome-lighted room, the sides of which were occupied by the clerks of the institution, guarded by high barricades from the intrusive eyes and feet of the general public. At the rear were the offices of the president and cashier. Throughout the entire building there reigned a solemn and semi-religious silence. One may witness something like this to-day in the

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