Gloucester County Democrat., 1893-03-16
THOMAS DIXON. JR.
A yonan's View.

| have here your invitation to contribute
to a Chapter of Forecasts concerning the
next century, but as the ''mantelpiece of
prophecy" has not fallen OH me lately l
am afraid my forecasts" would be-like
those Of most persons-only series of wild
conjectures not worth anybody's money.
So feel conscientiously obliged to decline
the Invitation, while would thank you for
the compliment
1t would take much more than 500 words
to tell what changes | hope may happen,
or rather tvtSll might happen (for hope i'm
Pies possibility of fruition, while we may
lotSh for the most improbable things) dur
ing the next l00 years. AS mere hint at
the list, will say wish that before that
time has passed the world will have learned
not to give all its rewards to the selfish, the
unscrupulous the dishonest and the self
asserting
That politics will be understood to mean
the science of pure and just government,
and not the mere mo : of enriching base,
unprincipled. incompctent and corrupt
men
That it will be- possible for women to
walk from house TO house in city or coun
try-that girls may go to church or to
school, or even take a harmless walk in the
fields or woods, without danger Of being
waylaid and murdered by their natural
protectors"-
That the persons who chance to witness a
crime may not conceal and hush it up
through fear of being put in Jail as wit
ncsses while the culprit goes free on bail
That the worth of human beings may not
be reckoned by their bank account
That this country may cease to be the
cesspool into which are drained the dis
ease criminality and pauperism of all Flu
rope
That mothers may no longer be hindered
of their obvious right to their own dearly
purchased children
That the newspapers which consider 1t
witty to assert that the principal ambition
of women is to I've married may not be
obliged to record on the same page half a
dozen instances where they have been de
liberately murdered for refusing
That literary work, like other labor, may
be valued for it's merit and not for the for
tunate circumstances, beauty; prominence,
position or self assertion of those who pro-
duce it
That sin may be held equally sinful and
punishable whether committed by man or
woman
That the theft of u few dollars-or indeed
any amount Of property-may not be reck-
onedand punished as greater crime than
the ruin of u dozen innocent women by a
bigamist--
That those lawyers may be peremptorily
disbarred who deliberately try to cheat JUS
tice by protecting known and proved Grim.
inals from punishment
That all mature, rational, intelligent and
law abiding persons mary have an equal
voice in forming and administering the
laws which they must obey
That, in short, the world may be ~ diff
ferent from what it is at present as can
well be imagined | wish that conscien-
tious industry mQy win competence aud
comfort; that respectable old age may be
honored instead Of contemDed: that those
who deserve love may have it; that worta
may be valued instead of show, and that
health may be contagious instead of dis
case"
These are few Of the things which |
tctsh; cannot lag hope for them, for |
see no prospect or possibility of them. and
dare not undertake to prophesy
ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN