Year: 1874

livery hour that q man spends out of
his bed after half-past ten at night is a
violence to nature. They have learned
this i'll Germany. where, in many
towns, their public amusemcnts ter
minate ut half past nine, and, in some
cases, even earlier than this. It is in
this direction that reform should be
effected in America, so far as every W.T.
riety of public and social assembly is
concerned. An invitation at eli gilt
should mean what it says, and be hon
ored in its terms. In this way social
life would bo possible to many to whom
it is now practically denied, and be-
come Il blessing to ill.


It is not hard to institute reform of
this kind. All it wants is leading +;
and half dozen of onr social queens
could do the work in a single season.
It used to be deemed essential to q
social assembly that Il huge, expensive
supper be served at it's close and this at
an hour when no man or woman could
afford to eat hearty meal. We have
measurably outlived this in New York.
1t is "quite the thing" now to serve
light and inexpensive refreshments.
The man who dimes ut six needs no
heavy supper before he goes to bed.
He not only does not need it, but he
cannot cat it without harm. Its expen-
sivcness is q constant bar to social life !;
and let us be thankful that this abuse,
at least, is pretty well reformed al
ready. Other abuses and bad habits
can be reformed just as easily as this.
because reform is in the line of COM
mon sense and the common desire.
The leading, as we have said, is all that
is wanted, and when we commence
another season such leading ought to
volunteered. Something surely ought
to be done to make social life recrea-
tive pleasure, and not severe tax upon
the vital forces as it is at present.-Dr.
H. @. Holland, .Scrib,ser's for april


The Life Of Prince.


We have no other feeling towards the
Duke of Edinburgh and his bride, says
the London Examiner, than that of a
very sincere desire for their happiness,
they have certainly done nothing to
disentitle them to the good wishes of
any inhabitant of Great Britain; and if
they have done nothing of an opposite
kind, it should be borne in mind that
merely negative virtues may with JUS
tice be highly priced in royalty, and in
constitutional royalty are the highest
attainable. Those of us who are in
clined to be severe on persons so cir
cumstanced would do well to consider
what we might have become if we had
grown up in an atmosphere bearing no
more resemblance to that of real life
than the griffins and dragons of herald
ry bear to horses and oxen, with our
every wish pampered, andour every act
approved, without punishment, or re-
proof, or anything that could guide us
in the choice of unselfish rather than
selfish pleasures. It needs little insight
into human nature to see that it re-
quires almost supernatural moral fOrti-
tude in q prince to resist falling into an
egotistica1 disregard for the happiness
or rights of others and it is for this
reason, inter alta, that we consider the
princely estate an undesirable one even
for the prince himself. When mankind
come to see what potent moral instru-
ments are praise and blame, honor and
dishonor, they will awake to the full
sense of their responsibility in nawarding
them. They will see that to bestow our
homage on an object that is not worthy
of it, by whatever fashionable name it
may be called, is idolatry and that
among those who are injured by this
practice, not the least to be pitied is
the victim of unmerited esteem.