Husbands are worried about their wives; wives about their husbands; parents about their children; children about their parents.  Farmers are worried over their crops; speculators over their gamblings; investors over their investments.  Teachers are worried over their pupils, and pupils over their lessons, their grades, and their promotions.  Statesmen (!) are worried over their constituents, and the latter are generally worried by their representatives.  People who have schemes to further—­legitimate or otherwise—­are worried when they are retarded, and competitors are worried if they are not.  Pastors are worried over their congregations,—­occasionally about their salaries, very often about their large families, and now and again about their fitness for their holy office,—­and there are few congregations that, at one time or another, are not worried by, as well as about, their pastors.  The miner is worried when he sees his ledge “petering out,” or finds the ore failing to assay its usual value.  The editor is worried lest his reporters fail to bring in the news, and often worried when it is brought in to know whether it is accurate or not.  The chemist worries over his experiments, and the inventor that certain things needful will persist in eluding him.  The man who has to rent a house, worries when rent day approaches; and many who own houses worry at the same time.  Some owners, indeed, worry because there is no rent day, they have no tenants, their houses are idle.  Others worry because their tenants are not to their liking, are destructive, careless, or neglect the flowers and the lawn, or allow the children to batter the furniture, walk in hob nails over the hardwood floors, or scratch the paint off the walls.  Men in high position worry lest their superiors are not as fully appreciative of their efforts as they should be, and they in turn worry their subordinates lest they forget that they are subordinate.

Mistresses worry about their maids, and maids about their mistresses.  Some of the former worry because they have to go into their kitchens, others because they are not allowed to go.  Some mistresses deliberately worry their servants, and others are worried because their servants insist upon doing the worrying.  Many a wife is worried because of her husband’s typewriter, and many a typewriter is worried because her employer has a wife.  Some typewriters are worried because they are not made into wives, and many a one who is a wife wishes she were free again to become a typewriter.

Thousands of girls—­many of them who ought yet to be wearing short dresses and playing with dolls—­worry because they have no sweethearts, and equal thousands worry because they do have them.  Many a lad worries because he has no “lassie,” and many a one worries because he has.  Yesterday I rode on a street car and saw a bit of by-play that fully illustrated this.  On these particular cars there is a seat for two alongside the front by the