of the world are to come from women.  Such an absolute disregard of self as they are capable of, if it were once allowed to overflow the narrow limits of the home, might in no long time turn a goodly portion of the world into a garden of roses.  There are still men who wish to appropriate to themselves all the high qualities of their women, but they belong to a race that is destined to rapid extinction, and to most rapid extinction in this country.  That American men are more thoroughly chivalrous than English is a common belief.  It was curiously confirmed by the English clergyman who wrote to the “Nation,” some years ago, to describe the qualities which an English clergyman ought to have in order to be successful in this country, and who said that he had found it necessary not to let it be known that his wife warmed his slippers for him.  The theory that woman exists solely for the purpose of smoothing the wrinkles from the brow of man is one that seldom finds expression now, except in the Lenten sermons of men who are content to drop out of the ranks of those who influence opinion.  But the great freedom that the modern woman has gained for herself, the thorough education that is for the first time within her reach, the strong sympathies that are her inheritance,—­these are grounds of a responsibility that she cannot but feel to be a heavy one.  What better outlet can she find for her activities than to carry forward that slow process of fitting together the human race and its surroundings which it is no longer necessary to leave to chance?

CHRISTINE LADD-FRANKLIN.

* * * * *

The Ice-Saints.

There are three days in the spring of the year called by the French Les Saints de Glace.  These days are the 12th, 13th, and 14th of May, and the saints to whom they are dedicated are Saint Mamert, Saint Pancras, and Saint Servais.  They are very obscure saints, in honor of whom few children have been named, and, were it not for the vast parish of Saint Pancras which once comprised all the northwestern part of London, their names as well as their history would be, to Protestants at least, entirely unknown.  They have, however, the evil reputation of commonly bringing with them a nipping frost, and are abhorred in Burgundy as the great enemies of the vine.

Their advent this year was telegraphed to Paris by the New York “Herald,” whose weather reporter was probably quite ignorant of any ecclesiastical traditions connected with the matter.  On May 11 the following despatch was received in Paris:  “A great depression, having its centre in the neighborhood of Lake Ontario, will be followed by a cyclone of great extent, travelling in the direction of Halifax, It will probably occasion great changes of temperature along the coasts of Great Britain and France, beginning May 12 and continuing till May 14.”  Never was prediction better fulfilled.  The Ice-Saints sank the French thermometer to 6 deg.  Centigrade, corresponding to 21 deg.  Fahrenheit, a temperature more severe in those latitudes than the cold of an ordinary Christmas.  When the Ice-Saints had departed the weather grew mild again.