while if he falls he will carry with him the sneers and taunts of his fellow men.  In this vast universe there is room for all, no need to jostle and crowd your neighbor.  If he succeeds, while you fail, it will not better your condition to slander and vilify; if he fails while you win you will never regret having offered the hand in good will and fellowship.  Many a heart has been softened, many a burden made lighter, by a few kind, cheerful words.  There are none so low, none so degraded, as to be beneath consideration.  To take the hand of the hardest criminal will not contaminate—­vice is not contagious.

* * * * *

Joaquin Miller says: 

     Is it worth while that we jostle a brother,
       Bearing his load on the rough road of life? 
     Is it worth while that we jeer at each other,
       In blackness of heart that we war to the knife? 
       God pity us all in our pitiful strife.

     God pity us all as we jostle each other,
       God pardon us all for the triumph we feel,
     When a fellow goes down ’neath his load on the heather,
       Pierced to the heart by words keener than steel
       And mightier far for woe than for weal.

     Were it not well, in his brief little journey,
       On over the isthmus, down into the tide,
     We give him a fish instead of a serpent,
       Ere folding the hands to be and abide
       Forever, and aye, in dust at his side?

     Look at the roses saluting each other;
       Look at the herds all in peace on the plain,
     Man, and man only, makes war on his brother
       And laughs in his heart at his perils and pain,
       Shamed by the beasts that go down on the plain.

     It is worth while that we battle to humble
       Some poor fellow down into the dust? 
     God pity us all!  Time too soon will tumble
       All of us together, likes leaves in the gust,
       Humbled, indeed, down into the dust.

A woman was speaking who was dressed in soft white which clung to her slight form, and gave one the idea of a statue; a Galatea without a soul.

Fatalism had wound its slimy folds about her and she was unable to free herself from its chilling embrace.  There is an old German legend which runs thus, “Vineta was an old fortified place by the sea and the capital of an ancient nation.  Her dominion extended over the neighboring coasts and over the waves where she ruled supreme.  Unparallelled in splendor and greatness, countless treasures flowed in to her from other lands, but pride presumption and the sins of her inhabitants brought down the chastisement of Heaven upon her and she sank, swallowed up by the waves.”  The sailors still affirm that the fortress of Vineta lies uninjured at the bottom of the sea.  They say that deep down in the water, they catch a glimpse of towers and cupolas, hear the bells ring, and at