Society has much to attend to.  The whole wonderful mechanism by which those citizens who now do measurably right, can have blessings far beyond the totals of luxuries enjoyed by Kings a few centuries ago—­this whole mechanism, I think, has been perfected by one law, the self-interest of the class wielding the force necessary to compel the change desired.  To-day, among the evils which we suffer,—­not as results of the new civilization, but as vestiges of the old barbarism,—­is the abuse of stimulants.  The effects of this abuse are, perhaps, next to atrocious crime, the most discouraging which menace the march of progress, and

EVEN THE ANNALS OF ATROCIOUS CRIME

so closely link the curse of strong drink with deeds of violence as to totally extinguish the mark of difference in the minds of many good men.  Society as to-day organized, commits the keeping of a woman to the hands of a man, who in turn, is legally free to condemn her to the horrors of companionship with a man (that man being himself) bereft periodically or continuously of his moral motives of conduct.  He is entitled by law to return to his wretched home with murder in his heart, and to vent upon a woman from whom he fears no defense, the anger which

IT WOULD BE UNSAFE TO MANIFEST

toward the person who may have originally inspired the passion.  The point at which this cruelty becomes practically illegal is that limit which the wife puts to her own endurance, which in turn, is generally gauged not by her own powers, but by the personal safety of her children.  So long as her own life seems to be alone in jeopardy, she waits to be killed—­as in the notable case at Minneapolis, Minn.,—­and Society permits itself to be called in simply to attend the funeral of the murdered woman, who, however, is often buried as a victim of some hypothetical disease, invented to take the blame off the prevailing order of things.  Now while this is

ENTIRELY HORRIBLE IN THE ABSTRACT,

the abstract is notoriously a false way of getting the general drift of things.  The abstract philosopher, the moment he is charged with the practical conduct of an affair, as a general rule, fails ignominiously, even in his own opinion.  With regard to drunkenness, for instance, let us ask ourselves:  “Is drunkenness less prevalent now than in olden times?” Yes.  “Is the condition of the woman better, in addition to the improved habits of the man?” Yes.  Therefore, it is evident Society,

THE GRAND MACHINE

(let us never say “Society” when we mean spike-tailed coats), has an eye on the scourge of Rum, and will eventually stamp it out.  “But why,” asks the Impracticable, “does not Society stamp it out at once?” “Why does not the sun shine twenty-four hours in America on the Fourth of July?” Simply because America is not the whole world.  Neither is the subject of the murder of wives and the degradation of offspring the whole affair with which Society deals.