It is a chilling thought, unless one can rise to the highest philosophy of life, that even the broad ‘a’, when it is attained, may not be a permanence.  Let it be common, and what distinction will there be in it?  When devotion to study, to the reading of books, to conversation on improving topics, becomes a universal fashion, is it not evident that one can only keep a leadership in fashion by throwing the whole thing overboard, and going forward into the natural gayety of life, which cares for none of these things?  We suppose the Constitution of the United States will stand if the day comes—­nay, now is—­when the women of Chicago call the women of Boston frivolous, and the women of Boston know their immense superiority and advancement in being so, but it would be a blank surprise to the country generally to know that it was on the wrong track.  The fact is that culture in this country is full of surprises, and so doubles and feints and comes back upon itself that the most diligent recorder can scarcely note its changes.  The Drawer can only warn; it cannot advise.

CHEWING GUM

No language that is unfortunately understood by the greater portion of the people who speak English, thousands are saying on the first of January—­in 1890, a far-off date that it is wonderful any one has lived to see—­“Let us have a new deal!” It is a natural exclamation, and does not necessarily mean any change of purpose.  It always seems to a man that if he could shuffle the cards he could increase his advantages in the game of life, and, to continue the figure which needs so little explanation, it usually appears to him that he could play anybody else’s hand better than his own.  In all the good resolutions of the new year, then, it happens that perhaps the most sincere is the determination to get a better hand.  Many mistake this for repentance and an intention to reform, when generally it is only the desire for a new shuffle of the cards.  Let us have a fresh pack and a new deal, and start fair.  It seems idle, therefore, for the moralist to indulge in a homily about annual good intentions, and habits that ought to be dropped or acquired, on the first of January.  He can do little more than comment on the passing show.

It will be admitted that if the world at this date is not socially reformed it is not the fault of the Drawer, and for the reason that it has been not so much a critic as an explainer and encourager.  It is in the latter character that it undertakes to defend and justify a national industry that has become very important within the past ten years.  A great deal of capital is invested in it, and millions of people are actively employed in it.  The varieties of chewing gum that are manufactured would be a matter of surprise to those who have paid no attention to the subject, and who may suppose that the millions of mouths they see engaged in its mastication have a common and vulgar taste.  From the fact that