That's what I'd say to Ed Howell about you, and you needn't call me unnatural parent or other nasty names, either," he said, grinning. "It's different with women. I'm darn sorry for Ed Howell's women folks, but there you are. Stockholders don't recognize sex."

"Kind of complicated, isn't it?" Jerry said gravely.

"Exactly, as your prof forgets. Suppose when our ancestors reached America they had been kind and gone right back to Europe so as not to disturb the Indians, would America be better off to-day? Suppose Lincoln had told the South to go its own way undisturbed. Does any one think that any of us would be better off now? Society has its rights, as well as the individual. Survival of the fittest means down-and-out for the unfittest. There's no help for it, that's all."

"Well see here, Dad. That isn't what the church teaches, but you go to church just the same."

"Certainly. It's a fine stabilizing influence. That's why I give them ten thousand a year; it helps keep things smooth, and lots of folks need that. But if the church asks me to put on a petticoat and fold my hands, I can't hear it for the noise. Incidentally, I hope to leave you a few cold millions, and you'll find they come handy. If you want to give them away, that's up to you-I shan't know anything about it. One thing's sure you never would have had them if I hadn't stood up and fought for all I was worth. Now I'm sorry, Jerry, but we've got to cut it short-I've kept a man waiting now, while I've listened to you. Here, have a good time with this." He

wrote a check and handed it to Jerry.

As Jerry started toward the door his father's eyes suddenly twinkled. "Say, son, drop round and see Dr. Lampson and ask him if he'd like to go goldenruling in his church next year without the ten thousand from an old fighting devil like me. Study hard and wait till June; come into the business, and you'll learn, boy, you'll learn. That's a compliment. Good-by. Come tell me some more things some day."

With an exchange of grins the two parted.

23

In Dr. Lampson's quietly rich study Jerry faced the smooth, dovelike clergyman in faultless gray clothes with a blue tie that matched his eyes, and beautiful white hair. "I came," he said, "to ask you for a definition of a gentleman."

"Ah, a very old question, but”he waved his hand in gentle assurance "happily answered by Our Lord. A gentleman is one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, conforms to His teachings, is helpful to the weak and needy, chivalrous to women, clean in soul and body, loyal to all good causes." And he smiled in spiritual content.

Jerry thought a moment. "Could a gentleman," he asked, "be opposed to a Federal Child Labor Law?"

"A difficult question, my boy; there are so many factors: differences in sections of the country and in children. Though, for some, work might not be an unmitigated blessing, think of the joy of a little one. who should say in his squalid cheerless home, 'I have helped to-day,' just as Our Lord may have rejoiced

that with His saw and hammer and ah-bit-brace He had served the humble home in Nazareth. If a voter's heart is in the right place and he loves his fellow-men, he cannot vote wrong, now can he?"

"Well now," Jerry said, "what would you call the men who are so eager for little children and all the poor to have some bliss here and now that they speak from soap-boxes to Sunday crowds? I have got acquainted with some of them this fall, awfully earnest fellows. Are they gentlemen?"

"Ah, Jerry, your youthful generosity and sympathy with all kinds of men are delightful. But we must weigh our final judgments with care. These men are earnest, as you say, without doubt, and they mean well, as we say, but often they are crude unbelievers if not positively disbelievers, with atrocious manners and a wild disordered message, which they pour forth violently."

"But Dr. Lampson, some of them are university men, they know what they are talking about, they have read widely and thought long. Why, I know some who are as red-hot as Garrison ever was and they would face persecution for their cause too." "My dear boy, these men are often curdled with too long thinking. The poor have always been a distressing problem, but long experience has taught me that they are often their worst enemies. And they may be rightly happy without extra help. My gardener on my little summer place once said to me, in return for a compliment on his work, 'I am a poor humble man, sir, but I can make the posies grow.' A beautiful remark made with becoming grace. Your

friends as you call them forget such things, as likewise the horrors of the French Revolution and the Bolsheviki. When I stroll on the Avenue and remember, as I note our marvelous prosperity, that in America to-day every man has the ballot and that our Constitution expressly grants liberty and justice to all, can I do aught but thank my Maker that I am privileged to live in such happy times? Should I be more a gentleman if I mounted a soap-box-the idea is truly noxious-and harangued the crowd?" He nursed the ends of the chair arms in gentle triumph.

"Surely Jesus did the equivalent of that, Dr. Lampson," Jerry eagerly answered as as he leaned forward. "Surely he was an agitator, he spoke of bringing the sword, and he drove money changers from the temple. Wasn't that the same thing?"

Behind protesting hands Dr. Lampson cried, "Jerry, Jerry, how can you! Jesus an agitator? Do you call 'Suffer little children to come unto me' the words of an agitator? Ah no, there spoke the Son of God! The sword is the New Dispensation of love and peace, beautiful Oriental symbolism, and not a literal sword stained with human blood. Money changers? Who would not drive with all rigor from our churches a rabble who wished to make gain inside the altar of God? I would be the foremost! I-"

"But didn't Jesus oppose and defy the party in power in society, just as the soap-box men do to-day?"

Dr. Lampson was a bit nettled, as his tone showed in saying, "Jesus opposed evil always, whether in power or out. These fellows of whom you speak are defying the order of a

most prosperous and well-guarded social structure. Would you call Would you call our President evil? Our Supreme Court Justices? No no, Jerry, we must think clearly about these matters."

"I see," Jerry replied. "But if I follow your definition to observe the Christian teachings, must I sell all my goods and give to the poor, as the rich young man was told to do?"

"No no, my dear young friend, that command was given to but one, and he was proud. Far better to keep your fortune and administer it well. What a rock your father has been to me with his financial aid! So you too may serve society and uphold the arms of those who work for the light. No no, remember that Our Lord recognized the good things of this world, that He turned water into wine. I am very glad you came to see me, Jerry. It is on such young men as you that we elder men rely for the future."

Jerry smiled ruefully. "Oh," he replied, "I've asked my girl and my father and the family clergyman. They say that a gentleman does whatever his wife wants him to, licks his opponents in business, and takes the Christian religion with good taste but not too seriously."

"Perfect, perfect! The Home'Come home with the bacon or upon it! Our national coat of arms should display a flitch of bacon and the legend, 'Our bacon, right or wrong.' The Market-Place-the survival of the fightest, and a kick for the rest.

The Church-X equals X, and X is the unspeakable mystery. Now you're satisfied and can turn to fresh fields."

"But I'm not; there are more complications than I thought."

"Complications indeed! That's why I never married: I avoid the bacon hunt. With women economically independent, perhaps even married men may one day be gentlemen. But you, poor young man-a lady love, millions of dollars! I'm sorry for you. There's hope, nevertheless. Compromise, compromise-separate ideals from practice. Succeed at all costs; that is our one demand. So a smooth passage on the good ship Life. Otherwise?" He shrugged his shoulders and said, "I hear my lambs crying for their pabulum. Good luck, Minot, good luck."

"You're all right, Bollesie," Jerry muttered, "but you aren't in love with June. I am."

22

Jerry sat late that evening, smoking and thinking. Finally he wrote two letters.

"Dear Dad,

I may be a goop, but be patient. I'm worried as hell about being a gentleman. June won't marry any one who isn't, and she's got to marry me! The prof is right about the Golden Rule, but you can't take it into business and succeed, and America doesn't stand for failure. Trouble is, I'm an American!

You're too far away to kick me, so I'll say that as I feel now I couldn't decently inherit the family fortune. I don't like the way it was founded and has been run-until you took it. You've been awfully decent with it,

and if you don't mind my saying it, I admire you. But if I'm married, I've got to pay the family bills-darned if I'll be June's lap-dog. I'd drop out of college except that I'd get into the papers and feel like an ass. I'd like to go into the mills, perhaps, next fall, and work like a bohunk and see what I find out. Maybe I wouldn't want to be a gentleman-but there's June! Anyway, I'm going to fight it out, just the way you would.

Better not tell Mother.

The second letter read:

"Dear June,

Jerry."

I'm not a gentleman-I'm sure

of that. Don't start an argument, please. Maybe I'll be one yet? Yeah, maybe. Marry me then? Anyway, don't throw me over just yet, because I happen to love you. Jerry

P. S. I sent the box of candy. That's number five.

P. P. S. I'll set the smile just before I go to sleep."

He sat and looked at the letter to his father. Suddenly he tore it to pieces and threw them into the waste-basket. "The devil!" he snorted, "the old man's got troubles enough of his own!"

Then he went to bed.

T

HE astonishment caused by the President's stand on Reconstruction was nation-wide and bred many wild reports. One: Andrew Johnson had planned, immediately on his accession, to hang General Lee and other leading Confederates, but that General Grant, when told, had dissuaded him. Another: when the "Southern aristocrats" who had once scorned him came suing for mercy their flattery so elated the plebeian that his whole interest was for restoring them. Still another: a boast to General Grant, that with the votes of congressmen from the "Johnson Governments" added to northern and western Democracy and moderate Republicans, he would have a safe majority and could do what he would. Thus, if another civil war ensued, the men opposing him would be rebels and General Grant and the army supporting him could easily be put down!

Each one of these tales is discredited by the stubborn facts. If, in the forty-four days between the oath of office and the Amnesty Proclamation, the President had proposed conspiracy to the General of All the Armies, that military leader would certainly have been eligible for court martial if he had not immedi

ately reported it to the proper authorities. As to an intention to hang General Lee, General Grant's letter to General Lee on June 16, 1865, granting immunity from arrest or prosecution is on record and states: "This opinion I am informed is substantially the same as that entertained by the Government." And a message to Lee from Grant four days later reads: "Terms granted by me met with hearty approval of President at time and of country generally." Those who were most intimate with Johnson never heard him make statements unfriendly to Lee. Governor Perry of South Carolina, who had a long interview with the President soon after his accession, indignantly denied that Johnson had said anything about hanging Confederate generals and politicians. On the contrary, Perry said, the President was kind and forgiving and anxious to see the States restored; was devoted to the Constitution and the union of States; "a highly gifted man." Anyone, moreover, who will take the trouble to look up the issues of newspapers in what had been the Confederacy during the weeks that followed Johnson's accession will find unmistakable signs of new life and new hope pervading the almost ruined South because of the new