HOME AND NEIGHBOR.

character, involving the good will and co-operation of others, the mental attitude is more important than mere manners, however charming or however awkward. Society Applied Neighbor- is marvelously lenient to the ship. "ways" of those people whose hearts are in the right place.

In what spirit ought it to be undertaken? What tacit understanding ought to govern the relation, especially in those clubs whose members strike hands for mutual uplift across the separate parallels which worldly circumstances prescribe? This paper refers especially to clubs of this sort. They are the most important. These are the clubs which bring together in wholesome contact people who would never meet except at opposite ends of a bargain. I say neighborship because I do not mean neighborhood clubs; the clubs I am writing about are most unlikely to draw their members from one neighborhood. They bring into close neighborliness, however, persons whom the ordinary forces of environment, education, and business interests tend to separate, and they bring about a better understanding between persons to whom the good things of this world do not seem equally distributed. As civilization develops, the interdependence of people of widely different circumstance increases, and considerations of mutual welfare are prompted as much by self-preservation as by benevolence. The interests of each would be better served if better understood by both.

N ANY social venture of a personal and thought. There are, nevertheless, as many grounds of meeting as there are different sorts of persons. The real question is, Which side shall pioneer into the undiscovered country that lies between? Plainly the duty of advance lies upon him who has the advantage; that is, with the one who has had sufficient leisure and means to give himself those things which are distinctly recognized as "advantages.' His wider contact with men and books makes him. readier of speech than the man who works silently amid the whir of machinery or the preoccupations of hard labor. Moreover, he has an ease of manner which comes of the consciousness of belonging to the class that sets the fashions in manners (however bad they may be), and he need not doubt his knowledge of the proprieties. If concessions are to be made in the matter of dress, vocabulary, or manner, in order that the approach may be more complete, these concessions should be made by the side that can make them most easily. It is absurd to ask the ignorant to step at once upon the plane which it has taken the educated years of painstaking labor and perhaps three generations" to acquire.

But how can they meet? They are not only strangers to each other, but strangers to each other's habits of life

The difficulties of approach disappear before the actual attempt. Differences are often mainly superficial. They are not nearly so great as is generally supposed by people who know only one side. When they meet people of another sort, whether above or below their own rank, the similarities are more noticeable than the dissimilarities. Most of the blunders made by people in different circumstances in dealing with each other are the result of the slipshod habit of sorting all people

TAIL PIECES.

"

into one or two classes, and asserting as facts broad and unjust generalizations. All such classification is relative, and shifts according to the point of view. We hear a great deal about the dangerous classes," and to many minds the phrase means the poor and uneducated. Have not the poor and uneducated quite as much reason to look upon the rich and educated as dangerous classes unless their education shall include that broader view of the responsibilities of wealth, which for tunately is increasing? The rich and the poor may be divided into separate classes on a property basis, but a classification on moral grounds may present an upper and a lower class, where millionaires and job-laborers stand shoulder to shoulder.

TAIL PIECES.

When naught from war's calamity
could save her,

As her defender did you marching go?
Oh son, my son, I answer for thee No!
Yet would I mention as a bar to scorn,
You wanted thirty years of being born.
Lavinia S. Goodwin.

The mind which ignores superficial class distinctions and seeks conclusions of its own, based on inductions made from personal experience, is likely to become more and more removed from unwholesome caste prejudices. If to this mental attitude be added a cordial friendliness which is sympathetic, tender, and forbearing, the product is a man or woman who can find within walking distance of home a world of helpful, heartening work which awaits such and only such workers as he, work which cannot be done by any system of class treatment, however benevolent. It must be done by the individual for the individual. It is upon such neighborliness as this that society must largely depend for the solution of some of its gravest problems. Adelene Moffat.

NO VETERAN.

WHAT claim have you, sir, on our In the darkness of the sacred

country's favor?

Literary Catacombs.

LITERARY CATACOMBS.

'NEATH the crust of kind rejection, In their long forgotten vaults, Myriad manuscripts lie buried,

Wrapped in shrouds of little faults.

4I

'Neath oblivion's mould they're resting Where the critic never roams,

RETURN

STAMP.

Editor of

Dear Sir:

Author's Study,

Blankton,.......

The Author.

[NOTE. Upon receipt of ten of these coupons from one editor a handwhich is modestly submitted to you some crayon portrait of the author will for examination. be sent free of charge.]

I inclose with this a MS. entitled

While I understand that declination does not necessarily imply lack of editorial ability, I would respectfully beg of you not to impair your reputation for good judgment by such a want of appreciation.

Should you decide to accept this contribution please sign coupon attached to this letter and return at an early date.

No editorial propositions looking to

Aunt Charity: Strange child: lard, an' some 'east,

the abridgment of MSS. will be considered unless accompanied by sufficient remuneration to cover the expense of time and labor involved.

66

Literary effusiveness no doubt needs occasional checks, but there is only one kind that is really acceptable to Yours truly,

COUPON.

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THE EDITORS.

Who is you, chile, and what you comin' here for wid dat big basket?"

Mammy say she gwine to make bread, and will you lend her some salt, an' some an' some flour; she already got de water."

The Symposium

(Formerly THE LETTER, now enlarged and improved).

An Illustrated Monthly Literary Magazine edited and published by GEORGE W. CABLE.

Devoted to every form of knowledge, speculation and experiment designed to make homes better homes and neighbors better neighbors. The systematic conduct of

Private and Club Reading

is a special feature of THE SYMPOSIUM. Outlines of courses are published every month, with timely hints to readers, suggestions as to lines of reading, etc.

A Plan for Lending Books.

In regions where library facilities are few, THE SYMPOSIUM proposes to offset, in part at least, the absence of the circulating library. We will treat any subscription to THE SYMPOSIUM as a fee for membership in a library, and mail the books required, the cost to the subscriber being merely the postage one way.

The Wheels of 1897.

Are small fireside clubs, meeting once a week for unlaborious, systematic reading, or for any light pursuit that is at the same time entertaining and profitable.

Their purpose is to combine the stimulations and pleasures of mutual improvement with the promotion of a kinder, fuller, and more active neighborliness than ordinarily results from merely drifting with the current of one's social preferences.

Any Two or Three Persons

may start one of these Home-Culture Clubs. They are without red tape, without machinery, without dues or fees. Books are lent to them by THE SYMPOSIUM with only the expense of postage one way.

They have been

Send for Catalogue and you will buy our Wheel.

In Successful Operation for Rine pears,

And at the close of the last season numbered seventy-five clubs scattered through thirteen states. Mr. GEORGE W. CABLE is chairman of the movement, and Miss ADELENE MOFFAT, one of the assistant editors of THE SYMPOSIUM, is the general secretary.

Letters inquiring for full particulars and addressed to Miss MOFFAT, HOME-CULTURE CLUB HOUSE, NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS, will receive cordial attention.

THE NORTHAMPTON

At the Front for Lightness,

WE MAKE IT Durability, Speed, Economy, YOU TAKE IT

Beauty, and Grace.

Start a bome-Culture Club
Now in Your Reigbborbood.

THE NORTHAMPTON CYCLE CO.

NORTHAMPTON, MASS,