728 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



unfavorable to a home atmosphere and home employments. The 

 modest requirement of a small, plain house with light and air on 

 all sides, is beyond the reach of the millionaire. Unless we stop 

 to think, we are apt to forget how high a price we pay for the 

 privilege of much laborious striving and cramped living. 



So much has been said about the frivolity, incompetence, or 

 f ussiness of American mothers that it will not be amiss to inquire 

 into the characteristics of our fathers of families. With the best 

 intentions in the world the time that a city man can spend with 

 his family is usually very limited, and he is not always in the 

 mood to exert a helpful influence, when he returns at night worn 

 out with business cares, and often prefers the club, lodge, or 

 neighboring corner to his family circle ; his wife may see little of 

 him and his children less. It is not a matter of indifference, how- 

 ever, even in regard to health, whether the children enjoy a due 

 proportion of their father's companionship, for that is or should 

 be a vital factor in the children's growth and education, and, 

 whenever they are deprived of it, certain elements of character and 

 mind are almost always absent. Look around among your friends 

 where the children have grown up without a father, and see if 

 your observation does not show that there is some quality of 

 mind or heart, some check or balance wanting, that no one else 

 could supply. I observe that American fathers, whether from the 

 exactions of business or other reasons, do not ordinarily come to 

 my office with their ailing children. The whole matter is often 

 left in the hands of the wife or some relative. Germans are more 

 apt to come than Americans, and Hebrews most of all ; and 

 indeed I can not refrain from expressing my admiration of the 

 domestic life of the better class of Jews in New York, which, so 

 far as I have observed it, is in many respects more nearly what it 

 should be than that of any class in our community. 



Body and mind grow together ; what affects the one must affect 

 the other, so that if the influence of either parent is withdrawn the 

 due proportion or balance is lost and certain physical as well as 

 mental peculiarities in the children are dwarfed or accentuated. 

 The home atmosphere often determines the mental and moral, and 

 consequently the physical tone of the children. I claim distinctly 

 that an atmosphere of frivolity, indolence, self -consciousness, fus- 

 siness, discontent, sentimentality, or meanness can not be with- 

 out serious effects not only on the character but on the physique. 

 Selfishness in any form is not only unattractive, but it is un- 

 wholesome ; it is a depressant to the system. Per contra, high and 

 well-rounded living not only makes sound thinking, but it ab- 

 breviates doctors' bills. It is a truism to say that no one has so 

 much' to do with the child's acquisition of a healthy moral and 

 physical tone as his parents, but few realize how tremendous a 



