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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



holding the opinions he attributes to them I 

 should value the article in that proportion ; 

 but as I do not know a single one and I 

 have lived a good deal among women of 

 "advanced " ideas I can not help thinking 

 the article worse than uncalled for. 



As far as I know anything about it, those 

 who shirk the duties of maternity have ideas 

 very far from advanced : they are the poorer 

 kind of society women, many of whom would 

 be horrified at being suspected of intelli- 

 gence or independence. 



The charge used to be that women be- 

 came spinsters because they could not get 

 husbands, and that was considered sufficient- 

 ly opprobrious. Now Mr. Allen charges 

 them with unwillingness to take husbands ; 

 and yet states in the same breath that the 

 marriageable men go off beyond reach when 

 they " ought to be making love," etc. 



Here is an arraignment indeed ! Why 

 not devote an article any number of arti- 

 cles exclusively to these marriageable men ? 



The great body of noble women who 

 have thrown themselves into the struggle for 

 equal freedom are behind no one in desire for 

 true womanliness and femininity. Already 

 we are well on the way to the emancipation 

 that Mr. Allen pleads for, the sound bodies 

 and minds that are to come from the free 

 and entire development of girls and boys, 

 and freedom from Mrs. Grundy ; but all the 

 progress made is due to these " women-ques- 

 tion agitators." 



If there exists this deplorable indiffer- 

 ence to marriage on the part of women, is 

 it not the consequence of the very state of 

 things that these leaders are striving to abol- 

 ish and also, perhaps, of the sacrifices that 

 this strife entails, and of some of the char- 

 acteristics that are inevitably developed by 

 it, and that no one knows or deprecates 

 more than these valiant workers themselves ? 



All reforms have their attendant evils ; 

 but it is the state of things that called for 

 the reform that is to blame for them or the 

 " nature of things." 



We need patience, hands off, fair play 

 without privilege, and that each should think 

 most of his own duty. A. A. M. 



Boston, December 15, 1889. 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND CKIME. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



As I have more than seven hundred pu- 

 pils under my charge, and that, too, in a State 

 not backward in common-school education, 

 I venture to protest against being lodged in 

 a criminal-making class. Like Mr. Reece, I 

 would ask, " Of what utility are facts and 

 experiences unless their teachings are heeded 

 and their meaning properly interpreted ? " 

 With Mr. Atkinson, I say, " All statistics, un- 

 less qualified by sound judgment, are mere 

 rubbish." 



Mr. Reece mentions the fact of the in- 

 crease of criminals since the period of mod- 



' ern civilization and science commenced, but 

 I he does not mention that the methods of 

 tracking criminals have wonderfully in- 

 creased, so that we may have a larger ratio 

 of criminals caught than in days before the 

 swift post, the telegraph, the police system, 

 the photograph, and the extradition treaty. 

 Surely he should give the public school the 

 praise of supplying some of the means of 

 catching the criminal after it has made him ! 

 I will say nothing about the increased accu- 

 racy of the statistics of 1880 over those of 

 the earlier period. 



While discussing criminality in New York 

 State, he states that the common schools 

 furnish eighty -three per cent of the inmates 

 of Auburn and Sing Sing, while a little over 

 nine per cent is credited to the illiterate 

 population. Out of 2,616 convicts, 1,801 are 

 credited to the common school and 238 to 

 the illiterates. I can not see that even his 

 own arrangement of the figures is against us. 

 Surely nine per cent is a much larger ratio, 

 when compared with the number of illiter- 

 ates in New York, than eighty-three per 

 cent would be if compared with the number 

 of the common-school graduates. It seems 

 to me that he should have taken as bases 

 for his example in social arithmetic the num- 

 ber of illiterates and the number of common- 

 school graduates. I have not the statistics 

 of illiteracy in New York at hand, but I be- 

 lieve the figures will show fully three times 

 as large a ratio of criminals to be credited 

 to them as to the common school. 



Mr. Reece cites various savage tribes as 

 being examples to us in morals. He fails 

 to see that temptations are increased a thou- 

 sand-fold for the civilized man. There could 

 not be many thefts where all property is 

 held in common, when the property owned 

 is so paltry as not to be worth the carrying 

 away. 



1 do not contend that the public school 

 is doing all it is able, but it is doing as well 

 as the church and the family are doing in 

 their spheres toward elevating the moral 

 tone of the community. Writers like Mr. 

 Reece seem inclined to find fault with us 

 because we can not do the work of the fam- 

 ily and the church. We are doing a good 

 share of it, but, under the triple burden, we 

 may sometimes fail to send out all good citi- 

 zens. Very truly, Charles S. Davis. 

 Lynn, Mass., January 15, 1890. 



A NOVEL WATER-COOLER. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



My article in the January (1890) number 

 of the " Monthly " brought me an inquiry from 

 Quincy, Illinois, as to where the writer could 

 get an olla (pronounced o-ya), and what it 

 would cost. Here in southern California 

 they are plenty, and the regular retail price 

 is twenty cents a gallon. What the trans- 

 portation would be I do not know. 



Since my article was written I have heard 



