A BABY-FOX. 



443 



a man a high price for his labor when be can get the work done as 

 well for less money by a woman, is not much to be apprehended. But 

 that Legislatures, male or female, could equalize wages, few will be 

 credulous enough to believe, though it is possible that the attempt 

 might be made. 



As to domestic cruelty, if it can be stopped by any extension of 

 the criminal law, there is surely not the slightest reason for believing 

 that male Legislatures are unwilling to perform that duty ; though, of 

 course, criminal legislation in this case, as in all others, to be effective, 

 must keep terms with reason and justice. In fact, in this matter, wom- 

 en are probably better in the present hands than they would be in 

 their own. The source of these infamies and horrors in ninety-nine 

 cases out of a hundred is drink ; and if the member for Marylebone, 

 instead of tampering with the relations between the sexes, will turn 

 his mind to the imj^rovement and extension of the legislation com- 

 menced under the late Government against intemperance, he will de- 

 serve, in the highest degree, the gratitude of women in general, and 

 especially of those who have the greatest claim to our sympathy. 



The case of women is not that of an unenfranchised class, the in- 

 terest of which is distinct from that of the enfranchised. The great 

 mass of them are completely identified in interest with their husbands, 

 while even those who are not married can hardly be said to form a 

 class, or to have any common interest, other than mere sex, which is 

 liable to be unfairly affected by class legislation. There is therefore 

 no reason why Parliament should not do justice in any practical ques- 

 tion relative to the rights of women which may be brought before it, 

 as it has already done justice in several such questions, without in- 

 voking upon itself the coercion of female suffrage. — Macmillaii's 

 Magazine. 



A BABY-FOX. 



By De. BURT G. WILDEE. 



MY readers may have heard of the artist who, finding that his 

 portrait of the "king of beasts "was not often recognized, 

 indignantly wrote beneath it, " This is the picture of a lion." Some- 

 thing of like necessity exists with reference to the figure in the pres- 

 ent article ; for it is doubtful whether any one, not already familiar 

 with fox-babies, would recognize it as the picture of one ; to use the 

 words of another, this is an " odd, snub-nosed little creature, resem- 

 bling almost any animal rather than a fox." ^ 



Yet the non-recognition cannot, in this case, be ascribed to any 



^ Wood's " Illustrated Natural History of Mammalia," p. 334 ; it is not often that so 

 compact an expression occurs in these usually verbose volumes. 



