542 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



versation was educative, thrilling, and amusing, with true story and 

 anecdote. The young Beechers had plenty of wholesome household 

 and out-of-doors work during the day, so that to be with the family at 

 night was as restful to them as evening basketball and feats on the 

 trapeze in the gymnasium, away from the family, are to our young 

 people. Their prayer meeting was " family prayers." Their liter- 

 ary club was a family affair. Their theater was a family affair with 

 continual star additions in men and women from far and near, that 

 gave and received large measures of profit and amusement, thus in- 

 stituting a family reciprocity that has, finally, been copied by the 

 family of nations. 



The last turn of our kaleidoscope reveals a strangely contrastive 

 picture that we have read about, if we have not seen. Let us hope 

 that it is exceptional if true. The father in work-harness from Janu- 

 ary to January boards and lodges at the family residence, and pays 

 all the family bills, when he is able to. If guests ever find him at 

 home he seems to have " dropped in by accident," gives them a per- 

 functory handshake, says nothing, or something mechanically, and is 

 at a loss how to behave generally. His son Jack, a little " un- 

 steady," is conspicuous by his absence at his bachelor apartments. 

 His wife, " jeweled like a Hindu idol," smiles, converses, and does 

 the proper things from chaperoning the young ladies to the opera 

 to settling " quarrels below stairs." Sometimes the family that 

 is, the female portion of it " passes years in Europe " for the health 

 or deceptive veneering of daughters who may not know the names 

 of half a dozen mineral springs in their own country, and who forget 

 that the United States has a few canons, a few mountains, a few 

 universities, and a few art collections. Somehow, the management 

 of this family has come to devolve on womankind. One writer 

 makes the modern father " a hopeless victim, . . . forced into a 

 style of living which exceeds his means and violates his tastes, forced 

 to yield the guidance and discipline of his children to systems with 

 which he has no sympathy, forced to these sacrifices by the relentless 

 will of an elegant wife." Allowing that this last family picture is 

 unusual and extreme, it is still plain to any keen observer that the 

 pendulum has swung from excessive familism to a somewhat normal 

 domestic life, and then outward to a riotous individualism that indi- 

 cates family decline if not consumption. Among the most potential 

 causes of this condition are : 



1. Complexity of home architecture, furnishings, and personal 

 wardrobe. 



2. The apparent apathy, willingness, or submission of men, in 

 yielding to women rights and privileges that belong to themselves. 



3. The feverish desire for liberty at any cost. 



