All Appeal to the Young. 3 



of her illness is general anaemia, want of good food, 

 lack of fresh air ? Say a good beefsteak every day, 

 a little exercise in the country, a dry and well-venti- 

 lated bedroom ? What irony ! If she could have 

 afforded it this would have been done long since 

 without waiting for your advice ! 



If you have a good heart, a frank address, an hon- 

 est face, the family will tell you many things. The}'- 

 will tell you that the woman on the other side of the 

 partition, who coughs a cough which tears your 

 heart, is a poor ironer ; that a flight of stairs lower 

 down all the children have the fever ; that the washer- 

 woman who occupies the ground floor will not live 

 to see the spring; and that in the house next door 

 things are still worse. 



What will you say to these sick people ? Recom- 

 mend them generous diet, change of air, less exhaust- 

 ing toil? . . . You only wish you could, but you 

 dare not, and you go out heartbroken with a curse 

 on your lips. 



The next day, as you still brood over the fate of 

 the dwellers in this dog-hutch, your partner tells you 

 that yesterday a footman came to take him, this time 

 in a carriage. It was for the owner of a fine house, 

 for a lady worn out with sleepless nights, who devotes 

 all her life to dressing, visits, balls, and squabbles 

 with a stupid husband. Your friend has prescribed 

 for her a less preposterous habit of life, a less heating 

 diet, walks in the fresh air, and even temperament, 

 and, in order to make up in some measure for the 

 want of useful work, a little gymnastic exercise in 

 her bedroom. 



The one is dvino; because she has never had enough 

 food nor rest in her whole life ; the other pines be- 

 cause she has never known what work is since she 

 was born. 



If you are one of those miserable natures who adapt 

 themselves to anything, who at the sight of the most 

 revolting spectacles console themselves with a gentle 



