io8 At the Darkest Hour. 



advancement. Wealth, too, is wonderfully increased and, 

 despite all complaints and forebodings, was never before 

 so evenly and justly distributed to all men. Never even 

 in the fabled Golden Age have all men, irrespective of rank 

 or birth, shared the advantages which wealth confers so 

 equally. Not that such distribution is yet ideal or com- 

 plete ; far from it ; but the present complaints, forebod- 

 ings and emeutes are themselves the signs of a progress in 

 equalization. In no former age and at no previous time 

 has the so-called "poor man " enjoyed so generous a share 

 of the world's wealth. The laborer at two dollars wages 

 per diem reads the same newspaper, rides in the same 

 car, attends the same amusements and eats much the same 

 food as his wealthier fellow and, if he pleases, may live 

 in a house equally sanitaiy, if not so large, and lie down 

 to sleep on an equally soft spring mattress. The mere 

 possession of a great fortune, indeed, now gives the pos- 

 sessor more cai-e, but little advantage over his less opulent 

 brother-man. Curiously enough wealth comes of itself to 

 be the instrument for making all men equal. 



When we consider the humble beginnings of organic 

 life on the earth — developing as it has done from the 

 primitive unicellular life — the spectacle presented by 

 humanity at this epoch is one of reasonable promise. From 

 the protozoa multicellular organisms have developed ; and 

 from these lower animal forms, man has arisen. It has 

 been the slow work of millions of years ; but it has been done 



