the home life. Emerson has said, that "The domestic man who loves no music so well as his kitchen clock, and the airs which the logs sing to him as they burn on the hearth, has solaces which others never dream of." And so the man of middle life is at rest, his wanderings have ceased, and he is safely anchored in the sheltered haven of his family circle.

But middle life should not become so much absorbed

in the present, as to be blind to the future. It should not be like the king of the old story, who gave to his jester a golden staff, saying, "Give it to the first greater fcol than yourself that you find." After a time the king was dying, and said, "Jack, I must leave you for a long journey." "To go where, your majesty?" "I do not know, my man." "And what provision have you made for your journey?" "None at all." "Then take the staff. I never was such a fool as that."

O, you who stand on the crest of life, midway between the two regions "I hope " and "I remember," and flushed, it may be, with the victories you have won, bear in mind that you have already begun the downward journey which shall end in the grave. Every day that you live brings you nearer that departure which takes from you all your possessions except the imperishable jewel of a deathless soul and the rewards of a good life. As "Be ye also ready," is the whisper of warning, so may "Come up higher " be the gentle call that shall summon you from the things of earth to the glories of immortal life beyond the tomb.

EVER has there been a time when the av.

erage wages of working men were higher than at the present day, or when they could live better, and enjoy more of what are termed the luxuries of life. The time never was when they had better opportunities to improve their condition and acquire a competence.

This might be called the golden age for the laborer, and yet, never was there such universal discontent and unrest, and such an appalling amount of absolute poverty. To find out and remove the causes which have led to such a lamentable state of affairs, is one of the greatest problems of the age.

The disaffected ones claim that it is the result of ruinous competition, labor-saving machinery, the amassing of immense fortunes, the growth of powerful monopolies, and other causes of like character. These are grave charges; but the real causes may be traced to the reckless improvidence of the working classes, in being content to spend all they earn, and live from hand to mouth, instead of laying up something for times of stress and want.

One form of improvidence, which commands worldwide attention, is the enormous waste of substance for liquors and tobacco. It is found, by the last census

taken in our country, that eight hundred millions of dollars are spent annually for liquors, and six hundred millions more for tobacco, and that together they exceed the cost of all the bread, meat, woolen and cotton goods, and boots and shoes, used by the whole country. It is estimated that at least one-half of this appalling waste is borne by the working men. And even this does not represent the whole loss, for by this vice, health, credit and reputation are destroyed, which loss is far beyond any money valuation.

If one-half of this gigantic sum were applied for the comfort and well-being of the working men, in a few years every family might dwell under its own roof; there would be no ragged children growing up in vice and ignorance, no despairing mothers, or squalid homes. And whose fault is it that this is not so? Whose but the men who squander their hard earnings, and thus invite the poverty of which they complain.

The Hon. William Windom, Secretary of the Treas. ury under Garfield's administration, says: "If the laboring men of America would save the money they spend for drink, they might, in ten years, buy half the farms in the United States, and in fifteen years more could have a fund sufficient to purchase every railroad in the country at a premium."

Would that every working man who has bound himself in the fetters of drinking habits, would break his chains, as did a hard working blacksmith, of whom the following incident is narrated:

"He started home on Saturday night, with his wages, amounting to five dollars and twenty-five cents, to buy some food for his family, but stopped at a barroom, where he was too frequently a visitor, and where he met with congenial companions, with whom he caroused until late in the evening. He then bethought himself that it was time to go home, and called for his account, which the bar-keeper informed him amounted to just five dollars and twenty-five cents. You will have to credit me the quarter,' said he, as he handed the bar-keeper the five-dollar bill. He then went to the meat-market, and said to the butcher: • What

เ

have you got for twenty-five cents? It is all the money I have, and I must take something home for my family.'

"There's a bunch of soup-bones that you can have for twenty-five cents,' was the reply.

"He accordingly purchased them, had them put in a parcel, and was about starting home, not without some reproachful thoughts, when the dram-seller, with whom he had spent the evening, entered the market, ordered a quantity of the best beef-steak, pulled out a five-dollar bill, the identical one which he had paid him, and gave it to the butcher.

"Our dram-drinking friend had seen enough. He started for home, and probably did more good, solid thinking than he had done for several years before. Entering his house, he gave his wife those ugly, almost bare soup-bones, and said: This is the last

time you will ever have to live on soup-bones that I may furnish money to a bar-keeper to buy porter-house steak with.'

"After that, his wife and children were treated to steak instead of bare soup-bones. He had quit the dram-drinking business forever."

Another prevailing form of improvidence is the lack of economy. No business could long be sustained, with as loose and careless financial management as the average working man displays in his expenditures. The successful business man makes his fortune by buying in the lowest markets, reducing his expenses as much as possible, and attending to all the little details with the utmost vigilance. The rich man buys everything for his household to the best advantage, both as to quality and quantity. He pays the lowest prices, and gets the largest discounts, and it was by this policy that he became rich. But the average working man buys his food and fuel in small quantities, at an added ten to twenty per cent.; in many cases he buys his household utensils and furniture on credit, at an advanced price, and no wonder that this practice, together with the cost of his liquor and tobocco, keeps him in abject poverty.

Edward Adkinson, one of the most careful and experienced statistical experts in the world, has estimated that the loss from bad cooking, and waste, is one thousand million of dollars every year, and the largest part of this comes out of working men. In the matter of