the costumes seen on persons issuing from insignificant houses, and at the
excellent bill of fare in a restaurant with the barest necessities of
furnishing. Cursory observation often reads the signs of civilization
wrongly. The eastern traveller, accustomed to the outward glitter and the
finish of settled communities, fails to interpret the real efficiency of a
more flexible society. West of the Mississippi, that new empire we are
just beginning to appreciate, good food is recognized as of prime
importance, dress gives an opportunity for showing conspicuous waste, and
buildings are made for show only when permanence of residence is assured.

Let society once thoroughly understand that safe shelter is essential to
its very life, that this safety is threatened, if not lost, by present
habits, and, by quick money-making schemes in house-building, it will
establish standards of living which shall not only be for the material
welfare, but for the mental, moral, and spiritual progress of the race.

This progress can be secured by applying centrifugal force to congested
districts, by interesting capitalists to consider housing at the same time
with manufacturing plants, not only providing safe, economical houses, but
by making it socially possible to live in them on moderate incomes.

The rising half, we must remember, is more affected by social conventions
than the submerged tenth.

The well-to-do should consider more conscientiously those who recruit
their ranks, who, if started right without danger of debt, will have
freedom to advance. The present muddle has come about in part because no
one has taken the trouble to investigate the reasons. The young family
with $3000 a year has ideals for the manners and morals of the children
which are not satisfied with those of the inexpensive tenement quarter.