Who will send me news of the formation of the first Chapter of the
H.P.U.?




CHAPTER X.

"ONLY HER NERVES."


There is a slang expression current among the irreverent youth of the
present day, when referring to a man wise in his own conceit, to the
effect that "what that fellow does not know is torn out." So I,
quoting my juniors, begin my talk with the sentence--for the raciness
of which I apologize--"What American women do not know about
nervousness is torn out!"

Only this week in a city horse-car I watched the faces of my
fellow-passengers,--women, most of them--with a pain at my heart. Oh,
the tired, strained, impatient faces, and the eager, alert, and
anxious expression that belong to the people of this new and free
country! Some of these wretched mortals had babies with them,--babies
whose fretful wails seemed but to voice the mother's expression of
countenance. In an uneasy way the little mites would be shifted from
one shoulder to another, or trotted in nervousness that reminded me
irresistibly of the nursery rhyme which might be the motto of the
American mother: