virtue."

"But marriage," he said--"surely you have the institution of marriage?"

I was really annoyed at this. I returned, sarcastically; "Yes, I am glad
to say that there we can meet your expectation; we have marriage, not only
consecrated by the church, but established and defended by the state.
What has that to do with the question?"

"And you consider marriage," he pursued, "the citadel of morality, the
fountain of all that is pure and good in your private life, the source of
home and the image of heaven?"

"There are some marriages," I said, with a touch of our national humor,
"that do not quite fill the bill, but that is certainly our ideal of
marriage."

"Then why do you say that you have not legislated personal virtue in
America?" he asked. "You have laws, I believe, against theft and murder,
and slander and incest, and perjury and drunkenness?"

"Why, certainly."

"Then it appears to me that you have legislated honesty, regard for human
life, regard for character, abhorrence of unnatural vice, good faith, and
sobriety. I was told on the train coming up, by a gentleman who was
shocked at the sight of a man beating his horse, that you even had laws
against cruelty to animals."

"Yes, and I am happy to say that they are enforced to such a degree that a