ALL HAIL TO THE BREADWINNER

TH

HE other day a little bevy of people entered a railway restaurant and took possession of a table. There were four children to begin with, all of school age, besides a toddling youngster. There was a youngishappearing woman who seemed to be acting in the capacity of a mother's helper and a woman, with a good many wrinkles in her face, who was plainly the mother of the little tribe. Last of all came the father, well loaded down with bundles and of a serious not to say solemn demeanor. He took his seat at the head of the table and told the waiter to bring four orders of chops and potatoes with a "side" of cold tongue. The family was evidently on its way to a summer resort and good cheer was abundant and expectation ran high. A happy, healthy, harmonious family it seemed to be, both in quality and in quantity, the kind of family that Theodore Roosevelt would

approve.

At a little side table in the same restau

rant sat a gentleman and lady watching the pretty scene. "How jolly they all seem,” said the gentleman. To which his companion replied, "All but the father. Do you notice how grave he is? And I don't wonder. Think of providing bread three times a day for those seven hungry people, to say nothing about chops. I declare, I sometimes marvel at the courage and endurance of the father of a family. Perhaps his daily effort with hands or brain is the only thing that keeps off starvation from those children. And there must be millions like him who have the sole responsibility for other lives."

Undoubtedly there are. Not only do countless fathers win the bread for wives and children, but brothers do it for sisters and sons for mothers. It has always been so since civilization began. One half the world carries the other half on its back. Socialistic theories break down at this point. No reconstruction of society can ever relieve the true man of the duty or deprive him of the joy of winning the daily bread of those dearest to him. This ambition steadies and inspires him as he toils all day long at the counter or the loom or the anvil or the

bench. Had he no such motive work might become unendurable.

But do those for whom he works always appreciate what a load rests upon "father's" shoulders? Is it any wonder that sometimes his face gets tense and the lines in it deepen? These are days of tremendous strain and competition in the industrial world. Sometimes when a man kisses his wife good-bye in the morning he hardly knows what will be his fortunes or misfortunes before he greets her again. Temptations, too, confront the business man today from dawn till sunset. He is in constant danger of becoming mean or sordid or tricky or false. He needs, therefore, the appreciation and help of those for whose sake alone he ventures into the difficult and perilous places.

So, then, honor and guard the breadwinner. When you get your check at the regular time, college boy or college girl, don't take it as a matter of course, but write a line of gratitude to "dear old dad." And, you the wife of his bosom and the other bairns still in the home nest, never let the one who wins for you your daily bread go hungry himself for lack of love and consideration.

Happy breadwinner, gifted with the ability to provide for the material wants of others! May you win their tender love and for yourself that pearl of great price, a good name and a noble character.

“H

"FOND OF HIS FOLKS"

E'S fond of his folks," said a man to me recently concerning a third person

whom I have never met.

This was one of

What the others

several comments passed. were I have forgotten. The thing that sticks in my mind is the fact that this particular person likes his own people. That single element in his make-up predisposes me in his favor. When I meet him I shall expect to find a certain kind of man. He may be defective in other particulars, open to criticism because of this or that peculiarity, but he cannot be wholly bad and my heart warms up to him in advance because he is said to possess that quality of loyalty to his friends and his family.

Yet when characterizing a man, why should you mention this trait as if it were exceptional, as if only now and then a man or woman were found of whom it is true? Pray of whom should we be fond, if not of our own kith and kin? Who has done more for us than they? Who has borne with us more patiently in season and out of season, when