"Our physician attributes a great part of the ill-health from which the young ladies suffer, to errors in dress-tight lacing, long and heavy skirts dragging from the hips, and the great weight of clothing upon the lower portion of the back, and insufficient covering for the lower extremities."

Another fruitful source of evil, for which parents are largely responsible, is the supplying of schoolgirls with quantities of rich pastry, cakes, and sweetmeats, which are eaten between meals and often just before going to bed. In one instance, a young lady, previously in perfect health, in the course of two years made herself a confirmed dyspeptic, simply by indulging, night after night, in the indigestible dainties with which she was constantly supplied from home."

Facts prove that girls must have as sensible, nutritious diet as boys.

A generous amount of sleep also assists in making a sound body. Nature will not be cheated out of sleep without protest any more than she will out of food. Scrimp the hours of sleep and the consequences may be even worse than those that follow a meager diet, since insanity is more to be dreaded than starvation.

The celebrated Dr. Richardson, of London, maintains that adults in middle life require an average of eight hours' sleep daily, summer and winter, and that young people require more,-nine and even ten hours. Sleep is "nerve food,""Nature's sweet restorer," and without it there cannot be a sound body any more than a sound mind. Turning night to day in frolic, study, or work, therefore, is abusing Nature, for she demands sleep from nine o'clock in the evening to six in the morning, regularly and unalterably, as sure as the clock can mark the time, as one of the conditions of a sound body. "Early to bed," in the old saw, is well enough; but "early to rise," if it means getting up a long time before breakfast for study or work, is poor counsel. It will not make a man "healthy, wealthy and wise."

Air and exercise are indispensable. We can live longer without food and sleep than we can without air. Indeed, food and sleep fulfill their mission well only by the aid of pure, fresh air. People, old and young, deny themselves pure air and exercise, sleep and rest, and then ache and battle with

disease the remainder of their days and charge the result to brain work.

It is of no consequence what the pursuit of man or woman may be, health and strength cannot be preserved without constant watch and care.

We often wonder that such men as Jay Gould, bearing the burden of millions in business, are not crushed under its weight before they have lived half their days; but one reason is found in the good care they take of themselves.

A friend of Mr. Gould says:

"During office hours he is one of the hardest working men in the world; outside his office he never talks and probably seldom thinks of business. He gives himself up to his books, his pictures, his flowers, his yacht, and, above all, to the companionship of his family. He is of abstemious habits, a total abstainer from intoxicating liquors and tobacco. His food is always plain. He usually rises before six in the morning, and is generally asleep soon after ten at night. His family relations have always been a model of purity and kindly affection."

At the present day there is much talk about overworked pupils in our schools. It is claimed that too close and protracted study breaks down scholars-that our system of education is hard upon the nerves and health of students of both sexes. We very much question the ground of this complaint. The average student, male or female, is not overworked. Other things are the cause of poor health among this class, such as improper dress and diet, late hours, bad habits, and general neglect of the laws of health. In other words, the real cause of the poor health of most students is found at home, and not in the schoolroom.

Miss Adelia A. F. Johnson, a professor in Oberlin College, wrote as follows of female students:

"When mothers are able to send us strong, healthy girls, with simple habits and unperverted tastes, we will return to them and the world, strong healthy women, fitted physically and mentally for woman's work. We believe that more girls are benefited than are injured by the regimen of a well-regulated school, and our belief is founded upon years of observation. The number is not small of girls who have come to us, pale, nervous, and laboring under many of the ills of life, to whom

the regularity that must be observed in a large school, but, most of all, the stimulus of systematic brain work upon the body, has proved most salutary."

Mrs. Mary E. Beedy, who has enjoyed superior opportunities to learn of English customs and schools, writes:

"The importance of health is a dominant idea in the whole nation. Children are trained into habits of out-of-door exercise till they get an appetite for it, as they have for their food; and it is not unusual to hear an English woman say, 'I would as soon go without my lunch as without a walk of an hour and a half in the day.' And the habits of the upper class percolate down through all ranks of life. The schools that expect to get the daughters of the best families must show the best results in health. My own experience would lead me most unhesitatingly to say that regular mental occupation, well arranged, conduces wholly to the health of a girl, and boy, too, in every way, and that girls who have well-regulated mental work are far less liable to fall into hysterical fancies than those who have not such occupation."

The attempt to make study responsible for ill-health, which is the legitimate product of ignorance or defiance of physical laws, can be readily controverted by recurring to facts.

We have spoken of Jay Gould as a conspicuous figure on Wall Street who has observed the laws of health. That a poor boy reared on a farm, with no schooling except the primitive district school, and a few months' study of civil engineering should become the "Money King of Wall Street," and the "Napoleon of American Finance," before he was forty-five years old, is a fact that challenges examination. How was such an experience made possible? No one helped him to this position. Certain elements of character, as business tact, observation, industry, sagacity, temperance, and self-denial on the lines of ease, appetite, and ambition, explain his unusual career. What a university has been to the education of some men, that has Wall Street been to the education of Gould. Business has been his college.

There are three necessary elements in any honorable success: first, honesty; second, industry; and third, ability. I might say that the honesty and industry being granted, the success will ordinarily be measured by the ability, but no amount of ability can make up for the lack of either honesty or industry.

Second, large successes are attainable by great ability or by special opportunity. I do not speak of those successes which are attained by favors secured from the government, or by the use of illegal or immoral means. Sometimes great financial successes are secured by an accidental discovery of the precious metals, by a fortunate investment in a growing locality, or by an invention or the purchase of a patent,-but the element of chance enters into these so largely that no rule could be made for such instances.

W

ILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN was born in Salem, Illi

nois, March 19, 1860. He was sturdy, round-limbed, and fond of play. There is a tradition that his appetite, which has since been a constant companion, developed very early. The pockets of his first trousers were always filled with bread, which he kept for an emergency. One of the

memories belonging to this period was his ambition to be a minister, but this soon gave place to determination to become a lawyer "like father." This purpose was a lasting one, and his education was directed toward that end.

His father purchased a farm of five hundred acres, one mile from the village, and when William was six years old the family removed to their new home. Here he studied, worked and played, until ten years of age, his mother being his teacher. He learned to read quite early; after committing his lessons to memory, he stood upon a little table and spoke them to his mother. This was his first recorded effort at speechmaking. His work was feeding the deer, which his father kept in a small park, helping care for the pigs and chickens, in short, the variety of work known as "doing chores." His favorite sport was rabbit hunting with dogs. It is not certain that these expeditions were harmful to the game, but they have furnished his only fund of adventure.

At the age of ten William entered the public school at Salem, and, during his five years' attendance, was not an especially brilliant pupil, though he never failed in an examination. In connection with his school, he developed an interest in the work of literary and debating societies.

His father's Congressional campaign in 1872 was his first political awakening, and from that time on he always cherished the thought of entering public life. His idea was to first win a reputation and secure a competency at the bar, but he seized the unexpected opportunity which came to him in 1890.

At fourteen he become a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Later, he joined the First Presbyterian Church at Jacksonville, Illinois, and, upon his removal to Nebraska, brought his letter to the First Presbyterian Church of Lincoln, to which he still belongs.

At fifteen he entered Whipple Academy, the preparatory department of Illinois College, at Jacksonville, Illinois, and with this step a changed life began. Vacations found him at home, but for eight years he led the life of a student, and then took up the work of his profession. Six years of his school life were spent in Jacksonville, in the home of Dr. Hiram K. Jones, a relative. The atmosphere of this home had its influence upon the growing lad. Dr. Jones is a man of strong character, of scholarly tastes, and of high ideals, and during the existence