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+"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+<title>
+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Almost a Man, by Mary Wood-Allen, M.D.
+</title>
+
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Almost A Man, by Mary Wood-Allen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Almost A Man
+
+Author: Mary Wood-Allen
+
+Release Date: June 6, 2009 [EBook #29056]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALMOST A MAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Meredith Bach, Katherine Ward and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<div class="center">
+<h1>ALMOST A MAN.</h1>
+<p><span class="larger"><span class='smcap'>by</span><br />
+MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D.</span></p>
+<hr class='invis' />
+<p>Author of <span class='smcap'>Teaching Truth, Child-Confidence Rewarded, The
+Man Wonderful in the House Beautiful</span>, etc.</p>
+<hr class='short' />
+<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>
+&#8220;What is man that thou art mindful of him?&#8221;<br />
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'><span class='smcap'>David.</span></p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>
+&#8220;Every true man is a cause, a country and an age.&#8221;<br />
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'><span class='smcap'>Emerson.</span></p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>
+<span style='margin-left: 1.5625em;'>&#8220;God on thee</span><br />
+Abundantly his gifts hath also poured;<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Inward and outward both his image fair.&#8221;</span><br />
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'><span class='smcap'>Milton.</span></p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<hr class='short' />
+<p><span class='smcap'>published by<br />
+WOOD-ALLEN PUBLISHING CO.<br />
+Ann Arbor, Mich.</span></p>
+<hr class='short' />
+<p>COPYRIGHTED BY<br />
+MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D.<br />
+1895.</p>
+<hr class='pb' />
+</div>
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+<table border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin:1em auto;'>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span style='font-size:small;'>&nbsp;</span></td>
+ <td align='right'><span style='font-size:small;'>PAGE</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Prelude</span></td>
+ <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#PRELUDE'>iii</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Almost a Man</span></td>
+ <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ALMOST_A_MAN'>5</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>A Gateway and a Gift</span></td>
+ <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#A_GATEWAY_AND_A_GIFT'>22</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The White Cross</span></td>
+ <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#THE_WHITE_CROSS'>40</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='PRELUDE' id='PRELUDE'></a>
+<h2>PRELUDE.</h2>
+</div>
+<p>Two lads had crossed the sunny <a name="P1"></a>meadow-land of
+childhood and stood by the gate, at the entrance to
+the rougher paths of youth leading up to the grander
+heights of maturity. They glanced backward, but
+not with regret, for their eyes shone with eagerness to
+climb the upward way. As they waited, an angel came
+bearing a gift for each, which he gave them, saying:
+&#8220;I have brought you a wondrous gift, not for yourselves
+but for others. Listen.&#8221;</p>
+<p>And they bent their heads and listened. And one
+said: &#8220;I hear most entrancing music. It thrills my
+very being. It is for me, for me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But the angel said: &#8220;Listen again. Shut your ears
+to those bewildering tones and you will hear a deeper,
+holier strain.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But the youth said: &#8220;No, I hear only that melody
+which speaks to my own heart. I can hear nothing
+else.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The other youth too took the gift and, bending his
+head at the command of the angel, said: &#8220;I hear that
+sweet entrancing strain which speaks to myself, and
+which promises me pleasure; but deeper than all that
+I hear a tone soft, sweet and low, that sounds like the
+voices of happy children, and of a mother singing to
+her babe.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The angel smiled. &#8220;It is for them,&#8221; he said, &#8220;that
+you must keep your gift. And in the years to come
+that music will be to you the sweetest in the world.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So the youths started on their devious ways through
+the hilly land of youth. There were bird-songs and
+flowers; there were bright paths, and dark ones; there
+were sunny by-paths, which ended in dreamy forests;
+there were pitfalls in unexpected places; there was
+often sorrow where they looked for joy, and failure
+where they expected success. And the one listened
+oft to the entrancing music of his angelic gift,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_iv' name='page_iv'></a>iv</span>
+and was led to think only of himself, and his eye lost
+its fire, his feet often stumbled, and the days and
+nights had no pleasure for him. As he reached the
+heights of maturity he was met by a bright creature
+who laughed with great joy when he offered her his
+love and said exultantly: &#8220;I have kept myself pure
+for you,&#8221; and he, knowing his own dark secrets, could
+make no reply but hung his head and was silent.
+And, thus silent, he heard no more the bewildering
+music of his youth, but instead there came to his ears
+the sound of a broken-hearted woman&#8217;s sobs, and the
+weeping of children mourning the birthright that had
+been lost for them in their father&#8217;s wayward youth.
+And the man said sighingly:</p>
+<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>
+&#8220;O that I had my innocence again<br />
+My untouched honor. But I wish in vain.&#8221;</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<p>But the other lad turned a deaf ear to the brain-bewildering
+music and listened with his soul for the
+happy melodies of the future. And his eye grew
+brighter and his strength increased and his paths were
+straight and clean, and as he neared the heights of
+maturity he was met by one whose robe was shining
+in its brightness and who whispered: &#8220;I have kept
+myself pure for you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>And gladly he answered: &#8220;And I for you;&#8221; and so
+their lives became one, and the melody of happy
+children&#8217;s voices drew nearer and nearer, and listening
+to the sweet voice of the mother singing to her
+babe, and looking into the bright and rosy faces that
+with every glance and motion thanked him for their
+dower of health and honor, he blessed the great Creator
+from whom he had received the wondrous gift
+of potential fatherhood, and gave thanks that he had
+wisely listened to the angel&#8217;s voice bidding him keep
+his gift for those whose life, in the years to come, was
+to be his holiest possession.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='ALMOST_A_MAN' id='ALMOST_A_MAN'></a>
+<h2>ALMOST A MAN.</h2>
+</div>
+<p class="center larger" >By Mary Wood-Allen, M. D.</p>
+<hr class='invis' />
+<p>&#8220;Let me take your book of quotations, please.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Certainly, if I can find it. O, I remember. I
+let Susie Glenn take it. No doubt I can find it in
+her desk.&#8221;</p>
+<p>As she spoke Miss Bell walked to the desk and,
+finding the desired book, took possession of it. An
+open note dropped from it and fell upon the floor.
+Picking it up Miss Bell read: &#8220;My darling little
+sweetheart,&#8221; and glancing at the close saw the signature,
+&#8220;Carl.&#8221; Sending of notes in school was
+forbidden, therefore Miss Bell had no compunction
+of conscience in taking possession of this one, and,
+on the impulse of the moment, read it aloud to Miss
+Lane, her fellow-teacher. It was not only sentimental
+in tone but there were mysterious phrases
+which seemed to hold a deep and sinful significance.
+The women looked at each other with sorrowful
+faces.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What shall I do about it?&#8221; asked Miss Bell.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What a depth of wickedness it reveals!&#8221; exclaimed
+Miss Lane. &#8220;Who would have imagined
+that such a nice appearing boy as Carl Woodford
+could be so base? And Susie Glenn too, such a
+shy, modest little creature as she seems.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you suppose it is really as bad as it seems
+to us? Those expressions which appear to indicate
+such&ndash;&ndash;such almost criminal intimacy perhaps they
+do not understand fully.&#8221;</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6' name='page_6'></a>6</span></div>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you believe it,&#8221; said Miss Lane. &#8220;I
+tell you these children are wiser in sin than we
+older people can imagine. That boy needs to be
+whipped within an inch of his life, the little reprobate!
+I&#8217;d give him such a lecture as would make
+his eyes open wide for once. I&#8217;d make him understand
+that he&#8217;d better not let me catch him in such
+mischief again. And I&#8217;d tell Mrs. Glenn about it
+so that she could punish Susie.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I really am afraid that the result would not
+be what we wish. Suppose we go and talk it over
+with Dr. Barrett. Maybe she can tell us what to
+do.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Dr. Barrett received the ladies with cordiality
+and professed herself willing to aid them in the
+solution of their problem. She did not appear as
+shocked as they did, and even smiled a little as
+Miss Lane, in indignant tones, read aloud the
+offending note.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you think that little rascal should be
+nearly annihilated?&#8221; she asked, turning to the
+Doctor.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I think he should be instructed,&#8221; replied the
+latter. &#8220;Will you send him to me, Miss Bell?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Most gladly, but I don&#8217;t believe he will come.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes he will, if you don&#8217;t frighten him beforehand.
+Don&#8217;t say a word to him about the affair,
+but send him with a note to me and tell him to wait
+for an answer.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The next evening Carl appeared at the Doctor&#8217;s
+residence with the note from Miss Bell. &#8220;I am to
+wait for an answer,&#8221; he said.</p>
+<p>Dr. Barrett only nodded as she wrote on steadily
+for a moment, seeming too much engrossed in her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7' name='page_7'></a>7</span>
+work to notice him. Then she read the note,
+thought a moment, excused herself and left the
+room. Returning immediately she said, &#8220;It will
+be half an hour before the answer is ready. Can
+you wait?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;O certainly.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then sit down here and look over the Youth&#8217;s
+Companion while I finish my letter.&#8221;</p>
+<p>For some moments there was silence and then
+the Doctor, laying down her pen, turned to the boy
+and said, pleasantly; &#8220;You are Carl Woodford, are
+you not?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, ma&#8217;am.&#8221;</p>
+<p><a name="P2"></a>&#8220;It has been so long since I saw you that you
+have almost grown out of my knowledge. You are
+getting to be almost a man. You must be fifteen
+years <a name="P3"></a>old.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not quite. I will be next June.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Almost a man,&#8221; said Dr. Barrett softly as she
+looked thoughtfully into the fire. After a moment&#8217;s
+silence she asked, &#8220;Carl, what is it to be a man?&#8221;</p>
+<p>The boy drew himself up with a self-conscious
+air as he replied.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, to have your growth, and get into business
+for yourself.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, that is not quite it,&#8221; said the Doctor
+smiling, &#8220;for I have my growth and am in business
+for myself, and yet I am not a man.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Maybe it means having a mustache,&#8221; said
+Carl, with a slight flush.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That has something to do with it certainly, but
+Mrs. Flynn has a mustache, and she is not a man.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I don&#8217;t know how to explain it then,&#8221;
+said Carl.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8' name='page_8'></a>8</span></div>
+<p>&#8220;You have studied grammar, will you parse the
+word man?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Man is a common noun, masculine gender,
+third&ndash;&ndash;&ndash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What does masculine gender mean?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It means male.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then to be a man means to be a male. How
+does the grammar define gender?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;The distinction of nouns with regard to
+sex.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Have you studied physiology?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes&#8217;m.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Was it the physiology of man or woman?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, it didn&#8217;t say anything but physiology.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You studied, then, only those organs in which
+men and women are alike, as in their muscular and
+nervous systems, and in the organs of digestion; in
+fact you learned only of the organs which are for
+the preservation of the individual. You learned
+nothing of them in regard to sex, which is termed
+special physiology.&#8221;</p>
+<p>A wave of color was creeping over Carl&#8217;s face,
+seeing which the Doctor said:</p>
+<p>&#8220;As you have never studied this special physiology
+supposing you try to forget that <a name="P4"></a>any one has
+ever told you anything about it, and let us for a few
+minutes talk of it as of God&#8217;s laws. We believe
+God to be pure, and we cannot believe that he
+would make a law that was founded on impurity.
+It is true we are able to think of his laws in an
+impure way, but that is our fault, not his. Let us
+now try to think his pure thoughts after him. If
+there are two sexes created by the Almighty he
+must have a pure purpose in creating them. We
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9' name='page_9'></a>9</span>
+seldom think how much of beauty and melody and
+loveliness is due to sex.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is because of sex that we are gathered
+in families and enjoy all the delights of home. It
+is because of sex that we have ties of kindred,
+brothers, sisters, father, mother, uncles, aunts and
+cousins. Think of the pleasant home gatherings at
+Christmas or Thanksgiving, or upon family birthdays,
+with all the relatives, old and young, meeting
+in love and sympathy; think of the sweet
+prattle of children in the home; think of the tender
+ministrations of mother or sister in times of sorrow
+or illness or death, and remember that these are
+possible because of sex. Men may build themselves
+fine club houses where they congregate to smoke or
+drink or eat together, but these are not homes.
+Women may go away by themselves into a convent
+and give up the world, but in so doing they give
+up the home; for in a real true home there must be
+parents and children, and this comes through sex.
+We may go even farther and say with Mr. Grant
+Allen that <a name="P5"></a>everything high and ennobling in our
+nature springs directly from the fact of sex. He
+claims that to it &#8216;we owe our love of color, of graceful
+forms, of melodious sound, of rhythmical
+motion, the evolution of music, of poetry, of
+romance, of painting, of sculpture, of decorative
+art, of dramatic entertainment. From it,&#8217; he
+says, &#8216;springs the love of beauty, around it all
+beautiful arts circle as their centre. Its subtle aroma
+pervades all literature, and to it we owe the
+heart and all that is best within it.&#8217;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We read of knights of old fighting for &#8216;fayre
+ladye,&#8217; of heroes who died to save wives and children;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10' name='page_10'></a>10</span>
+we cannot take up a book of poetry without
+realizing how love of men and women has been
+the inspiration of the poet in all ages. And this
+is not all that we owe to sex. In all organic
+life we find the same force at work. The song
+of the nightingale is a call to his mate, the
+chirp of cricket, the song of the thrush, the
+note of the grasshopper, every charming voice in
+wild nature are notes of love, and were it not for
+these, field and forest would be silent. Among the
+animals we can trace the beauty of form and of
+covering to the same source. And even in the
+inanimate world of plants and trees we find sex as
+the source of life and beauty. The bright tinted
+flowers are the homes of the father and mother and
+babies of the plant and without the male and female
+principle in plants there would be no bud or blossom
+and no fruit. Remember when you see the
+beauty of the apple orchard in the spring and the
+glowing fruit in the autumn that these are the
+expression of sex-life in the tree.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;My!&#8221; exclaimed Carl, &#8220;I never thought of
+all that before.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I presume not, and many who are older than
+you have no thoughts of sex but those which are
+low and vile. But when you consider how the
+same principle reaches through all nature, and upon
+it depends so much that is beautiful and charming
+you cannot believe that is in itself vile and unholy,
+can you? If we are to think God&#8217;s thoughts after
+him we must come to look upon sex as something
+to be thought of and spoken of only with reverence,
+never to be jested about or debased in any way.
+You begin to see that more is involved in the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11' name='page_11'></a>11</span>
+coming into manhood than you had supposed. But
+we have not gone over the whole matter yet. You
+have read the first chapter of Genesis how that God
+made man in his own image, and out of the dust of
+the earth. We do not suppose that he made him
+out of dirt and water, as a child makes mud-pies,
+but we may accept this as a statement of the scientific
+fact that in man are found the same elements
+as in the earth, such as iron, soda, lime, etc. What
+we want to think of now is the statement that God
+created man by his direct power. Then we are told
+he made woman also. These are the first living
+human beings of whom we have record. Who is
+the third?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Cain.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And who made Cain?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;God,&#8221; answered Carl glibly, as if that must
+be the only orthodox answer.</p>
+<p>&#8220;In the same way that he made Adam and
+Eve?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Carl blushed and was silent.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You were not embarrassed when I spoke of
+the creation of Adam and Eve, you have no reason
+to be embarrassed when I speak of the creation of
+Cain. All was in accordance with the divine will,
+and must therefore be right. We cannot say positively
+that God thought this or that, but we have
+a right to judge from his acts what his purposes
+were. We have a right to suppose that he created
+the earth intending to people it with human beings.
+Of course every possible plan for doing this was
+open to him. He might have created each individual
+as he did Adam, but what would have been the
+result? We should have stood, each one alone, in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12' name='page_12'></a>12</span>
+selfish solitariness, like a lot of ten-pins, able to
+knock each other down but not to help each other
+up. Each one would have been thinking only of
+himself and his own selfish interests. This plan
+could not commend itself to a compassionate Creator,
+and we can imagine that he would say to himself:
+&#8216;That would never do. I must put these, my
+children, in such relation to each other that they
+will have love for each other; that they will be
+bound by ties so strong that nothing can break
+them; they must be created in such a way that they
+will also understand their relation to me and love
+me as their life-giver. To do this I will share with
+them my greatest power, that of creation. I will
+let them help me people the world. By this creative
+power they shall come to understand how I,
+their heavenly Father, love them, and yearn over
+them, and by their dependence as children upon
+their parents they shall learn to depend upon and
+trust me.&#8217; From the plan God adopted for peopling
+the earth we may suppose this to have been his process
+of thought. So you see that sex comes as a
+wondrous gift from God, a gift endowed with a
+marvelous power, and therefore to be held most
+sacred. When I spoke of you as being almost a
+man it was with the thought that now is being conferred
+upon you this gift of sex.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Carl looked up with some surprise. &#8220;Why, I
+have always been a boy.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;True. And a boy is a being who will become
+a man. But he is not endowed with the functions
+of sex until he is about fourteen years old. Then
+sex begins to make itself felt in his whole being.
+He grows taller rapidly; he gains in breadth; he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13' name='page_13'></a>13</span>
+begins to see the long-looked-for mustache; he
+notices the growth of the special organs of sex; he
+begins to feel more manly; to enjoy the society of
+girls as never before; and desires to treat them with
+more attention. This is a time when, if he is
+wrongly taught, he may fall into great wrong-doing
+and injure himself, and not that alone, but those
+who are to come after him. I have not yet told you
+of the great responsibilities that come with this gift
+of sex.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Dr. Barrett rose and, bringing a book from the
+shelves, opened it and showed Carl an illustration,
+saying; &#8220;Did you ever see such a picture as this?&#8221;</p>
+<div class='figtag'>
+<a name='linki_1' id='linki_1'></a>
+</div>
+<div style='padding: .5em 0 0 .5em; float: right; width:297px;'>
+<img src='images/illo013.png' alt='' title='' style='width: 297px; height: 300px;' /><br />
+</div>
+<p><span class="nowrap">&#8220;What are they?&#8221;</span>
+asked he. &#8220;They look
+like pollywogs.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;As much like them
+as anything. But they
+are not pollywogs. They
+have a bigger sounding
+name than that. They
+are called <i>spermatozoa</i>, or
+each one is a <i>spermatozoon</i>.
+They are so tiny
+that they are not visible except with the aid of a
+<a name="P6"></a>microscope, and yet they are alive and very active.
+They live and move in a fluid called <i>semen</i>, and
+they are the living principle contributed by the
+male to the formation of a new creature. Each one
+contains in itself all the particular traits, characteristics
+or talents which the father would confer on
+the child of which this spermatozoon would form a
+part. You are like your father in some things, I
+suppose.&#8221;</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14' name='page_14'></a>14</span></div>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I am like papa in size and in my love
+for mathematics. He says I have his quick temper,
+too.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That leads me to speak of another fact. You
+see that you were a part of your father during his
+whole life, and you were affected by all that affected
+him. You were changed or modified by his habits.
+If he tried to curb his quick temper, it has made it
+easier for you to control yourself; but if he allowed
+it full sway, it has made it harder for you. If he
+were truthful and honest, it has made it easy for
+you to be the same; but if he were wild and dissipated,
+it would make it easier for you to yield to
+the same temptations.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Was that what he meant when he said he was
+not surprised that Will Grey was so bad a boy, for
+his father was a very wild young man?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, that was exactly what he meant.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;If that is so why don&#8217;t fathers tell their boys
+about it so that they can behave better when they
+are young?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That is just what I think they ought to do,
+but unfortunately people have thought they must
+not talk of these things to young folks for fear it
+will make them bad instead of good.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I guess that would depend upon the
+way they told it. Now they don&#8217;t tell it right, but
+leave the boys to be told in wrong ways, and that
+really does lead them to be bad. No one ever
+talked to me as you have <a name="P7"></a>to-night, and I am sure
+it makes me want to be better.&#8221;</p>
+<div class='figtag'>
+<a name='linki_2' id='linki_2'></a>
+</div>
+<div style='padding: .5em 0 0 .5em; float: right; width:363px;'>
+<img src='images/illo015.png' alt='' title='' style='width: 363px; height: 300px;' /><br />
+</div>
+<p><span class="nowrap">&#8220;That ought to be</span> the effect, and I believe it
+would be if boys were only &#8216;told right,&#8217; as you say.
+But I have told you only half the story. Here is
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15' name='page_15'></a>15</span>
+another picture. These are called <i>ova</i>. One is
+an <i>ovum</i>, and these are the principle the mother
+gives to the future
+child. They are
+greatly magnified.
+It would take 240
+of them lying side
+by side to make a
+row an inch long,
+so we say they are <sup>1</sup>&frasl;<sub>240</sub>
+of an inch in
+diameter, but tiny
+as they are, each
+ovum contains all
+the traits or talents that the mother gives to the
+child of which this particular ovum may form a
+part. Your mother is English, your father American.
+Their childhood and youth were spent thousands
+of miles apart, and yet both were working by
+the habits of their lives to create you in your peculiar
+traits and talents. Are you like your parents
+in any of their capabilities?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I am like mother in her love for music;
+you know she is a fine musician.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, and in the cultivation of her own musical
+ability she made it easier for you to learn music;
+just as your father, in his study as an engineer, has
+given you a love for mathematics.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But my grandfather and great-grandfather
+were engineers, and I am going to be one, too.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is true that you inherit from your grandparents,
+also, but it must be through your parents,
+and they may have changed the direction of the
+inheritance. This important fact you should know
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16' name='page_16'></a>16</span>
+and remember. You can change yourself by education
+so that the inheritance of your children may
+be quite changed. For example, if you know that
+you lack perseverance, you can, by constantly making
+a mighty effort to overcome this defect, compel
+yourself to persevere, and this would tend to give
+your children perseverance. So you see we need
+not despair because we have inherited faults from
+our ancestors, but we should determine all the more
+that we will not pass these defects on to later generations.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I guess that is what Dr. Brice meant when he
+said that mother&#8217;s good care of her health had overcome
+in us children to a great extent the tendency
+to consumption which is in her family. Nearly all
+my cousins on her side die with it, but when she
+was a little girl her father made her live out of
+doors all the time and she grew strong, and we none
+of us seem to have any tendency to consumption.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see then the value of caring for yourself
+in youth, not only for your own sake but for that
+of your children. Your mother did not know that
+she would ever have children to be benefitted by
+her out-door life. But one day she met a young
+man who pleased her, and as they grew to know
+each other better they came to love each other so
+that they wished to leave home and friends and
+make their own home and live their united lives
+separate and apart from all the rest of the world.
+So they were married, as we say. Marriage is the
+union of one man and one woman under the sanction
+of the law. This is the closest and most sacred
+human relation. In this relation the <i>spermatozoon</i>
+of the man unites with the germ or <i>ovum</i> of the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17' name='page_17'></a>17</span>
+woman and a new life is begun. When your parents
+knew that such a little life had begun in their
+home they felt a great and holy joy, and desired
+that every good might surround it in its development.
+You were the first to come into your father&#8217;s
+home. After your life had begun you were still so
+small as not to be visible to the naked eye, and
+would have been lost had you come into the world.
+But a home had been prepared for you in your
+mother&#8217;s body, where day by day you grew and
+grew. The food which she ate nourished you as well
+as herself. The air which she breathed was life to
+you as well as to her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You have seen the father-bird bringing food to
+the mother-bird as she sits upon her eggs and waits
+for the birdlings to come forth, and you have
+thought it a pretty sight to watch his tender care
+of her. Even so your father watched over your
+mother and you. He provided everything as pleasant
+as possible, he removed every care from her
+path so that she might be happy and so make you
+happy. His love for her took on a new and strange
+tenderness it had not known before. And she, holding
+you warm and close in the embrace of her body,
+thought of you and loved you. She wondered how
+you would look; she dreamed of you; she fancied
+she could feel the touch of your fluttering fingers;
+she made your little wardrobe and with each stitch
+wove in some tender thought of the baby whom she
+had never seen. Then one day she cried out with
+great anguish of body but joy of heart, &#8216;O my
+baby is coming.&#8217; Then through long hours she
+suffered, going down almost to the gates of death
+that you might have life. But she never murmured;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18' name='page_18'></a>18</span>
+in spite of all her pain and anguish of body
+her very soul was full of rejoicing that soon she
+would hold you in her arms. When all those hours
+of peril and anxiety were past and you were laid in
+your mother&#8217;s arms, your father came and bent
+over you both with a measureless love, and looking
+into your little face they knew what the Scripture
+meant when it said, &#8216;And they twain shall be one
+flesh,&#8217; for were not you a living fulfillment of that
+saying? You were a part of each united in a living
+being who belonged to them both. Then for the
+first time could they realize, even dimly, the yearning,
+tender love of their heavenly Father who had
+granted to them to know by experience his feelings
+towards his children.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Great tears had gathered in the boy&#8217;s eyes as
+she talked, and now with choking voice he said,
+&#8220;I don&#8217;t think I can ever be disobedient again, Dr.
+Barrett. I did not understand it all as I do now.
+You know we only hear these things talked of
+among the boys, and I had come to feel that there
+was some reason why I ought to be ashamed of my
+father and mother; but it all looks so different to
+me now. I wish you could talk to the other boys
+as you have to me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It may not be possible for me to do so, although
+I should be glad to do it, but you can help them to
+think more truly on these subjects. You can
+especially help them to treat women and girls with
+more respect than they often do, because you can
+see how an injury to any girl is an injury to the
+whole world.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t quite see that,&#8221; said Carl.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You can see that if any one had injured your
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19' name='page_19'></a>19</span>
+mother in her girlhood it would have been an injury
+to all her children, can you not?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;O yes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And that injury might be passed on to future
+generations. There lived a poor girl, about a hundred
+years ago, who was uncared for by good people
+and wronged by evil ones, and to-day she is
+known as a &#8216;mother of criminals,&#8217; and no one can tell
+where the mischief will end. You would feel very
+indignant if you knew that some one had done your
+mother an injury in her girlhood, and you would feel
+the same way should any one wrong your sisters.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I knocked Bill Jones down last week because
+he said something to my sister Kate.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You felt a righteous anger and manifested it.
+Well, in all probability you will some day marry.
+If so, there is in the world to-day the girl who will
+be your wife. How do you want her to be treated
+by the boys who are her school-companions? Do
+you like to think that they are rough with her, or
+playing at lovering with her? Is it a pleasant
+thought that she is allowing them to caress her or
+write her silly sentimental notes?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Carl&#8217;s face was scarlet, but he answered bravely;
+&#8220;No, it isn&#8217;t.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The Doctor continued. &#8220;Some day, in all likelihood,
+a little girl-child will climb upon your knee
+and call you papa. No creature can ever be to you
+what that little daughter will be. If any one should
+injure her&ndash;&ndash;&ndash;.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d kill him,&#8221; broke in Carl hotly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;If you feel that way, dear boy, you should remember
+that every girl is some one&#8217;s daughter, perhaps
+some one&#8217;s sister, will probably be some one&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20' name='page_20'></a>20</span>
+wife and some one&#8217;s mother, so that all girls should
+be sacred to you, treated with chivalrous courtesy
+and protected even as you feel you would protect
+those who may belong especially to you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But don&#8217;t you believe in boys and girls being
+friends at all?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Most assuredly I do. Nothing is more charming
+than the frank comradeship of girls and boys,
+and that is why I am so sorry to see them spoil it
+with sentimentality. They ought to be good
+friends, helping each other, having jolly good times
+together, but never in ways that will bring a blush
+to the cheeks of either, now, or in the years to
+<a name="P8"></a>come.&#8221;</p>
+<p>A rap sounded on the door and the maid entered
+with a note which she gave to the doctor, who
+handed it to Carl, saying, &#8220;Here is the note for
+Miss Bell. I have kept you waiting a long time,
+but I hope it has not been unprofitable.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Indeed it has not. I am ever so much obliged
+to you, I am sure.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And if you ever wish to talk to me again you
+will feel free to come, will you not?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, ma&#8217;am, I surely will,&#8221; answered the
+lad with a frank clasp of the hand.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wait a moment,&#8221; said the doctor, &#8220;I have
+just thought of a little book that I am sure you will
+be interested in reading. It is called &#8216;A Gateway
+and a Gift,&#8217; and it deals with some of the questions
+we have been talking about this evening. You can
+lend it to some of your boy friends if you wish.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Thank you,&#8221; said Carl, taking the book which
+the doctor handed him, and then with another
+&#8220;Good <a name="P9"></a>night,&#8221; he walked away in the darkness.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21' name='page_21'></a>21</span></div>
+<p>The note which he gave to Miss Bell the next
+morning read merely:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t say anything to Carl. Just wait.&#8221;</p>
+<p>If Miss Bell had seen a note slipped by Carl into
+Susie Glenn&#8217;s hand an hour later she might have
+thought it an evidence that the doctor&#8217;s plan had
+failed. But had she read the note her opinion
+would have been that it had succeeded. It read:</p>
+<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:2.0em; '>&#8220;Dear Susie:&ndash;&ndash;It was real mean of me to write
+that note yesterday. Will you forgive me? Say,
+Susie, I think all this nonsense about lovers and
+sweethearts is silly rot, don&#8217;t you? Let&#8217;s be just
+friends. Respectfully yours,</p>
+<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:2.0em; '><span class="in2"><span class='smcap'>Carl</span>.&#8221;</span></p>
+<p>Susie&#8217;s answer was short but to the point. It read:</p>
+<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:2.0em; '>&#8220;All right. Let&#8217;s.</p>
+<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:2.0em; '><span class="in2"><span class='smcap'>Susie.</span>&#8221;</span></p>
+<p>Several months later Miss Bell and Miss Lane
+called again on Dr. Barrett.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Have you come with another problem?&#8221; asked
+the doctor.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, we have come to report progress and to
+learn, if possible, just how it has come about. There
+has been a wonderful change in the school. The
+girls and boys are no less friendly, but it is without
+that silly sentimentality which was so annoying.
+They are now just real good comrades, and seem to
+help each other in being orderly, polite, and studious.
+How did you do it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps all credit is not due to me, but I will
+say that I gave Carl the instruction I thought he
+needed and he has passed the good word along.
+Several of the boys have met with me once a month
+to study concerning themselves, and I can see that
+they have grown to have a reverence for themselves
+and a deep regard for all womanhood. Carl was in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22' name='page_22'></a>22</span>
+last evening, and said, &#8216;Dr. Barrett, I am so glad
+Miss Bell sent me with that note to you, for your
+talk to me that night has changed my whole life,
+I know. I feel so much cleaner all through, and
+have so much more respect for myself. And I
+think so differently of girls and women, and especially
+of my mother, and I realize as I never did before
+how important a thing it is to be almost a man.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='A_GATEWAY_AND_A_GIFT' id='A_GATEWAY_AND_A_GIFT'></a>
+<h2>A GATEWAY AND A GIFT.</h2>
+</div>
+<p>Three gateways span the path of earthly existence:
+one at the entrance which we call the gate
+of birth; one at the close which we call the gate of
+death, and one at the entrance to the wondrous Land
+of the Teens, which we call the gate of manhood or
+of womanhood. At each of these gates a wonderful
+gift is presented to each individual. At the gate
+of birth it is the gift of earthly life, at death
+it is the gift of continued life, and at the gate which
+opens into the Land of the Teens it is the gift of
+creative life. You see that each gift is of life.</p>
+<p>The path of earthly life, beginning at the gateway
+of birth, passes through the sunny meadow-land
+of Childhood, and also through a strange, mysterious
+land to which we have referred as the Land of the
+Teens, before reaching the Heights of Maturity.
+This Land of the Teens is peculiar in that the
+inhabitants are neither children nor adults, and yet,
+with the inexperience of children, they have many
+of the desires and emotions of grown-up people.
+This constitutes an element of great danger, while
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23' name='page_23'></a>23</span>
+another source of danger is the fact that adequate
+guidance is not always given in this transition
+period, or, if proffered, is proudly rejected by those
+who think that being in their &#8220;teens&#8221; makes them
+wise above that which is written.</p>
+<p>When we visit foreign lands we are grateful for
+guidance and direction, especially if we are not
+acquainted with the language; so, if we do not hire
+a guide we, at least, buy a guide-book. It seems
+to me, then, that we ought not to rebel against
+guides through the Land of the Teens, realizing
+that one who has traveled through a country
+can point out beauties and warn against dangers
+which would not be recognized by the inexperienced
+traveler.</p>
+<p>We can visit England, Italy, or Germany many
+times, and at each journey can profit by former
+experiences, but we pass through the Land of the
+Teens but once, and the lessons we learn on that
+journey we can only utilize for the benefit of
+others. This is why many people on the Heights
+of Maturity are anxious to light a beacon for those
+who are still in their &#8220;teens.&#8221; They would
+gladly help others to shun the by-paths where
+they have met disaster, for they have learned
+the very solemn truth that in youth one is determining
+what maturity shall be. The seeds sown
+in the sunny meadow of Childhood and in the
+broader fields of the Land of the Teens are harvested
+in the uplands of Maturity, and the harvest
+is always greater than the seed sown. The petulance
+and pouting of the child hardens into the
+gruffness, bad-temper, and moroseness of the man;
+the idleness and shirking of the youth becomes the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24' name='page_24'></a>24</span>
+shiftlessness and unreliability of the adult; the boy&#8217;s
+neglect of duty and unwearied search for pleasure
+may be harvested in dissipation and ruin in mature
+life. It is, then, a very serious thing to be passing
+through one&#8217;s &#8220;teens,&#8221; and the wise youth will
+welcome any guide who will show him a safe path.
+May I claim the privilege of acting for a little time
+in that capacity?</p>
+<p>The King of this land has made laws for its
+government and wisdom, has builded paths wherein
+one may walk in safety. The laws made by the
+King are not harsh and cruel, but are beneficent,
+and he denies no real good. He says to the traveler,
+&#8220;You belong to me, and I am desirous of your
+highest welfare; therefore, obey me and you shall
+be rewarded; disobey me and you shall be punished.&#8221;
+It needs some moral courage to bravely stay
+in the path of Wisdom, for there are many allurements
+to leave it; more particularly as the inexperience
+of the traveler does not warn him of the dangers
+of following pleasures that lead away from wisdom&#8217;s
+ways. The guide worthy of trust must not
+fail to point out these dangers; and the prudent
+youth will listen to the warning voice and walk in
+Wisdom&#8217;s ways, for &#8220;all her ways are <a name="P10"></a>pleasantness,
+and all her paths are peace.&#8221;</p>
+<p>We talk much about our personal liberty, and
+assert that we have a right to live in Maine or California,
+but we have not that much liberty in regard
+to dwelling in the Land of the Teens. If we are
+ever to reach the Heights of Maturity we must
+spend ten years in the Teens. We cannot sell our
+domain, nor give it away, and we cannot even hire
+some one to cultivate it for us. This being the case,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25' name='page_25'></a>25</span>
+it becomes important for us to study the soil and
+how best to develop its advantages.</p>
+<p>We find that the land has three divisions: the
+Domain of the Body, the Field of Intellect, and
+the Garden of the Heart,&ndash;&ndash;the same divisions that
+exist in the Sunny Land of Childhood, and that we
+have been cultivating ever since we were born.
+These are the kingdoms which came to us with the
+gift of life. We recognize that the gifts which come
+to us at birth and death are of life for ourselves
+alone, and we have had no thought during our
+childish years except to develop our powers for our
+own advantage. It may be we have not felt perfectly
+satisfied with our lot in life, but we have felt
+that we were not responsible for this. We did not
+choose to be born in America instead of Asia,
+though we do not rebel at this fact. We did not
+select to be white instead of black. It is not our
+fault if we are born of a family in which consumption
+is an inheritance; and, on the other hand, we
+can claim no credit to ourselves if we have inherited
+strong bodies with healthful tendencies. It is
+our misfortune, and not our fault, if we are not
+quite perfectly poised by nature; it is our good fortune,
+not our foresight, if we have genius instead of
+mediocrity. The gifts that come to us through
+inheritance are ours without blame or credit to
+us but they bring with them the responsibility of
+their use. We are responsible for maintaining or
+increasing our dower of health by obedience to
+physical laws; responsible for the cultivation of
+our intellects, for the development of inherited virtues,
+and the annihilation of inherited vices.</p>
+<p>If you study your characteristics and talents
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26' name='page_26'></a>26</span>
+you find that they repeat those of your ancestry.
+Your eyes, hair, <a name="P11"></a>mouth, chin, your stature, figure,
+complexion, your talents, capabilities, tendencies,
+your likes and dislikes, your faults as well as your
+virtues are repetitions of those who preceded you in
+this living network of existence of which you form
+a part. If you are not like father or mother you
+may be like grandfather or great-grandmother. If
+you do not find yourself repeating the characteristics
+or personality of any one ancestor, you may
+find yourself a composite photograph of several.
+And even if you cannot trace in yourself a likeness
+to any family representative, you may still be
+assured that from some of them your traits have
+come to you. You have only to recall the complexity
+of your sources of inheritance and then
+remember how many words can be spelled from the
+twenty-six letters of the alphabet to see that you
+can hardly measure the peculiar forces of mind and
+body that may come to you though that power of
+transmission which we call heredity.</p>
+<p>It may occur to you to ask why, if we are not
+responsible for our inheritances, is it needful to give
+them any particular thought? There are two reasons
+why we should consider the good and bad characteristics
+which may be ours through inheritance.
+In the first place, heredity is not fatality, and we
+are not absolutely obliged to follow the paths which
+our ancestors marked out for us, and in the second
+place, we can, by understanding our own characters,
+mark out better paths for our posterity. We are
+not only receivers of life, but we may be also givers
+of life, and this is the gift that comes to you at the
+entrance to the Land of the Teens. Can you imagine
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27' name='page_27'></a>27</span>
+a more important period in the life of an individual
+than that point where is intrusted to him the
+physical powers which make him the arbiter of the
+destiny of those who come after him?</p>
+<p>The gift of possible life for others is even more
+marvelous than that of actual life for one&#8217;s self and
+brings with it greater responsibility. It is accompanied
+with marked physical changes. You have
+observed them in yourself, though you <a name="P12"></a>perhaps have
+not understood them. Up to this time you have been
+but a child, and all your physical forces have been
+occupied in keeping you alive and growing. But
+you are now to become a man, with powers that
+will unite you to the race; powers that will give
+you the ability to form a new link in the living
+chain that now ends with you. You have noticed
+the rapid unfolding of your bodily powers; you
+have become conscious of new and strange emotions;
+you have, it may be, found yourself becoming
+irritable and have felt bewildered with the new
+aspects of life and have wondered what it all means.
+It may be you have felt as did one boy who said to
+his mother, to whom he confided all his problems of
+life: &#8220;Mamma, I want to kick and cry, and I don&#8217;t
+know why.&#8221; The mother knew. She understood
+the strange unfolding that was going on in his
+physical organism, and she kindly explained it to
+him, telling him that he must have patience with
+himself, and govern himself by his judgment and
+not allow himself to be carried away by impulse,
+assuring him that God would hold him as responsible
+for purity of character as He would the dear
+sister of whom they all felt so careful. He should
+reverence his manhood, even as he expected her to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28' name='page_28'></a>28</span>
+reverence her womanhood. This is necessary, not
+only for the good of each individual, but also for
+the eternal interest of future generations.</p>
+<p>This entrance into the Land of the Teens is a
+serious, even a dangerous period, for if you have
+not had right instruction you may be led, or fall
+into habits of wrong doing or thinking. If you are
+rightly taught you will begin to have an added
+reverence for yourselves in that God is dignifying
+you with new powers that will bring you more
+nearly into co-partnership with himself. These
+powers, the most sacred of all that have come to
+you, need years for development, and should be
+guarded by pure thoughts and kept for their holy
+office of promoting the earthly usefulness and
+eternal blessedness of those who hereafter will owe
+both earthly and immortal life to you.</p>
+<p>I have said that we are not responsible for the
+dower of virtues or of vices which are ours by
+inheritance, but we are responsible for the inheritances
+of our children, and this is a most solemn
+thought. Do you not begin to see that we cannot
+value ourselves too highly if we have the right idea
+of what our real worth is? We can scarcely overestimate
+the results of our own deeds. We may
+think it does not matter if we do not always tell the
+exact truth; if at some times we equivocate and at
+others exaggerate, but when we remember that
+truth is the foundation of character, and realize
+that by our little equivocations or exaggerations we
+may be weakening the foundations of many who
+are from us to receive their talents and tendencies,
+we begin to see that the matter is a very serious
+one. I am sometimes told that young people
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29' name='page_29'></a>29</span>
+will not be influenced by a consideration for the
+welfare of unborn generations whose existence is
+very problematical in their thought; but my observation
+is that young folks are much more sensible
+than we give them credit for being. More than one
+young man has said to me: &#8220;I was never taught
+that my conduct and thought would impress themselves
+upon my children, but now that I see that
+such is the case, I am sure that I will hereafter be
+more careful of my life than I ever have been.&#8221;</p>
+<p>This field of investigation is a broad one, and
+even if you never have an opportunity to study the
+subject scientifically you can still be of incalculable
+benefit to humanity by ever remembering that you
+are living for an earthly, as well as for a heavenly
+immortality. The young people who to-day are in
+the Land of the Teens are they who are determining
+the characteristics of the men and women of the
+Twentieth Century, creating the standards of
+thought and action, the methods of business, the
+level of morals, in fact the whole status of society
+in the world of a hundred years to come.</p>
+<p>It is a very wonderful fact that God has so
+created us that the result of our deeds is not limited
+to our own lives, but makes its impress upon those
+who are to come after us. We are not separate
+units, but are links in a living chain of endless
+transmission. This fact makes our lives of far
+greater consequence than if, in their results, they
+were limited to ourselves. If we are anxious concerning
+the future of our country, we may take
+to heart the thought that it will be what we ourselves
+have made it. The Bible expresses the same
+idea in many ways. &#8220;Whatsoever a man soweth,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30' name='page_30'></a>30</span>
+that shall he also reap,&#8221; does not mean merely that
+his own future will be influenced by his conduct,
+but that his future in his children will be a record
+which he himself has made.</p>
+<p>Men often make their wills and bequeath to their
+children their gold or houses and lands, but sometimes
+against their wills they bequeath to their
+children a bodily dwelling of inferior material, and
+so poor in construction that it very soon falls into
+decay through disease, or in very early life becomes
+a tottering ruin. It would seem rather amusing to
+us if one should sit down and write his will and say:
+&#8220;I bequeath to my daughter Mary my yellow,
+blotched and pimpled complexion, resulting from
+my own bad habits of life. I bequeath to my son
+John, the effects of my habits of dissipation in my
+youth, with a like love for alcoholic liquors and
+tobacco. I bequeath to my son Harry my petulant,
+irritable disposition, and the rheumatic gout which
+I have brought upon myself by disobedience to
+physical law; and to my daughter Elizabeth, my
+trembling nerves and weak moral nature.&#8221; But
+this is, in truth, what many parents do, and the
+children find it a sad, instead of an amusing
+fact.</p>
+<p>On the other hand, if one has led a life of uprightness
+and morality, and has obeyed physical
+law, his children will inherit his physical vigor,
+and his moral stamina. It becomes of exceeding
+great importance that these facts should be known
+to the young, in order that they may endeavor to
+overcome their own weaknesses, and strengthen
+their own good qualities for the sake of future
+generations.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31' name='page_31'></a>31</span></div>
+<p>This heredity, the transmission of the qualities
+of the parent to the child, is found among plants
+and animals as well as in the human race. The
+seed of a plant produces another plant of the same
+kind, and the farmer knows when he sows wheat,
+that his harvest will be wheat, and he should know
+just as certainly that if he &#8220;sows wild oats&#8221; in his
+youth he may expect &#8220;wild oats&#8221; in his children.
+The character of the food we eat, the air we breathe,
+the occupations we follow, the habits we create, are
+the forces which shape not only our own destiny,
+but create the tendencies of our children.</p>
+<p>With these thoughts in mind, the question of the
+use of narcotics becomes one of great importance.
+There are few, if any, tobacco users who are anxious
+that their boys should early begin the use of the weed.
+But they do not realize the fact that in their own
+use of it they may have diminished the vital force
+of these boys, transmitting a tendency to disease, or
+perhaps an appetite for the tobacco itself, and not
+only will the boys feel the effects, but the girls as
+well. As the thought of men is turned in this
+direction, proofs are accumulating of the evil
+results to the children of <a name="P13"></a>tobacco-using parents.
+A prominent physician says: &#8220;I have never
+known an habitual tobacco user whose children did
+not have deranged nerves, and sometimes weak
+minds. Shattered nervous systems, for generations
+to come, may be the result of this indulgence. The
+children of tobacco-using parents frequently die
+with infantile paralysis. I have known two cases
+in which the crying of the baby could not be stopped
+until the tobacco-pipe was placed between its
+lips.&#8221; Dr. Pidduck asserts that in no instance is the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32' name='page_32'></a>32</span>
+sin of the father more strikingly visited upon his
+children than the sin of tobacco using. &#8220;The
+enervation, the hypochondriasis, the hysteria, the
+insanity, the dwarfish deformities, the consumption,
+the suffering lives, and early deaths of the children
+of inveterate smokers bear ample testimony to the
+feebleness and unsoundness of the constitution
+transmitted by this pernicious habit.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The effect of alcohol upon the child is equally
+marked, and from all sides comes the testimony that
+the degenerations do not stop with the individual,
+but pass on to succeeding generations. Sometimes
+the influence is seen in the stunting of the growth,
+both mentally and physically. Dr. Langden Downe
+reports several cases of this sort where the children
+had lived to be twenty-two years old and still remained
+infants, symmetrical in form, just able to
+stand beside a chair, utter a few monosyllabic
+sounds, and to be amused with toys. Dr. F. R.
+Lees, referring to the injury inflicted upon the liver
+by alcohol, says: &#8220;And recollect, whatever injury
+you inflict upon this organ, to your posterity the
+curse descends, and as is the father, so are the
+children.&#8221; Dr. Kerr asserts that the effects of injury
+to the mind and body may not always show
+themselves in the drinker himself, yet it is doubtful
+if his children ever entirely escape the effects in one
+form or another. These effects may be manifest in
+insanity, or in a tendency to diseases of the stomach,
+liver, bowels, lungs, or other organs; or with a like
+love for alcoholic stimulants. Not only may the
+child be weak in body but also in intellect. It is
+the statement of a score of observant physicians that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33' name='page_33'></a>33</span>
+the children of intemperate parents are apt to be
+feeble in body and weak in mind.</p>
+<p>Another very striking thought in this connection
+is that while the physical effects may not show
+in the individual himself, nor in his children, they
+may be manifest in the deterioration of his grandchildren
+and great-grandchildren. A prominent
+temperance advocate who was laid up with rheumatic
+gout, which is apt to be the result of alcoholic
+indulgence, replied to a friend who wondered
+that he, a drinker of cold water, should suffer
+with this disease, &#8220;Yes, my ancestors drank the
+liquor and I foot the bills.&#8221; In 1834 the Parliament
+of the British House of Commons made a
+report of intemperance in which they stated that
+the evils of alcoholism &#8220;are cumulative in the
+amount of injury they inflict, as intemperate parents,
+according to high medical testimony, give a
+taint to their offspring before birth, and the poisonous
+stream of spirits is conveyed through the milk
+of the mother to the infant at the breast; so that the
+fountain of life, through which nature supplies that
+pure and healthy nutriment of infancy, is poisoned
+at its very source, and a diseased and vitiated appetite
+is thus created, which grows with its growth,
+and strengthens with its increasing weakness and
+decay.&#8221;</p>
+<p>A tendency to commit suicide seems to be a
+marked bequest of an inebriate parent to his children,
+and it is well to state that in the opinion of
+medical men who are dealing with all forms of
+inebriety, the evils resulting to the children may be
+transmitted by parents who have never been noted
+for drunkenness. Continual moderate drinking
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34' name='page_34'></a>34</span>
+keeps the body so constantly under the influence of
+alcohol that a crowd of nervous difficulties and disorders
+may be transmitted even more surely than
+from the parent who has occasional sprees with long
+intervals of sobriety between. It is not only
+through the drinking father that injury is done to
+the children, but the mother may have a vitiated
+inheritance from her father and transmit it to her
+children.</p>
+<p>When we recall the fact that one hundred thousand
+men fall into drunkard&#8217;s graves every year,
+we are appalled at the thought of that vast army
+marching on to death and destruction. As we
+listen, we can, in fancy, almost hear the tramp,
+tramp of that &#8220;mighty host advancing, Satan
+leading on.&#8221; In the front rank comes the one
+hundred thousand men who shall fall into drunkard&#8217;s
+graves this year, and behind them the one
+hundred thousand men who are to fall next
+year. They come with sound of revelry and song,
+and close beside them press a crowd of weeping
+wives and mothers and little children, starved,
+crippled, and murdered, who are to be fellow victims
+with the drunkard. Not very far back from
+the front row come one hundred thousand young
+men in the very prime of young, vigorous life,
+just beginning to drink their first glass of wine or
+beer, with no intention of ever standing in that
+front row, yet having started on the way. Back of
+them, one hundred little school boys who think it
+manly to ape the follies of their predecessors. Back
+of them, one hundred thousand little toddlers whose
+feet stagger in their innocent helplessness. Back
+of them, one hundred thousand mothers with babies
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35' name='page_35'></a>35</span>
+in their arms. Oh, how sweetly those baby eyes
+look up into the loving eyes that are brooding over
+them. Is it possible those baby brows will ever lie
+low in the gutter, those sweet lips be stained by
+oath or glass; those crumpled rose-leaf fingers ever
+strike the murderous blow incited by alcohol? It
+must be, if that front rank of one hundred thousand
+drunkards is to be recruited, for the drunkards
+of the future are to-day babies in their mother&#8217;s
+arms. Do you who read these words intend to join
+this vast army of prospective drunkards, or will
+you belong to the cold-water army that is marching
+on accompanied by health, vigor, industry,
+prosperity, success and long life?</p>
+<p>We must not be so interested in the inheritance
+of evil qualities as to forget the transmission of
+good. We read in Exodus, twentieth chapter, that
+the sins of the fathers are to be visited upon the
+children unto the third and fourth generations of
+them that hate the Lord, but mercy will be shown
+to <i>thousands of generations</i> of them that love Him
+and keep his commandments. As we have seen
+the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children
+in transmission of diseased bodies, perverted
+moral natures and weakened wills, and realize that
+the promise is being fulfilled in the visitation of
+the sins of the fathers upon the children, let us
+see if the other promise is being fulfilled also, in
+the mercy shown to thousands of them that love the
+Lord and keep His commandments.</p>
+<p>An English specialist in children&#8217;s diseases has
+carefully noted the difference between twelve families
+of drinkers and twelve families of sober parents
+during a period of twelve years.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36' name='page_36'></a>36</span></div>
+<blockquote>
+<table border="1 black" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<colgroup>
+<col width="45%" />
+<col width="45%" />
+</colgroup>
+<tr><td align="center"><b>INTEMPERATE.</b></td><td align="center"><b>TEMPERATE.</b></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Produced 57 children; 25 died in the first week of life.
+These deaths due to convulsions, or &oelig;dema of brain and membranes.
+2 were idiots. 5 dwarfs. 5 epileptics. 1 had chorea. 5 were deformed.
+2 became drunkards. This leaves only 10 who showed during the whole of
+life a normal disposition and development of body and mind.</td>
+<td align="left"> Produced 61 children; 6 died in first week, of weakness.
+4 had curable diseases. 2 showed inherited nervous defects. This leaves 50
+who were in every way normal, sound in body and mind.</td></tr>
+</table>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>If it were not a fact that health, purity, integrity,
+intellect and virtue were being transmitted to
+a far greater extent than sin and vice, there would
+be little good in the world, but the transmission of
+these good qualities is so extended, so like the air
+and the sunshine and the water, a common thing,
+that we almost forget to recognize it. When we
+turn our thoughts to the investigation of this phase
+of the subject, we find that vigorous parents have
+healthful children, that powers of intellect are
+transmitted, and that honesty and uprightness in
+the father warrants us in expecting the same in the
+son. We recognize the transmission of powers of
+intellect in the fact that where the parents have a
+peculiar talent, we very generally find the same
+talent in their children. We are acquainted with
+musical families, mathematical families, artistic
+families, and in the study of renowned people of
+the world we find evidences of this transmission of
+intellect. We also learn that the effects of education
+are <a name="P14"></a>transmissible, and if the parents are educated
+along a certain line the children receive education
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37' name='page_37'></a>37</span>
+along that line much more readily. This fact becomes
+a wonderful incentive to us to build up all that
+is best in our own natures in order that through us
+the world may receive an impetus towards higher
+and better things.</p>
+<p>Sometimes when your faults and defects press
+upon you with tremendous force and you find it so
+very hard to overcome them, you may be tempted
+to lay the blame on your ancestry who gave you
+such a dower, who by their lives handicapped you
+in your life-struggle. You may feel inclined to
+say with some writer, to me unknown, who says:</p>
+<p class="center" >HEREDITY.</p>
+<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>
+&#8220;Your strictures are unmerited,<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Our follies are inherited,</span><br />
+Directly from our gran-pas they all came;<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Our defects have been transmitted,</span><br />
+And we should be acquitted<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Of all responsibility and blame.</span><br />
+&nbsp;<br />
+We are not depraved beginners,<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>But hereditary sinners,</span><br />
+For our fathers never acted as they should;<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>&#8217;Tis the folly of our gran-pas</span><br />
+That continually hampers&ndash;&ndash;<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>What a pity that our gran-pas weren&#8217;t good!</span><br />
+&nbsp;<br />
+Yes, we&#8217;d all be reverend senators,<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>If our depraved progenitors</span><br />
+Had all been prudent, studious and wise;<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>But they were quite terrestial,</span><br />
+Or we would be celestial,<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Yes, we&#8217;d all be proper tenants for the skies.</span><br />
+&nbsp;<br />
+If we&#8217;re not all blameless sages,<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And beacons to the ages,</span><br />
+And fit for principalities and powers;<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>If we do not guide and man it,</span><br />
+And engineer the planet,<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>&#8217;Tis the folly of our forefathers&ndash;&ndash;not ours.&#8221;</span></p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38' name='page_38'></a>38</span></div>
+<p>But the lesson of these lines is not that you
+should lie back in inaction, making no effort to overcome
+your defects because they are inheritances.
+There is for you a wiser lesson in the theme than
+that. When Marshall Ney was taunted with the
+fact that the Imperial nobility had no pedigree he
+proudly replied, &#8220;We are ancestors.&#8221;</p>
+<p>There is a grand thought for you. If your
+ancestors did not do the best for you, will you not
+profit by your knowledge of this fact and do the
+best for those who shall look back to you as their
+ancestor? Supposing that your parents in their
+youth had said: &#8220;I will take care of my health so
+that my children may be born with vigorous bodies;
+I will make good use of my intellect so that my
+children will inherit an added capacity for acquiring
+knowledge; I will obey all laws of morality so
+that my children will by inheritance tend toward
+virtue;&#8221; and supposing that you to-day, with
+healthful bodies, keen intellects and upward tending
+moral natures, were reaping the reward of their
+forethought, would you not bless them for it?</p>
+<p>You have no right to remain listless and discouraged
+because of your inheritances, whatever
+they may be. Hear the inspiriting words of Ella
+Wheeler Wilcox:</p>
+<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>
+There is no thing you cannot overcome.<br />
+Say not thy evil instinct is inherited;<br />
+Or that some trait inborn, makes thy whole life forlorn,<br />
+And calls for punishment that is not merited.<br />
+&nbsp;<br />
+Back of thy parents and grandparents lies,<br />
+The great Eternal Will; that, too, is thine<br />
+Inheritance&ndash;&ndash;strong, beautiful, divine;<br />
+Sure lever of success for one who tries.<br />
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39' name='page_39'></a>39</span>
+&nbsp;<br />
+Pry up thy fault with this great lever&ndash;&ndash;will;<br />
+However deeply bedded in propensity;<br />
+However firmly set, I tell thee firmer yet<br />
+Is that great power that comes from truth&#8217;s immensity.<br />
+&nbsp;<br />
+There is no noble height thou canst not climb;<br />
+All triumphs may be thine in time&#8217;s futurity,<br />
+If whatsoe&#8217;er thy fault, thou dost not faint or halt,<br />
+But lean upon the staff of God&#8217;s security.<br />
+&nbsp;<br />
+Earth has no claim the soul can not contest.<br />
+Know thyself part of the supernal source,<br />
+And naught can stand before thy spirit&#8217;s force<br />
+The soul&#8217;s divine inheritance is best.</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<p>The youth of to-day have in their own hands
+the molding of the future, not only of themselves,
+but of the nation, by the every day habits of their
+lives. By their thoughts and aspirations, by the
+moral tendencies which they are cultivating in
+themselves, they are determining what shall be the
+characteristics of the nation in a hundred years to
+come. Shall this be, in a hundred years, a nation
+of drunkards? The young people of to-day are
+deciding that question. Shall it be a nation of
+invalids? This, also, the young people are deciding.
+Shall it be a nation filled with greed of gain, with
+a low standard of morals, with dishonest methods
+in business, or shall it be a nation wherein vigorous
+health is the rule, unflinching courage, absolute
+integrity and pure morality shall everywhere
+reign? What the young people of to-day are
+making of themselves physically, mentally and
+morally, is deciding what shall be the future of the
+country.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40' name='page_40'></a>40</span>
+<a name='THE_WHITE_CROSS' id='THE_WHITE_CROSS'></a>
+<h2>THE WHITE CROSS.</h2>
+</div>
+<p>The cross is considered as an emblem of self-denial,
+the immolating of selfish wishes upon the
+altar of universal good.</p>
+<p>In a nobler sense it means not so much self-denial
+as the creation of nobler desires, so that the
+individual wants only those things which he rightfully
+should have; he is not obliged to deny himself,
+because he asks nothing but that which is
+noble and pure. In this sense the cross is not so
+much the emblem of self-denial as an emblem of
+self-ennoblement&ndash;&ndash;the exaltation of self.</p>
+<p>The White Cross typifies the purifying of the
+life from the desire of mere sense pleasures. It
+means the noble manhood which claims for itself
+the privilege of chastity and the rewards of purity.</p>
+<p>The White Cross army is composed of men and
+boys over fourteen years of age who unite to resist
+vice, to secure safety for the home and for society,
+to become all that becomes true manhood. In organized
+co-operation there is strength. It is not
+only the &#8220;long pull&#8221; and the &#8220;strong pull,&#8221; but
+the &#8220;pull altogether,&#8221; that is thoroughly successful.</p>
+<p>Hundreds of men are living the white life individually,
+but are not associated together in an effort
+to influence others. Such association would
+result in more rapidly spreading the idea of the
+responsibility of the individual, would create public
+opinion, would give moral support to those who
+might find their unaided strength inadequate to
+meet the temptations of the world, in short, would
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41' name='page_41'></a>41</span>
+furnish the conditions favorable to the highest
+ideals of social and individual life.</p>
+<p>The White Cross Society aims to unite men in
+such an organized effort for the elevation of moral
+standards. Its members are pledged to the keeping
+of a fivefold obligation. The first of these appeals
+to the chivalry latent in the heart of every
+man, making him a protector of every woman,
+however lonely or friendless she may be, recognizing
+her potential value to the race; protecting
+her against his own selfish desires, against the open
+and covert assaults of other men, against her own
+unwisdom, if need be.</p>
+<p>The second obligation pledges the White Cross
+knight to a pure heart expressed not only in conduct
+but in word. He will think and speak reverently
+of life in all its phases, and help to cleanse
+the language&ndash;&ndash;written or spoken&ndash;&ndash;of all that pollutes
+the heart or vitiates the imagination. The
+third obligation claims for the White Cross soldier
+the glory of living up to the highest moral standards,
+of being as pure as the noblest woman that
+lives. The fourth recognizes the power of influence
+and binds the members to a helpful interest
+in all humanity.</p>
+<p>The fifth covers the whole scope of life in the
+obligation to use every effort to fulfil the command,
+&#8220;Keep thyself pure.&#8221; The heart of the true man
+must throb a quick response to the appeal made to
+him by the White Cross.</p>
+<p>It means marital fidelity, it implies the sanctity
+of the home, it creates individual purity, and that
+insures social purity, it means a nobler manhood, a
+grander womanhood, a safer childhood.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42' name='page_42'></a>42</span></div>
+<p>The appeal is made to you individually. Will
+you not become a White Cross knight? Will you
+not, even if you cannot join an organized society,
+become a standard-bearer of the White Cross,
+pledging yourself to its five obligations? Soon
+you will find others willing to unite with you in
+this great work, and the society will be formed.</p>
+<p>Each one who reads this book may become a true
+and faithful knight of the White Cross, no matter
+where he may be, in city mart or lonely farm, in
+busy shop or quiet school, and not only may he be
+a soldier, but he may be a recruiting officer, inducing
+others to enlist under the White Cross banner.</p>
+<hr class='invis' />
+<h3>THE WHITE CROSS PLEDGE.</h3>
+<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>
+&#8220;<i>Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.</i>&#8221;</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<blockquote>
+<p><span class='smcap'>I Promise, by the Help of God:</span></p>
+<ol>
+<li><i>To treat all women with respect, and endeavor to protect
+them from wrong and degradation.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>To endeavor to put down all indecent language and
+coarse jests.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>To maintain the law of purity as equally binding
+upon men and women.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>To endeavor to spread these principles among my
+companions, and try to help my younger brothers.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>To use all possible means to fulfil the command,
+&#8220;Keep thyself pure.&#8221;</i></li>
+</ol>
+</blockquote>
+<p style='margin-left:0.0em; margin-right:5.0em; text-align:right'><i>Name</i>_______________________<br /></p>
+<hr class='pb' />
+<div class="center">
+<img src='images/title1.png' alt='Self and Sex Series.' title='' style='width: 500px; height: 139px;' /><br />
+<p><span class="muchlarger">FOR MEN.</span></p>
+<p><b>By Sylvanus Stall, D. D.</b></p>
+</div>
+<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>
+1. &#8220;What a Young Boy Ought to Know.&#8221;<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>2. &#8220;What a Young Man Ought to Know.&#8221;</span><br />
+<span style='margin-left: 1.5625em;'>3. &#8220;What a Young Husband Ought to Know.&#8221;</span><br />
+<span style='margin-left: 2.34375em;'>4. &#8220;What a Man at Forty-five Ought to Know.&#8221;</span><br />
+<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>5. &#8220;What a Man at Sixty-five Ought to Know.&#8221;</span><br />
+&nbsp;<br />
+PRICE $1.00 EACH.</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<div class="center">
+<p><span class="muchlarger">FOR WOMEN.</span></p>
+<p><b>By Mrs. Mary Wood-Allen, M. D., and Sylvanus Stall, D. D.</b></p>
+</div>
+<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>
+1. &#8220;What a Young Girl Ought to Know.&#8221;<br />
+<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>2. &#8220;What a Young Woman Ought to Know.&#8221;</span><br />
+<span style='margin-left: 1.5625em;'>3. &#8220;What a Young Wife Ought to Know.&#8221;</span><br />
+<span style='margin-left: 2.34375em;'>4. &#8220;What a Woman at Forty-five Ought to Know.&#8221;</span><br />
+<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>5. &#8220;What a Woman at Sixty-five Ought to Know.&#8221;</span><br />
+&nbsp;<br />
+PRICE $1.00 EACH.</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<div class="center">
+<hr class='short' />
+<p><span class="smaller">Address orders to</span></p>
+<p><b>Wood-Allen Publishing Co.,<br />
+Ann Arbor, Mich.</b></p>
+<hr class='pb' />
+<p class="muchlarger" ><b><i>Almost A Woman.</i></b></p>
+<p>... MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D.</p>
+<p>Price, 25 Cents.</p>
+</div>
+<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-indent: -2.0em;'><b><i>GIRLS</i></b></p>
+<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; '>Have long been wanting a book written by Dr.
+Wood-Allen for them to correspond with the one
+by the same author for</p>
+<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-indent: -2.0em;'><b><i>BOYS</i></b></p>
+<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; '>At last the demand has been met and the doctor&#8217;s
+new book,</p>
+<p class="center muchlarger" style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-indent: -2.0em;'><b><i>Almost A Woman</i></b>,</p>
+<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; '>Presents in attractive form the pure instruction
+needed by the girl.</p>
+<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-indent: -2.0em;'><b><i>MOTHERS</i></b></p>
+<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; '>Will find this just what they have been wanting to
+put into the hands of their daughter.</p>
+<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>
+<span class="larger"><b><i>WOOD-ALLEN PUBLISHING CO.,<br />
+ANN ARBOR, MICH.</i></b></span></p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<hr class='pb' />
+<div class="center">
+<img src='images/title2.png' alt='BOOKS' title='' style='width: 500px; height: 82px;' /><br />
+<p>... By MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D.</p>
+<hr class='short' />
+<p><span class="larger"><b>TEACHING TRUTH.</b></span></p>
+<p>Price, 25 Cents ...</p>
+</div>
+<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">This</span> little brochure aims to answer in chaste and scientific language the queries of
+children as to the origin of life. The reception it has met with is best indicated
+by the testimonials received from the press and through private letters.</p>
+<p>The principal of a young ladies&#8217; school writes: &#8220;I invited our girls to the parlor
+and read your brochure, which was listened to with the deepest interest. At certain
+portions of the reading nearly all were in tears. It is a most pathetically pure, chaste
+presentation of a grand subject. You would have rejoiced could you have heard the
+expressions from the young ladies. Surely, dear Dr. Allen, God has blessed many
+through your instrumentality.&#8221;</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Read this book if you read no other but the Bible this year.&ndash;&ndash;<i>Emma Bates, Valley
+City, N. D.</i></p>
+<p>Please send me some more copies of your unique and valuable little book. I cannot
+keep a copy over night. It would be an evangel to every young person in whose
+hands it might be placed. I would also invite the public school teachers to examine this
+rare little book.&ndash;&ndash;<i>Frances E. Willard.</i></p>
+<p>A skilful, graceful, and reverent effort to assist parents in what has been a delicate
+and difficult task. The author deserves the praise that belongs to the successful pioneer.&ndash;&ndash;<i>George
+N. Miller.</i></p>
+</blockquote><div class="center">
+<hr class='short' />
+<p><span class="larger"><b>ALMOST A MAN.</b></span></p>
+<p>... Price, 25 Cents ...</p>
+</div>
+<p class="dropcap" ><span class="dcap">The</span> success of the &#8220;Teaching Truth,&#8221; and &#8220;Child-Confidence Rewarded,&#8221; together
+with the frequent requests for some inexpensive book for the instruction of boys approaching
+manhood, has led to the writing of &#8220;<b>Almost A Man</b>.&#8221; It is intended to help
+mothers and teachers in the delicate task of teaching the lad concerning himself, purely
+and yet with scientific accuracy.</p>
+<p>A booklet designed to help mothers and teachers in the instruction of boys.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Ought to be in the hands of every parent in the land.&ndash;&ndash;<i>Toledo Blade.</i></p>
+<p>Chaste and pure, and admirably adapted to mothers in this most difficult, universally
+neglected but very important line of work.&ndash;&ndash;<i>Early Education.</i></p>
+<p>Many mothers will be glad to read what such an authority as Dr. Wood-Allen has
+to say on so important and delicate a subject.&ndash;&ndash;<i>Mother&#8217;s Journal.</i></p>
+<p>Worth its weight in gold to the puzzled mother, telling her exactly what she wants to
+know. This book deals reverently with the great mystery of life.&ndash;&ndash;<i>Ladies&#8217; Home Journal.</i></p>
+<p>Too much cannot be said in its favor.&ndash;&ndash;<i>School Education.</i></p>
+<p>I can conscientiously recommend it to all who are interested in the physical and
+moral welfare of <a name="P15"></a>youth.&ndash;&ndash;<i>C. A. Dorman, M. D.</i></p>
+<p>Such literature cannot fail to accomplish great and lasting good.&ndash;&ndash;<i>Eng. F. Storke,
+M. D.</i></p>
+<p>Many have given good advice, but this is the best.&ndash;&ndash;<i>Rev. Kent White.</i></p>
+<p>I believe this little book would do incalculable good if placed in the hands of boys
+after they have reached ten years of age.&ndash;&ndash;<i>Wm. G. Lotze, Gen. Sec. Y. M. C. A., Denver,
+Colo.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>
+<b><span class="smaller">Address,</span><br />
+WOOD-ALLEN PUB. CO., Ann Arbor, Mich.</b></p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<hr class='pb' />
+<div class="center larger">
+<p><b>A NEW BOOK</b>,</p>
+<p><span class="muchlarger"><b>The Marvels of Our Bodily Dwelling</b></span></p>
+<p><b>BY MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D.</b></p>
+</div>
+<p>Teaching by metaphor, parable, and allegory has been the method of many
+of the wisest instructors.</p>
+<p>No one can claim originality in comparing the body to a house, for that
+comparison is as old as literature.</p>
+<p>But the simile is still of interest to the juvenile mind, and as science is ever
+making new discoveries, there is continual demand for new and interesting works
+on physiology.</p>
+<p>Dr. Wood-Allen in this new book has united scientific facts and metaphor
+with the skill that would be expected from her by those acquainted with her literary
+powers.</p>
+<p>The book will be found equally valuable as a text-book, a supplementary
+reader or a reference book in schools, or as a book of pleasant home instruction.
+Teachers in Normal Schools will find it a most suggestive aid in teaching physiology.
+As it contains the most reliable scientific facts in regard to alcohol, tobacco,
+and other narcotics, it fills the demand created by the school laws compelling
+the teaching of the action of narcotics on the human body.</p>
+<p class="center larger" >TESTIMONIALS.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>A charming book.&ndash;&ndash;<i>Frances Willard.</i></p>
+<p>Only a scientific person can understand how really good it is. It has been to
+me intensely interesting, and I hope sincerely that the world at large will appreciate
+it.&ndash;&ndash;<i>J. M. W. Kitchen, M. D.</i></p>
+<p>It gives me pleasure to note that the book, both by its subject-matter and its
+pleasing form of presentation, is well adapted to the use for which it is intended.&ndash;&ndash;<i>B.
+A. Hinsdale, Professor of the Science and Art of Teaching, University of
+Michigan.</i></p>
+<p>I find here, wrought out in attractive form, some of the most important knowledge
+that our young people ought to know. It is suitable for a supplementary
+reader in the upper grammar grades of the public schools. Part Second particularly
+is of the highest value to the boys and girls in our grammar and high schools.&ndash;&ndash;<i>W.
+S. Perry, Principal of High School, Ann Arbor, Mich.</i></p>
+<p>This excellent work ought to be, not only read, but studied by every one in
+and out of our schools who is interested in preserving the integrity of our bodily
+and mental functions. The author&#8217;s method would make knowledge invigorate
+and mature the judgment and not burden the memory, and this is the germinal
+idea in all sound education.&ndash;&ndash;<i>Geo. E. Seymour, Professor of History, High School,
+St. Louis, Mo.</i></p>
+</blockquote><div class="center">
+<p style='margin-left:1.0em; margin-right:0.0em; '><b>The retail price of the book is $1.10. Orders promptly filled by the</b></p>
+<p style='margin-left:1.0em; margin-right:0.0em; '><b>WOOD-ALLEN PUB. CO.,<br />
+Ann Arbor, Mich.</b></p>
+<hr class='pb' />
+</div><div class="center larger">
+<p class="muchlarger" ><b>THE BIRTH CHAMBER.</b></p>
+<p class="smaller" >PRICE, 10 Cents.</p>
+<p>A Supplementary Chapter to<br />
+<b>The Marvels of Our Bodily Dwelling</b>.</p>
+</div>
+<hr class='short' />
+<p>In this supplementary chapter are given the scientific
+facts of special physiology, written in Dr. Wood-Allen&#8217;s own
+delicate style. Many who have become aroused to the fact
+that accurate scientific knowledge is the surest safeguard of
+purity, are themselves not well enough instructed to be able
+to teach their children. This booklet meets the need of all
+such, and gives just what is wanted to instruct young people
+in regard to the sacred origin of life. Every one who
+owns &#8220;Teaching Truth&#8221; and &#8220;Child-Confidence Rewarded&#8221;
+will desire to possess this booklet also, for it supplements
+these perfectly.</p>
+<hr class='short' />
+<div class="center larger">
+<p><b>CHILD-CONFIDENCE REWARDED.</b></p>
+<p><span class="smaller">PRICE, 10 Cents.</span></p>
+<hr class='short' />
+</div><blockquote>
+<p>&#8220;This little book treats of child-purity with the same delicate
+but masterly hand shown in Dr. Allen&#8217;s other writings.&#8221;&ndash;&ndash;<i>Union Signal
+of July 5, 1894.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;Unique and valuable.&#8221;&ndash;&ndash;<i>Frances E. Willard.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;I am delighted with it.&#8221;&ndash;&ndash;<i>Katherine Lente Stevenson, Chicago.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;Most charmingly written.&#8221;&ndash;&ndash;<i>Alice B. Stockham, <a name="P16"></a>M. D., Chicago.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;The good it will do is incalculable.&#8221;&ndash;&ndash;<i>Emily S. Bouton, in Toledo
+Blade.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;The best you have done yet. I can recommend it.&#8221;&ndash;&ndash;<i>Earl
+Barnes, Professor in Leland Stanford University, Palo Alto, Cal.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<hr class='pb' />
+<div style="float: left; width: auto; padding: .5em .5em 0 0">
+<img src='images/title3.png' alt='The New Crusade' title='' style='width: 307px; height: 200px;' /><br />
+</div>
+<div class="sidebarright center">
+<p><span class="nowrap">Price 50</span> Cents<br />
+a Year.</p>
+<p>Sample Copies<br />
+Free.</p>
+</div><div class="center" style="clear: both">
+<hr class='invis' />
+<p><b>MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D., <span class='smcap'>EDITOR</span>.</b></p>
+</div>
+<p style='margin-left:4.0em; margin-right:2.0em; text-indent: -2.0em;'>It is sui generis, deals frankly and scientifically
+with the moral problems of the home, the
+school, and society.</p>
+<p>It embodies the work of the <b>White Cross</b>, <b>White Shield</b>,
+<b>Mother&#8217;s Meetings</b>, <b>Child-Culture Circles</b>, and the <b>Rescue
+Work</b>. Also deals with the subject of Reform and Legislation for
+Morality, and yet continuing to emphasize, most emphatically of all,
+the necessity of right instruction as the surest means of promoting
+purity. Co-operating with the National Superintendent of the Department
+of Health and Heredity, it discusses all topics of health and
+inheritance, pre-natal influences, etc. <b>Physical education will also
+have its share of attention.</b></p>
+<p>Crusaders of old endeavored to overthrow evil by &#8220;force and
+arms.&#8221; The <span class='smcap'>New Crusade</span> proposes to emphasize the positive
+side of life, and waging a peaceful war, aims to supplant
+Ignorance by Knowledge; to eradicate Vice by Virtue; to displace
+Disease by Health, and to dispel Darkness by Light.</p>
+<p>Send for terms to agents and our club rates. Make all Money
+Orders payable to</p>
+<div class="center">
+<p><b>WOOD-ALLEN PUBLISHING COMPANY,<br />
+Ann Arbor, Michigan.</b></p>
+<hr class='pb' />
+</div><div class="trnote">
+<p><b>Transcriber Notes</b></p>
+<p>Typographical problems have been changed and are
+listed below.</p>
+<p>Hyphenation and common compound words standardized and listed below.</p>
+<p>Author&#8217;s archaic spelling is preserved.</p>
+<p>Author&#8217;s punctuation style is preserved.</p>
+<p>Table of Contents added.</p>
+<hr class='invis' />
+<p><b>Transcriber Changes</b></p>
+<p>The following changes were made to the original text:</p>
+<p><a href="#P1">Prelude</a>: <b>meadow land</b> standardized to <b>meadow-land</b> (lads had crossed the sunny <b>meadow-land</b> of
+childhood and stood by the gate)</p>
+<p><a href="#P2">Page 7</a>: Added quotes (<b>&#8220;It</b> has been so long since I saw you that you
+have almost grown out of my knowledge.... You must be fifteen
+years <b>old.&#8221;</b>)</p>
+<p><a href="#P4">Page 8</a>: <b>anyone</b> standardized to <b>any one</b> (supposing you try to forget that <b>any one</b> has
+ever told you anything about it)</p>
+<p><a href="#P5">Page 9</a>: <b>every thing</b> standardized to <b>everything</b> (We may go even farther and say with Mr. Grant
+Allen that <b>everything</b> high and ennobling in our
+nature springs directly from the fact of sex.)</p>
+<p><a href="#P6">Page 13</a>: <b>microscrope</b> changed to <b>microscope</b> (they are not visible except with the aid of a
+<b>microscope</b>)</p>
+<p><a href="#P7">Page 14</a>: Changed period to comma after <b>to-night</b> (No one ever
+talked to me as you have <b>to-night,</b> and I am sure
+it makes me want to be better.)</p>
+<p><a href="#P8">Page 20</a>: Changed single quote to double (that will bring a blush to the cheeks of either, now, or in the years to
+<b>come.&#8221;</b>)</p>
+<p><a href="#P9">Page 20</a>: Changed ending single quote to double (the doctor handed him, and then with another
+&#8220;Good <b>night,&#8221;</b> he walked away in the darkness.)</p>
+<p><a href="#P10">Page 24</a>: <b>plesaantness</b> changed to <b>pleasantness</b> (&#8220;all her ways are <b>pleasantness</b>,
+and all her paths are peace.&#8221;)</p>
+<p><a href="#P11">Page 26</a>: Added comma after <b>mouth</b> (Your eyes, hair, <b>mouth,</b> chin, your stature, figure,
+complexion, your talents, capabilities)</p>
+<p><a href="#P12">Page 27</a>: <b>prehaps</b> changed to <b>perhaps</b> (You have
+observed them in yourself, though you <b>perhaps</b> have
+not understood them.)</p>
+<p><a href="#P13">Page 31</a>: <b>tobacco using</b> standardized to <b>tobacco-using</b> (proofs are accumulating of the evil
+results to the children of <b>tobacco-using</b> parents)</p>
+<p><a href="#P14">Page 36</a>: <b>transmissable</b> changed to <b>transmissible</b> (We also learn that the effects of education
+are <b>transmissible</b>)</p>
+<p><a href="#P15">Advertisements</a>: Removed extraneous quote after <b>youth</b> (I can conscientiously recommend it to all who are interested in the physical and
+moral welfare of <b>youth.</b>&ndash;&ndash;<i>C. A. Dorman, M. D.</i>)</p>
+<p><a href="#P16">Advertisements</a>: <b>M D.</b> changed to <b>M. D.</b> (&#8220;Most charmingly written.&#8221;&ndash;&ndash;<i>Alice B. Stockham, <b>M. D.</b>, Chicago.</i>)</p>
+</div>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<hr class='major' />
+
+<!-- generated by ppg.rb version: ppg0530a -->
+<!-- timestamp: Sat May 30 15:39:39 -0400 2009 -->
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Almost A Man, by Mary Wood-Allen
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALMOST A MAN ***
+
+***** This file should be named 29056-h.htm or 29056-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+ https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/0/5/29056/
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Almost A Man, by Mary Wood-Allen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Almost A Man
+
+Author: Mary Wood-Allen
+
+Release Date: June 6, 2009 [EBook #29056]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALMOST A MAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Meredith Bach, Katherine Ward and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ ALMOST A MAN.
+
+ BY
+ MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D.
+
+ Author of TEACHING TRUTH, CHILD-CONFIDENCE REWARDED, THE
+ MAN WONDERFUL IN THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL, etc.
+
+
+ "What is man that thou art mindful of him?"
+ DAVID.
+
+ "Every true man is a cause, a country and an age."
+ EMERSON.
+
+ "God on thee
+ Abundantly his gifts hath also poured;
+ Inward and outward both his image fair."
+ MILTON.
+
+
+ PUBLISHED BY
+ WOOD-ALLEN PUBLISHING CO.
+ ANN ARBOR, MICH.
+
+
+ COPYRIGHTED BY
+ MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D.
+ 1895.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+ PAGE
+ Prelude iii
+ Almost a Man 5
+ A Gateway and a Gift 22
+ The White Cross 40
+
+
+
+
+PRELUDE.
+
+
+Two lads had crossed the sunny meadow-land of childhood and stood by the
+gate, at the entrance to the rougher paths of youth leading up to the
+grander heights of maturity. They glanced backward, but not with regret,
+for their eyes shone with eagerness to climb the upward way. As they
+waited, an angel came bearing a gift for each, which he gave them,
+saying: "I have brought you a wondrous gift, not for yourselves but for
+others. Listen."
+
+And they bent their heads and listened. And one said: "I hear most
+entrancing music. It thrills my very being. It is for me, for me."
+
+But the angel said: "Listen again. Shut your ears to those bewildering
+tones and you will hear a deeper, holier strain."
+
+But the youth said: "No, I hear only that melody which speaks to my own
+heart. I can hear nothing else."
+
+The other youth too took the gift and, bending his head at the command
+of the angel, said: "I hear that sweet entrancing strain which speaks to
+myself, and which promises me pleasure; but deeper than all that I hear
+a tone soft, sweet and low, that sounds like the voices of happy
+children, and of a mother singing to her babe."
+
+The angel smiled. "It is for them," he said, "that you must keep your
+gift. And in the years to come that music will be to you the sweetest in
+the world."
+
+So the youths started on their devious ways through the hilly land of
+youth. There were bird-songs and flowers; there were bright paths, and
+dark ones; there were sunny by-paths, which ended in dreamy forests;
+there were pitfalls in unexpected places; there was often sorrow where
+they looked for joy, and failure where they expected success. And the
+one listened oft to the entrancing music of his angelic gift, and was
+led to think only of himself, and his eye lost its fire, his feet often
+stumbled, and the days and nights had no pleasure for him. As he reached
+the heights of maturity he was met by a bright creature who laughed with
+great joy when he offered her his love and said exultantly: "I have kept
+myself pure for you," and he, knowing his own dark secrets, could make
+no reply but hung his head and was silent. And, thus silent, he heard no
+more the bewildering music of his youth, but instead there came to his
+ears the sound of a broken-hearted woman's sobs, and the weeping of
+children mourning the birthright that had been lost for them in their
+father's wayward youth. And the man said sighingly:
+
+ "O that I had my innocence again
+ My untouched honor. But I wish in vain."
+
+But the other lad turned a deaf ear to the brain-bewildering music and
+listened with his soul for the happy melodies of the future. And his eye
+grew brighter and his strength increased and his paths were straight and
+clean, and as he neared the heights of maturity he was met by one whose
+robe was shining in its brightness and who whispered: "I have kept
+myself pure for you."
+
+And gladly he answered: "And I for you;" and so their lives became one,
+and the melody of happy children's voices drew nearer and nearer, and
+listening to the sweet voice of the mother singing to her babe, and
+looking into the bright and rosy faces that with every glance and motion
+thanked him for their dower of health and honor, he blessed the great
+Creator from whom he had received the wondrous gift of potential
+fatherhood, and gave thanks that he had wisely listened to the angel's
+voice bidding him keep his gift for those whose life, in the years to
+come, was to be his holiest possession.
+
+
+
+
+ALMOST A MAN.
+
+By Mary Wood-Allen, M. D.
+
+
+"Let me take your book of quotations, please."
+
+"Certainly, if I can find it. O, I remember. I let Susie Glenn take it.
+No doubt I can find it in her desk."
+
+As she spoke Miss Bell walked to the desk and, finding the desired book,
+took possession of it. An open note dropped from it and fell upon the
+floor. Picking it up Miss Bell read: "My darling little sweetheart," and
+glancing at the close saw the signature, "Carl." Sending of notes in
+school was forbidden, therefore Miss Bell had no compunction of
+conscience in taking possession of this one, and, on the impulse of the
+moment, read it aloud to Miss Lane, her fellow-teacher. It was not only
+sentimental in tone but there were mysterious phrases which seemed to
+hold a deep and sinful significance. The women looked at each other with
+sorrowful faces.
+
+"What shall I do about it?" asked Miss Bell.
+
+"What a depth of wickedness it reveals!" exclaimed Miss Lane. "Who would
+have imagined that such a nice appearing boy as Carl Woodford could be
+so base? And Susie Glenn too, such a shy, modest little creature as she
+seems."
+
+"Do you suppose it is really as bad as it seems to us? Those expressions
+which appear to indicate such--such almost criminal intimacy perhaps
+they do not understand fully."
+
+"Don't you believe it," said Miss Lane. "I tell you these children are
+wiser in sin than we older people can imagine. That boy needs to be
+whipped within an inch of his life, the little reprobate! I'd give him
+such a lecture as would make his eyes open wide for once. I'd make him
+understand that he'd better not let me catch him in such mischief again.
+And I'd tell Mrs. Glenn about it so that she could punish Susie."
+
+"I really am afraid that the result would not be what we wish. Suppose
+we go and talk it over with Dr. Barrett. Maybe she can tell us what to
+do."
+
+Dr. Barrett received the ladies with cordiality and professed herself
+willing to aid them in the solution of their problem. She did not appear
+as shocked as they did, and even smiled a little as Miss Lane, in
+indignant tones, read aloud the offending note.
+
+"Don't you think that little rascal should be nearly annihilated?" she
+asked, turning to the Doctor.
+
+"I think he should be instructed," replied the latter. "Will you send
+him to me, Miss Bell?"
+
+"Most gladly, but I don't believe he will come."
+
+"Yes he will, if you don't frighten him beforehand. Don't say a word to
+him about the affair, but send him with a note to me and tell him to
+wait for an answer."
+
+The next evening Carl appeared at the Doctor's residence with the note
+from Miss Bell. "I am to wait for an answer," he said.
+
+Dr. Barrett only nodded as she wrote on steadily for a moment, seeming
+too much engrossed in her work to notice him. Then she read the note,
+thought a moment, excused herself and left the room. Returning
+immediately she said, "It will be half an hour before the answer is
+ready. Can you wait?"
+
+"O certainly."
+
+"Then sit down here and look over the Youth's Companion while I finish
+my letter."
+
+For some moments there was silence and then the Doctor, laying down her
+pen, turned to the boy and said, pleasantly; "You are Carl Woodford, are
+you not?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"It has been so long since I saw you that you have almost grown out of
+my knowledge. You are getting to be almost a man. You must be fifteen
+years old."
+
+"Not quite. I will be next June."
+
+"Almost a man," said Dr. Barrett softly as she looked thoughtfully into
+the fire. After a moment's silence she asked, "Carl, what is it to be a
+man?"
+
+The boy drew himself up with a self-conscious air as he replied.
+
+"Why, to have your growth, and get into business for yourself."
+
+"Well, that is not quite it," said the Doctor smiling, "for I have my
+growth and am in business for myself, and yet I am not a man."
+
+"Maybe it means having a mustache," said Carl, with a slight flush.
+
+"That has something to do with it certainly, but Mrs. Flynn has a
+mustache, and she is not a man."
+
+"Well, I don't know how to explain it then," said Carl.
+
+"You have studied grammar, will you parse the word man?"
+
+"Man is a common noun, masculine gender, third----"
+
+"What does masculine gender mean?"
+
+"It means male."
+
+"Then to be a man means to be a male. How does the grammar define
+gender?"
+
+"The distinction of nouns with regard to sex."
+
+"Have you studied physiology?"
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+"Was it the physiology of man or woman?"
+
+"Why, it didn't say anything but physiology."
+
+"You studied, then, only those organs in which men and women are alike,
+as in their muscular and nervous systems, and in the organs of
+digestion; in fact you learned only of the organs which are for the
+preservation of the individual. You learned nothing of them in regard to
+sex, which is termed special physiology."
+
+A wave of color was creeping over Carl's face, seeing which the Doctor
+said:
+
+"As you have never studied this special physiology supposing you try to
+forget that any one has ever told you anything about it, and let us for
+a few minutes talk of it as of God's laws. We believe God to be pure,
+and we cannot believe that he would make a law that was founded on
+impurity. It is true we are able to think of his laws in an impure way,
+but that is our fault, not his. Let us now try to think his pure
+thoughts after him. If there are two sexes created by the Almighty he
+must have a pure purpose in creating them. We seldom think how much of
+beauty and melody and loveliness is due to sex.
+
+"It is because of sex that we are gathered in families and enjoy all the
+delights of home. It is because of sex that we have ties of kindred,
+brothers, sisters, father, mother, uncles, aunts and cousins. Think of
+the pleasant home gatherings at Christmas or Thanksgiving, or upon
+family birthdays, with all the relatives, old and young, meeting in love
+and sympathy; think of the sweet prattle of children in the home; think
+of the tender ministrations of mother or sister in times of sorrow or
+illness or death, and remember that these are possible because of sex.
+Men may build themselves fine club houses where they congregate to smoke
+or drink or eat together, but these are not homes. Women may go away by
+themselves into a convent and give up the world, but in so doing they
+give up the home; for in a real true home there must be parents and
+children, and this comes through sex. We may go even farther and say
+with Mr. Grant Allen that everything high and ennobling in our nature
+springs directly from the fact of sex. He claims that to it 'we owe our
+love of color, of graceful forms, of melodious sound, of rhythmical
+motion, the evolution of music, of poetry, of romance, of painting, of
+sculpture, of decorative art, of dramatic entertainment. From it,' he
+says, 'springs the love of beauty, around it all beautiful arts circle
+as their centre. Its subtle aroma pervades all literature, and to it we
+owe the heart and all that is best within it.'
+
+"We read of knights of old fighting for 'fayre ladye,' of heroes who
+died to save wives and children; we cannot take up a book of poetry
+without realizing how love of men and women has been the inspiration of
+the poet in all ages. And this is not all that we owe to sex. In all
+organic life we find the same force at work. The song of the nightingale
+is a call to his mate, the chirp of cricket, the song of the thrush, the
+note of the grasshopper, every charming voice in wild nature are notes
+of love, and were it not for these, field and forest would be silent.
+Among the animals we can trace the beauty of form and of covering to the
+same source. And even in the inanimate world of plants and trees we find
+sex as the source of life and beauty. The bright tinted flowers are the
+homes of the father and mother and babies of the plant and without the
+male and female principle in plants there would be no bud or blossom and
+no fruit. Remember when you see the beauty of the apple orchard in the
+spring and the glowing fruit in the autumn that these are the expression
+of sex-life in the tree."
+
+"My!" exclaimed Carl, "I never thought of all that before."
+
+"I presume not, and many who are older than you have no thoughts of sex
+but those which are low and vile. But when you consider how the same
+principle reaches through all nature, and upon it depends so much that
+is beautiful and charming you cannot believe that is in itself vile and
+unholy, can you? If we are to think God's thoughts after him we must
+come to look upon sex as something to be thought of and spoken of only
+with reverence, never to be jested about or debased in any way. You
+begin to see that more is involved in the coming into manhood than you
+had supposed. But we have not gone over the whole matter yet. You have
+read the first chapter of Genesis how that God made man in his own
+image, and out of the dust of the earth. We do not suppose that he made
+him out of dirt and water, as a child makes mud-pies, but we may accept
+this as a statement of the scientific fact that in man are found the
+same elements as in the earth, such as iron, soda, lime, etc. What we
+want to think of now is the statement that God created man by his direct
+power. Then we are told he made woman also. These are the first living
+human beings of whom we have record. Who is the third?"
+
+"Cain."
+
+"And who made Cain?"
+
+"God," answered Carl glibly, as if that must be the only orthodox
+answer.
+
+"In the same way that he made Adam and Eve?"
+
+Carl blushed and was silent.
+
+"You were not embarrassed when I spoke of the creation of Adam and Eve,
+you have no reason to be embarrassed when I speak of the creation of
+Cain. All was in accordance with the divine will, and must therefore be
+right. We cannot say positively that God thought this or that, but we
+have a right to judge from his acts what his purposes were. We have a
+right to suppose that he created the earth intending to people it with
+human beings. Of course every possible plan for doing this was open to
+him. He might have created each individual as he did Adam, but what
+would have been the result? We should have stood, each one alone, in
+selfish solitariness, like a lot of ten-pins, able to knock each other
+down but not to help each other up. Each one would have been thinking
+only of himself and his own selfish interests. This plan could not
+commend itself to a compassionate Creator, and we can imagine that he
+would say to himself: 'That would never do. I must put these, my
+children, in such relation to each other that they will have love for
+each other; that they will be bound by ties so strong that nothing can
+break them; they must be created in such a way that they will also
+understand their relation to me and love me as their life-giver. To do
+this I will share with them my greatest power, that of creation. I will
+let them help me people the world. By this creative power they shall
+come to understand how I, their heavenly Father, love them, and yearn
+over them, and by their dependence as children upon their parents they
+shall learn to depend upon and trust me.' From the plan God adopted for
+peopling the earth we may suppose this to have been his process of
+thought. So you see that sex comes as a wondrous gift from God, a gift
+endowed with a marvelous power, and therefore to be held most sacred.
+When I spoke of you as being almost a man it was with the thought that
+now is being conferred upon you this gift of sex."
+
+Carl looked up with some surprise. "Why, I have always been a boy."
+
+"True. And a boy is a being who will become a man. But he is not endowed
+with the functions of sex until he is about fourteen years old. Then sex
+begins to make itself felt in his whole being. He grows taller rapidly;
+he gains in breadth; he begins to see the long-looked-for mustache; he
+notices the growth of the special organs of sex; he begins to feel more
+manly; to enjoy the society of girls as never before; and desires to
+treat them with more attention. This is a time when, if he is wrongly
+taught, he may fall into great wrong-doing and injure himself, and not
+that alone, but those who are to come after him. I have not yet told you
+of the great responsibilities that come with this gift of sex."
+
+Dr. Barrett rose and, bringing a book from the shelves, opened it and
+showed Carl an illustration, saying; "Did you ever see such a picture as
+this?"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"What are they?" asked he. "They look like pollywogs."
+
+"As much like them as anything. But they are not pollywogs. They have a
+bigger sounding name than that. They are called _spermatozoa_, or each
+one is a _spermatozoon_. They are so tiny that they are not visible
+except with the aid of a microscope, and yet they are alive and very
+active. They live and move in a fluid called _semen_, and they are the
+living principle contributed by the male to the formation of a new
+creature. Each one contains in itself all the particular traits,
+characteristics or talents which the father would confer on the child of
+which this spermatozoon would form a part. You are like your father in
+some things, I suppose."
+
+"Yes, I am like papa in size and in my love for mathematics. He says I
+have his quick temper, too."
+
+"That leads me to speak of another fact. You see that you were a part of
+your father during his whole life, and you were affected by all that
+affected him. You were changed or modified by his habits. If he tried to
+curb his quick temper, it has made it easier for you to control
+yourself; but if he allowed it full sway, it has made it harder for you.
+If he were truthful and honest, it has made it easy for you to be the
+same; but if he were wild and dissipated, it would make it easier for
+you to yield to the same temptations."
+
+"Was that what he meant when he said he was not surprised that Will Grey
+was so bad a boy, for his father was a very wild young man?"
+
+"Yes, that was exactly what he meant."
+
+"If that is so why don't fathers tell their boys about it so that they
+can behave better when they are young?"
+
+"That is just what I think they ought to do, but unfortunately people
+have thought they must not talk of these things to young folks for fear
+it will make them bad instead of good."
+
+"Well, I guess that would depend upon the way they told it. Now they
+don't tell it right, but leave the boys to be told in wrong ways, and
+that really does lead them to be bad. No one ever talked to me as you
+have to-night, and I am sure it makes me want to be better."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"That ought to be the effect, and I believe it would be if boys were
+only 'told right,' as you say. But I have told you only half the story.
+Here is another picture. These are called _ova_. One is an _ovum_, and
+these are the principle the mother gives to the future child. They are
+greatly magnified. It would take 240 of them lying side by side to make
+a row an inch long, so we say they are 1/240 of an inch in
+diameter, but tiny as they are, each ovum contains all the traits or
+talents that the mother gives to the child of which this particular ovum
+may form a part. Your mother is English, your father American. Their
+childhood and youth were spent thousands of miles apart, and yet both
+were working by the habits of their lives to create you in your peculiar
+traits and talents. Are you like your parents in any of their
+capabilities?"
+
+"Yes, I am like mother in her love for music; you know she is a fine
+musician."
+
+"Yes, and in the cultivation of her own musical ability she made it
+easier for you to learn music; just as your father, in his study as an
+engineer, has given you a love for mathematics."
+
+"But my grandfather and great-grandfather were engineers, and I am going
+to be one, too."
+
+"It is true that you inherit from your grandparents, also, but it must
+be through your parents, and they may have changed the direction of
+the inheritance. This important fact you should know and remember.
+You can change yourself by education so that the inheritance of your
+children may be quite changed. For example, if you know that you
+lack perseverance, you can, by constantly making a mighty effort to
+overcome this defect, compel yourself to persevere, and this would
+tend to give your children perseverance. So you see we need not
+despair because we have inherited faults from our ancestors, but we
+should determine all the more that we will not pass these defects on
+to later generations."
+
+"I guess that is what Dr. Brice meant when he said that mother's good
+care of her health had overcome in us children to a great extent the
+tendency to consumption which is in her family. Nearly all my cousins on
+her side die with it, but when she was a little girl her father made her
+live out of doors all the time and she grew strong, and we none of us
+seem to have any tendency to consumption."
+
+"You see then the value of caring for yourself in youth, not only for
+your own sake but for that of your children. Your mother did not know
+that she would ever have children to be benefitted by her out-door life.
+But one day she met a young man who pleased her, and as they grew to
+know each other better they came to love each other so that they wished
+to leave home and friends and make their own home and live their united
+lives separate and apart from all the rest of the world. So they were
+married, as we say. Marriage is the union of one man and one woman under
+the sanction of the law. This is the closest and most sacred human
+relation. In this relation the _spermatozoon_ of the man unites with the
+germ or _ovum_ of the woman and a new life is begun. When your parents
+knew that such a little life had begun in their home they felt a great
+and holy joy, and desired that every good might surround it in its
+development. You were the first to come into your father's home. After
+your life had begun you were still so small as not to be visible to the
+naked eye, and would have been lost had you come into the world. But a
+home had been prepared for you in your mother's body, where day by day
+you grew and grew. The food which she ate nourished you as well as
+herself. The air which she breathed was life to you as well as to her.
+
+"You have seen the father-bird bringing food to the mother-bird as she
+sits upon her eggs and waits for the birdlings to come forth, and you
+have thought it a pretty sight to watch his tender care of her. Even so
+your father watched over your mother and you. He provided everything as
+pleasant as possible, he removed every care from her path so that she
+might be happy and so make you happy. His love for her took on a new and
+strange tenderness it had not known before. And she, holding you warm
+and close in the embrace of her body, thought of you and loved you. She
+wondered how you would look; she dreamed of you; she fancied she could
+feel the touch of your fluttering fingers; she made your little wardrobe
+and with each stitch wove in some tender thought of the baby whom she
+had never seen. Then one day she cried out with great anguish of body
+but joy of heart, 'O my baby is coming.' Then through long hours she
+suffered, going down almost to the gates of death that you might have
+life. But she never murmured; in spite of all her pain and anguish of
+body her very soul was full of rejoicing that soon she would hold you in
+her arms. When all those hours of peril and anxiety were past and you
+were laid in your mother's arms, your father came and bent over you both
+with a measureless love, and looking into your little face they knew
+what the Scripture meant when it said, 'And they twain shall be one
+flesh,' for were not you a living fulfillment of that saying? You were a
+part of each united in a living being who belonged to them both. Then
+for the first time could they realize, even dimly, the yearning, tender
+love of their heavenly Father who had granted to them to know by
+experience his feelings towards his children."
+
+Great tears had gathered in the boy's eyes as she talked, and now with
+choking voice he said, "I don't think I can ever be disobedient again,
+Dr. Barrett. I did not understand it all as I do now. You know we only
+hear these things talked of among the boys, and I had come to feel that
+there was some reason why I ought to be ashamed of my father and mother;
+but it all looks so different to me now. I wish you could talk to the
+other boys as you have to me."
+
+"It may not be possible for me to do so, although I should be glad to do
+it, but you can help them to think more truly on these subjects. You can
+especially help them to treat women and girls with more respect than
+they often do, because you can see how an injury to any girl is an
+injury to the whole world."
+
+"I don't quite see that," said Carl.
+
+"You can see that if any one had injured your mother in her girlhood it
+would have been an injury to all her children, can you not?"
+
+"O yes."
+
+"And that injury might be passed on to future generations. There lived a
+poor girl, about a hundred years ago, who was uncared for by good people
+and wronged by evil ones, and to-day she is known as a 'mother of
+criminals,' and no one can tell where the mischief will end. You would
+feel very indignant if you knew that some one had done your mother an
+injury in her girlhood, and you would feel the same way should any one
+wrong your sisters."
+
+"I knocked Bill Jones down last week because he said something to my
+sister Kate."
+
+"You felt a righteous anger and manifested it. Well, in all probability
+you will some day marry. If so, there is in the world to-day the girl
+who will be your wife. How do you want her to be treated by the boys who
+are her school-companions? Do you like to think that they are rough with
+her, or playing at lovering with her? Is it a pleasant thought that she
+is allowing them to caress her or write her silly sentimental notes?"
+
+Carl's face was scarlet, but he answered bravely; "No, it isn't."
+
+The Doctor continued. "Some day, in all likelihood, a little girl-child
+will climb upon your knee and call you papa. No creature can ever be to
+you what that little daughter will be. If any one should injure
+her----."
+
+"I'd kill him," broke in Carl hotly.
+
+"If you feel that way, dear boy, you should remember that every girl is
+some one's daughter, perhaps some one's sister, will probably be some
+one's wife and some one's mother, so that all girls should be sacred to
+you, treated with chivalrous courtesy and protected even as you feel you
+would protect those who may belong especially to you."
+
+"But don't you believe in boys and girls being friends at all?"
+
+"Most assuredly I do. Nothing is more charming than the frank
+comradeship of girls and boys, and that is why I am so sorry to see them
+spoil it with sentimentality. They ought to be good friends, helping
+each other, having jolly good times together, but never in ways that
+will bring a blush to the cheeks of either, now, or in the years to
+come."
+
+A rap sounded on the door and the maid entered with a note which she
+gave to the doctor, who handed it to Carl, saying, "Here is the note for
+Miss Bell. I have kept you waiting a long time, but I hope it has not
+been unprofitable."
+
+"Indeed it has not. I am ever so much obliged to you, I am sure."
+
+"And if you ever wish to talk to me again you will feel free to come,
+will you not?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, I surely will," answered the lad with a frank clasp of the
+hand.
+
+"Wait a moment," said the doctor, "I have just thought of a little book
+that I am sure you will be interested in reading. It is called 'A
+Gateway and a Gift,' and it deals with some of the questions we have
+been talking about this evening. You can lend it to some of your boy
+friends if you wish."
+
+"Thank you," said Carl, taking the book which the doctor handed him, and
+then with another "Good night," he walked away in the darkness.
+
+The note which he gave to Miss Bell the next morning read merely:
+
+"Don't say anything to Carl. Just wait."
+
+If Miss Bell had seen a note slipped by Carl into Susie Glenn's hand an
+hour later she might have thought it an evidence that the doctor's plan
+had failed. But had she read the note her opinion would have been that
+it had succeeded. It read:
+
+ "Dear Susie:--It was real mean of me to write that note
+ yesterday. Will you forgive me? Say, Susie, I think all this
+ nonsense about lovers and sweethearts is silly rot, don't you?
+ Let's be just friends. Respectfully yours,
+
+ CARL."
+
+Susie's answer was short but to the point. It read:
+
+ "All right. Let's.
+
+ SUSIE."
+
+Several months later Miss Bell and Miss Lane called again on Dr.
+Barrett.
+
+"Have you come with another problem?" asked the doctor.
+
+"No, we have come to report progress and to learn, if possible, just how
+it has come about. There has been a wonderful change in the school. The
+girls and boys are no less friendly, but it is without that silly
+sentimentality which was so annoying. They are now just real good
+comrades, and seem to help each other in being orderly, polite, and
+studious. How did you do it?"
+
+"Perhaps all credit is not due to me, but I will say that I gave Carl
+the instruction I thought he needed and he has passed the good word
+along. Several of the boys have met with me once a month to study
+concerning themselves, and I can see that they have grown to have a
+reverence for themselves and a deep regard for all womanhood. Carl was
+in last evening, and said, 'Dr. Barrett, I am so glad Miss Bell sent me
+with that note to you, for your talk to me that night has changed my
+whole life, I know. I feel so much cleaner all through, and have so much
+more respect for myself. And I think so differently of girls and women,
+and especially of my mother, and I realize as I never did before how
+important a thing it is to be almost a man.'"
+
+
+
+
+A GATEWAY AND A GIFT.
+
+
+Three gateways span the path of earthly existence: one at the entrance
+which we call the gate of birth; one at the close which we call the gate
+of death, and one at the entrance to the wondrous Land of the Teens,
+which we call the gate of manhood or of womanhood. At each of these
+gates a wonderful gift is presented to each individual. At the gate of
+birth it is the gift of earthly life, at death it is the gift of
+continued life, and at the gate which opens into the Land of the Teens
+it is the gift of creative life. You see that each gift is of life.
+
+The path of earthly life, beginning at the gateway of birth, passes
+through the sunny meadow-land of Childhood, and also through a strange,
+mysterious land to which we have referred as the Land of the Teens,
+before reaching the Heights of Maturity. This Land of the Teens is
+peculiar in that the inhabitants are neither children nor adults, and
+yet, with the inexperience of children, they have many of the desires
+and emotions of grown-up people. This constitutes an element of great
+danger, while another source of danger is the fact that adequate
+guidance is not always given in this transition period, or, if
+proffered, is proudly rejected by those who think that being in their
+"teens" makes them wise above that which is written.
+
+When we visit foreign lands we are grateful for guidance and direction,
+especially if we are not acquainted with the language; so, if we do not
+hire a guide we, at least, buy a guide-book. It seems to me, then, that
+we ought not to rebel against guides through the Land of the Teens,
+realizing that one who has traveled through a country can point out
+beauties and warn against dangers which would not be recognized by the
+inexperienced traveler.
+
+We can visit England, Italy, or Germany many times, and at each journey
+can profit by former experiences, but we pass through the Land of the
+Teens but once, and the lessons we learn on that journey we can only
+utilize for the benefit of others. This is why many people on the
+Heights of Maturity are anxious to light a beacon for those who are
+still in their "teens." They would gladly help others to shun the
+by-paths where they have met disaster, for they have learned the very
+solemn truth that in youth one is determining what maturity shall be.
+The seeds sown in the sunny meadow of Childhood and in the broader
+fields of the Land of the Teens are harvested in the uplands of
+Maturity, and the harvest is always greater than the seed sown. The
+petulance and pouting of the child hardens into the gruffness,
+bad-temper, and moroseness of the man; the idleness and shirking of the
+youth becomes the shiftlessness and unreliability of the adult; the
+boy's neglect of duty and unwearied search for pleasure may be harvested
+in dissipation and ruin in mature life. It is, then, a very serious
+thing to be passing through one's "teens," and the wise youth will
+welcome any guide who will show him a safe path. May I claim the
+privilege of acting for a little time in that capacity?
+
+The King of this land has made laws for its government and wisdom, has
+builded paths wherein one may walk in safety. The laws made by the King
+are not harsh and cruel, but are beneficent, and he denies no real good.
+He says to the traveler, "You belong to me, and I am desirous of your
+highest welfare; therefore, obey me and you shall be rewarded; disobey
+me and you shall be punished." It needs some moral courage to bravely
+stay in the path of Wisdom, for there are many allurements to leave it;
+more particularly as the inexperience of the traveler does not warn him
+of the dangers of following pleasures that lead away from wisdom's ways.
+The guide worthy of trust must not fail to point out these dangers; and
+the prudent youth will listen to the warning voice and walk in Wisdom's
+ways, for "all her ways are pleasantness, and all her paths are peace."
+
+We talk much about our personal liberty, and assert that we have a right
+to live in Maine or California, but we have not that much liberty in
+regard to dwelling in the Land of the Teens. If we are ever to reach the
+Heights of Maturity we must spend ten years in the Teens. We cannot sell
+our domain, nor give it away, and we cannot even hire some one to
+cultivate it for us. This being the case, it becomes important for us
+to study the soil and how best to develop its advantages.
+
+We find that the land has three divisions: the Domain of the Body, the
+Field of Intellect, and the Garden of the Heart,--the same divisions
+that exist in the Sunny Land of Childhood, and that we have been
+cultivating ever since we were born. These are the kingdoms which came
+to us with the gift of life. We recognize that the gifts which come to
+us at birth and death are of life for ourselves alone, and we have had
+no thought during our childish years except to develop our powers for
+our own advantage. It may be we have not felt perfectly satisfied with
+our lot in life, but we have felt that we were not responsible for this.
+We did not choose to be born in America instead of Asia, though we do
+not rebel at this fact. We did not select to be white instead of black.
+It is not our fault if we are born of a family in which consumption is
+an inheritance; and, on the other hand, we can claim no credit to
+ourselves if we have inherited strong bodies with healthful tendencies.
+It is our misfortune, and not our fault, if we are not quite perfectly
+poised by nature; it is our good fortune, not our foresight, if we have
+genius instead of mediocrity. The gifts that come to us through
+inheritance are ours without blame or credit to us but they bring with
+them the responsibility of their use. We are responsible for maintaining
+or increasing our dower of health by obedience to physical laws;
+responsible for the cultivation of our intellects, for the development
+of inherited virtues, and the annihilation of inherited vices.
+
+If you study your characteristics and talents you find that they repeat
+those of your ancestry. Your eyes, hair, mouth, chin, your stature,
+figure, complexion, your talents, capabilities, tendencies, your likes
+and dislikes, your faults as well as your virtues are repetitions of
+those who preceded you in this living network of existence of which you
+form a part. If you are not like father or mother you may be like
+grandfather or great-grandmother. If you do not find yourself repeating
+the characteristics or personality of any one ancestor, you may find
+yourself a composite photograph of several. And even if you cannot trace
+in yourself a likeness to any family representative, you may still be
+assured that from some of them your traits have come to you. You have
+only to recall the complexity of your sources of inheritance and then
+remember how many words can be spelled from the twenty-six letters of
+the alphabet to see that you can hardly measure the peculiar forces of
+mind and body that may come to you though that power of transmission
+which we call heredity.
+
+It may occur to you to ask why, if we are not responsible for our
+inheritances, is it needful to give them any particular thought? There
+are two reasons why we should consider the good and bad characteristics
+which may be ours through inheritance. In the first place, heredity is
+not fatality, and we are not absolutely obliged to follow the paths
+which our ancestors marked out for us, and in the second place, we can,
+by understanding our own characters, mark out better paths for our
+posterity. We are not only receivers of life, but we may be also givers
+of life, and this is the gift that comes to you at the entrance to the
+Land of the Teens. Can you imagine a more important period in the life
+of an individual than that point where is intrusted to him the physical
+powers which make him the arbiter of the destiny of those who come after
+him?
+
+The gift of possible life for others is even more marvelous than that of
+actual life for one's self and brings with it greater responsibility. It
+is accompanied with marked physical changes. You have observed them in
+yourself, though you perhaps have not understood them. Up to this time
+you have been but a child, and all your physical forces have been
+occupied in keeping you alive and growing. But you are now to become a
+man, with powers that will unite you to the race; powers that will give
+you the ability to form a new link in the living chain that now ends
+with you. You have noticed the rapid unfolding of your bodily powers;
+you have become conscious of new and strange emotions; you have, it may
+be, found yourself becoming irritable and have felt bewildered with the
+new aspects of life and have wondered what it all means. It may be you
+have felt as did one boy who said to his mother, to whom he confided all
+his problems of life: "Mamma, I want to kick and cry, and I don't know
+why." The mother knew. She understood the strange unfolding that was
+going on in his physical organism, and she kindly explained it to him,
+telling him that he must have patience with himself, and govern himself
+by his judgment and not allow himself to be carried away by impulse,
+assuring him that God would hold him as responsible for purity of
+character as He would the dear sister of whom they all felt so careful.
+He should reverence his manhood, even as he expected her to reverence
+her womanhood. This is necessary, not only for the good of each
+individual, but also for the eternal interest of future generations.
+
+This entrance into the Land of the Teens is a serious, even a dangerous
+period, for if you have not had right instruction you may be led, or
+fall into habits of wrong doing or thinking. If you are rightly taught
+you will begin to have an added reverence for yourselves in that God is
+dignifying you with new powers that will bring you more nearly into
+co-partnership with himself. These powers, the most sacred of all that
+have come to you, need years for development, and should be guarded by
+pure thoughts and kept for their holy office of promoting the earthly
+usefulness and eternal blessedness of those who hereafter will owe both
+earthly and immortal life to you.
+
+I have said that we are not responsible for the dower of virtues or of
+vices which are ours by inheritance, but we are responsible for the
+inheritances of our children, and this is a most solemn thought. Do you
+not begin to see that we cannot value ourselves too highly if we have
+the right idea of what our real worth is? We can scarcely overestimate
+the results of our own deeds. We may think it does not matter if we do
+not always tell the exact truth; if at some times we equivocate and at
+others exaggerate, but when we remember that truth is the foundation of
+character, and realize that by our little equivocations or exaggerations
+we may be weakening the foundations of many who are from us to receive
+their talents and tendencies, we begin to see that the matter is a very
+serious one. I am sometimes told that young people will not be
+influenced by a consideration for the welfare of unborn generations
+whose existence is very problematical in their thought; but my
+observation is that young folks are much more sensible than we give them
+credit for being. More than one young man has said to me: "I was never
+taught that my conduct and thought would impress themselves upon my
+children, but now that I see that such is the case, I am sure that I
+will hereafter be more careful of my life than I ever have been."
+
+This field of investigation is a broad one, and even if you never have
+an opportunity to study the subject scientifically you can still be of
+incalculable benefit to humanity by ever remembering that you are living
+for an earthly, as well as for a heavenly immortality. The young people
+who to-day are in the Land of the Teens are they who are determining the
+characteristics of the men and women of the Twentieth Century, creating
+the standards of thought and action, the methods of business, the level
+of morals, in fact the whole status of society in the world of a hundred
+years to come.
+
+It is a very wonderful fact that God has so created us that the result
+of our deeds is not limited to our own lives, but makes its impress upon
+those who are to come after us. We are not separate units, but are links
+in a living chain of endless transmission. This fact makes our lives of
+far greater consequence than if, in their results, they were limited to
+ourselves. If we are anxious concerning the future of our country, we
+may take to heart the thought that it will be what we ourselves have
+made it. The Bible expresses the same idea in many ways. "Whatsoever a
+man soweth, that shall he also reap," does not mean merely that his own
+future will be influenced by his conduct, but that his future in his
+children will be a record which he himself has made.
+
+Men often make their wills and bequeath to their children their gold or
+houses and lands, but sometimes against their wills they bequeath to
+their children a bodily dwelling of inferior material, and so poor in
+construction that it very soon falls into decay through disease, or in
+very early life becomes a tottering ruin. It would seem rather amusing
+to us if one should sit down and write his will and say: "I bequeath to
+my daughter Mary my yellow, blotched and pimpled complexion, resulting
+from my own bad habits of life. I bequeath to my son John, the effects
+of my habits of dissipation in my youth, with a like love for alcoholic
+liquors and tobacco. I bequeath to my son Harry my petulant, irritable
+disposition, and the rheumatic gout which I have brought upon myself by
+disobedience to physical law; and to my daughter Elizabeth, my trembling
+nerves and weak moral nature." But this is, in truth, what many parents
+do, and the children find it a sad, instead of an amusing fact.
+
+On the other hand, if one has led a life of uprightness and morality,
+and has obeyed physical law, his children will inherit his physical
+vigor, and his moral stamina. It becomes of exceeding great importance
+that these facts should be known to the young, in order that they may
+endeavor to overcome their own weaknesses, and strengthen their own good
+qualities for the sake of future generations.
+
+This heredity, the transmission of the qualities of the parent to the
+child, is found among plants and animals as well as in the human race.
+The seed of a plant produces another plant of the same kind, and the
+farmer knows when he sows wheat, that his harvest will be wheat, and he
+should know just as certainly that if he "sows wild oats" in his youth
+he may expect "wild oats" in his children. The character of the food we
+eat, the air we breathe, the occupations we follow, the habits we
+create, are the forces which shape not only our own destiny, but create
+the tendencies of our children.
+
+With these thoughts in mind, the question of the use of narcotics
+becomes one of great importance. There are few, if any, tobacco users
+who are anxious that their boys should early begin the use of the weed.
+But they do not realize the fact that in their own use of it they may
+have diminished the vital force of these boys, transmitting a tendency
+to disease, or perhaps an appetite for the tobacco itself, and not only
+will the boys feel the effects, but the girls as well. As the thought of
+men is turned in this direction, proofs are accumulating of the evil
+results to the children of tobacco-using parents. A prominent physician
+says: "I have never known an habitual tobacco user whose children did
+not have deranged nerves, and sometimes weak minds. Shattered nervous
+systems, for generations to come, may be the result of this indulgence.
+The children of tobacco-using parents frequently die with infantile
+paralysis. I have known two cases in which the crying of the baby could
+not be stopped until the tobacco-pipe was placed between its lips." Dr.
+Pidduck asserts that in no instance is the sin of the father more
+strikingly visited upon his children than the sin of tobacco using. "The
+enervation, the hypochondriasis, the hysteria, the insanity, the
+dwarfish deformities, the consumption, the suffering lives, and early
+deaths of the children of inveterate smokers bear ample testimony to the
+feebleness and unsoundness of the constitution transmitted by this
+pernicious habit."
+
+The effect of alcohol upon the child is equally marked, and from all
+sides comes the testimony that the degenerations do not stop with the
+individual, but pass on to succeeding generations. Sometimes the
+influence is seen in the stunting of the growth, both mentally and
+physically. Dr. Langden Downe reports several cases of this sort where
+the children had lived to be twenty-two years old and still remained
+infants, symmetrical in form, just able to stand beside a chair, utter a
+few monosyllabic sounds, and to be amused with toys. Dr. F. R. Lees,
+referring to the injury inflicted upon the liver by alcohol, says: "And
+recollect, whatever injury you inflict upon this organ, to your
+posterity the curse descends, and as is the father, so are the
+children." Dr. Kerr asserts that the effects of injury to the mind and
+body may not always show themselves in the drinker himself, yet it is
+doubtful if his children ever entirely escape the effects in one form or
+another. These effects may be manifest in insanity, or in a tendency to
+diseases of the stomach, liver, bowels, lungs, or other organs; or with
+a like love for alcoholic stimulants. Not only may the child be weak in
+body but also in intellect. It is the statement of a score of observant
+physicians that the children of intemperate parents are apt to be
+feeble in body and weak in mind.
+
+Another very striking thought in this connection is that while the
+physical effects may not show in the individual himself, nor in his
+children, they may be manifest in the deterioration of his grandchildren
+and great-grandchildren. A prominent temperance advocate who was laid up
+with rheumatic gout, which is apt to be the result of alcoholic
+indulgence, replied to a friend who wondered that he, a drinker of cold
+water, should suffer with this disease, "Yes, my ancestors drank the
+liquor and I foot the bills." In 1834 the Parliament of the British
+House of Commons made a report of intemperance in which they stated that
+the evils of alcoholism "are cumulative in the amount of injury they
+inflict, as intemperate parents, according to high medical testimony,
+give a taint to their offspring before birth, and the poisonous stream
+of spirits is conveyed through the milk of the mother to the infant at
+the breast; so that the fountain of life, through which nature supplies
+that pure and healthy nutriment of infancy, is poisoned at its very
+source, and a diseased and vitiated appetite is thus created, which
+grows with its growth, and strengthens with its increasing weakness and
+decay."
+
+A tendency to commit suicide seems to be a marked bequest of an
+inebriate parent to his children, and it is well to state that in the
+opinion of medical men who are dealing with all forms of inebriety, the
+evils resulting to the children may be transmitted by parents who have
+never been noted for drunkenness. Continual moderate drinking keeps the
+body so constantly under the influence of alcohol that a crowd of
+nervous difficulties and disorders may be transmitted even more surely
+than from the parent who has occasional sprees with long intervals of
+sobriety between. It is not only through the drinking father that injury
+is done to the children, but the mother may have a vitiated inheritance
+from her father and transmit it to her children.
+
+When we recall the fact that one hundred thousand men fall into
+drunkard's graves every year, we are appalled at the thought of that
+vast army marching on to death and destruction. As we listen, we can, in
+fancy, almost hear the tramp, tramp of that "mighty host advancing,
+Satan leading on." In the front rank comes the one hundred thousand men
+who shall fall into drunkard's graves this year, and behind them the one
+hundred thousand men who are to fall next year. They come with sound of
+revelry and song, and close beside them press a crowd of weeping wives
+and mothers and little children, starved, crippled, and murdered, who
+are to be fellow victims with the drunkard. Not very far back from the
+front row come one hundred thousand young men in the very prime of
+young, vigorous life, just beginning to drink their first glass of wine
+or beer, with no intention of ever standing in that front row, yet
+having started on the way. Back of them, one hundred little school boys
+who think it manly to ape the follies of their predecessors. Back of
+them, one hundred thousand little toddlers whose feet stagger in their
+innocent helplessness. Back of them, one hundred thousand mothers with
+babies in their arms. Oh, how sweetly those baby eyes look up into the
+loving eyes that are brooding over them. Is it possible those baby brows
+will ever lie low in the gutter, those sweet lips be stained by oath or
+glass; those crumpled rose-leaf fingers ever strike the murderous blow
+incited by alcohol? It must be, if that front rank of one hundred
+thousand drunkards is to be recruited, for the drunkards of the future
+are to-day babies in their mother's arms. Do you who read these words
+intend to join this vast army of prospective drunkards, or will you
+belong to the cold-water army that is marching on accompanied by health,
+vigor, industry, prosperity, success and long life?
+
+We must not be so interested in the inheritance of evil qualities as to
+forget the transmission of good. We read in Exodus, twentieth chapter,
+that the sins of the fathers are to be visited upon the children unto
+the third and fourth generations of them that hate the Lord, but mercy
+will be shown to _thousands of generations_ of them that love Him and
+keep his commandments. As we have seen the sins of the fathers are
+visited upon the children in transmission of diseased bodies, perverted
+moral natures and weakened wills, and realize that the promise is being
+fulfilled in the visitation of the sins of the fathers upon the
+children, let us see if the other promise is being fulfilled also, in
+the mercy shown to thousands of them that love the Lord and keep His
+commandments.
+
+An English specialist in children's diseases has carefully noted the
+difference between twelve families of drinkers and twelve families of
+sober parents during a period of twelve years.
+
+ INTEMPERATE. | TEMPERATE.
+ |
+ Produced 57 children; 25 died in | Produced 61 children; 6 died
+ the first week of life. These | in first week, of weakness.
+ deaths due to convulsions, or | 4 had curable diseases. 2
+ oedema of brain and membranes. | showed inherited nervous defects.
+ 2 were idiots. 5 dwarfs. 5 | This leaves 50 who were in
+ epileptics. 1 had chorea. 5 were | every way normal, sound in body
+ deformed. 2 became drunkards. | and mind.
+ This leaves only 10 who showed |
+ during the whole of life a |
+ normal disposition and development |
+ of body and mind. |
+
+If it were not a fact that health, purity, integrity, intellect and
+virtue were being transmitted to a far greater extent than sin and vice,
+there would be little good in the world, but the transmission of these
+good qualities is so extended, so like the air and the sunshine and the
+water, a common thing, that we almost forget to recognize it. When we
+turn our thoughts to the investigation of this phase of the subject, we
+find that vigorous parents have healthful children, that powers of
+intellect are transmitted, and that honesty and uprightness in the
+father warrants us in expecting the same in the son. We recognize the
+transmission of powers of intellect in the fact that where the parents
+have a peculiar talent, we very generally find the same talent in their
+children. We are acquainted with musical families, mathematical
+families, artistic families, and in the study of renowned people of the
+world we find evidences of this transmission of intellect. We also learn
+that the effects of education are transmissible, and if the parents are
+educated along a certain line the children receive education along that
+line much more readily. This fact becomes a wonderful incentive to us to
+build up all that is best in our own natures in order that through us
+the world may receive an impetus towards higher and better things.
+
+Sometimes when your faults and defects press upon you with tremendous
+force and you find it so very hard to overcome them, you may be tempted
+to lay the blame on your ancestry who gave you such a dower, who by
+their lives handicapped you in your life-struggle. You may feel inclined
+to say with some writer, to me unknown, who says:
+
+
+HEREDITY.
+
+ "Your strictures are unmerited,
+ Our follies are inherited,
+ Directly from our gran-pas they all came;
+ Our defects have been transmitted,
+ And we should be acquitted
+ Of all responsibility and blame.
+
+ We are not depraved beginners,
+ But hereditary sinners,
+ For our fathers never acted as they should;
+ 'Tis the folly of our gran-pas
+ That continually hampers--
+ What a pity that our gran-pas weren't good!
+
+ Yes, we'd all be reverend senators,
+ If our depraved progenitors
+ Had all been prudent, studious and wise;
+ But they were quite terrestial,
+ Or we would be celestial,
+ Yes, we'd all be proper tenants for the skies.
+
+ If we're not all blameless sages,
+ And beacons to the ages,
+ And fit for principalities and powers;
+ If we do not guide and man it,
+ And engineer the planet,
+ 'Tis the folly of our forefathers--not ours."
+
+But the lesson of these lines is not that you should lie back in
+inaction, making no effort to overcome your defects because they are
+inheritances. There is for you a wiser lesson in the theme than that.
+When Marshall Ney was taunted with the fact that the Imperial nobility
+had no pedigree he proudly replied, "We are ancestors."
+
+There is a grand thought for you. If your ancestors did not do the best
+for you, will you not profit by your knowledge of this fact and do the
+best for those who shall look back to you as their ancestor? Supposing
+that your parents in their youth had said: "I will take care of my
+health so that my children may be born with vigorous bodies; I will make
+good use of my intellect so that my children will inherit an added
+capacity for acquiring knowledge; I will obey all laws of morality so
+that my children will by inheritance tend toward virtue;" and supposing
+that you to-day, with healthful bodies, keen intellects and upward
+tending moral natures, were reaping the reward of their forethought,
+would you not bless them for it?
+
+You have no right to remain listless and discouraged because of your
+inheritances, whatever they may be. Hear the inspiriting words of Ella
+Wheeler Wilcox:
+
+ There is no thing you cannot overcome.
+ Say not thy evil instinct is inherited;
+ Or that some trait inborn, makes thy whole life forlorn,
+ And calls for punishment that is not merited.
+
+ Back of thy parents and grandparents lies,
+ The great Eternal Will; that, too, is thine
+ Inheritance--strong, beautiful, divine;
+ Sure lever of success for one who tries.
+
+ Pry up thy fault with this great lever--will;
+ However deeply bedded in propensity;
+ However firmly set, I tell thee firmer yet
+ Is that great power that comes from truth's immensity.
+
+ There is no noble height thou canst not climb;
+ All triumphs may be thine in time's futurity,
+ If whatsoe'er thy fault, thou dost not faint or halt,
+ But lean upon the staff of God's security.
+
+ Earth has no claim the soul can not contest.
+ Know thyself part of the supernal source,
+ And naught can stand before thy spirit's force
+ The soul's divine inheritance is best.
+
+The youth of to-day have in their own hands the molding of the future,
+not only of themselves, but of the nation, by the every day habits of
+their lives. By their thoughts and aspirations, by the moral tendencies
+which they are cultivating in themselves, they are determining what
+shall be the characteristics of the nation in a hundred years to come.
+Shall this be, in a hundred years, a nation of drunkards? The young
+people of to-day are deciding that question. Shall it be a nation of
+invalids? This, also, the young people are deciding. Shall it be a
+nation filled with greed of gain, with a low standard of morals, with
+dishonest methods in business, or shall it be a nation wherein vigorous
+health is the rule, unflinching courage, absolute integrity and pure
+morality shall everywhere reign? What the young people of to-day are
+making of themselves physically, mentally and morally, is deciding what
+shall be the future of the country.
+
+
+
+
+THE WHITE CROSS.
+
+
+The cross is considered as an emblem of self-denial, the immolating of
+selfish wishes upon the altar of universal good.
+
+In a nobler sense it means not so much self-denial as the creation
+of nobler desires, so that the individual wants only those things which
+he rightfully should have; he is not obliged to deny himself, because
+he asks nothing but that which is noble and pure. In this sense the
+cross is not so much the emblem of self-denial as an emblem of
+self-ennoblement--the exaltation of self.
+
+The White Cross typifies the purifying of the life from the desire of
+mere sense pleasures. It means the noble manhood which claims for itself
+the privilege of chastity and the rewards of purity.
+
+The White Cross army is composed of men and boys over fourteen years of
+age who unite to resist vice, to secure safety for the home and for
+society, to become all that becomes true manhood. In organized
+co-operation there is strength. It is not only the "long pull" and
+the "strong pull," but the "pull altogether," that is thoroughly
+successful.
+
+Hundreds of men are living the white life individually, but are not
+associated together in an effort to influence others. Such association
+would result in more rapidly spreading the idea of the responsibility of
+the individual, would create public opinion, would give moral support to
+those who might find their unaided strength inadequate to meet the
+temptations of the world, in short, would furnish the conditions
+favorable to the highest ideals of social and individual life.
+
+The White Cross Society aims to unite men in such an organized effort
+for the elevation of moral standards. Its members are pledged to the
+keeping of a fivefold obligation. The first of these appeals to the
+chivalry latent in the heart of every man, making him a protector of
+every woman, however lonely or friendless she may be, recognizing her
+potential value to the race; protecting her against his own selfish
+desires, against the open and covert assaults of other men, against her
+own unwisdom, if need be.
+
+The second obligation pledges the White Cross knight to a pure heart
+expressed not only in conduct but in word. He will think and speak
+reverently of life in all its phases, and help to cleanse the
+language--written or spoken--of all that pollutes the heart or vitiates
+the imagination. The third obligation claims for the White Cross soldier
+the glory of living up to the highest moral standards, of being as pure
+as the noblest woman that lives. The fourth recognizes the power of
+influence and binds the members to a helpful interest in all humanity.
+
+The fifth covers the whole scope of life in the obligation to use every
+effort to fulfil the command, "Keep thyself pure." The heart of the true
+man must throb a quick response to the appeal made to him by the White
+Cross.
+
+It means marital fidelity, it implies the sanctity of the home, it
+creates individual purity, and that insures social purity, it means a
+nobler manhood, a grander womanhood, a safer childhood.
+
+The appeal is made to you individually. Will you not become a White
+Cross knight? Will you not, even if you cannot join an organized
+society, become a standard-bearer of the White Cross, pledging yourself
+to its five obligations? Soon you will find others willing to unite with
+you in this great work, and the society will be formed.
+
+Each one who reads this book may become a true and faithful knight of
+the White Cross, no matter where he may be, in city mart or lonely farm,
+in busy shop or quiet school, and not only may he be a soldier, but he
+may be a recruiting officer, inducing others to enlist under the White
+Cross banner.
+
+
+THE WHITE CROSS PLEDGE.
+
+ "_Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God._"
+
+I PROMISE, BY THE HELP OF GOD:
+
+ 1. _To treat all women with respect, and endeavor to protect
+ them from wrong and degradation._
+
+ 2. _To endeavor to put down all indecent language and coarse
+ jests._
+
+ 3. _To maintain the law of purity as equally binding upon men
+ and women._
+
+ 4. _To endeavor to spread these principles among my companions,
+ and try to help my younger brothers._
+
+ 5. _To use all possible means to fulfil the command, "Keep
+ thyself pure."_
+
+ Name_______________________
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+
+
+=Self and Sex Series.=
+
+
+FOR MEN.
+
+=By Sylvanus Stall, D. D.=
+
+ 1. "What a Young Boy Ought to Know."
+ 2. "What a Young Man Ought to Know."
+ 3. "What a Young Husband Ought to Know."
+ 4. "What a Man at Forty-five Ought to Know."
+ 5. "What a Man at Sixty-five Ought to Know."
+
+ PRICE $1.00 EACH.
+
+
+FOR WOMEN.
+
+=By Mrs. Mary Wood-Allen, M. D., and Sylvanus Stall, D. D.=
+
+ 1. "What a Young Girl Ought to Know."
+ 2. "What a Young Woman Ought to Know."
+ 3. "What a Young Wife Ought to Know."
+ 4. "What a Woman at Forty-five Ought to Know."
+ 5. "What a Woman at Sixty-five Ought to Know."
+
+ PRICE $1.00 EACH.
+
+
+Address orders to
+
+=Wood-Allen Publishing Co., Ann Arbor, Mich.=
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+
+
+=Almost A Woman.=
+
+... MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D.
+
+Price, 25 Cents.
+
+
+=GIRLS=
+
+ Have long been wanting a book written by Dr. Wood-Allen for them to
+ correspond with the one by the same author for
+
+
+=BOYS=
+
+ At last the demand has been met and the doctor's new book,
+
+
+=Almost A Woman=,
+
+ Presents in attractive form the pure instruction needed by the
+ girl.
+
+
+=MOTHERS=
+
+ Will find this just what they have been wanting to put into the
+ hands of their daughter.
+
+
+ =WOOD-ALLEN PUBLISHING CO.,
+ ANN ARBOR, MICH.=
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+
+
+=BOOKS=
+
+... By MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D.
+
+
+=TEACHING TRUTH.=
+
+Price, 25 Cents ...
+
+This little brochure aims to answer in chaste and scientific language
+the queries of children as to the origin of life. The reception it has
+met with is best indicated by the testimonials received from the press
+and through private letters.
+
+The principal of a young ladies' school writes: "I invited our girls to
+the parlor and read your brochure, which was listened to with the
+deepest interest. At certain portions of the reading nearly all were in
+tears. It is a most pathetically pure, chaste presentation of a grand
+subject. You would have rejoiced could you have heard the expressions
+from the young ladies. Surely, dear Dr. Allen, God has blessed many
+through your instrumentality."
+
+Read this book if you read no other but the Bible this year.--_Emma
+Bates, Valley City, N. D._
+
+Please send me some more copies of your unique and valuable little book.
+I cannot keep a copy over night. It would be an evangel to every young
+person in whose hands it might be placed. I would also invite the public
+school teachers to examine this rare little book.--_Frances E.
+Willard._
+
+A skilful, graceful, and reverent effort to assist parents in what has
+been a delicate and difficult task. The author deserves the praise that
+belongs to the successful pioneer.--_George N. Miller._
+
+
+=ALMOST A MAN.=
+
+... Price, 25 Cents ...
+
+The success of the "Teaching Truth," and "Child-Confidence Rewarded,"
+together with the frequent requests for some inexpensive book for the
+instruction of boys approaching manhood, has led to the writing of
+"=Almost A Man=." It is intended to help mothers and teachers in the
+delicate task of teaching the lad concerning himself, purely and yet
+with scientific accuracy.
+
+A booklet designed to help mothers and teachers in the instruction of
+boys.
+
+Ought to be in the hands of every parent in the land.--_Toledo Blade._
+
+Chaste and pure, and admirably adapted to mothers in this most difficult,
+universally neglected but very important line of work.--_Early
+Education._
+
+Many mothers will be glad to read what such an authority as Dr. Wood-Allen
+has to say on so important and delicate a subject.--_Mother's Journal._
+
+Worth its weight in gold to the puzzled mother, telling her exactly what
+she wants to know. This book deals reverently with the great mystery of
+life.--_Ladies' Home Journal._
+
+Too much cannot be said in its favor.--_School Education._
+
+I can conscientiously recommend it to all who are interested in the
+physical and moral welfare of youth.--_C. A. Dorman, M. D._
+
+Such literature cannot fail to accomplish great and lasting good.--_Eng.
+F. Storke, M. D._
+
+Many have given good advice, but this is the best.--_Rev. Kent White._
+
+I believe this little book would do incalculable good if placed in the
+hands of boys after they have reached ten years of age.--_Wm. G. Lotze,
+Gen. Sec. Y. M. C. A., Denver, Colo._
+
+
+ =Address,
+ WOOD-ALLEN PUB. CO., Ann Arbor, Mich.=
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+
+
+=A NEW BOOK=,
+
+=The Marvels of Our Bodily Dwelling=
+
+=BY MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D.=
+
+Teaching by metaphor, parable, and allegory has been the method of many
+of the wisest instructors.
+
+No one can claim originality in comparing the body to a house, for that
+comparison is as old as literature.
+
+But the simile is still of interest to the juvenile mind, and as science
+is ever making new discoveries, there is continual demand for new and
+interesting works on physiology.
+
+Dr. Wood-Allen in this new book has united scientific facts and metaphor
+with the skill that would be expected from her by those acquainted with
+her literary powers.
+
+The book will be found equally valuable as a text-book, a supplementary
+reader or a reference book in schools, or as a book of pleasant home
+instruction. Teachers in Normal Schools will find it a most suggestive
+aid in teaching physiology. As it contains the most reliable scientific
+facts in regard to alcohol, tobacco, and other narcotics, it fills the
+demand created by the school laws compelling the teaching of the action
+of narcotics on the human body.
+
+
+TESTIMONIALS.
+
+A charming book.--_Frances Willard._
+
+Only a scientific person can understand how really good it is. It has
+been to me intensely interesting, and I hope sincerely that the world at
+large will appreciate it.--_J. M. W. Kitchen, M. D._
+
+It gives me pleasure to note that the book, both by its subject-matter
+and its pleasing form of presentation, is well adapted to the use for
+which it is intended.--_B. A. Hinsdale, Professor of the Science and Art
+of Teaching, University of Michigan._
+
+I find here, wrought out in attractive form, some of the most important
+knowledge that our young people ought to know. It is suitable for a
+supplementary reader in the upper grammar grades of the public schools.
+Part Second particularly is of the highest value to the boys and girls
+in our grammar and high schools.--_W. S. Perry, Principal of High
+School, Ann Arbor, Mich._
+
+This excellent work ought to be, not only read, but studied by every one
+in and out of our schools who is interested in preserving the integrity
+of our bodily and mental functions. The author's method would make
+knowledge invigorate and mature the judgment and not burden the memory,
+and this is the germinal idea in all sound education.--_Geo. E. Seymour,
+Professor of History, High School, St. Louis, Mo._
+
+
+ =The retail price of the book is $1.10. Orders promptly filled by the=
+
+ =WOOD-ALLEN PUB. CO.,
+ Ann Arbor, Mich.=
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+
+
+=THE BIRTH CHAMBER.=
+
+PRICE, 10 Cents.
+
+A Supplementary Chapter to =The Marvels of Our Bodily Dwelling=.
+
+In this supplementary chapter are given the scientific facts of special
+physiology, written in Dr. Wood-Allen's own delicate style. Many who
+have become aroused to the fact that accurate scientific knowledge is
+the surest safeguard of purity, are themselves not well enough
+instructed to be able to teach their children. This booklet meets the
+need of all such, and gives just what is wanted to instruct young people
+in regard to the sacred origin of life. Every one who owns "Teaching
+Truth" and "Child-Confidence Rewarded" will desire to possess this
+booklet also, for it supplements these perfectly.
+
+
+=CHILD-CONFIDENCE REWARDED.=
+
+PRICE, 10 Cents.
+
+"This little book treats of child-purity with the same delicate but
+masterly hand shown in Dr. Allen's other writings."--_Union Signal of
+July 5, 1894._
+
+"Unique and valuable."--_Frances E. Willard._
+
+"I am delighted with it."--_Katherine Lente Stevenson, Chicago._
+
+"Most charmingly written."--_Alice B. Stockham, M. D., Chicago._
+
+"The good it will do is incalculable."--_Emily S. Bouton, in Toledo
+Blade._
+
+"The best you have done yet. I can recommend it."--_Earl Barnes,
+Professor in Leland Stanford University, Palo Alto, Cal._
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+
+
+=The New Crusade=
+
+Price 50 Cents a Year.
+
+Sample Copies Free.
+
+
+=MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D., EDITOR.=
+
+ It is sui generis, deals frankly and scientifically with the
+ moral problems of the home, the school, and society.
+
+It embodies the work of the =White Cross=, =White Shield=, =Mother's
+Meetings=, =Child-Culture Circles=, and the =Rescue Work=. Also deals
+with the subject of Reform and Legislation for Morality, and yet
+continuing to emphasize, most emphatically of all, the necessity of
+right instruction as the surest means of promoting purity. Co-operating
+with the National Superintendent of the Department of Health and
+Heredity, it discusses all topics of health and inheritance, pre-natal
+influences, etc. =Physical education will also have its share of
+attention.=
+
+Crusaders of old endeavored to overthrow evil by "force and arms." The
+NEW CRUSADE proposes to emphasize the positive side of life, and waging
+a peaceful war, aims to supplant Ignorance by Knowledge; to eradicate
+Vice by Virtue; to displace Disease by Health, and to dispel Darkness by
+Light.
+
+Send for terms to agents and our club rates. Make all Money Orders
+payable to
+
+ =WOOD-ALLEN PUBLISHING COMPANY,
+ Ann Arbor, Michigan.=
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+Transcriber Notes
+
+Typographical problems have been changed and are listed below.
+
+Hyphenation and common compound words standardized and listed below.
+
+Author's archaic spelling is preserved.
+
+Author's punctuation style is preserved.
+
+Table of Contents added.
+
+Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_.
+
+Passages in bold indicated by =equal signs=.
+
+
+Transcriber Changes
+
+The following changes were made to the original text:
+
+ Prelude: =meadow land= standardized to =meadow-land= (lads
+ had crossed the sunny =meadow-land= of childhood and stood
+ by the gate)
+
+ Page 7: Added quotes (="It= has been so long since I saw you
+ that you have almost grown out of my knowledge.... You must
+ be fifteen years =old."=)
+
+ Page 8: =anyone= standardized to =any one= (supposing you
+ try to forget that =any one= has ever told you anything
+ about it)
+
+ Page 9: =every thing= standardized to =everything= (We may
+ go even farther and say with Mr. Grant Allen that
+ =everything= high and ennobling in our nature springs
+ directly from the fact of sex.)
+
+ Page 13: =microscrope= changed to =microscope= (they are not
+ visible except with the aid of a =microscope=)
+
+ Page 14: Changed period to comma after =to-night= (No one
+ ever talked to me as you have =to-night,= and I am sure it
+ makes me want to be better.)
+
+ Page 20: Changed single quote to double (that will bring a
+ blush to the cheeks of either, now, or in the years to
+ =come."=)
+
+ Page 20: Changed ending single quote to double (the doctor
+ handed him, and then with another "Good =night,"= he walked
+ away in the darkness.)
+
+ Page 24: =plesaantness= changed to =pleasantness= ("all her
+ ways are =pleasantness=, and all her paths are peace.")
+
+ Page 26: Added comma after =mouth= (Your eyes, hair,
+ =mouth,= chin, your stature, figure, complexion, your
+ talents, capabilities)
+
+ Page 27: =prehaps= changed to =perhaps= (You have observed
+ them in yourself, though you =perhaps= have not understood
+ them.)
+
+ Page 31: =tobacco using= standardized to =tobacco-using=
+ (proofs are accumulating of the evil results to the children
+ of =tobacco-using= parents)
+
+ Page 36: =transmissable= changed to =transmissible= (We also
+ learn that the effects of education are =transmissible=)
+
+ Advertisements: Removed extraneous quote after =youth= (I
+ can conscientiously recommend it to all who are interested
+ in the physical and moral welfare of =youth.=--_C. A.
+ Dorman, M. D._)
+
+ Advertisements: =M D.= changed to =M. D.= ("Most charmingly
+ written."--_Alice B. Stockham, =M. D.=, Chicago._)
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Almost A Man, by Mary Wood-Allen
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALMOST A MAN ***
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