KISMET Two babies in cabs pushed by their mothers met in a park. While the mothers talked the babies eyed each other for a few moments, then set up a blended scream of such volume and intensity as to break up the conversation and separate the party. Five years later they met again in a kindergarten, and the pair, not knowing each other's names, but animated by a soul hatred coeval with the beginning of emotion, tried to stare each other out of countenance. Failing in this, they made faces, earnestly and spitefully, until reproved by the teacher and separated. One was soon taken away, its parents having removed their residence. At eleven years of age they again faced one another, two vigorous boys from different streets of the city, each a leader of his band. There had been a "gang fight," a battle with sticks and stones, with charges and countercharges, retreats and routs. There had been a challenge from one leader, accepted by the other. They stood for a moment, each backed by his following; then one reached down for a chip, which he placed on his shoulder. All boyhood knows the consequences of knocking off a chip; but this one was not knocked off. The other boy also reached for a chip and placed it on his shoulder. And so they stood, silent, scowling, each waiting for a move on the part of the other, each dominated by a hate and a fear that he could not measure by any experience, but which surpassed in strength and grip all other emotions he had known. "Soak him, Jonesy! Knock it off!" "Don't take that from any man, Smithy! Hit him!" "What's the matter with you?" "Paste him!" came from the combined following; but neither made a move. Slowly, like two tomcats similarly placed, with baleful, glittering eyes, they backed away until surrounded by their followers. Then came cries of derision and contempt, ending in a vigorous onslaught by both leaders, in which several critics bit the dust, and which partly restored their prestige. But it took many days of such tutelage before the discredited leaders regained their influence over the weaker spirits and impressed upon them the fact that they were not afraid to fight. Their excuses and explanations were many, but bore no relation to the real cause of the delinquency.