"The simple and salient fact is, we do not get hold of little children soon enough. An unfortunate childhood is the sure prophecy of an unfortunate life. Implant lessons of virtue and well-doing in earliest childhood, says Plato. Give me the child, says Lord Bacon, and the state shall have the man. Let the very playthings of your children have a bearing upon the life and work of the coming man, says Aristotle. It is the early training that makes the master, says the German poet. Train up a child in the way he should go; and, when he is old, he will not depart from it, says the Revealed Word."--_Sarah B. Cooper, before the National Conference of Charities and Correction._ THE LOST WAIF It was our first night in an American city after the breaking out of war between Spain and the United States. The States had undertaken the war for the purpose of freeing Cubans from cruelties perpetrated by Spanish officials, and it was currently reported that the government was spending more than a million of dollars daily to accomplish the rescue. There was no doubt in the minds of the American people of the justice of the American cause and no one regretted the cost. Seven hundred and fifty thousand men had volunteered to serve in the army or navy and Congress voted money as freely as it was asked. Let these facts stand as a background for our story. * * * * * Coming from Europe, as we had done, between two Wednesdays, without passing through New York City, our first impressions of a wildly enthusiastic patriotism, as manifested by the advertising class, were gained in Chicago, and were especially striking by contrast with the quiet of the lands we so recently had left. We had been studying social questions in Germany, Holland and England during the past year, and were therefore more observant of varied expressions and contrasts in social life. In the evening we strolled on the streets in company of a friend from New Orleans, who was the first to greet us on arrival, to see the wonderful window illuminations and color displays that made the pavements at night brighter than day. Crowds of men, women and children, representing every stratum of society, promenaded past these shows or lingered before them. Behind great panes of plate glass were groups of ghastly wax figures representing naval engagements or camps of starving Cuban _reconcentrados_. The favorite mottoes displayed were "Suffering Cuba Must Be Free," and "Remember the Maine." In drinking places there was added to the last motto, "Down with Spain."