"And I did think of those men until my journey was ended, and I have thought of them many times since. Thanks to my righteous teachers I was able to see them as they were. They filled my soul with horror and pity--pity, for I perceived that they were the monsters the Government (which is ourselves) had made. But I pitied the scared looking man with the grimy black bag in which his weapon of death lay concealed more than I did the man with the glittering sword that he wore boldly in the eyes of all. He looked so wretched, so oppressed and conscience stricken, that I thought the time would surely come when he would throw off the terrible yoke that had been put upon him and refuse to use the bolts of heaven for the extinction of human life. But when I heard that he was working by night and day on an awful chair--a veritable throne of death on which the criminal will sit and die without looking upon his executioner's hated presence; my pity was mingled with loathing, for I perceived that he was a willing instrument instead of a terrible necessity, and that he cared nothing for the victims of the law except that he might be spared from their cursings and hate. That he was plotting against them while he was hiding away from them and making of that _death-machine a life-work_. "Beware of all such men, my dear daughter. Believe thy mother when she tells thee that the life-taker is sure to be a brute. Trust not thyself least of all to the so-called capable brute. See to it that the occupation of the man that would marry thee be not of their kind. "In short, marry no one unless the spirit moves thee strongly. Remember that the credit is not to those who bring the most children into the world but those that bring the best or take the best care of those that are already here." Adelaide paused and looked at Ruth questioningly. "She meant that the Krupp guns, torpedo boats and all those horrible war implements were inventions of the capable brute, did she not?" asked Adelaide. "Yes, and more too. She meant all those dangerous things that are made for boys to celebrate with," said Ruth. "And the capable brutes are such inventors as Krupp and Pang--and Bombs," added Adelaide hesitatingly, as though averse to including him in the same class. "Yes," replied Ruth; "but Mr. Bombs is young and perhaps you can influence him to do better things." Adelaide shook her head vigorously. Ruth had not quite caught her meaning but she did not know just how to explain it, so she went on with the journal.