It seems to me a wise thing to store up private wealth early. My nose to me a kingdom is, and emperors and any millionaire might envy me the possession of my ears and eyes. There are pale-souled philosophers who declare their contempt for the power of gold, and some narrow dull-witted folk are really oppressed by luxury--all of which seems nonsense to me; but if one can't and most of us can't, have high stepping horses, good frocks, paid service, and expensive homes, one can at least own tangible treasures of smells and sights and sounds. And, ah! the odd bits of poetry I possess.... Now rising through the rosy wine of thought Bright-beaded memories sparkle at the brim Of the mind's chalice. Golden phrases wrought By the great poets bubble to its brim. My poets--as the patterned skies are mine, The perfumes and the murmurs of the sea Are all mine own--their cadences divine Seem as my goodly heritage to me. They trace the measures of all hidden things, And into worded magic can translate The hidden harmonies which Nature sings; Her mighty music inarticulate. And who will list hears sonorous vibrations As though their thoughts strung harps from earth to heaven That rung with golden, glad reverberations As wide-winged dreams breathed through their strings at even. July 10. Are American Parents Selfish? P---- overwhelmed us last night at dinner by declaring that American parents were selfish. We dropped our fish-forks and stared at him in amazement and disgust. H---- said, severely, "You are a foreigner." P---- couldn't truthfully deny it, and the bare statement seemed sufficient, but H---- likes to clinch any nail he drives and he went on: "It is admitted by every unprejudiced person--excepting, of course, the ignorant and benighted foreigner--that the Americans are the people, and that wisdom and virtue will necessarily die with them; that all their customs and institutions, whether social or political, are the wonder, the envy, and despair of other nations, which makes an assertion like yours seem almost frivolous." "Selfish!" I struck in, "selfish--indeed! on the contrary, the American is blamed as the most indulgent of parents. Surely selfishness is the last charge that can justly be made." P---- tried to defend himself. He admitted that "if indulgence invariably implied unselfishness the American would certainly have nothing with which to reproach himself in his relations with his children."