cumstances where he or she can do something toward an independent support.

The league, by a unanimous vote at its general meeting, and at its woman's business meeting in February, passed resolutions denouncing a proposed "Song and Dance Bill" for licensing little girls of tender age to appear upon the stage in theatrical exhibitions. The league sent out one hundred and sixty copies of these resolutions to Senators and Representatives at Albany, urging them to kill this bill promptly, which, if passed, would necessarily aid in the propagation of vice. We have also sent many letters to individuals, asking their coöperation to aid in preventing its passage, and have received a number of responses from Senators and Representatives, who have promised to do all in their power to prevent the adoption of the bill.

The incorporators of the Christian League are often asked why we did not unite with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, or the White Cross movement, or some of the other organizations already in existence, instead of organizing as a distinct national society.

First. After many years of deliberation we were convinced that it was necessary to have a headquarters at Washington or New York City.

Second. We believe that men and women ought to be associated as co-workers in seeking a higher and equal standard of purity for both sexes in and out of the church. We recognize that there is a department of work which can be better done by men alone, and other work which can be done effectively only by women; and that a far greater amount can be accomplished when managed by mutual leadership.

While we would not intimate that the league has done better work than other organizations, still we are confident that in due time, when the league shall have attained mature age and full strength, it will have proven that the coöperation of men and women as workers in this cause has

accomplished far better and greater results than either men or women could accomplish separately.

Third. The league is, as a whole, thoroughly in sympa thy with the various temperance movements, and its individual members work singly and collectively for the restriction of the tobacco habit, and total abstinence from it, as well as for the absolute disuse of alcoholic stimulants.

The league exacts no pledge from any individual member, save that he or she accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her personal Saviour and the leader and example in every good work.

We aim to teach the right of every child to the counsel, companionship, and love of his father, the same as to that of his mother, under whatever circumstances it may have been forced into existence, whether it be born to a legiti mate father and mother or not. We teach the enormity of the sin in the illegitimate father, notwithstanding that the law and custom of the land permits him to give away the child to a public institution wherever philanthropy may provide a resting-place for the little bundle of helpless infancy, and thus ignore his fatherly responsibility to his own child, which is deprived even of its birthright to its father's name.

We acknowledge that it is equally culpable in an illegiti mate mother to dispose of her unprotected offspring, to whom no thought is given in most cases by the father, whether he have the wealth of millions, a college education, and forty years or more of worldly club-life experience, or whether he be the vilest of criminals from the lowest vagabond ranks.

Women who have pursued with careful and prayerful investigation the helpless young mothers, gathered from the ranks of typewriters, stenographers, teachers, bookkeepers, store or factory girls, often find them with their helpless infants in great charitable church institutions, lying-in hospitals, reformatories, or in the street, gone from bad to worse in hopeless despair, while the illegitimate

father in many cases is rewarded by smiles and patronage from the officers of church societies." Intelligent mothers in and out of the church connected with these great benevolent homes really believe in their hearts that these illegitimate fathers have been very generous under the circumstances to bestow one hundred and fifty dollars or two hundred and fifty dollars upon the institution which receives the pretty little errand girl, chambermaid, or bookkeeper, as the case may be, and supplies her with a bed, and surrounds her with machine routine, medical attendance, and strangers to explain to her the enormity of the sin of giving birth to an "illegitimate infant." Yes, the shocking falsehood by the church and state must be reiterated even to-day, that the innocent, helpless little offspring, directly legitimate from the hand of the Creator, must suffer the stigma of the abominable sin of its illegitimate father and mother, until the laws of the land shall be revised in accordance with the gospel of Christ, taking the place of old Jewish law or the more unjust conservative rule of modern society.

And what ought to be said and done concerning feticide. in fashionable society? What does it lead to in and out of the marriage relation, and where is it to end? Is murder made respectable because it is a common and every-day occurrence in the families of communicants of every division of the church? There is no space here or the oppor tunity to call your attention to the unnamable sins of the age. We, as Christians, are commanded to go out and seek and save the lost. If we close our eyes to these terrible evils, how can they be restricted or cast out of our midst?

The letters which have been received by the officers of the Christian League from wives and mothers disclose facts which exist in the homes of the wealthy, in Christian families, in the haunts of degradation and poverty, as well as in the municipal government, of which most of us had never heard until we became an organized society to aid in these

matters.

The highest Christian civilization may learn much from the oriental governments. If men are fitted to render safer and better service as eunuchs in oriental countries, why not adopt this most needed and surest method of punishment for certain criminals? Have we not Scripture teaching and example to sustain this plan? If any member of the body offend, shall it not be removed, that the whole body be not sacrificed to the one unruly member? Let wise statesmen counsel with the elect women, and adopt more rational methods for preventing certain crimes.

Working members of the Christian League have been frequent visitors during the past three years to all the city public institutions, prisons, insane asylums, and stationhouses, during the day and night, where women lodgers and prisoners are received. From time to time we have sought in various ways to urge the necessary means for preventing practices which exist in these places; and improvements have been effected by securing the coöperation of men in political power. Many of the patients in the insane pavilion at Blackwell's Island, and in all the asylums in the country, are victims of self-indulgence. Is it not time for the church to awaken to its responsibility and seek the coöperation of honest, chaste physicians, who will manifest a higher regard for physical and spiritual development for all God's children than for the etiquette so tenaciously regarded by men and women of the profession?

Solitary confinement in every penal institution is a source of untold evil. Every evil thought is rampant; many evil schemes are concocted; evil hands are directed by evil thought; and evil thought is certainly intensified by solitary confinement.

THE COLUMBIAN ASSOCIATION OF HOUSEKEEPERS AND BUREAU OF INFORMATION, WITH PLANS For the Work OUTLINED IN THE NATIONAL COLUMBIAN HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION, WHICH WAS INCORPORATED MARCH 15, 1893.- REPORT BY LAURA S. WILKINSON OF CHICAGO.

The National Columbian Household Economic Association is a direct outgrowth from one of the committees of the congress auxiliary. When the chairman on Household Economics was appointed she called together the members of her department, but found that there was no formulated plan of work. This committee, numbering thirty, was one of the largest in the auxiliary, yet its attendance was so irregular that we discovered that no real work could be done unless we could be aided by additional money and more members. The one way to meet this difficulty was to form an association which should include the members of the committee, and make it possible to obtain subscriptions to carry on the work. This was done early in October, 1891.

The objects of this association are, as the constitution announces, "To awaken the public mind to the importance of establishing a bureau of information, where there can be an exchange of words and needs between the employer and employed in every department of home and social life. Second, to promote among its members a more scientific knowledge of the economic value of the various foods and. fuels, and a more intelligent understanding of correct plumbing and drainage in our homes, as well as of the need for pure water and good light. Also to secure skilled labor in every department of woman's work in our homes." The work of the association was to be done through seven committees. It was not our intention to confine our work to Chicago, and for this reason we adopted the name of the "Columbian Association of Housekeepers."