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CHAPTER XVIII. RAILROADS.

Rights and wrongs of the great transportation corporations—What they have done for the country and what the country has done for them—Era of construction closed and an era of restriction and regulation begun—Why railroad officials become millionaires—Watering stock—A curious question which will be raised one of these days

431 CHAPTER XIX. BANKS AND BANKING.

New York no longer the sole dictator in the money market—Why Western business men are now independent of metropolitan money-lenders—The increase of “reserve cities”—Banking methods to dodge the laws—How unscrupulous bank directors get rich—Why so many cashiers go to Canada and how to stop them—Noted living bankers

455 CHAPTER XX. OUR CITIES.

Cities are necessary evils—But greatly to be avoided—City life is dangerous to most persons—Unnatural influences are inevitable—Hard on the purse and hard on the heart—Poverty’s last refuge—The home of the thief—The touch of nature lost—Temptations innumerable—Restraints few—No place for country boys and girls—City forms of government must change—The Darker Side—The sorrows of the city poor—Friendless and alone—Miserable homes—Health and morals menaced—All depends on one life—Chances and misfortunes—Sickness and death—The story of the Ganges paralleled—The majority are industrious—An army of heroes—Religion and rum their only comforts—Child work and child ruin—Benevolence wearied and despairing

481 CHAPTER XXI. RELIGION.

Religion is in no danger—The letter suffers but the spirit grows—Essentials were never more prominent—The tree is judged by its fruit—Proselyting has gone out of date—Denominations have ceased to fight—A life as well as a faith

509 CHAPTER XXII. WOMAN AND HER WORK.

One “woman’s right” secured—She has a chance almost everywhere—The liberation of man—Woman’s wits sharpen quickly—Advantages over male workers—Woman need not marry for a home—The tables turned—Some effects upon society—Never enslaved unless stupid—The “Song of the Shirt”—The coming generation

517 CHAPTER XXIII. OUR LITERATURE.

A nation of readers—Books to be found everywhere—The Sunday-School library—Chautauqua’s great work—The American author is a busy man—Good books make their way, sooner or later—Abler men should go into authorship—Our literature making its way abroad—American writers’ characteristics—Our literature is clean, earnest and hopeful

531 CHAPTER XXIV. AMERICAN HUMOR.

The salt that will save us—A nation of jokers—Our Puritan and cavalier ancestors were fond of fun—President Lincoln’s jokes—Humor in the pulpit—Fun in the newspapers—Prentice—Mark Twain—Nasby—Nye and Riley—Miles O’Reilly—“Uncle Remus”—John Hay—“Bob” Burdette—All healthy fun—No malignity in our jokes—The best-natured people alive

547 CHAPTER XXV. THE HIGHER EDUCATION.

A land full of colleges—How these institutions began to exist—Tributes to American regard for intelligence and education—Something better needed—No lack of money—Views of Presidents Dwight of Yale, Eliot of Harvard, McCosh of Princeton, White of Cornell, Bartlett of Dartmouth, and Gilman of Johns Hopkins—Bishop Potter on the place of the scholar in America

566 CHAPTER XXVI. OUR GREAT CONCERN.

Our country first and foremost—No sectional differences—No foreign interests or entanglements—The people first, the party afterward—Loyalty to party means disloyalty to the republic—Meddlers must be suppressed—All in the family—One for all and all for one—E Pluribus Unum

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