nine in a glance of six seconds. But six seconds is a considerable period in which to concentrate the attention upon a few very bright and simple objects, such as a cube, cone, pyramid, etc.; and this, be it remembered, was an exceptional group of men trying to do their best.

The second test was for conscious, reflective observation, and was taken by eighty-three men. Two white blocks, rectangular in shape and somewhat larger than an octavo volume of medium size, were placed on a dark table, on one side of which was an instructor and on the other a group of five or six men. The instructor, using either his right or left hand, took one of the blocks and moved it with moderate quickness in three different positions with reference to the other-the movements taking about cne second each to execute. The men were required to manipulate the blocks in the same manner and order.

Twenty-seven moved the block correctly; thirty-two used the wrong hand; thirteen made wrong movements; ten, wrong hand and movements; one placed the block incorrectly.

In this test, therefore, but one-third were accurate witnesses of a very simple operation carefully watched.

The third test was for partly unconscious observation, and is more interesting in this connection since it tends to show the actual state of the individual as regards his habit of blind sight. In the ordinary work of the class in the course of building construction, it had been sent to examine the structural detail of a simple building-a gun shed-with special reference to its working drawings. A few days later a set of ten observation questions was submitted for answer. "How many windows in the entire building and how located?" "How many bays in the building?" etc. Seventy-seven men took the test. One made over ninety per cent.; four, over eighty per cent.; five, over seventy per cent.; twenty, over sixty per cent.; nineteen, over fifty per cent.; fifteen, over forty per cent.; six, over thirty per cent.; five, over twenty per cent.; two, over ten per cent. In round numbers, about half the class remembered about half of the simple and conspicuous features of an object which they had been on a special trip to examine two days before; and six-sevenths remembered less than seventy per cent.

In another test for wholly unconscious observation but ten men out of eighty-three could recall the number of windows in an

academic room in which they had passed about three hundred hours during a year's attendance; and not one could describe their location or character with entire correctness. Fourteen could not answer simple questions regarding the physiognomy of their parents; and twenty-six failed similarly as to their roommates. One is irresistibly reminded of the oft-told but capital story of the professor of physics who undertook to demonstrate to his class the difference between seeing and observing. Taking a graduateglass, he proceeded to fill it with a certain liquid. He then inserted a finger in the liquid and afterwards in his mouth. The students were requested to file past the table, accurately to repeat his action and return to their seats, which they did; each man receiving from his finger in restrained silence a horrible dose of asafoetida, which he was careful to see his successor should not miss. When the class had all resumed their seats with pallid faces and sinking stomachs, the professor, after scanning them sadly for a moment, remarked, with a weary smile: "Gentlemen, you did not observe that the finger I put in the graduate was not the finger I stuck in my mouth."

Any demonstration of the universality of this growing atrophy of attentive vision would be futile were the infirmity incurable or beyond prevention. But it is, on the contrary, easily prevented and cured. It is in almost every case an acquired habit which in childhood originates by reason of the absence in our civilization of the incentives to acute vision which are normal to the life of the human being as an active, self-sustaining animal; and it develops progressively as the subjective and artificial conditions of modern life assert their influence in general affairs. The child is a keener observer than the adult. The habit of attention and acute observation can be aroused by persistent effort and made natural and spontaneous. Pleasure in the stimulated vision, and the sense of vastly increased powers of observation, of broadened range, of new beauties, of heightened interest, will suffice to keep it alive and repay the effort.

The story of Houdin, and his marvellous development of visual acuteness and memory by practice, is well known; but an instance of a similar achievement in this country, through causes akin to those of nomadic life, was new to me when recently described by an eye-witness associated with the actors. A gentleman of the Corps of Cadets, whose home is in Texas and who has

lived of choice the cowboy life on his father's ranch, tells me that the herders become so expert in their scrutiny of cattle, so keen-eyed and observant, that in buying cattle on the hoof they often rely for enumeration upon a glance at the herd as they ride past; and that their passing estimate practically never varies more than two or three from the actual number in herds of from fifty to one hundred; and that in much larger herds, of from two to five hundred, their estimates will preserve the same proportion of accuracy. For instance, a buyer will say as he rides through a cattle-range, "I will take that herd of seventy-five; this of one hundred and fifty." Or, after a short scrutiny, he will assert, "You have five hundred head on that range over there." However, in buying a herd as large as this, they are usually strung out and counted, although the result rarely differs from the original estimate by more than two or three per cent. In some cases this ability to estimate is carried to a higher degree of accuracy even for very large herds. In the early seventies, before the day of weighing-scales and railroads, cattle-buyers in the Southwest would buy cattle at so much per hundredweight from their owners. This estimate of weight was based on what the cattle would weigh after they had been driven two, three or four hundred miles to the Kansas City market. Nevertheless, the error would amount to only a few pounds, not enough to affect their profits.

Charles Goodnight, of Goodnight, Texas, and owner of the famous buffalo herd bearing his name, related the following of a famous negro he knew. When the round-up time came, they would place this negro in an advantageous position and drive past him the herds belonging to different men. All these cattle, except the calves, had their owners' brands. Later, when these calves, after having been mixed up in the corral, were taken out to be branded, he could tell which brand to put on each from having noted at the time to which cow each belonged.

This astonishing acuteness is even more clearly demonstrated in their detection of diseased or defective animals in herds which they are inspecting for purchase. I am informed that in this discrimination they equally rely upon a rapid visual sweep of the cattle while grazing, the inspector merely riding through the herd. A sound herd is appraised as such and accepted at a glance; and, similarly, at a glance any deviation from uniform perfection is

remarked, and a demand for special examination is made on the spot. But this special examination is as astonishing in its expertness as the others. There is no dismounting for individual scrutiny. The herd is simply run past the purchaser at a gallop, and the defective heads are indicated with unerring certainty as they pass. These statements the narrator was at pains to substantiate by corroborative testimony from friends on the spot actively associated with the business of cattle-raising.

Let any one who is sceptical regarding my contention that observant vision, if cultivated in childhood, would be prolific of most important and far-reaching results in after-life, not alone in vastly increased mental acuteness, but in enhanced capacity for pleasure, a widened range of sympathy and a more profound insight into the life of Nature and Humanity-let such a doubter take himself in hand, and for a time each day divert the ruminative current of his thought from subjective to objective contemplation. Begin by a determination to observe your interlocutor, dear Average Man, upon all occasions. Endeavor to recall the details of physiognomy, of dress, of carriage, of habit both of friends and of casual acquaintances; finally, of passing strangers. From that pass to action and associations. Next, carry your range of visual acumen into Nature in your daily walks. Upon your return from your various excursions take a few moments for the preparation of a brief mental memoir and itinerary develop your negative and file it. Presently your interest will be very much stimulated, and you will be considerably astonished not only at the enormous amount of significant matter that has hitherto wholly escaped you, but at your latent capacity to seize and retain it. Finally, you will discover that the old habit of blind-sight has departed; that in its place has developed the more natural and fruitful habit of live-sight; and that through the window of your soul there will flow a stream of living forms, facts and feelings to inhabit the treasure-house of your memory, instead of the train of pallid ghosts, vague and speechless, that vanished in oblivion and left behind only the damp and chilly residue of a fog.

CHARLES WILLIAM LARNED.

WOMAN'S RIGHT TO GOVERN HERSELF.

BY MRS. OLIVER H. P. BELMONT.

To our living population-to those awake to the requirements of the hour-to women and men beyond the A B C of life, I do not presume to address this article. In all ages there has existed a class of human beings who, either wanting in intellect, hampered by inheritance or unconscious of their own strength, have remained under the yoke of circumstance. Government and social reforms, burdened by this passive type of humanity, have carried it onward, through no efforts of its own, but only by the power of the ever-rising tide of evolution.

Drones are found in all classes, existing by the brain development of those who act, or clamoring for help from those who give. To them cling the barnacles of worn-out fallacies, and from them come the cries of ludicrous protestations against the achievements of civilization. It is this incongruous mass that opposes Woman Suffrage, the movement which demands that the political standard of woman shall equal that of man. The brain which has evolved its own material and stands untrammelled by the past, when confronted by new propositions will approximately solve the situation. It is from men of such intellect that women expect the ballot.

Of what use is this education, these possibilities for woman in business, in all the activities of life, her work for men, her strength and devotion, her courage, her relentless energy, if in the end she is to meet this barrier. You are not free citizens of the United States, you are bondwomen, for you must bear servitude and obligation without representation. You are of inferior capacity, therefore incapable of self-government. In the already polluted political arena you would but add to the chaos that exists.