the idea of positive health thoroughly inculcated in us without the means of availing ourselves of medical care when we know the need of it.

The next ten years will doubtless see forward strides taken in the direction of both educational and remedial work for the laboring classes, but the great middle class may be still uncared for. This is not because of indifference. It is not apathy or ignorance that is causing the problem to continue undiscussed and unsolved.

Perhaps it is partly the peculiar personal quality inherent in illness. A man has a child ill with mastoiditis, a mother ill with pneumonia. Both illnesses are necessarily taken care of in the hospital, where the expense leaves him burdened with debt. He thinks of this as a misfortune peculiar to himself - forgetting that his neighbor in the next block, his neighbors all through the city and country, are undergoing the same worry and impoverishment. When he thinks of his every ill in terms of community illness, community problems, he will rouse himself to band together with his neighbors and do something about it.

The latest available statistics of the National Bureau of Economic Research show that 96.8 of the population of New York State have incomes of less than $5000 a year. These figures become significant and thought-provoking when studied in connection with the cost of illness to-day.

It is gratifying to see that the recognition of the appalling conditions that prevail, both as to doctors' fees and as to hospital expenses, is coming from the medical world. Some of its finest minds are alive to the seriousness of the situation. Some doctors suggest a modern and much improved method of applying the old Chinese idea of paying the doctor to keep us well and stopping payment when we are ill. The

VOL. 140-NO. 4

B

solution will come with free public expression of opinion and a frank disclosure of the tragedy that illness is at present to the man of moderate means.

Looking toward this end, a group of women doctors in New York City are planning to build in the near future a hospital so equipped and managed, organized and endowed, that patients will be charged in accordance with their incomes. One hundred and fifty beds out of two hundred are to be set aside for the use of people of moderate means; and the income of a special endowment will be used to reimburse the hospital for the loss sustained for caring for such patients at a price based on the individual's income. A price charged to cover all extras will include the use of operating and delivery rooms, anæsthesia, laboratory examinations, special drugs and special dressings. There will be fixed fees for the services of physicians and surgeons attending patients receiving the benefit of the endowment.

Not long ago a man who is an authority on civic health conditions and hospitals expressed himself as believing that the time must soon come when society in general must shoulder the burden of caring adequately for its sick. Hospitals must be maintained, medical and surgical care furnished, according to the man's income.

The endowment of education has long been considered essential. For instance, we know that no Yale student pays the full cost of his tuition. Boys and girls go to college and never for one instant feel they are objects of charity. And they are not. Their added education enables them to give back to their communities a hundredfold more than has been expended on them.

Is not this even more true of health? Is not the health that makes men and women efficient, happy, active, independent, one of the choicest assets of the nation?

FROM his seat on a mattress covered in red plush, which lay in the centre of a huge carpet of arresting pattern, a bearded old gentleman, whose goodly proportions were at the same time indicated and concealed by a brown mantle of ample yardage, remarked benignly:

'On the subject of his prolonged journeys the Honorable Engineer has condescended to relate experiences at the same time curious and picturesque; wherein, doubtless, there may lurk, somewhere, a clove of truth.'

The slim, olive-tinted young man in the black tunic and pill-box hat, who stood respectfully before that pyramid of flesh, broadcloth, and upholstery, answered with some warmth:

"That which your servant has described, his eye has seen. The avenue is a hundred paces wide; also it runs in a straight line through the city for six farsakhs

'Who shall deny the traveler his tale?' mused the stout old gentleman, who was called Preserver-of-the-Kingdom.

'To deny a tale to a traveler,' said the Engineer, 'would be unworthy of the magnanimous and discerning Presence. Nevertheless, your servant has refrained in this instance, not without difficulty, from garnishing the skirts of truth with the embroidery of fancy. As I have explained, the people of the city which has been described number as many as all the inhabitants

of Azerbaijan, Khorasan, Fars, and Kerman together—'

'Peace!' said the stout old gentleman. 'A city to hold so many people should be twenty farsakhs long, not six.'

'Not so,' answered the young man, 'if the houses in it are six times the height of the minarets of the Mosque of Friday.'

He who was called Preserver-of-theKingdom made no reply. He let his eyelids fall and allowed his ponderous head to sink on an ample bosom. After an adequate pause his eyes reopened and he inquired with suspicion:

"This avenue, which you say is six farsakhs long, and runs through a city whose houses are six times as high as the minarets of the Mosque of Friday-'

'As I petitioned,' said the young

man.

'Who built it?'

The Engineer, disdaining an admission of ignorance, took advantage of an opportunity for loosening the bridle of his fancy.

"The avenue was built by the wisest governor the city ever had. When it was finished, the gratitude of the people was such that they named it after him, so that his renown might endure forever.'

The stout old gentleman again bent his head and pondered. At last he was heard to murmur:

"The Avenue of the Preserver-of-the

Kingdom'; and again: "The Avenue of the Preserver-of-the-Kingdom.' Then he said cautiously: 'Should it become apparent that the people of this city also desired such an avenue, could the undertaking be accomplished?'

'Most assuredly!' cried the Engineer with enthusiasm. Why, just before they sent me here to dwell in the shadow of the Illustrious Presence, I had completed such a road outside Tehran. It runs from the Gate of Shimran to the Hill of the Hare —'

'What would be required,' interrupted the Preserver-of-the-Kingdom, 'for such an undertaking?'

'First,' answered the Engineer, 'a plan of the town must be carefully prepared-'

'It is unnecessary,' interrupted the stout gentleman. 'Everything is plain. The avenue will begin at the Gate of the Lion, which is at the lower end of the town, and will proceed in a straight line, without deviating a hand's breadth to the right or left, until it reaches the Gate of Sheikh Mahmoud at the upper end. What next?'

"Then,' said the young man, ‘an order must be written bearing the seal of the Illustrious Presence, which will enable your servant to remove certain houses which might be found unfortunately to lie in the line of the proposed road-'

'Such an order is wholly unnecessary,' interrupted the Preserver-ofthe-Kingdom. "The houses may be removed. Proceed.'

"Then,' continued the Engineer, 'to the owners of the removed houses it is customary to give a promise of ultimate compensation.'

'Compensation!' cried the stout gentleman indignantly. "When I am about to present them with a noble avenue, planted on both sides with trees!'

'Your servant spoke only of a promise,' said the young man airily. "The

matter of fulfillment was not touched upon. To those who have eaten the bitter herbs of despair at seeing their houses demolished before their eyes such a promise would come as a spiced sweetmeat of hope.'

'Or as the sight of a lake of reeds and floating islands to the ignorant and distracted traveler in the desert,' murmured the Preserver-of-the-Kingdom. 'Setting aside the matter of compensation,' he added cautiously, 'there might be, perhaps, other expenses.'

'Difficulties of this nature would be easily resolved by the sagacious mind of the Illustrious Presence,' said the Engineer. 'If, for instance, an insignificant tax of one kran were charged upon every ass, mule, horse, and camel which enters the town, ample funds would be provided for meeting any unavoidable expense.'

'Certainly, on the score of the heavy cost of construction and ultimate compensation, a sum might be conveniently collected in the manner described,' said the Preserver-of-the-Kingdom thoughtfully.

'Most assuredly,' said the young man. And further, this tax, once imposed, might be usefully retained for the upkeep of the road — or for general purposes. And as for workmen, the town prison is doubtless full of thieves, murderers, and other lost persons, who in their red and yellow costumes, with chains round their ankles, attached to heavy iron balls, would provide a sufficiency of picturesque if reluctant labor.'

"True, true,' murmured the stout gentleman.

He closed his eyes again, allowing his head to sink once more on his bosom. After an appropriate pause he reopened them and said:

'The suggestions of the Honorable Engineer have been weighed and are found acceptable. When could the

II

He who by all Saidabad is known as Chief-of-the-Masons, and by the purveyors of lime, bricks, poplar poles, and white plaster as The-Most-FamousArchitect, surveyed gloomily a scroll which the young Engineer had unrolled before him on the table.

'It is but a rough, imperfect plan of the town,' said the Engineer. 'You will say, "It should have been drawn on a larger paper and every street, alley, mosque, caravanserai, and house should appear." True, O Chief-of-the-Masons, but what could I do? In the opinion of the Preserver-of-the-Kingdom such details are a headache and a complication. However, thanks be to God, I was able with my instrument to obtain a sight of the Gate of Sheikh Mahmoud from the roof of the Gate of the Lion. So we have our direction. We shall begin from the Gate of the Lion and work upward, slowly, in a straight line, toward the Gate of Sheikh Mahmoud.'

The Chief-of-the-Masons made no remark.

'Arrangements have been made,' continued the Engineer, 'with the Chief-of-Police regarding the prisoners. Clad in their picturesque garments of red and yellow, they will work from sunrise to sunset, under a not too exacting guard. It is true that most of them are sick and all of them are hungry, and the chains round their ankles will

the Daughters. Then it will cross the Meidan and enter the bazaar, which we should reach in a month's time. There our headaches will begin. For the merchants, shopkeepers, and money lenders will refuse to be entertained by the new and startling experience of seeing their premises demolished before their eyes. Beyond the bazaar is the quarter of the Plane Tree -'

'Doubtless everything that has been conceived by the Honorable Engineer may be accomplished,' interrupted solemnly the Chief-of-the-Masons. 'With the help of God, everything may be accomplished. Nevertheless -'

'Nevertheless?' said the Engineer. 'The Honorable Engineer has forgotten the Tomb,' said the Chief-of-theMasons.

"The Tomb?' questioned the Engineer.

"The Honorable Engineer is a stranger in this city,' answered the Chief-ofthe-Masons. Otherwise the Tomb of the Blessed Guide, Sheikh Mahmoud (May God purify his clay!), would not be unknown to him. It lies by the Gate of Sheikh Mahmoud, directly across the line of the road which the Honorable Engineer proposes to build. Who knows?' continued with bitterness the Chief-of-the-Masons. 'Perhaps God placed it there so that these detestable Feranghi innovations might be brought to nought! For, whatever else you may demolish and cast away, be assured of this: the bones of His Holy One shall never be moved; neither shall the Tomb

of His Saint be defiled by those who have eaten the bread of unbelievers!'

III

When, with the aid of a variety of fragrant sauces, the virginal hillock of boiled rice had been ravished and consumed; when a sufficient number of gobbets of grilled mutton, concealed between slabs of smoking bread, had disappeared; when the cool, capacious bowl of sour milk and water had been drained with the aid of half a dozen boat-shaped wooden ladles; when a score of dripping segments of crimson watermelon had vanished, one by one -the Engineer from Tehran invited his guests to precede him into the inner chamber. There each took up a kneeling attitude upon the carpet and by refined and well-mannered noises of a belching nature sought to express his satisfaction at the hospitality vouchsafed.

Then Agha Seyyid Fazyl (called also Eye-of-Wisdom), the most distinguished among the assembled guests, made a sign to his serving man, who was waiting by the door; and soon, from the anteroom, his favorite water pipe was produced. For a person of his consequence would hardly venture forth to after-sunset dinner during the Blessed Month unaccompanied by his favorite water pipe. It had come, packed in a leather pocket which hung securely from the saddle of his Chief-ofServants.

By this time the minds of the assembled company were so filled with the consciousness of peace and wellbeing as to cause a lull in the conversation. Whereupon the Engineer from Tehran, sensing that his principal guest, in the magnificent black turban, was pleasantly disposed toward him and to the world at large, ventured to remark:

"The meagre hospitality of your servant is unworthy of this honor. Nevertheless, the humblest morsel may become acceptable, if it be offered in the name of God.'

"To us unknown provincials,' replied affably the Eye-of-Wisdom, 'how rarely is an opportunity accorded of edifying conversation with famous and instructed persons from the capital! Above all with those who, like the Honorable Engineer, have perfected their studies in the unrivaled universities of Feranghistan.'

'In alluding to himself as an unknown provincial,' replied the Engineer, 'the Eye-of-Wisdom is vainly attempting to drown the blare of the Trumpet of Fame with the refined music of the thin Tar of Modesty. His reputation, which he esteems to be merely local, extends in reality far beyond the confines of this province. Thus he may be surprised to learn that the fame of the school of Dream Interpretation which he has founded among the learned doctors of the Mosque of Friday has long since reached the ears of instructed persons in the capital.'

'I am indeed surprised and confused,' answered the Eye-of-Wisdom with becoming humility, 'that the learned doctors of the capital should have deigned to take note of our inadequate inquiries into the domain of Dream Interpretation.'

'It is as I have petitioned,' replied the Engineer. 'Before starting on my journey to your agreeable city, I decided to consult a learned mollah, one Sheikh Rahim of Shah Abdul Azim, about a dream which had caused me some uneasiness. For it concerned a personage of Saidabad and I feared that it might be intended as a warning to me to desist from this journey. Happily the learned Sheikh was able to allay my fears; he recommended me to proceed in peace and doubted not that