ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK:
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1903
DEDICATION
| To Mark Twain |
| In loving tribute to his genius, and to his human sympathy, which in Pathos and Seriousness, as well as in Mirth and Humour, have made him kin with the whole world:— |
| this book is inscribed by |
| BESSIE and MARIE VAN VORST. |
| PREFATORY LETTER FROM THEODORE ROOSEVELT |
| Written after reading Chapter III. when published serially |
| WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, October 18, 1902. |
My Dear Mrs. Van Vorst:
I must write you a line to say how much I have appreciated your article, "The Woman Who Toils." But to me there is a most melancholy side to it, when you touch upon what is fundamentally infinitely more important than any other question in this country—that is, the question of race suicide, complete or partial.
An easy, good-natured kindliness, and a desire to be "independent"—that is, to live one's life purely according to one's own desires—are in no sense substitutes for the fundamental virtues, for the practice of the strong, racial qualities without which there can be no strong races—the qualities of courage and resolution in both men and women, of scorn of what is mean, base and selfish, of eager desire to work or fight or suffer as the case may be provided the end to be gained is great enough, and the contemptuous putting aside of mere ease, mere vapid pleasure, mere avoidance of toil and worry. I do not know whether I most pity or most despise the foolish and selfish man or woman who does not understand that the only things really worth having