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ABOUT PEOPLE.

is now working; so there is no snubbing her. Whoever is the best cook and the earliest riser will have the means for a better dress, and in all meetings will be the equal of her stalwart husband, in his coarse, ready-made suit; while the weak, inefficient woman stays at home, has no new dresses, and misses the stimulus of the Grange meetings and agricultural shows. Poor woman! Children have multiplied, and the farm income has not kept pace with their growth. Yet she is the socially recognized equal of her better-to-do neighbor in all but energy. Caste is founded in the far West on its primal, lawful ground of ability, whether physical or mental.

In other circles the demarcations of caste are felt more than they are seen, but the test of consciousness is more absolute than that of sight. It is, after all, a personal feeling, far more indefinable since the position of women has so widely changed. She is no longer merely the house-keeper, obedient wife, or

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