THE MISTAKES OF A SMALL BOY. A boy would not be worth much if he never made mistakes, and was never told of them. There is hope for a boy in proportion to the number of mistakes he makes and afterward corrects. One of the most common mistakes of a boy is in what he wants. He is apt to want most the things he hasn't, and one of the things a small boy hasn't and hankers after most of all is size. O how he does pine for size! He waits and counts days and scratches the wall with pencil-marks, and stretches himself up trying to catch up with his big brother. And all the time he may be more of a man than his big brother, if only he would put the right kind of measure in place of the foot rule. You have heard of the Irishman who went to the market to buy the most for his money, and finding that turnips wer so much cheaper than potatoes, bought four bushels of turnips instead of two of potatoes But he was very much surprised to learn that the turnips were seventy-five per cent. water, and that he might have bought a package he could have carried in his vest-pocket that would have contained the same amount of nutriment as his four bushels of turnips. That was a case where size was deceiving, and that is the way the small boy is often taken in. It's not the size of a man's fist, or the breadth of his shoulders, or the height of his stovepipe hat that counts. I have seen a seven-foot bully do a thing so mean and unmanly that a seven-year-old boy ought to blush for it. And I have seen a boy pass along after him and pick the whining dog up that he had lamed by a kick, and treat it with such pity and tenderness that, if we still lived in the days of chivalry (and we do in more ways than one), that boy would have been knighted and spurred and received the applause and smiles of fair ladies and noble men and his king, and the hulking giant would have been given to some magician to be changed into a flea or a potato bug or some petty, noxious insect. If a boy would only hanker after the things that ought to go with size, and let size take care of itself, he would make no mistake. Another thing the small boy is apt to overrate is physical strength. He is always bragging about what he can do, and the strongest boy in a crowd is sure to have things pretty much his own way. The whole world used to be boys once in that respect. The man who could strike the hardest blow and ride the fastest and jump the farthest and use his arms and legs the best was the best man; now it is the man who can use his head the best. It is the man who has the best heart. The Indian said when he first heard a pistol fired and saw the deadly effects, "He heap little, heap loud, heap go quick and hit hard." A boy who is little need not be loud, but if he can "go quick," and hit the mark clean through in doing his duty, he is manlier than some who wear men's clothing. It is not the exhibition of strength; it is the just and kind use of strength, the intelligent and judicious use of strength, that makes great. The horse has more strength than the man, but the man with his less strength and superior mind makes the horse go as he pleases, and subdues the wildest and most ferocious beast. Don't ache for size; don't ache for strength. Don't lie awake nights thinking how to get either. Let those things Let those things take care of themselves, and be just the kindest, most truth ful, patient, industrious, merriest, happiest boy you can, and get all the love you can from others, and give all the love you can to them, and men will one day say of you, “What a power he is?" and maybe you couldn't lift a five-pound dumbbell. But all I say will be true nevertheless.-Our Morning Guide. A PLASTER OF PATIENCE. At times when the world seems to go contrary, You know how one feels when the back begins aching, If Bridget should tell you that she must be leaving, For all of the aches and the pains of each sorrow If ever the world seems to go all contrary, And you feel the need of some comforting cheer, Just take the advice of my neighbor, Miss Mary, And "put on a plaster of patience, my dear." -Good Housekeeping. HIS MOST MANLY QUALITY. The American man is typical of all that signifies devotion to her who gave him life and being, writes Edward W. Bok in "At Home With the Editor" in the June Ladies' Home Journal. He believes that God gave him wife to love but a mother to revere. His most manly quality is his homage to his mother. I remember an instance where in a house occupied by two families a point of disagreement came up. "Is it not possible that your mother may have been wrong?" asked one of the disputants of the other. "My mother, sir," was the rejoinder, is incapable of doing wrong in anything. What room was there for further argument with such an answer? Going to the extreme, you say. Perhaps; but it was beautiful, nevertheless. It was the answer of a typical American man. A GOOD LAW. California has a school law that allows of a $50 appropriation each year for the purchase of library books in cities which have 1,000 school children. Here is the proper opportunity for Eastern cities to make a low bow of courteous acknowledgment that they are outdone to the progressive educators of the Pacific Coast. Such law making is only the legalized expression of public sentiment.—The School Journal. HOW A CHILD LEARNS. Suppose you have a dozen pictures; apes, bears, foxes, lions, tigers, etc. Then every time you show one of these to a child, and the child learns to say, "That lion is an animal," he not only learns something about the lion but extends his conception of what an animal is. Hence we can see when it is that learning a name is instructive; it is when the name is a record of something actually witnessed. If, however, you tell a child who does not know what a ship is, or what wind is, or what the sea is, that a sail is the canvas on which the wind blows to move the ship across the sea, the names are only names and do not add to the knowledge of objects. Nothing new then can be a subject of knowledge until it is associated, not merely mechanically, (as a passing breeze with a story which I read under a tree) but by a psychological process with something in the mind which is already stored up there, the new seeking among the old for something resembling itself, and not allowing the mind peace until such has been found, or until the new impression has passed out of consciousness. He remarked When something new presents itself to us, it does not as a rule, except when it affects the emotions in some way, arrest our attention, unless it is connected with something already known by us. A young child visited the British Museum and was asked next day what he had noticed. upon the enormous size of the door mats. Most other impressions were fugitive, being isolated in his mind. The mats he knew about, because he compared them with the door mat at home. Among all the birds, the only one he remembered was the hen, and passing by the bears and tigers with indifference, he was pleased to recognize a stuffed specimen of the domestic cat. The child only remembered what he was already familiar with, for the many impressions from other objects neutralized each other and passed into oblivion. One great art of teaching is the art of finding links and connections between isolated facts, and of making the child see that what seems quite new is an extension of what is already in his mind. Few people would long remember the name and date of a single Chinese king picked by chance from a list extending back thousands of years. Facts of history are not much easier to remember than this for children who are not gifted with strong mechanical memories. Hence the value of presenting names, dates, and events in connection with external memorials, such as monuments, battlefields, or with poems and current events, and the like. Story, object, poem, illustrate and strengthen each other. One object in teaching should be to present facts in organic relation to each other, instead of getting them learned by heart as a list of disconnected names. -A Pot of Green Feathers. ANOTHER SLOT MACHINE. You can drop a penny in the slot in the cabs of Paris and get an insurance policy giving your heirs $1,000 in case of fatal accident, $300 for yourself in case of total disablement, or $100 in case of partial disablement. The insurance, of course, only lasts while you are in the cab.-Insurance Economist. A SERIOUS CHARGE. The New Haven Journal and Courier, an eminently respectable daily, says that the public school children spend two-thirds of their time putting into more complicated shape things which they know perfectly already. It says, "The school system has become altogether too complicated, ornamental, generally 'hifalutin' and inefficient; the graduates are deficient in just the things they ought to know and which they should have been taught. They can't spell well, they are not quick or accurate on common 'figuring' and they know very little about speaking or writing the English language." This is a serious charge to make. If there is no truth in it the assertion will do no harm, but the simple fact that such a daily is willing to make the assertion should lead every friend of the schools to raise the inquiry whether or no there be any facts to justify it. Ask yourself these questions and answer them honestly: Is there in my school any tendency to put into complicated shape things which the children already know? Do I complicate what the child knows clearly in his way by trying to have him learn it in my way? Is my school doing anything "ornamental" to the neglect of the essentials? Is there anything "hifalutin" in my school? Is my school, in methods or matter taught, "inefficient"? Have I not taught the pupils to spell? Is it true that the pupils are neither accurate nor rapid in numbers? Cannot the pupils write good simple English? The Journal believes most emphatically in the new things, but these other things must not be neglected for anything else, and they need not be. The things universally demanded are easily learned, and, if well taught, there will be time enough for all else that is desirable.-Journal of Education. Write the name of the country in which they live, the State and postoffice address. Tell where Scotchmen come from. Tell how old a boy is who was born in 1879. Write the name of four winter amusements; of four summer amusements. Write how many days in this month. Write the names of six pieces of furniture. Write the names of the year, month, and the day of the month. Write a verse of poetry and a verse of Scripture from memory.-American Journal of Education. NORTHERN BOUNDARY LINE OF THE UNITED STATES. The northern boundary of this country is marked out by stone cairns, iron pillars, wood pillars, earth mounds, and timber posts. A stone cairn is 71⁄2 by 8 feet; an iron pillar 7 feet high, 8 inches square at the bottom, and 4 inches at the top; an earth mound 7 by 14 feet; timber posts are 5 feet high and 8 inches square. There are 385 of these marks between the Lake of the Woods and base of the Rocky Mountains. That portion of the boundary which lies east and west of Red River valley is marked by cast iron pillars at even mile intervals. The British place one in every two miles, and the United States one between every two British posts. Cut pillars or markers were made at Detroit, Mich. They are hollow iron castings, three-eighths of an inch in thickness, in the form of a truncated pyramid, 8 feet high, 8 inches square at the bottom and 4 inches at the top, as before stated. They have at the top a solid pyramidal cap, and at the bottom an octagon flange 1 inch in thickness. Upon the opposite faces are cast in letters two inches high the inscriptions, "Convention of London," and "October 20th, 1818." The inscriptions begin about 3 feet 6 inches above the base, and read upward. The interiors of the hollow posts are filled with well seasoned cedar posts, sawed to fit, and securely spiked through spike holes cast in the pillars for the purpose. The average weight of each pillar when completed is 85 pounds. The pillars are all set 4 feet in the ground, with their inscription face to the north and south, and the earth is well settled and stamped about them. For the wooden pillars well seasoned logs are selected, and the portion above the ground painted red to prevent swelling and shrinking. These posts do very well, but the Indians cut them down for fuel, and nothing but iron will last very long. Where the line crosses lakes, mountains of stone have been built, the bases being in some places 18 feet under water and the tops projecting 8 feet above the lake's surface at high water mark. In forests the line is marked by felling the timber a rod wide and clearing away the underbrush. The work of cutting through timbered swamps was very great, but been well done, and the boundary distinctly marked by the commissioners the whole distance from Michigan to Alaska.-S. R. Wendell, in West Virginia School Journal. AN OCULIST'S ADVICE. Keep a shade on your lamp or gas burner. And As a source of pleasure few employments equal that of reading with some congenial companion. When she lends "the beauty of her voice" to high poetic thoughts or to the instructive volume, or with gay accents brings out the flavor of the humorous and quaint conceits of others, how intensely we enjoy, how thoroughly we appreciate! With little pauses for criticism and exchange of opinion, we go on, page after page, bringing fresh pleasure to our literary tete-a-tete. ever after the story or poem has for us an added charm. Years may elapse, yet when we again see the book our memories recall the scene of its first perusal; the vine-shaded piazza, with the summer sounds and scents; or the snowy day, when a tumultuous privacy of storm" enclosed us as in a sanctuary; or the long winter evening, when the lamp's glowing radiance and the bright fire enhanced our comfort, and mind and body were equally soothed and delighted. Some women neither know nor care for this delightful pastime. They fancy that a special training by a teacher of elocution is essential to fit them for the proper rendering of the thoughts of others, and that it is not worth while to attempt to gain the accomplishment, as they have no special aptness for it, ignoring the fact that reading aloud is one of the talents to be secured by a judicious investment of the great talent of time. Clear and distinct enunciation, a welltrained eye and ready comprehension of the author's meaning are essentials easily acquired, and the practice of this delightful accomplishment gives so much pleasure that it is recommended as an important contributor to that happiness which every loving heart would fain bring into the lives of others. To read to the dear ones who are weak or ill, to the sufferers in hospitals, and to aid those whose eyes are failing as the long shadows of life's afternoon cloud their brightness, these are blessings which we can easily bestow, and by which we are ourselves enriched.-Harper's Bazaar. MACAULAY AS A BOY. The prince of historians was indeed a prodigy. When three years of age he asked a lady who had called at his father's house to walk in and he would give her a glass of old spirits. She declined, but he persisted, saying that "Robinson Crusoe" often took some. A servant spilled some hot coffee over his legs, and when the lady hostess asked him how he felt, the four year-old Macaulay replied: "Thank you, madam, the agony has abated." He had a Never read or sew directly in front of the light, window, plot of ground marked out with shells, and these the help or door. It is best to let the light fall from above, obliquely over the left shoulder. Never sleep so that on first awakening the eyes shall open on the light of a window. Never begin to read, write or sew for several minutes after coming from darkness to light. Do not use the eyesight by light so scant that it requires an effort to discriminate, whether twilight, moonlight, or on cloudy days. Finally, the moment you are instinctively prompted to rub your eyes, that moment stop using them.-Intelligence. threw away as rubbish. "Cursed be Sally," said he, "for it is written, 'Cursed is he that removeth his neighbor's landmark.' When seven years old he commenced the modest task of writing a compendium of universal history, and actually drew up a capital outline for the gigantic projection. He did write a theological tract at this time. His poem upon the death of Martyn, the Hindoo missionary, is a most ma、 ture production for the boy of eleven. He was a fitting father to the man Macaulay, of whom Lord Palmerston said: "I should not care if I only felt as positive of anything as Tom Macaulay is of everything.”— Home and School. THE TEACHER OUT OF SCHOOL. How can the teacher use to the best advantage the time when he is not engaged in teaching? A great mistake will be made unless there is some thought over this matter. He may employ all his forces in study and come back to the school room unrefreshed. Or he may go to the opposite extreme and indulge in too much recreation. In following a friend's good advice that exercise is necessary for health, I know of a certain teacher who came to his class exhausted with a ten mile walk. The first thing to apply your afterschool hours to is in gaining or strengthening your health. How to do this depends entirely upon your constitution, physique, and habits; where one needs much exercise in the open air, another is better without it. Study yourself physically that you may make the best use of your time in this direction. Next in importance is preparation for the lessons you have assigned your class. Never come unprepared to them any more than you would expect a pupil to undertake a recitation without study. Look up any illustra tions and information bearing upon them, and so interest yourself in it that your scholars will unconsciously imbibe your spirit. A teacher who habitually neglects this preparation cannot fail to find equal neglect from his pupils. If any spare hours are now at your service, apply them to general intellectual culture. Read standard books, stirring magazine articles that keep pace with the times; enlarge your mind by variety, and read to make yourself capable for your work.-L., in Oregou School Journal. WHAT'S IN A NAME? Europe signifies a country of white complexion, so named because the inhabitants were of a lighter complexion than those of Asia and Africa. Asia signifies between, or in the middle, from the fact that geographers place it between Europe and Africa. Africa signifies a land of corn or ears. It was celebrated for its abundance of corn and all sorts of grain. Siberia signifies thirsty, or dry-very appropriate. Spain, a country of rabbits or colonies. It was so infested with these animals that it sued Augustus for an army to destroy them, says the Irish Times. Italy, a country of pitch, from its yielding great quantities of black pitch. Calabria also, for the same reason. Gaul, modern France, signifies yellow haired, as yellow hair characterized its inhabitants. The English of Caledonia is a high hill. This was a rugged, mountainous province in Scotland. Hibernia is utmost or last habitation, for beyond this to the westward the Phoenicians never extended their voyages. Britain, the country of tin, great quantities being found on it and adjacent islands. The Greeks called it Albion, which signifies in the Phoeni cian tongue either white or high mountain, from the whiteness of its shores, or the high rocks on the western coast. Corsica, a woody place. Sardinia signifies footsteps of men, which it resembles. Syracuse, bad flavor, so called from the unwholesome marsh on which it stood. Rhodes, serpents or dragons, which are produced in abundance. Sicily, the country of grapes. Scylla, the whirlpool of destruction. Ætna signifies a furnace dark and smoky.-Geographical Magazine. WALT WHITMAN'S DESCRIPTION OF HIMSELF. His shape arises Arrogant, masculine, naive, rowdyish, Laugher, weeper, worker, idler, citizen, countryman, Saunterer of woods, stander upon hills, summer swimmer in rivers or by the sea, Of pure American breed, of reckless health, his body perfect, free from taint from top to toe, free forever from headache and dyspepsia, clean breathed, Ample limbed, a good feeder, weight a hundred and eighty pounds, full blooded, six feet high, forty inches round the breast and back, Countenance sunburnt, bearded, calm, unrefined, Reminder of animals, meeter of savage and gentleman on equal terms, Attitudes lithe and erect, costume free, neck gray and open, My grandpa went to war long years ago,- They never heard of him again, they said, I feel so sad, and sometimes shed a tear, So if some little Southern girl should know A nameless grave where never blossoms grow, HOW TO OBTAIN THE POSTAL GUIDE. At the request of the Postoffice Department the publisher of the Postal Guide has arranged to supply the public with the monthly supplements, but not the January Guide (the large number), at one cent per copy. All postmasters will receive orders for supplements and transmit them to the pub lisher, George F. Lasher, 1213 15 Filbert street, Philadelphia, Pa. The postmaster is not required to enter these transac、 tions in his accounts, but will simply receive the cash, transmit the orders, and deliver the Guides. The January Guide is always a useful book of reference for business men, and if subscribed for by the year, the monthly supplements are regularly furnished without extra charge. The monthly Guide will more and more be made the medium for communicating news items to the public concerning postal subjects A MOTHER AND HER BOY. The mother and boy were waiting for the train in the Albany station, when the dulness was broken by a funny figure of an old woman, in rusty gown, a catskin muff and tippet, and a black bonnet made of as many odds and ends as a magpie's nest, and her false front askew. She kept chewing on nothing, working her umbrella, and opening and shutting the other hand in its black glove in the aimless way of old people. The high school girls began to titter and make jokes to each other, watching the old lady far too openly for good manners, or any manners at all. The young lady in the smart tailor suit who gives readings at Sunday school concerts smiled back at them studied the old creature with a satiric eye. The boy began to laugh quietly with the rest. "Do look, mother. Isn't she funny? Did you ever see such a sight?" 'I he mother glanced delicately and turned her eyes. "Poor lady," she said. He was silent, considering. "If I hadn't you," she went on, "and had lost my money, and grieved over all I had lost in money and friends till my mind was touched, and I lived alone among queer people, I might look just like that woman. She must have been very good looking when she was young." The boy's mouth twitched, as he turned his gaze from the poverty piece, as some of the girls called her, to his pleasant mother, and, as the old lady went prowling about, looking for something, a light step was at her side, a cap raised, and a kindly, boyish voice asked: "Can I do anything for you, madan ?" "I was looking for some place to buy some checkermiats," said the old soul, nodding carelessly and blinking with weak eyes, "I like checkermints if they're Boston bought, but I don't seem to sec any, and there used to be a boy with a basket come round in the Fitcburg depot, and I thought maybe I could find him here." "Shall I get you some at the fruit stall ?" said the boy politely to her, but with flashing glance at the giggling girls, which somehow did not make them feel proud of themselves. Then the mother watched her boy lead the old woman to the candy stall and stand by her courteously, pointing out this and suggesting the other, till she made her fumbling purchases, and escort her across the hurrying passage to her seat in the train, out of his own compassionate young heart. "My dear boy!" was all she said as he came back to her, but it was breathed in a voice of music, and she looked most happy. The boy stood close to his mother, thoughtfully, one hand just striving to caress her. Their train called, he picked up her parcels and marched protectingly by her. "You have a boy, mother, who will take care of you," he said, lifting his eyes to hers at the gate.-St. Louis Republic. CHINESE IN MEXICO. Some wealthy Chinese waited on President Diaz recently and asked leave to found a colony in the State of Tamaulipas. If permission is given, it is said that several thousand Chinese now in the United States will remove thither. HOW TO KEEP WELL. The Ladies' Sanitary Association of London gives the following alphabetical method of keeping well. The italicized lines have a special message to teachers. As soon as you are up shake blanket and sheet; If you wish to be well, as you do, I've no doubt, Your health is your wealth which your wisdom must keep. WHAT ONE HORSE CAN DO. am Leland Stanford actually received $150,000 for his horse Arion. A Washington special to the Brooklyn Eagle tells what the California Senator contemplates doing with the money received from the sale. "I let the horse go too cheap," he said, "and now trying to get even on the deal. I think I will do it in this way. I can put a young man through a four years' course at my college for $1,000. Now, I am going to pick out 150 young men and use the money I got for that horse in giving them an education, and that is the way I will get even on that last sale and a good many more that have preceded." There was a poet once who said, "Consistency, thou art a jewel," or something to that effect, and ever since he has been quoted by that large class of the community who, having once stated an erroneous proposition, either in words or their manner of life, "stick to it" through thick and thin, and justify themselves by the above foolish quotation. The poets are responsible for many of our false ideas of life, for after all the poet is only a man, and men, the best of them, are prone to err, and poets more prone than the majority of people, for, like artists in viewing a picture, when they look at the world they half close their eyes to shut out all detail, and get the luminous color-effects. - Olive Ohnet in Chicago Graphic. |