SONG OF THE CHICAGO SCHOOLMA'AM.

Talk, talk, talk,

To your Tommy and Harry and Dick, "Moral suasion" them till

You could wish with a will

For the reign of the old-fashioned stick. Talk, talk, talk,

And endeavor to vocally prod

To the virtuous way

The bad boys that each day
Need a dose of old-fashioned rod.
Talk, talk, talk,

But the boy of today is no fool,
And "suspension" 's a jest-

A vacation-a rest

From the arduous duties of school.

Talk, talk, talk,

Aud they struggle with needle and thread,
How to hem and how to fell

And to backstitch you tell,

Though to seamstress's trade you're not bred. Talk, talk, talk,

With a class of twenty or less,

One with fingers and mind
Unto sewing inclined

Might secure a good lesson I guess.
Talk, talk, talk,

With a roomful of sixty or more,
Such a lesson-that might
Be a source of delight-

Just becomes a detestable bore.

Talk, talk, talk,

We are patching old garments with new;

It is really too bad,

But to match this new fad

All our school should be changed through and

through.

Talk, talk, talk,

But oh, where on the face of the globe,

Tell me where I can find

Me a new fangled mind,

And the patience ascribed unto Job.

Talk, talk, talk,

And then read the new rules of the Board, If you venture to kick

You'll be dropped, oh, so quickLy, and that you can hardly afford.

-Chicago Post.

The library is the heart and soul, the light and life of a university, and without it there can be no university.-Pres. James B. Angell, University of Michigan.

The parent who sends his son into the world uneducated defrauds the community of a useful citizen and bequeaths to it a nuisance-Chancellor Kent.

PENMANSHIP.

PROF. D. C. MURPHY, PENNSYLVANIA.

The subject of Penmanship is one that should engage the attention of every person engaged in the profession of teaching. Every live teacher should make a study of it as it is an art and practiced by the mass of people in transacting the business of life.

While it is important that every man and woman should be able to write his or her own name, it is of absolute importance that the teacher should be educated in the science and art of Penmanship. As an art we must master the subject in detail before we can make it a fit instrument for the expression of thought. No art has more pupils and fewer masters than Penmanship. It is almost the only art reduced to practice in the public schools and there is no subject more widely criticised yet fortunately none more highly valued by the masses of people. The small child likes to write because it gives him something to do, and his first writing is truly something wonderful to him.

There is a peculiar fascination to the child in the very idea of being able to express his thoughts on paper. The art of writing is appreciated by people in general for its usefulness and to no small number for its beauty as a full art. So important a medium of thought cannot properly be outranked by any art or science taught in the schoolroom. Yet the neligent manner in which this valuable subject is frequently taught calls for more than a passing notice. Teachers allow their attention to be diverted from the writing, or to be divided between teaching and some other study.

The first steps in the practice of writing are very important since the force of bad habits contracted in primary classes will not only embarass the pupil throughout his entire career but may effectually prevent him from ever becoming a good penman. So in order to make writing a facile instrument to the child his earliest efforts should be directed to the simplest parts of processes of letter-making. The science of Penmanship takes the letters apart and says to the child "You can easily learn to make these simple parts, when you can do that you will have learned to make the letters."

In order to make Penmanship interesting we must not only give them a chance to practice writing frequently but we must create in the mind of the child a good idea of the forms of letters. When pupils once gain an idea of the letters, their form, construction and elementary parts, it gives life to their practice and writing becomes a pleasure rather than a task.

Writing should not be done in a haphazzard way. Sydney Smith was sufficiently conscious of at least one of his faults. He once said, "My writing is as if a swarm of ants escaped from an ink bottle and had walked on a sheet of paper without wiping their feet." It was no credit to Horace Greely that there was but one man in the United States who could read his manuscript. It is said that Greely once discharged his foreman in writing. The foreman, carried the document to another city and offered it as a recommendation. The editor of the paper to whom he applied being unable to read what Greely had intended for the "discharge" of the man employed him, thinking that any one whom Greely would recommend would make a faithful employee.

If we could only realize the amount of time and energy spent over poor writing, we could appreciate in some degree the importance of good instruction in this branch. A college student who was reproved for his bad writing,said, “It is well enough to tell me of my faults in writing, but if I write better people would find out how poorly I spell." So we find people trying to cover one brand of ignorance by using another. Poor writing in almost every case is traceable directly to early neglect in the first lessons in holding the pen or the posit ion at the desk. The careless habits of pupils in this branch go uncorrected by the teacher.

Position and Pen Holding are the most trying parts to teachers in a writing exercise, and to induce forty pupils whose physicial organizations are as varied as their numbers to sit in the same position and to hold their pens the same way requires great care and judgment on the part of the teacher. Ye we must bear in mind that with all this diversity of natures white the muscles are elastic and pliant the pupils can much more readily be trained in correct habits of pen holding.

Too many teachers labor under the erroneous impression that imitating the copy in writing is all that is necessary and - that once the pupils are set to work in the writing exercise they can be left alone, but such unguided practice is not productive of good. The writing period needs extra exertion on the part of the teacher to relieve it of the monotony which is apt to creep into it.

The first requisite in any employment requiring the use of implements is a full knowledge of their capabilities and uses. Good materials are essential in order that children do good work in writing. Some penmen claim that they can "write with anything." It matters little to them whether it be a good or bad pen.

Poor writing has brought about many complications in the business world, as the following will show. A merchant in Baltimore wrote an order to a business firm in New Orleans asking them to send him "100 boxes of collars." He was greatly surprised a few days later to receive "100 bales of cotton." He protested saying he "gave no such order." He lost in a lawsuit, for neither judge, bar, witnesses or jury could make anything else out of it but "100 bales of cotton." Another merchant wrote to the Indies for a lot of "Mangoes" and received by a return vessel a lot of "Monkeys." These complications grew out of poor or careless Penmanship.

A pen when in the proper position and wielded by the hand of a master is an implement capable of producing an endless gradation of the smoothest and most graceful curves. Or in the words of Spencer:

"Let the pen glide like a gentle rolling stream
Restless but yet unwearied and serene
Forming and blending forms, with graceful ease
Thus letter, word and line are borne to please."

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.

From a paper on Hans Christian Andersen by Prof. Hjlamar H. Boyesen, in the March Century, we quote as follows: "The conversation then turned upon his writings, and I told him how his stories had been the dearest books of my childhood, and seemed associated with all that was delightful u the memory of it. I told him how happy and flattered I

had felt at finding the name of the little boy in 'Ole Shut Eye' the same as my own, and that half unconsoiously I had appropriated his experiences and half believed them to be my own.

"This little confession seemed to have touched Andersen strangely. Tears filled his eyes; he seized both my hands and pressed them warmly.

"'Now you understand,' he said, 'what a happy lot it is to be the children's poet.'

"I rose to take my leave, but lingered talking; and on my expressing a desire to hear him read, he half rose upon his sofa, adjusted his pillows, and began to recite from memory "The Ugly Duckling.'

"His manner was easy and conversational, full of caressing inflections, such as one employs in telling a tale to a child. In the pathetic passages he was visibly affected, and he closed almost solemnly.

"It is the story of my own life,' he said. 'I was myself the despised swan in the poultry yard, the poet in the house of the Philistines.' I felt suddenly as he finished his recital, that I understood the man. I had caught the keynote of his character. All that was good and noble in him rose in vivid light before me. I never saw him again.

INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION.

(From PAYNE'S SCIENCE AND ART OF EDUCATION.")

Let us consider the relation of the educator to the intellectual education of his pupils. However willing he may be to repudiate his responsibity for the training of their bodies, he cannot deny his responsibility for the training of their minds. Here Dr. Youmans' words apply with especial force-"A knowledge of the being to be trained, as it is the basis of intelligent culture must be the first necessity of the teacher," and few perhaps will venture to argue against those that follow: "Education," he says, "is an art like locomotion,mining, and bleaching, which may be pursued empiracally or rationally-as a blind habit, or under intelligent guidance, and the.relation of science to it are precisely the same as to all other arts-to ascertain their conditions, and give law to their processes. What it has done for navigation, telegraphy, and war, it will also do for culture."

The educator of the mind ought to be acquainted with its phenomena and its natural operations; he ought to know what the mind does when it perceives, remembers, judges, etc., as well as the general laws which govern these processes. He sees these processes in action continually in his pupils, and has thus abundant opportunities of studying them objectively. He is conscious of them, too, in his own intellectual life, and there may study them subjectively; but the investigation, thus limited, is confessedly difficult, and will be much facilitated by his making an independent study of them as embodied in the science of psychology or mental philosophy. This science deals with everything which belongs to the art which he is daily practicing, will explain to him some matters which he has found difficult, will open his eyes to others which he has failed to see, will suggest to him the importance of truths which he has hitherto deemed valueless; and, in short, the mastery of it will endow him with a power

of which he will constantly feel the influence in his practice. His pupils are continually engaged in observing outward objects, ascertaining their nature by analysis, comparing them gaining mental conceptions of them, recalling these concep tions, inventing new combinations of them, generalizing by inductions from particulars, verifying these generalizations by deduction to particulars, tracing effects to causes and causes to effects. Now, every one of these acts forms a part of the daily mental life of the pupils whom the educator is to train. Will not the educator, who understands them as a part of his science, be more competent to direct them to profitable action than one who merely recognizes them as a part of his empirical routine? Suppose that the object is to cultivate the power of observation. Now, the power of observation may vary in accuracy from the careless glance which leaves scarcely any impression behind it, to the close penetrating scrutiny of the experienced observer, which leaves nothing unseen. Mr. J. S. Mill has pointed out the difference between observers. "One man," he says, "from inattention, or attending in the wrong place, overlooks half of what he sees; another sets down much more than he sees, confounding it with what he imagines, or with what he infers, another takes note of the kind of all the circumstances, but, being inexpert in estimat ing their degree, leaves the quality of each vague and uncer tain; another sees indeed the whole, but makes such awkward division of it into parts, throwing things into one mass which might more conveniently be considered as one, that the result is much the same, sometimes even worse, than if no analysis had been attempted at all. To point out, he proceeds, "what qualities of mind, or modes of mental culture, fit a man for being a good observer, is a question which belongs to the theory of education. There are rules of self-cul

ture which render us capable of observing, as there are arts for strengthening th limbs."

But to return to our educator, who, having been educated himself in mental science, desires to make his pupils good ob

servers.

He recognizes the fact that, to make them observe accurately, he must first cultivate the senses concerned in observing; he must train the natural eye to see, that is, to per、 ceive accurately-by no means an instinctive faculty; for this he must cultivate the power of attention; he must lead them to perceive the parts in the whole, the whole in the parts, of the object observed, calling on the analytical faculty for the first operation, the synthetical for the second; he must invite comparison with other like and unlike odjects, for the detect ion of difference in the one case, and of similarity in the other, and so on. Is it probable that the teacher entirely ignorant of the science of psychology, and the educator furnished with its resources, will make their respective pupils equally accurate observers?

It would not be difficult to show that a knowledge of logic as "the science of reasoning," or of the formal laws of thought should also be a part of the equipment of the accomplished educator. The power of reasoning is a natural endowment of his pupils; but the power of correct reasoning, like that of observing, requires training and cultivation.

"NOT DOWN SOUTH," NEITHER.

Here are two suggestive facts. On Jan. 22. Miss McLaughlin, teacher in Lima, Ohio, punished three pupils, 12 to 17

years old, for misdemeanor. They attacked her so violently that her recovery is doubtful, and when her brother Frank, twelve years old, interferred to defend her they turned upon him and beat him so severely that he died.-Just before New Year's Maggie Harrigan, who had been discharged for insubordination from her position as teacher in Peoria, Ill., walked up behind Supt. Dougherty and fired two pistol shots at him, one of which pierced his right ear. -School Bulletin.

HONORARY DEGREES

What are college degrees, and for what purpose were they instituted? The true and most natural answer is, they are rewards of merit, incentives to study, and certificates of proficiency.

At first, one who had a degree affixed to his name was accepted as a scholar. He did not have to prove himself one. He was so held until he proved himself not one, and this was a great benefit to a young man just beginning his profession. But from the action of some boards of trustees, it seems that the real meaning and purpose of degrees has been forgotten, if we judge from the number of honorary degrees annually conferred. They seem to have lost sight of the fact that the scarcer an article, the more precious it becomes, and on account of their carelessness in conferring them, degrees have to a great extent lost their significance. But the boards, are not to be severely censured, for they are merely following a custom which arose when our colleges were young, and a general education was saught instead of a special one. Then it was right that an Alma Mater should recognize the worth of an old graduate by honoring him with a degree. No one thought of devoting several years at college in the pursuit of some special study after he had obtained his graduate degree. These honorary degrees were naturally a benefit to an alumnus and to his Alma Mater. But, in justice to the institution and the recipients, conservatism should have ruled. But instead, the real purpose was forgotten, and success, and not merit, was recognized as the basis on which to confer them. They were conferred on some whose names are not to be found on any college register, and on many who had not taken a graduate degree. A minister has only to preach two or three "big sermons" and be appointed to some important station to obtain a D.D. A teacher has to be elected principal of some school with an attendance of twenty five or thirty pupils and in two or three years he will hove the honor of affixing "A. M." to his name, though he may not have taught in a class higher than Freshman.-B. H. Mitchell, in Trinity

MORE DON'TS.

Goldthwaite's Magazine makes the hackneyed "Don't" a vehicle for some excellent geographiɔal suggestions in the following article:

Don't say or write Austro-Hungary. The best writers prefer Austria-Hungary.

Don't call the Chinese "Mongolians." It is better to reserue the latter name for the people who live north of China proper.

Don't speak of a native of China as a Chinaman. You would not say that you had an Ireland man digging in your garden. It is better to call John a Chinese

Don't, please don't, say that New York City is located on Manhattan Island Such a misuse of the verb "to locate" is trying to the nerves of the best lexicographers. Say New York City is situated on Manhattan Island.

Don't speak of China as our Antipodes. Our Antipodes is the point on the other side of the world reached by a straight line passing through the place on which we stand and the center of the earth. Our antipodes is the ocean southwest of Australia.

Don't forget that Oriental names ending in "an" have the accent invariably on the last syllable, as Teheran, Belooch is tan.

Don't imagine that the spelling of geographical names in the newspapers is necessarily accurate. It is safe to say that one half of the place names in Africa and Asia, as they appear in our daily press, are mangled almost beyond recognition by the cable or the types.

Don't call Bermuda "a North American Island" as a writer in a New York newspaper did the other day. There are plenty of North American islands, but Bermuda is not of them. It is an oceanic, not a continental island,

one

Don't be mystified if on one map in your atlas Hudson Bay seems to be larger than the Gulf of Mexico, while on another sheet of the same atlas the Gulf of Mexico appears larger than Hudson Bay. The apparent discrepancy is due to the different map projections employed. You know, for instance, that areas far removed from the equator are much exaggerated as they appear on maps of the Mercator projection.

very

Don't say the compass points to the true North, for it does not except iu certain places. The compass points to the magnetic north, which is at present considerably west of the North Pole. When Lieut. Greely was at Lady Franklin Bay, the declination of his needle was found to be very great, the needle pointing toward the magnetic pole in a direction nearly southwest.

Don't make the mistake some people do of thinking the word "alluvium" to be synonymous with "soil." One of those soils which is the result of the deposition of sediment by running water can properly be called alluvial soils.

Don't for mercy's sake, say "The Smithsonian Institute." The name is The Smithsonian Institution.

When you are writing a novel don't get your geographical facts so badly mixed as to reflect discredit upon your early training. In one of the dopular novels of the day the Azores are referred to as in a southern latitude. The writer also in troduces his hero into the Antartic regions in January, and

speaks of the "inky-blackness" of the nights he experienced there. Of course anybody ought to know that the month of January is the height of the Antartic summer, and the entire mon h is one continuous day.

REFORM IN WOMAN'S DRESS.

GRACE DANFORTH, M. D.

་

In every boarding school for girls, there should be a female physician to teach them the principles violated in the present mode of dress. Not any especial system of dress reform, but principles involved in the anatomical and physiological con struction of the human body, and a generation of women so educated would cast aside their present costume as a locust does its outgrown shell. At present. to the masses, any alteration in woman's dress means adopting man's attire. Educated women know better, and out of the elements of present fashion women of the future will envolve a costume vastly superior to man's in point f beauty and utility. The lesson of fifty years ago is still remembered, and oman's growth in hygenic law is expressed in garments not open to public criti. cism. The union suit is gaining in favor, as close fitting garments are light and warm, while skirts with tight bands about the waist, which afford a maximum of weight to minimum of warmth, are growing less in number and volume. The corset, which originated to emphasize female virtue, is being replaced by waists of various kinds, which admit of free motion and do not compress the vitals. Dresses are being made more and more to hang from the shoulders. Realizing the necessity for better dress, the ladies interested in the World's Fair, are planning a business suit for officers that will enable them to discharge their duties better than they possibly can in tight waists, long skir's and uncomfortable shoes.

It is idle to talk to women who do not think, and merely accept the world as they find it. The work, like every other reform, must begin in the school room. A properly educated generation of mothers will never raise their daughters so poor. ly that their health will break under nature's effort to develop womanhood, and their life strings snap under the ordeal of motherhood. Trained nurses will be a potent factor for disseminating principles of hygiene, but intelligent instruction in the school room will aid both physician and nurse. — Texas Sanitarian.

SOME MISTAKES.

Says the Educational News: It is a mistake to talk too loud in the school room. A quiet voice is more effective in governing.

It is a mistake to talk too much about order It is disorder in the teacher that generates disorder amon the pu. pils.

It is a mistake to give more than one direction at a time. It confuses the pupil and results in omissions of duty.

It is a mistake to have too many signals to begin or stop work. Tell clearly what is to be done. Some teachers use the word "work," or "do it" and the directions are instantly followed.

It is a mistake to be out of sorts with the whole school be