of fifteen or twenty from the grammar schools to study with the special teacher for two or three hours per week.

This arrangement compels about one-third of a class to take the lesson in cocking at the expense of such study as their mates can carry on in their own school-room with the regular teacher.

It may be urged that the gains to the student of cookery are, notwithstanding, greater than the losses. True, but the hearty support of the regular teachers can never be gained to any arrangement that so decidedly interferes with the symmetry of their own school work. In sewing all the pupils receive their instruction at the same time from a special teacher, assisted by the regular teacher in charge of the class. No time is lost in traveling from one school building to another. No danger to health is incurred from exposure to storms of rain or snow.

May it be made possible to give instruction in cookery (or in carpentry) in the same building with all other departments of instruction?

May the accommodations for manual training be made so ample that an entire class of pupils can receive instructions at the same time?

What has now been said of the difficulties in the way of teaching cooking is applicable to the teaching of any branch of manual training.

These difficulties are already encountered, and they must be overcome before complete success can be achieved. No school work will meet with unqualified success until it receives the hearty support of the regular teaching corps.

The manual training problem is now only stated, and satisfactory results in this branch of education wait upon its solution. Popular Education.

THE BEST LIGHTED CITY IN THE WORLD.

Paris is now on the eve of a revolution in her lighting system. Gas-lighting was first introduced in England, but Paris followed in good time and with a splendor unequaled elsewhere. In like manner America, Germany, and some other countries have been earlier in the use of electric lighting; but the Parisians, with their superior taste and skill in all matters of municipal arrangements and appointments, are destined to make by far the most brilliant use of the new illuminant. Within one year, or within two years at the farthest, it is confidently claimed that Paris will be incomparably the best lighted city in the world, and that electricity will have superceded gas in public use. In 1878, at the time of the universal exposition, the municipal government ordered the experi. mental illumination of the Avenue de l'Opera and several open spaces with electricity; but the new system was not ripe for large use, and the experiment was soon abandoned. Its principal effect was the stimulus it gave to the gas company, which invented and put into use certain large compound burners using 1,400 liters per hour, and giving a most brilliant light. The great electrical improvements of the past decade were exhibited in the French exposition of 1889, and were studied with the utmost care by the Parisian authorities and municipal engineers. Undoubtedly the displays at the exposition had the most pronounced effect in stimulating the new zeal Paris is showing for the appliances of the electric age. Dr. Albert Shaw in Century for July.

THE PEABODY ALUMNI OF TEXAS.

The Peabody Alumni of Texas was represented at the recent State Teachers' Association at Austin by Mrs. Willie D. House, Misses Marie Henderson, Sallie and Minnie Rawlins and Messrs. L. D. Borden, R. W. Little, T. V. Kirk, J. F. Stanley, W. V. Glasscock, J. A. Simpson and E. C. Lewis. A call meeting of the alumni was held in the Senate chamber on the afternoon of June 25th. The following officers were unanimously elected for the ensuing year: Mrs. Willie D. House, of Waco, President; Mr. T. V. Kirk, of Dallas, first Vice president; L. D. Borden, of Santa Anna, second Vicepresident; W. V. Glasscock, of Ennis, third Vice-president; E. C. Lewis, of Forney, Secretary and Treasurer.

A literary programe was prepared for the next meeting at Houston. At that meeting every alumnus will be expected to tell of his last years' work. The Secretary was instructed to get as near as possible the addresses of every alumnus in Texas. Every alumnus who sees this is requested to send his address to the Secretary, and at the same time stating his present occupation, the year of graduation, etc.

MRS. WILLIE D. HOUSE, of Waco, President;
E. C. LEWIS, of Forney, Secretary and Treasurer.

HOW HE FOOLED DICKENS.

He was a very eccentric old man, very full of fun, and always chock full of some invention of his that was to revolutionize everything. His great hobby, however, was a new system of metalling highways, as he called it. By his system the road-bed would be everlasting, the crest even and symmetrical, and the drainage absolutely perfect.

In England John Darby had been a post boy in his youth, and next the proprietor of a postchaise, in which office he had met every body from the Duke of Wellington, as Lord Warden of the Cinque Posts to Madame Vestris. He was very intimate with Charles Dickens, knew every landed proprietor from Ramsgate and Margate to Blackheath; but as for Charles Dickens, Darby knew all about him. The novelist would as soon have traveled from Ramsgate to the Hermitage at Gads' Hill in a balloon as travel in any other chaise but John Darby's. "Lor' bless you, sir," he remarked to me one day, "he's given me many a hextry arf souvering for pushing him through in wet weather, but Lord a' mussy 'cw I used to fool him. him. I remember one day I was standing on the steps of the Flower de liss (fleur de lis) at Canterbury when up com.es Squire Dickens and he says to me, says he, 'John,' he allus called me John, "I want to get to the Bull's Head at Rochester by 7 o'clock to-night and take a lady and gentleman with me; can you make it ?" 'Lor' bless you, sir,' says I, 'I'll do it as heasy as kissing you.' 'Werry well,' says he, 'be ere in arf an hour.' So I was. A lady all wrapped up in cloaks and things got in first and then Mr. Dickens he got in an' sat down on the back seat on the right side; then the other gent he got in and sat with his back to the osses. By what they were saying I found out they were going to a big ball, so I clapped on the surs and we went ahead first rate. When we got to Sittingbourne it was raining, and we had a bad road through Rainham to Chatham Hill, and when we got to Newington he says to me, says he, 'John you must change horses, I won't ride another mile behind those tired hanimals.'

'Werry well, sir,' says I, 'I'll do so at the Jolly Sailor and you can get a warm and a glass of good 4-penny ale whilst I'm a-doing it.' I took my osses into the stable, came out in a few minutes, hitched up again and told him I was ready; he got in, but before we started he put his head out of the window and seeing another colored 'oss he says, says he, "That's better, John, I can ride comfortably now.' Well, we got to Rochester all right, and when he came into the taproom to square up he says to me, says he, 'John, we could never have got along with your own team. They was fagged out completely, and couldn't have traveled another mile.' With that you know, sir, I bust out a larfin. I couldn't keep it. 'What do you mean?' says he, kinder smiling too. 'Well, sir,' says I, 'to be ded straight with yer, I didn't change them osses at all, I only just put the nigh oss on the off side.””. D. G. C.

THE POLLARD SYNTHETIC SYSTEM OF READING.

Much has been said and many criticisms written about the Pollard Synthetic method of teaching reading I have given I have given the method a thorough trial for two years, and find many points to be commended and some to be condemned.

1. There are too many devices in the system and young teachers especially, are apt to be taken up with them; to lose the real thought, and the children will not learn as well as by the old methods.

2. There is too much for the child to remember in the way of "door knobs," "front door keys," "back door keys," the "Ack family," and all the various families that are given; and I fail to see the advantage to be gained,

3. Mrs. Pollard says, in the preface of her manual, not to teach script until all the words in the speller have been marked, but the children are to print all this time.

There may be some advantage gained by having children. learn to print, but I have never discovered it. It is just as easy for them to learn to write, and much better for them to do so.

This new method is really the old phonic method in a new dress in the shape of devices. It teaches articulation, enunciation and spelling as the word method does not, and it gives children power to get new words for themselves.

The "Johnny story" that is given in the manual is very interesting to little people, and with its help they learn the sounds quickly and intelligently.

When the pupils learn a sound, give both the written and printed form of the letter-they will learn the two forms as well as the one-and it is an advantage to have the printed form, as it sooner prepares them for books.

Mrs. Pollard carries the method further than it seems practical. She states that the word method and the synthetic can not be combined, but seems to me that they can be to no good advantage.

As soon as the children have learned sounds enough to form a word give the word, and when they have enough for a sentence, let them have the sentence; they will be more interested and make better progress if this plan is followed.

Any one of our methods of reading seems incomplete, and to get a well rounded system we need a combination of meth

ods.

A combination of all the different methods will give us a method that will be natural and meet all the needs.

The songs we find in the manual are very good and interesting; the children enjoy them very much. They are especially good for articulation, enunciation, and some of the simple rules.

Taking the system altogether I like it very much, and think the children will learn to read better and more quickly, and learn to spell better than by any other system we have. The results with my own class have been very satisfactory. V. K. HAYWARD, Primary Principal.

Plalleville, Miss.

HORACE MANN.

Five solid and comely volumes make up this new library edition of the biography and writings of the great Massachusetts educator. The first volume is Mrs. Mann's "Life" of her noble husband, published in 1865. Extending to nearly six hundred octavo pages, it is, perhaps, none too full for those who would know Horace Mann's career in detail. A brief biography is much to be desired, however. There is hardly a surer grave for the reputation of a great man than a biography of extreme length, written throughout in the tone of eulogy. Mr. Mann himself, with all his excellencies, did not exhibit "the soul of wit" in his writings. Repetition and rhetorical perambulation were much the habit of ante-bellum orators and authors in the United States, and in Mr. Mann's own work conciseness might have been a blunder. Nevertheless eighty full pages of the inaugural address at Antioch College might have been much reduced to the advantage of the speaker and the relief of the audience.

In whatever more condensed form the record of Horace Mann's wonderful achievements, and his most important writings may need to be put to reach the great majority of men who should know of him, this full edition must be very welcome to all who would study the original sources. The aim has been here, in the earlier edition, to present him as an educator. Several other volumes, such as his "Letters and Speeches on Slavery" and "Twelve Sermons," exhibit him in other aspects; but the one subject of Mr. George C. Mann's labors as an editor has been to set forth his father's "educational doctrines and his inspiring words." The new matter in this enlarged edition includes the larger part of the "Eight Reports," the "Fourth of July Oration," delivered in Boston in 1842, some three hundred pages of extracts from the Cammon School Journal and four addresses given during Mr. Mann's presidency of Antioch College. An appendix contains a translation of a review by M. Felix Pecaut, of a work on Horace Mann by M. J. Gaufres.

At the present time, when a chief subject of common discussion is the proper extent of the functions of the State, the most generally interesting portion of Mr. Mann's writings is his "Tenth Report for 1846," in which he considers the history of the Massachusetts common school system and the arguments for it. "In a Republic ignorance is a crime,” he declared-a crime which is an opprobrium to the State. The "Seventh and Twelfth Reports" have much to say concerning moral and religious instruction in the public schools, another subject of present importance, concerning which these reports may still be read with much profit. "Horace Mann," M.

Pecaut well says, "undertook to realize the grand thought that Pestalozzi, a plain man, had conceived-to make every child of the people a man; to construct the entire city with living stones. He succeeded as far as it is given to a single man to succeed. This skilled priest, this statesman of positive views, this popular orator became an apostle—became a practical educator. In him the citizen, the prophet, the schoomaster are united."-Literary World.

MONTEAGLE ASSEMBLY.

The tired teacher who desires rest but not idleness could not do better than go to Monteagle, Tenn. Read the Bill of Fare for August:

Friday, July 31.-Lecture by Prof. Alcée Fortier, New Orleans: "Molière and the French Comedy"; Reading from his own writings by Mr. Harry Stillwell Edwards, Macon, Ga., author of "The Two Runaways," etc.

Saturday, August 1.-Grand Concert, Prof. George L. O'Connell, Director; Recital by Miss Anna Brennan, School of Elocution.

Sunday, August 2.-Sermons by Rev. W. B. Jennings, D. D., Macon, Ga.

Monday, August 3.-First lecture by Rev. R. V. Foster, D. D., Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn.: "The Teachings of Christ as Presented in the Parables"; Lecture by Rev. W. B. Jennings, D. D.: "Five Moonlight Views in the Old World."

Tuesday, August 4.-Second lecture by Dr. Foster: "The Parables"; lecture by Rev. J. W. Lee, D. D.: "Henry W. Grady, Editor, Orator, and Man."

Wednesday, August 5:-Third lecture by Dr. Foster: "The Parables;" lecture by Hon. Benton McMillin, Washington, D. C.

Thursday, August 6.-Fourth lecture by Dr. Foster: "The Parables."

Friday, August 7.-Fifth lecture by Dr. Foster: "The Parables"; lecture by Hon. C. W. Heiskell, Memphis, Tenn.: "Thackeray and his Novels."

Saturday, August 8.-Grand concert, Prof. George L. O'Connor, Director.

Sunday, August 9.-Sermons by Bishop J. H. Vincent, D. D., Buffalo, N. Y.

Monday, August 10.-Concert by Lohmann's Orchestra, lecture by Bishop Vincent: "Life of the Future."

Tuesday, August 11.-C. L. S. C. procession will form at the Amphitheater, led by Lohmann's Orchestra, march to the Hall of Philosophy; C. L. S. C. members pass through the arches; Recognition Services at the Hall; procession return to the Amphitheatre; annual address and presentation of diplomas by Bishop J. H. Vincent, Chancellor of, the C. L. S. C.; C. L. S. C. Camp-fire.

Wednesday, August 12.-Lecture by Gov. W. J. Northern, Atlanta, Ga.; first illustrated lecture by Mrs. Lydia Von Finkelstein Mountford, a native of the city of Jerusalem: "City Life in Jerusalem."

Thursday, Angust 13.--Lecture by Hon. John G. Harris, President of International Sunday-school Convention, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Montgomery, Ala.: "The Perils that Threaten Church and State"; enter

tainment for the benefit of the Reading and Reception Room, under the direction of the Ladies' Entertainment Committee.

Friday, August 14.-Lecture by Rev. D. E. Bushnell, D. D., Chattanooga, Tenn.: "The Funny Side of Life"; second lecture by Mrs. Lydia Von Finkelstein Monford: "The Fellaheen, or Farmers of Palestine."

Saturday, August 15.-Grand concert, Prof. O'Connell, Director.

Sunday, August 16.-Sermon by Bishop C. B. Galloway, D. D., Jackson, Miss.; sermon by Rev. B. D. Gray, D. D., Hazelhurst, Miss.

Monday, August 17.-Concert by Lohmann's Orchestra; lecture by Bishop Galloway: "The Mother of the Wesleys." Tuesday, August 18.-Lecture by Dr. Gray: "Books"; first lecture by Prof. Louis C. Elson, New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, Mass.: "The History of German Music."

Wednesday, August 19.-Entertainment by Miss Johnson's class; presentation of diplomas to members of the class; second lecture by Prof. Elso: "English Folk, Songs and Ballads."

Thursday, August 20.-Lecture by Rev. T. F. Gailor, D. D., Vice-Chancellor of the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn.: "John Russell"; entertainment by Miss Brennan and her pupils in elocution.

Friday, August 21.-Concert by the Orchestra, and a ramble with the Walking Club; third lecture by Prof. Elson: "Opera and Oratorio."

Saturday, August 22.-Grand concert, Prof. O'Connell, Director.

Sunday, August 23.-Sermons by Rev. N. M. Woods, D.D., Memphis, Tenn.

Monday, August 24.-Lecture by Hon. H. M. Doak, Nashville, Tenn.: "As You Like It"; monologue recital: "In Switzerland," by Miss Charlotte M. Allen, New York City.

Tuesday, August 25.-Lecture by Hon. H. M. Doak: "Macbeth"; select dramatic recital by Miss Charlotte M. Allen.

Wednesday, August 26.-Closing exercises of the Assembly Platform.

GOOD, IF TRUE.

We see it stated in the Christian World, of London, that, as the result of a newspaper discussion, the Queen has ordered the hearing, or check reins removed from her carriage horses. We hope that the information is correct and that the merciful fashion may speedily be followed throughout the Empire.

It is a commendable feature that many of our schools are beginning to appreciate the good effects of recreation mingled students' engineering party in social encampment of a week with work. More good work will be accomplished by a where study, practice and recreation are combined than during a whole session of class room drill. We need more of practical work and pleasure combined.-Educational News. Very true. And yet the idea of recreation may be carried to that extent that the pupil will fail to learn that nothing can take the place of hard work.

ADVANSMENT OF THE SPELLING REFORM.

SOME PEOPLE.

Dr. W. A. Mowry, for many years the editor of Education and Common School Education and a present member of the Boston Board of Education, has accepted the position of Superintendent of schools in the city of Salem, Mass.

Edward Everett Hale is a noted author and Unitarian minister. He has been very active in social and philanthropic enterprises, organized the well-known "Harry Wadsworth Club" and the "Lookup Legion," edited a number of papers, written a great deal for the press, and attained great popularity as a lecturer. The boys and girls of America know him as a writer of charming books of stories and history. Some of these books are "The Man Without a Country," "My Double and How He Undid Me," "His Level Best,' "In His Name," "One Hundred Years," etc., etc.

John Burroughs was born at Roxbury, New York, and until 1863 he remained near his native place, working on his father's farm, going to school, and afterwards teaching. All this time he was reading Thoreau and other writers on nature, walking in the fields, and watching plants, animals and insects. He began to write for the press in 1860, and since then he has contributed many articles to leading magazines. After serving several years in the treasury department at Washington, he bought a farm at Esopus on the Hudson, and built himself a house from the stones picked up in the fields. Some of his best known works are "Birds and Bees," "Winter Sunshine," "Fresh Fields," etc., etc.

Dr. Benson J. Lossing, the well-known historian, died at his residence, Chestnut Ridge, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., June 3. He was born in Beekman, N. Y., February 12, 1813. After receiving a common school education, he was apprenticed to a watchmaker in Poughkeepsie, with whom he afterwards entered into partnership. In 1835 he became editor and part proprietor of a newspaper, the Poughkeepsie Telegraph, and soon after became the publisher of a literary monthly, the Poughkeepsie Casket. With a view to illustrate this, he studied drawing and engraving in New York, where he established himself as a draughtsman and engraver on wood. His attention being turned to the study of American history, he resumed his residence in Poughkeepsie, although for several years he maintained his connection with the engraving establishment in New York. He repeatedly traveled through the United States, making drawings of historical scenes, visiting historical characters, and consulting historical documents. In 1872 he became editor of the American Historical Review and Repertory of Notes and Queries, published in Phil. adelphia. Among his numerous works, mostly illustrated by himself, are "Outline History of Fine Arts" (1841); "Seventeen Hundred and Seventy-six" (1847); "Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence" (1848); "Pictorial Field book of the Revolution" (1850-52); "Lives of Eminent Americans" (1855); "Pictorial History of the United States" 1854-56); "Life and Times of Philip Schuyler" (1860; "Life of Washington" (1860); "Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States" (1866-69); "Vassar College and Its Founder" (1867), and a graded series of histories of the United States.

Subscribe for the JOURNAL. Only $1.00 per year.

As a

[The following is from the pen of Frederick O. Fernold, editor of Our Language, and an earnest advocate of spelling reform. sample, how do you like it?-EDITOR.]

It iz now fifteen years sins the organization of the Spelling Re. form Association, and the beginning of sistematic efforts in the United States for the reform of English spelling. There haz been also a Spelling Reform Society in England during most of this period. Doubtless meni persons do not see that the movement haz made eni substantial progress in this time, but I think that a fair measure of success may justly be claimed for it. Thousands of people hav been made familiar with the idea that a revision of English spelling iz possible. The general endorsement which the leading philologists of Europe and America hav givn to phonetic spelling haz rendered the movement safe from being characterized az a scheme of the eccentric and illiterate. A body of intelijent men and women-the active reformers-haz arisen, which iz equipped with knowledge of the phonetic structure of English, and arguments in favor of the reform, and wil be available for an active campaign, hwenever the time iz ripe. But I believe that not nearly az much haz been done az might hav been with the resources available. One of the chief reasons for this imperfect success iz that the reformers are not agreed on a complete sistem of English spelling towards which all copyright a few years ago. efforts may be directed. It iz just az it was with international A member of a congressional committee sed then that the persons who came to Washington to ask for this measure were not agreed among themselvz az to what sort of a law they wanted, and so nothing could be one for them. Spelling reformers are nothing if not independent. We are independent of the authority of the dictionary, we are independent of the judgment of those scholars whom we like to parade az our leaders, and we are independent of each other. Probably one in every ten of us haz a phonetic scheme of hiz own, and iz more anxious to win adherents to that particular sistem than to do all he can for the cause. I do not believe that eni schemes yet proposed wil be adopted entire. Every scheme constructor must make up hiz mind to giv up some of his pet ideas, in order that the main prinsiplz of the reform may prevail. We must discuss the details of these various schemes among our. selves, and come to a decision on each particular point. We must hav the arguments that prevail in each case fully and explicitly stated, so that even those whose pet ideas are discarded may be convinced that the right decision haz been made. For instans, we must decide the questions of English or Continental values for the vowel-letters, a six vowel or an eight vowel scale, new letters or digraphs and diacritics, whether to discard "c" or "k," and how the differences between Britsh and American pronunciation shall be reconciled. Being imprest with this need I hav started Our Lan. guage az a means for carrying on such discussions and setling these questions.. I think the best way to go to work iz to take an inventory of the things that all reformers agree upon and then, holding fast to these, proceed to ad to the number az rapidli az possible. This iz the way that I would construct a phonetic alphabet. I would first ascertain what sounds are reprezented in the same way by all reformers, and take these az the nucleus of the future English alphabet. As

the mode of reprezenting other sounds became setld these could be aded until the list iz complete. There are twenti sounds in the English language, or about half of the whole number, which are reprezented in the same way; namely, by the following letters, in all the reformed alphabets that I hav met with:-a (short), b, d, e, (short), f, g, h, i, (short), j, 1, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, (consonant), z. The phonetic spelling in Our Language iz based on the general agreement az to these twenti sounds. Words that contain no other sounds than these are speld phonetically, other words being left unchanged for the prezent. I deem it important that, if the familiar appearance of a word iz to be altered, it should be changed once for all. Changing first one letter then another, thus making a word pass through several transition forms, seems to me az perverse a sort of moderation az amputating a lim by piece-meal. This opinion was held veri firmly by the late A. J. Ellis, than whom there haz been no higher authority on English phonetics. I hav decided also for prac. tical reasons that the spelling of this journal shall be uniform. The spelling of all contributions, letters and quotations, occordingly, wil be conformed to the style of the paper, except in the case of paragraphs intended az examples of particular phonetic sistems. A difficulty comes up in applying my rule hwen a word whose final form iz setled iz compounded with a word or takes an affix containing a sound whose reprezenta tion iz not yet agreed upon. I think it iz best to waive consistency in these cases, and spel the former part of the word phonetically, letting the latter remain unchanged.

I propose to publish in the near future a list of the common words whose final forms are agreed upon. Judging from a partial list that I made six years ago, the number of these words wil be not far from two thousand. Adding the words whose accepted spelling iz phonetic already, we hav a considerable vocabulary that wil not need further alteration.

Az to the general advansment of spelling reform, I am convinced that the most hopeful outlook iz in the direction of the schools. It haz been proved over and over again that children can learn to read phonetic spelling, and then change to the ordinary spelling, taking les time for the two steps than iz commonly required for learning to read the ordinary print alone. Spelling reformers should strive to secure the general use of the phonetic method of teaching reading; this would be followed naturally by a gradual extension of the use of phonetic books for children, and hwen a generation that had experienced the logical clearness and order of phonetic spelling came to adult age, if not before, the reform would ride over all obstacles to the goal of success. Our Language.

A SIDE LIGHT ON HAYTI.

It is commonly held that foreign influences are often dom. inant in the revolutions; it is openly charged that the revolution of 1889 was rendered successful, if not brought about directly, by certain parties in the United States who have since been greatly aggrieved because their bargain with the conspirators was soon afterward utterly repudiated; it is said, too, that some of the strangers find heavy emolument in their pecuniary dealings with the tottering government, and still greater profit in the scaling down of liabilities, which is not an infrequent recourse when a new party comes into power,

While there is no reason to doubt the truth of the allegations, it nevertheless could probably be shown that these nefarious practices are oftener consequences than causes, although it cannot be denied that without the material aid of the foreigners the revolutions would less often be successful. It is not so much the individuals who are to blame for the condition as the spirit of the people at large. Perhaps, after all, blame is hardly the word, and perhaps, too, an impartial observer would not see much practical difference between the Haytian way and the American way of office-seeking; the effect in each case is to impede progress and cause stag. nation; but in Hayti the intervals are so short that there is no advance, while we, in the United States, through the wisdom of our forefathers, stand still only two years out of every four.

In

But whatever the ethics of the question may be, Hayti spends nearly all her revenue in maintaining internal feuds, and nothing pro bono publico. "Millions for dissention and not one centime for improvement" might be her motto. the whole country there is not a railroad; nor a common road worthy of the name; no wharves in many of the ports, and the few there are practically useless except for lighterage; no telegraph lines; absolutely no public improvements, and practically no public weal.-From "Training a Tropic Torrent," by FOSTER CROWELL, in July Scribner.

HINTS TO TEACHERS.

Friday Afternoon exercises should not be only entertaining but as profitable and educative as they can be made. They may have as great value as any other part of school work, but it will require considerable forethought on the part of the teacher to make them so. By using tact and skill the teachers may explain exercises to which the pupils will look forward with delight. However, we are aware that this is much easier said than done.

If the work consists too largely of declamations and readVariety is ings the exercises will soon become monotonous. the spice of life in this work. A portion of the exercises each week may with profit be devoted to the reading of arti cles on Current Topics as found in the World's Doings Department of Intelligence, with informal discussions, questionAn intelligent conversation on ings and talks on the same. Current Events properly conducted, will be the means of great good in several directions not necessary here to point out. Plenty of singing will always be in order. At least one exercise each month should be an Author Day program, such as may be found in Intelligence. No afternoon should be given up wholly to recitations and declamations; but intersperse them with such exercises as the one suggested on Current Events; and have geographical stories and descriptions, and biographies that, if possible, have some bearing on the regular work in geography and history. Brief arithmetical, grammatical, historical and spelling exercises also should be introduced, but such exercises will require previous preparation on the part of the teacher.

Let every Friday afternoon be made bright with thoughts and subjects new, fresh, and vital, and it will prove an aspiration to teacher and pupils.-Intelligence.