for such children, established a year or two ago in the city of New York, the results reported among the very worst elements. to be found in the city were truly wonderful. A few of the boys, indeed, thus far seem to be beyond the reach of any influence for good; but the great majority of them seem to yield readily to the magical influence of a kindly teacher who knows how to manage bad boys. Not all teachers can do this kind of work, but when we reflect that menace. to society rests so largely, if not almost wholly, with the bad boy, we can but feel that the teacher who has the ability to manage and cure him is one of the most precious boons that can be bestowed upon any community.-Supt. G. F. Sawyer, Troy, N. Y.

THE future citizens of our country are made good or bad in the common schools long before they reach the university, if they go there at all. There has been much discussion as to the relative value of the university and the small college. The greatest institutions are too prone to merely educate the head, but in the small colleges and in the common schools the heart, as well as the head, is educated. The need is to educate, not only the head. to make men brilliant, but the hands to make men useful, and the heart to make them true and patriotic. In foreign lands ruled over by kings and emperors the child that is destined to be a sovereign is educated with special reference to fitting him for the duties that will devolve upon him in future years. We too often do not realize that, with us, every child will be a sovereign, and too little attention is paid in the schools to instilling into the minds and hearts of the youth of the land the sacred duties of sovereignty in a free country, where every man is a king. Gov. J. W. Folk, Missouri.

THE TEACHER's part in the tuberculosis problem.-Knopf, after reviewing the liter

ature referring to the title of his address and speaking of general rules to be observed in schools, both by teachers and pupils, concludes by saying that he approves of weeding out the tuberculous child and the tuberculous teacher from our public schools. He recommends an examination for tuberculosis of every child and teacher entering the public school and a periodical examination of both. But he states most emphatically that it is our duty to provide for these tuberculous teachers and children. The sanatoria for children should be multiplied and as many teachers as possibly can be should be employed there from the unfortunate ones who have contracted tuberculosis. The example set by Andrew Carnegie in pensioning teachers of academic schools should be followed by pensioning educators of our ordinary schools. The author outlines a plan of procedure which he hopes will find the sanction of the public.-S. A. Knopf. Medical Record, Feb. 17, 1906. Jour. review, New York Med. Jour.

I ENTERED a room where there was a mental center. It wasn't in the man but he had control of it. The lines of interest -I could feel, almost see them-converged on a simple problem in square root, the square root of three. I knew at once that those twenty-two boys and girls knew how to extract the square root of a perfect square but they were visibly inwardly struggling with the problem of applying this knowledge to getting an approximate root. One pupil worked at a time, which is a good way if you can do it. It was a master-hand that kept those minds busy. Ted and Bob and Elsie took up the work carefully and slowly and interestedly. The orders were "Ted," "Sit," "Erase." Now and then a few words looped our work back to something gone before, and after telling them that they were after ability to apply old knowledge to new problems, in words which commanded

attention; after gathering up the strands of the recitation and telling them how that new knowledge would profit them, he said, "Go." I had attended where a master had performed. Henceforth you

cannot tell me that a recitation is not a unit of thought, that one simple point is not enough to make in a day; that it does not pay to study over a recitation till it becomes a unity.-Colorado School Journal.

IF CHILDREN in the first and second grades were taught the Greek and Roman myths, so that they could tell them well and write short sentences about them, all the future reading. life of the child would be far richer and more appreciative. In almost every literary production there are these classical allusions. One must know the myth, to clearly appreciate the reference. Let these myths be early taught to the little ones, when their fancy delights to revel in the imaginary peopling of the woods and fields, the mountains and the sea, the rocks and glens with gods and goddesses, nymphs and water sprites. Then all of nature will appear more glad to them, as they walk through the fields and woods, and people the earth with their myth heroes. If such work be done in the first two

years, then will the children come rejoicing into the wonder-world of Ulysses, the strong hero-king, the forced wanderer, who at length returns to his home, safe and sound, after long years of travel, suffering anguish. -Primary Plans.

on Carthage to draw Hannibal from Italy gains by a comparison with Stonewall Jackson's feint on Washington to draw McClellan from Richmond.

Individual research does much to enliven a history class. Let one bring a description of the Propylea gate, another of the Porch of Maidens, another of the Erectheum, and even the Acropolis grows in beauty. One division spent in reading Mark Twain's description of his midnight. visit to the famous citadel, will make a lasting impression on youthful minds.Mary V. Jackson, Paris, Texas.

No intellectual faculty is worth more to us than the ability to concentrate our thoughts on a given subject. Such a power is characteristic of genius. If you have the power of concentration, you possess the most important element of success. A scatter-brain individual never accomplishes anything. Neither does a day

dreamer who allows his mind to wander without restraint.

With all our new methods in education, we seem to cultivate concentration less than formerly. The pupil's mental energy seems to be dissipated in attention to many things. The course of study is so crowded, and change of subject so frequent, that there is little time for concentration of a thorough and effective character.

The statement is not exciting; but compare Lysander's blockade of the Athenians with Schley's bottling up of Cervera's fleet at Santiago, and your class is instantly awake and willing enough to give the remoter date a living interest by comparing a Greek trireme with an American man-of-war.

The counter-attack made by the Romans

terials, when it comes to intellectual work. -Progressive Teacher.

CAUSTIC comment on some modern business methods as revealed by recent and current investigations of quasi-public financial institutions was made by President Nicholas Murray Butler in a recent address to the students at Columbia University.

He told the students of the immense importance in their college life of careful attention, both on their own part and on the part of all faculties and schools, all teachers and scholars, to character building. "If we fail in forming those traits and habits which together constitute character," he continued, "all our learning is an evil. Just now the American people are receiving some painful lessons in practical ethics. They are having brought home to them, with severe emphasis, the distinction between character and reputation. A man's true character, it abundantly appears, may be quite in conflict with his reputation, which is the public estimate of him. Of late we have been watching reputations melt away like snow before the sun; and the sun in this case is mere publicity. Men who for years have been trusted implicitly by their fellows and so placed in positions. of honor and grave responsibility are seen to be mere reckless speculators with the money of others and petty pilferers of the savings of the poor and needy. With all this shameful story spread before us it takes some courage to follow Emerson's advice not to bark against the bad, but rather to chant the beauty of the good.

"Put bluntly, the situation which confronts Americans to-day is due to lack of moral principle. New statutes may be needed, but statutes will not put moral principle where it does not exist. The greed for gain and the greed for power have blinded men to the time-old distinction between right and wrong.

Both among

business men and at the bar are to be found advisers, counted shrewd and successful, who have substituted the penal code for the moral law as the standard of conduct. Right and wrong have given way to the subtler distinction between legal, not-illegal and illegal, or better, perhaps, between honest, law-honest and dishonest. This new triumph of mind over morals is bad enough in itself; but when, in addi

tion, its exponents secure material gain and professional prosperity, it becomes a menace to our integrity as a people."

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'THE success of a woman on a school board depends chiefly upon how far she is willing at first to subordinate herself, un

til she has understood her new environment, school legislation, present fads and prospective ideals," says Mrs. Wells. "If she begins her official duties with the tacit assumption, even if only to herself, that she knows it all and that it is incumbent upon her to reform methods and measures instantly, she soon finds her sphere of usefulness narrowed.

"If, on the other hand, she observes carefully, questions circumspectly, keeps her inferences to herself, does not generalize inductively until she has a wide acquaintance with facts and persons, is neither eloquent nor personal in discussion. and votes without aggressiveness, she is sure to grow in favor with boards, committees, teachers, parents and pupils.

"She should no more ignore her sex than she should obtrude it. When a woman proudly states that she has been treated by her masculine co-workers as if she were a man her declaration is no compliment to them and is a condemnation of herself. Having been elected because she is a woman, she should never give away her dignity by belittling her point of view as a woman. And yet she should be competent to regard all questions from an impersonal standpoint, and as related to precedents and possibilities. The more she is of a woman, using that word in its noblest sense, the greater will be the good she can effect.

"As proof of the good that an individual woman can effect, the success is recalled of one who was a member of the Boston School Committee for fifteen years, intrusted by it with important positions as chairman and counsellor; who

was honored by the masters, beloved by the women teachers, adored by the children who never deviated from rectitude in all her official acts, and who adorned her pedagogic knowledge with grace of heart and manner.

"Perhaps Boston, more than any other city, owes much to the women, who on or off her school committee have benefited her public schools, for widely known are the advantages conferred upon her school system through the wise generosity brought to bear upon it by two women, who yet never held any official relation to it. To the initiative of Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw is due the introduction of the kindergarten and much of manual training. To Mrs. Mary A. Hemenway was due the establishment of sewing, cooking and Swedish gymnastics as branches of school work.

"Never before was there a time when so many live questions of intense interest to women were rising in connection with the schools. Our

schools are undergoing great changes; for the old values of the church and home, which supplemented limited school forces, are far less existent to-day than they were thirty years ago, schools now forming the chief means of assimilating the interests of boys and girls with the best issues of national life.

"For many decades there has not been a time when increased legislation on behalf of schools is more sure to come than now. Not alone are means for increasing expenditures, if only on account of numbers, to be considered, but the very extent of free public education is being freshly determined. Is it in the East to include, as in the West, state universities? Is it to furnish technical trade schools? Is it to assure the health and pleasure of each pupil by parks and spray baths? Is it to open school yards as playgrounds all through the year? In the answers to such questions women have vital interests and school board women much responsibility."-Kate Gannett Wells.

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Mr. Winston Churchill, the author of "Coniston," 'Richard Carvel," The Crisis" and "The Crossing," was born in St. Louis, Mo., November 10, 1871. He is the oldest son of Edwin Spaulding Churchill, of Portland, Me., and Emma Bell Blaine, of St. Louis. The first sixteen years of his life he spent in his native city, which was in fact his home until he built Harlakenden House, his present residence at Cornish, N. H. In St. Louis, it will be remembered, the opening scenes of "The Crisis" are laid; and St. Louis again formed the objective point of Mr. Churchill's next novel, "The Crossing." From Smith Academy in St. Louis he went to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md.

Winston Churchill had not been a year at the Naval Academy before he became interested in American history and American problems, and before he finished his course he had made up his mind to devote his life and energies to these-not only with the pen, but as an active participant. Much of the atmosphere and some of the material for " Richard Carvel" he gathered while still a midshipman at the Naval Academy; and in the brief intervals between scientific studies and drills he began to read some of the history which he afterwards used.

Before his graduation, however, he had made up his mind that he did not want to spend his life in the Navy, that his abilities lay in the line of writing, and that fiction was his vocation. He ranked among the first five or six in his class, and has the honor of having reorganized the Naval Academy crew, whose Captain he was for year; he was also a capable member of the foot-ball team. It was at Annapolis that he gained his knowledge

of fencing, which he used to good purpose in "Richard Carvel."

Before he began "Richard Carvel," and also while it was on the stocks, he visited Virginia and Maryland, and studied up the country and the old records with great thoroughness; and he also read a vast amount of history and other literature which gave the spirit of the period. During the seven or eight months in 1898 and 1899, when he was writing the book from beginning to end for the fifth time, he was living on the Hudson, about thirty miles from New York. During those months he worked from breakfast to one o'clock, then for some hours after luncheon. Late in the afternoon he would take a long horseback ride, and after dinner he would go at his work again, continuing sometimes far into the night. In the midst of his work on "Richard Carvel," while he was staying at Lake George, he ran out of historical material, and wrote for the third time “ for the third time "The Celebrity." This novel was the subject of a great deal of comment on its first appearance in 1897, and many people still regard it as the brightest and most amusing and original piece of work which Mr. Churchill has done.

After finishing his work on “Richard Carvel," Mr. Churchill, in the spring of 1899, went to live at Cornish, N.. H., where he had purchased a large farm on high ground on the banks of the Connecticut, just opposite Windsor, Vt. On the estate which he had bought Mr. Churchill then built Harlakenden House, which is modelled upon one of the mansions of colonial Maryland.

Mr. Churchill's equipment for writing. fiction is almost ideal. He is a man of very unusual culture, while at the same