convention, and this was one of the most interesting and enjoyable in our experi⚫ence. We had also the privilege here of spending some pleasant hours with Rev. Horace Edwin Hayden, clergyman, scientist, genealogist, historian, curator of the Wyoming Valley Historical Society, and practically the moving spirit of this widely known organization. Who shall describe the meeting at Boston? Teaching is in high repute in "Athens." Thirtyfive thousand teachers were at home there in what was probably the best summer school ever held for an equal number of days in the history of the world.

PROF. G. F. BOYD, Supt. of Schools, Koscuisko, Mississippi, in ordering renewal of subscription, says, "I find your Journal interesting, strong and practical." A few weeks ago the committee of the Ithaca Conservatory of Music, Cornell University, selected "Favorite Songs and Hymns," from all the different books sent to them, as "the best collection of songs and hymns that has ever come to their notice." It is pleasant to know of unsolicited endorsements like these of work the doing of which we have greatly enjoyed. The "Flag of the Free" has sold fifty thousand copies within the past year.

IT is a mistake to assume that a child in a brief period can learn something useful about everything, that a diversified smatter is the one thing needful, or that a teacher chosen by the ward leader, because her appointment is worth forty votes in the division, is the best person to impart knowledge.

THE Thaddeus Stevens memorial, which, it is proposed, shall be in the form of an endowed industrial school, is taking practical shape under the direction of Hon. John H. Landis and the publicspirited gentlemen associated with him. This is a most worthy effort to honor the memory of a great man to whom Pennsylvania owes much in many ways, but especially in her schools. It is to the enduring fame of Thaddeus Stevens that, in 1835, he fought the desperate fight for the common schools and prevented the repeal of the Common School law which had been passed during the preceding year. The Institutes of the State will soon be in session. Would it not be well for each of them to make generous contribution to this Stevens Memorial? At

a recent meeting of the Association a number of interesting letters were read from prominent educators, endorsing and encouraging the movement. Among them was one from Hon. George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, who is the only survivor of those who were associated with Thaddeus Stevens in conducting the impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson. Another was from Professor Booker T. Washington, of Tuskegee, Alabama, who very warmly endorses the movement.

A GENTLEMAN interested in school work, writing from the west, says of our recent school legislation: "The minimum salary law for teachers, and the county organization of school directors are, indeed, commendable measures. The former not only brings justice to the school-room worker, but will revert to the lasting benefit of the educational interests of the state. As for organization among school directors-we all know the great needs among the administrative factors. Give us well informed, progressive and honest school boards and you will have good teachers, and these mean good schools."

HERE is a item in line with the policy which Dr. Burrowes urged upon the attention of school districts in Pennsylvania more than sixty years ago. Says the Journal of Education: "In Hall county, Nebraska, they have a teacher's residence built at an expense of $1,200 on an acre of ground adjoining the schoolhouse. This was built by taxing the property of the school district one cent on a $100. The house is 22x28 feet, fourteen feet high, with an addition 12x16 and ten feet high. It has double windows for winter and a complete set of screens for summer. It was ready for Occupancy July 19, 1894, and is the best educational investment of $1,200 that the little rural town ever made."

THE entire forestry reservation of the State four years ago was about 20,ooo acres, it is now 572,722 acres. "The great problem in our American woods," says Dr. Rothrock, "is how forest fires may be suppressed or rendered less frequent." He recommends that from the boys of adjacent regions a class of forestry apprentices could be formed. These boys could be reasonably hired, and the State

would constantly have on hand a vigorous body capable of guarding against such fires. Above all, they would reach the class of persons who start these most destructive forest fires, and they would make these men more careful in the future. The concluding paragraph of Dr. Rothrock's report is very significant. He says: "Forestry is a profession which requires trained foresters. Even for its common workmen it demands honest, temperate, industrious laborers, men who will go into the woods at any time of the day or night and at any season; men who will dignify the State's service by fidelity to the State's interest. I desire, therefore, to declare in the most emphatic terms that the Forestry Department should never be turned over to political direction, and that no one should ever receive an appointment in it for any reason except merit and fitness for the work."

THE Junior Order of American Mechanics of Wilkesbarre offer prizes of American flags to the schools of that city reporting the largest number of visitors. This is done to interest parents in the work of the schools. At the dedication of their new fifty-thousand-dollar school building a noble flag 10x 18 feet was flung to the breeze as the children sang

Meanness, selfishness, lying, obscenity, if there seems no other way, should be put down with a stern purpose, trampled upon, as of the deadly sins. In the atmosphere of things like these a worthy friendship is impossible. For this is not a matter of father and son, but of soul and soul.

Friendly association, too, is largely a matter of temperament and personality as well as of character. Mutual courtesy encourages kindliness. The elder may have more knowledge and experience than the younger, with perhaps less wisdom in one direction or another, so that intercourse is mutually profitable and more enjoyed as the years go by. Two who are going the same way talk together and learn from each other as they go, the younger usually helped more than the older. We know a man who has brought up a number of sons, good men and his friends. He can't tell any one how it is done. He has just worked and lived and let them live. They had to obey-do some things, avoid others—as for the rest, do much as they pleased, with little oversight or interference, save a hint now and then as they seemed to need it.

MONT ALTO RESERVATION.

exercises.

FATHER AND SON.

son

preserve in Franklin and Adams counties was made by Governor Pennypacker, Attorney General Carson and J. T. Rothrock, President of the Forestry Commission. In the opinion of the AtGeneral

"like begets like." Precept is good, example better. If he would not have his son drink, lie, swear, smoke, chew, snuff, be selfish and mean and dirty in habit or speech-an unclean soul-he should himself avoid these things. A father should have nothing in his daily habit or life to be concealed from his son. Otherwise the frankness of open and generous confidence is not possible, and they cannot come to know each other as trusting friends with abiding respect and affection.

There is parental authority proper and essential for the good both of parent and child. It should be felt rather than asserted; "the hand of iron in the glove of velvet," but still, if need be, the iron hand-and sometimes the mailed hand.

Reservation Commission is of vast importance to the State for several reasons. He thinks the force of men in the employ of the Commission is inadequate for the amount of work that should be done, and says:

"The object of this tour was to observe the method of preserving the forests, to get a better idea of the work of the Commission and its needs, and to get a better understanding of the problem confronting the Commission. Altogether the tour was extremely pleasant and instructive.

"The Mont Alto preserve consists of 50,000 acres, about one twelfth the entire forest preserve of the State. It has many interesting historical features, and is situated in close proximity to the famous battlefield of Gettysburg. Part of the

"As we rode down the Cumberland Valley the underlying feature of the forest reserve impressed itself on us. There were no large streams usual to a valley between two such mountain ranges. We were informed by Dr. Rothrock that the towns and settlements ob tained water by boring to a stream sunken in the earth, which is fed by the water which falls on the forests covering the mountains. If the forests are injured or cleared the water supply will be affected, and thus it at once becomes apparent of what great benefit and necessity the preservation of the forests is to these residents in the Cumberland Valley.

"There are two other objects attained by keeping great tracts of forests in their native condition-the stocking of the streams with fish and the woods with game. Thus the three commissions, Forestry, Game and Fish, are closely allied.

"At Waynesboro Judge Stewart and his brother, Senator Stewart, joined the party. We drove in carriages toward the Blue Mountains direct to the Mont Alto reserve. We were met by a squad of eight mounted foresters, who escorted us through the forest. These men are scientific foresters, some of them having been trained in Germany. Dr. Rothrock showed us where the forest fire last May had done $10 ooo damages, and explained the method of fighting such fires and how they were guarded against.

"The three principal duties of the foresters are to protect the forests from fire, to guard against cutters who steal the timber and to guard against poachers. One thing that impressed us was the necessity of getting the native inhabitants interested in keeping the forests and helping in their preservation. One of the ways to be tried is to let these 'swampers,' as they are called, understand that as their sons become proficient in forestry they will be employed by the State in the forest guard. This will give them a personal interest and will rear up a race of foresters right in the mountains.

"When you see the extent of territory one forester must cover, and the many duties he must perform in guarding and

is very apparent. We saw one nursery where more than one-half million young white pine trees were growing. These will be taken out and replanted where the fire has ravaged or the ground has been cleared.

"Another instructive thing was the consumptive camp in Mont Alto. There are twenty rude cabins where the patients live. The outdoor life, the air, and the odor of hemlock, spruce and pine work a great benefit to them. The State has appropriated $8,000 to this sanitarium for poor consumptives.

"The party spent a pleasant time at the country home of Miss Myra W. Dock, one of the Forestry Commissioners. She is the most celebrated woman forester in this country. Another time we took dinner at an inn 100 yards from the spot where General Lee watered his horse while marching to Gettysburg. At this place many residents had gathered to meet the Governor, and he made a brief speech. A historic spot we visited was the mansion house and store where Cook, one of John Brown's men, was captured after hiding for days in the mountains.

'Altogether the thing that impressed me most was this: For fifty years money can be spent in preserving the forests, but in one day this work can be destroyed from the lack of a sufficient force to guard and protect the forest from fire.”

misled by the well-meant efforts of older persons who have never paid any atten tion to the art of teaching. As a consequence, the little ones worry over their lessons during the evening and spend restless hours when they should be asleep and at rest. Next day they return to school nervous, fatigued, and unable to pay attention. The failure to recite is construed into a fault, and they are punished by extra tasks and by the loss of recess. The teacher is apt to forget that a child's powers of attention are limited. Too often the penalties inflicted for failure to prepare the lessons assigned, unfit the child for doing what it is expected to do as part of the daily routine. Then the mothers are aroused, the public schools are blamed, the teacher is condemned, and

the lessons are pronounced too long and too difficult. Frequently the whole trouble is due to the mistaken kindness of those who feel a laudable interest in the welfare of the little folks.

An instance in point recently came under the writer's notice. A little girl of seven came home with a number of words marked in the reading lesson. These were to be spelled the next day. The teacher had announced that if any member of the class missed three or more words, the whole lesson would have to be written out five times. If the announcement had been that each misspelled word would have to be written out five times, the children would not have regarded the exercise in the light of a punishment. To be punished for failure to recite was a favorite device with teachers of bygone days. That the practice should linger on into the twentieth century is evidence of the persistence with which bad habits and bad practices are perpetuated.

Naturally from the school above referred to, the children went home in an anxious mood. The mother of one little girl offered to help several of them in the preparation of their spelling lesson. She pronounced the words, spelled them aloud and then asked them to write out the words in a column. With all children who think in eye pictures this is the wrong way to begin. Few children become good spellers in that way. They should first fix the word through the eye, and then write it and spell it orally. The wrong method of preparation developed into a wrong habit, and these children, under the mistaken tuition of the mother, grew more helpless from day to day. They could only study with the assistance of an older person. The worry disturbed their sleep, and they began to dream horrible dreams. Finally, a person with some pedagogic instinct showed the little ones how to study. With joy and zest they began their lessons. Each new word was eyed as if it were a stranger that must be known. As soon as a picture of the word was formed in the mind it was pronounced, spelled and appropriated through three gateways of knowledge, namely, through the eye, the ear, and the muscular sense. With an air of triumph the little children went to school. Knowing how to study the spelling lesson, they could work at it while others were reciting.

The teacher had not only made the

mistake of converting a valuable school exercise into a school punishment-for most people there is no better way to fix the orthography of words than the process of writing difficult words and looking at them-but her greatest mistake was that she did not teach the little people how to study their lessons. To rob the children of their recess did not atone for this neglect of duty. A boy was asked what exercise at school he liked the best; he shouted with glee, "Recess." Another boy was asked why he went to school. He replied, "To sit and wait for school to let out." To deprive a child of the time for play is to introduce into the school the evils of child labor in the factories where the over worked child finally loses all desire to play. A pupil should be deprived of the recess only when his presence interferes with the rights of others, or with good and decent conduct upon the school grounds.

The right use of books is one the chief lessons which the school should inculcate. The preparation of lessons should teach pupils how to use their books, how to get knowledge from the printed page, and how to fix that knowledge for future use. To teach the pupils the art of study is far more important than the hearing of recitations and the repression of bad conduct. The troubles of the school diminish rapidly when children acquire correct habits of study and find pleasure in learning their lessons.

THE EDUCATIONAL EXHIBIT OF

PENNSYLVANIA.

LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION.

THE

HE exposition at St. Louis next year is to be greatest of all. It was announced for the current year, but the management wisely postponed it until 1904, to afford longer time for preparation and so be ready to open when the opening day shall come. They have raised the ten millions of dollars needed to make available the five millions from the United States government. No previous Fair managers have had control of so many millions to be expended at their discretion. In addition, forty five foreign. countries have announced their intention to be represented, and these have appropriated, in the aggregate, $6 000 000 towards that purpose, making $21,000,