Show 'jasm.' Do you know what 'jasm' means? Let me make dictionary for you a moment. 'Jasm' is when a circular saw, making 2,000 revolutions a second, runs through a keg of 10-penny nails. That's 'jasm,' my son. Put it into all your work.

"Having adopted a life calling on the best advice and reflection at your command, persevere therein. Swerve neither to the right nor to the left. Your hand is on the plow handle; turn not back. Temptation to waver will assuredly come. There will be moments of discouragement, there will be beckonings of apparent fortune. Do not heed such.

"When E. M. Stanton was secretary of war in President Johnson's cabinet and Johnson was trying in every way to displace him, Charles Sumner telegraphed: 'Stanton, stick!' Let this message come to you with megaphone thunder whenever you waver in your profession. Be no quitter. Instead, stick, tenax propositi, steadfast to your purpose."

CHAPTER XII

THE CRUSADE FOR THE COUNTRY SCHOOL*

N most of its aspects city life is com

IN

monly thought more desirable than life in the country. To date it has probably been superior on the whole, and it may still be so; but the advantage, if it exists, is less and less pronounced. In a hundred ways country residence is growing in desirableness. Elegant mansions, vieing with the best city houses in almost all imaginable comforts-steam heat, running water in rooms, gas for cooking and illumination, electric lights-and in art and luxury as well, are numerous now far out upon the prairie, miles from railroads; and such establishments multiply yearly. The free delivery of mails, already general in many rural parts, will increase as roads improve. Motor carriages will supplant horses. To say nothing of 'phone and wire messages, newspapers and other intelligence by mail

Reprinted, by permission, from The Educational Review.

Past President of

the N. E. A.

will speed from postoffice to destination with railway promptness.

The improvements named will tempt all who can do so to build and live in the country even when part of their work must be in town. A reflux of population from city to country will certainly occur when roads, with mail, telegraph and telephone facilities, are greatly bettered, and schools, concerts and churches as fine in the country as in town.

"Our civic centers are expanding with amazing rapidity," says Seaman A. Knapp, "not because men love brick walls and electric elevators, but because they there find greater earning capacity and certain conveniences and comforts which have become a necessity. Make it possible to have all these amid the quiet and beauties of nature, with rapid transit to business centers, and vast numbers that have sought an urban home will turn to the country for a home, at less cost, with purer air and water, greater convenience and beauty, cheaper food and more contentment."