liveliest interest. Often a story told, bringing in the words, will prove very useful. Draw a partial picture, writing instead of each object its name. Write the various words on different boards, and let the pupils hunt for them. The words may also be written on slips of paper and hidden in different parts of the room. The children may also draw the slips from a box and read them. Prepare as many slips as there are children, and on each write some number and the name of some game or occupation.

Florence has answered six questions. She is given the slip marked six. On the back the word "blocks" is written. That means that she may play with the blocks as her reward. It is well to reserve certain toys or games for special days. The "rainy day," the "birth day," "Friday afternoon," etc., all have their claims. One teacher of our acquaintance produced a number of empty spoolboxes, and put in each a number of little things. Several slips of colored glass, a piece of patchwork for sewing, or horns full of tiny shells in one, beads ready for stringing, a picture for tracing, and acorn cups and saucers in another, and so on. These boxes were given out as a reward for good work or behavior, and as their contents were frequently changed, they were a source of never failing delight. Oftentimes little children, in leaving the board for their seats, will make a great deal of noise. "Walk very softly," you may say, and in vain. Now, excite their imagination, and see if you are not more successful. "Play that you are rabbits with new fur shoes on. Oh, how softly they walk along!" or, "You are all my little pussies, creeping softly after Mr. Mouse," or, "You are all mice. running to get the farmer's cheese. Be still, or old Mistress Kitty will catch you."

You wish to stimulate greater effort among your pupils. Choose a seat for a temporary seat of honor, and decorate it in some way with a ribbon-bow. What child will not be proud to sit in it? Make a pretty badge for the most deserving child to wear home. Reserve certain books and toys for such, to be used at certain times. Allow the best workers to help you in your work. Most children consider it an honor to give out books and material, wet sponges, clean boards, etc. These are simply a few of the most common devices that may introduce variety into the ordinary school-room work. Each teacher is a gold mine in herself if she would only explore.

But, in devising ways and means, the primary teacher must not forget the little points of etiquette which must be insisted upon in all intercourse with children. The morning greeting, the lifting of the

cap when meeting one's elders, "Thank you," "Please excuse me,” should become the child's second nature. To train the little boy to take off his hat on entering school-house, dwelling, museum, or public library, will only require patience and persistence. Let the child know that he must never burst into a room where others are, but tap gently. Treat each pupil as if he were the most important, finest gentleman or lady of your acquaintance.

All

"My teacher never speaks to me on the street," said a boy once to the writer; "but Walter's teacher is the politest lady I know. of us fellows like to lift our hats to her."

Many people think a child like a block or stone, with neither powers of observation nor sensitive feelings. In their opinion he is not worth minding. The way that some poor mites are snubbed and ignored is enough to rouse wrath in the truly tender soul. Your pleasant smile and bow to poor little dirty, freckled Mike or Mary costs you nothing, but it may be the true soul sunshine to the neglected child. Here may every teacher well ponder, and act with love and wisdom. For, as the Master said, "It were better that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the uttermost parts of the sea," than that he were guilty of wronging one of these little ones, "whose angels do always behold the face of my Father."

The little device you arrange as an economic force may be something more, a real chiseling of character. For, with God there is neither high nor low, great or small. And

"Little things on little wings,

Bear little souls to Heaven."

-American Teacher.

A Simple Method of Fixing Crayon Drawings on Paper.

At the Ann Arbor meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the following communication was presented :

It is often desirable to preserve for future use such drawings as are usually made upon the blackboard. All such drawings may be executed with equal ease and rapidity upon unsized paper, employing the colored crayons which are made for blackboard use. The colors red and blue are most conspicuous; other colors answer fairly. As

to paper, moderately heavy, unsized manilla answers well; even white wrapping paper may be employed; but it would be too easily torn. In the course of making the drawing, a line may be fairly erased by brushing it lightly. A very dilute varnish is made by adding to one part of Damar varnish twenty-five parts of spirits of turpentine; this is best preserved in a corked bottle.

To fix the drawing, a quart or more of the varnish is poured into a trough (made of a piece of tin-roof gutter) a little longer than the width of the paper, and the paper is drawn through the varnish, which may or may not flow over the upper side of the paper; the latter is then hung up to dry over night, and the drawing may be handled with no danger of blurring. The color of the paper is scarcely altered by the varnish.

As to the amount of material: Twenty pounds of paper requires about three gallons of turpentine and one pint of Damar varnish.

Prof. Simon H. Gage, of Cornell University, has made considerable use of the above process, and kindly furnishes the following notes, which will enhance its value:

Ist. Brown, green, and the various shades of orange crayon are very useful, and for black the moderately hard crayons known as Conté à Paris are all that could be desired.

2d. Water colors and fresco colors may also be used to good advantage where a great variety is needed.

3d. For erasing, the filtering paper used by chemists has been found most efficient.

4th. As white crayon marks are rendered almost invisible by the varnish, the drawings may be outlined with white. This is sometimes of considerable importance in making a complicated drawing.

5th. In fixing, if one does not have a trough as mentioned above, the diagram may be hung up, and the varnish rubbed on the back with a mass of cotton or with a wide brush.

6th. If it is desirable to add letters, figures, etc., to a diagram. after it is fixed, such additions may be made in crayon, and then fixed by pressing a mass of cotton, wet with the varnish, directly down upon the part; no blotting will occur unless the cotton be moved from side to side.

F. P. D.

-"A joke never gains an enemy, but often loses a friend."

—What a man wants-All he can get. What a woman wants-All she can't get.

The Irish Language.

The Aryan Language is the name given by philologists of the present day to the primitive language of man.

The Irish language is a branch or dialect of the Aryan language. This is proved by comparative philology.

The Irish language is the most ancient living language in Europe. The Irish is a language of rare grace, vigor, and soul-touching tenderness. It is expressive and beautiful. "If you plead for your life, plead in Irish," is a well-known saying. An old English writer confesses that it "abounds in grandeur of words, harmony of diction and acuteness of expression."

This language is soft, lively and melodious, and according to an eminent musical authority, those qualities make it admirably suited "for poetical and musical compositions-far superior either to the Latin or any of the modern tongues."

This venerable language has been the polished medium of every form of literary composition, from the simple tale to the exquisite productions of the poet and the sententious wisdom of the philosopher.

It would greatly aid in the labor of acquiring other languages. The Irish is a primitive tongue, and as such it is the key to a host of others.

"The Irish language," says Sir William Betham: "is a mine of philological wealth—a guide that will explain most of the difficulties which have hitherto so much obscured the history of the ancient people and languages of Europe."

Sir William Betham truly says, "It is a singular fact, not generally known, that the most ancient European manuscripts now existing are in the Irish language, and that the most ancient Latin manuscripts in Europe were written by Irishmen."

P. McMahon, M. P., says: "I think it a great pity that Irish is not more studied as a key to Greek, Latin, and the modern dialects of Latin. One who knows Irish well will readily master Latin, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese."

Bishop Lynch, of Charleston, S. C., once said: "I would give a thousand dollars to be able to hear confession in the language of my fathers."

Irish is an older language than either the Latin or the Greek.

"Comparative philology," says Canon Bourke, "furnishes abun

dant reasons to show that the Irish is an older language than that in which Homer and Sappho, or Virgil and Horace wove their wreaths of deathless song and story."-From "Lessons in English Literature," by John O'Kane Murray.

Educational Journals.

There is no reading so valuable to the teacher as that coming to him during the year in an educational journal. No matter how insignificant that journal may be, the teacher's one dollar will come back many times over. There is sure to be some truth published during the year that makes a deep mark. Let the teacher subscribe for some paper; he is the loser if he neglects the advice. From the poor wretches that beg bread at basement doors on cold winter mornings, who will contrive to earn a cent to buy a daily paper, let a lesson be learned-the lesson of power that comes in the printed page. Let no teacher think he economizes by not taking an educational paper; let him make it a rule to expend all he can on himself that will fit him for work, just as the truckman expends money for oats and hay for his horse. Any teacher who expends none of his salary on his soul is starving himself; he is less fit to teach every year. Those teachers who have risen in their profession declare that the reading of educational journals has been one of the means of their progress. Let the teacher value his educational journal. If it does not bring him increased power and usefulness the fault is in him; the seed is sown, but the ground is rocky.—School Journal.

NO HOMELY GIRLS NECESSARY.-Mr. Ruskin said disagreeable things about women's brains in his younger days, but he has lived long enough to know better, and takes most of them back. Some of them wrote him, asking: "What are plain girls to do?". Mr. Ruskin answered that girls who are well-bred, kind, and modest can never be "offensively plain." Whatever the shape of a girl's mouth may be, she can refine it by culture and sweet, bright thoughts till it ceases to be unattractive. She cannot make her ears smaller, physically speaking, but any girl can make herself graceful and attractive in manners if she gives her head to it. By genuine kind