goes to, or who teaches him, let him read to you occasionally, if for only five minutes at a time, and be sure to see to it that he moves his lips freely, pulls back vigorously the corners of his mouth, and sticks out his under jaw sufficiently when the syllable requires it.

Let him understand that syllables and words do not tumble out ready made, but must be shaped as they come out. With very little labor and time on you part you can insure for him a clear and distinct enunciation that will be a blessing to himself and to others all his life.

If you will let him write for you occasionally, and see that he writes a legible hand, you will prevent profanity and loss of time. The best rule in this matter is to allow no letter to pass that cannot be recognized immediately by itself without any aid from the other letters.

Edward Everett Hale, in one of those interesting papers in the Forum, entitled "How I was Educated," says that he was largely indebted in this study to his elder brother, who always maintained that any one who disliked arithmetic, or could not get along with it, had never been properly taught common fractions and the rule of three.

This accords with my experience. All through my youthful life arithmetic was one of my bugbears. It was only when I began to teach, and had to learn arithmetic all over, from the very beginning, that I saw how it should be taught, and one of the consequences has been to give me any amount of patience required in teaching it. It is of the utmost importance to get your boy well started in this study. No pains and no patience should be thought too great to enable him to master thoroughly these two things.

Question him whenever you can, and do not find too much fault with him for stupid answers. A question asked by one person is very seldom exactly the same as when asked by another, and the different surroundings, as well as sometimes the mere anxiety to answer correctly, will confuse the young intellect and make it seem paralyzed. It is not fair to judge of your boy, or of his teacher, by such results, as the following anecdote will show :

Some years ago I was asked to call at a certain house to see about preparing a young man for the entrance examination of Columbia College. It was about 7 P. M., in warm weather, and all the family were out on the front steps when I called. While trying to find out what the young man knew about interest I asked him a question that he did not answer at once. The impatient father said, "Why, my

son! Can't you answer that?" and immediately gave, himself, a wrong answer.

I thought it best to say nothing then, intending to teach the true answer at another time.

When I was giving my pupil his first lesson, he said: "Mr. M, did my father give you the correct answer to your question last evening?"

"No, he did not," said I, "but I thought it best not to set him right before you all."

"Well, sir, after you had gone, my brother-in-law discussed the matter with him, and he was obliged to confess that he was wrong."

Now, here was a Wall Street broker, accustomed to calculate interest every day of his life, and who could far surpass me in rapidity in answering the ordinary questions about interest, who yet broke down when asked in an unusual way.

One way of establishing a primary school is for persons living on the same block, so that there need be no crossing of streets, to club together, and hire a primary teacher. The Normal College is supplying us every year with so many well-qualified young teachers that one of them can be secured for five dollrs per week to teach from nine to twelve. Small children could thus have good teaching near home, and companionship enough to secure emulation.

When your boy gets larger, if he still remains at the public school, continue to look after his health with unremitting vigilance, and to interest him in every way in his studies.

If you give him weekly pocket-money, make it a percentage of his school-marks, and see that he calculates it correctly for himself.

It is also a good plan to have him keep an account of his expenses, with a weekly balance, and also a journal. The formation of this daily habit is worth all the time and trouble it may take. If he . should afterward recollect something that he should have put down on a particular day, show him how to make a forward reference to a certain passage from that day, and, after he has written out what he has to say, to make a backward reference to the date.

If you wish to select for him a private school, recollect that the best information about any school is obtained from an intelligent boy who has been through it. Next best to this, is to go, or get some one to go, to hear a recitation there, and to see the ordinary working of the school.

If you have the money to spare, it may be advisable to have a teacher to help your boy with his lessons after school, so that he may

be assured of sufficient time for fresh air and exercise, a watch being kept to see that he is not injured by being helped too much. Such an arrangement might be made with one of the younger teachers of his own school.

Now comes up the question, "What shall he study?"

If you intend him for business, and mean to send him down-town early, he must be well drilled on map questions and short histories, for there is no time for long ones. His arithmetic must be thorough, and he must be as strong as possible in interest, commission, brokerage, etc.

He should be taught to write both rapidly and legibly, and you can yourself help him very much in this matter by taking out your watch and timing him for a minute while he copies something as rapidly as possible. By crossing off ever letter that is not sufficiently well made to be read by itself, without hesitation, and deducting from the whole number of words those that have any crossed letters in them, you get at the commercial value of his writing.

Some of my scholars have gone as high as twenty-six well-written words in a minute, and one went even as high as thirty-two. I have heard that Edison, the great electrician, can write legibly forty words in a minute.

Your young merchant should also be well drilled in spelling, which is best taught by dictation, which any one at home can give him as well as at school.

In place of compositions, let him write letters, for a properly written, properly spaced and properly punctuated letter is one of the best preparations for down-town work.

As to languages, the most important, generally, is French, but the most important business language in New York city is German.

Spanish is, next to German, the most important business language in this country, for it is largely spoken in New Mexico, Arizona and California, and our trade with Cuba, Mexico and South America, already large, is constantly increasing.

Except for purposes of personal cultivation, it is not worth while for a business man to learn more of Greek and Latin than will enable him to look out in a dictionary any word of which he may wish to know the meaning.

Be careful when you send your boy down-town not to let him be cooped up in an office, for, if you do, he will pretty certainly get sick. I have tried it with two of my own sons. One of them had his digestion disarranged by confinement, as well as hurried and un

certain lunches, and the other was well enough as long as he was errand-boy, but, when he was promoted and kept inside, he immediately developed hereditary consumption. You must, therefore, keep an eye constantly upon your boy, and the moment he begins to break down, remove him before it be too late.-Frank Leslie's Popu lar Monthly.

Hygiene of Vision in Schools.

An Address delivered by Dr. JOSEPH A. WHITE (Senior Surgeon of the Richmond Eye, Ear, and Throat Infirmary), before the School Board and the Teachers of the Public Schools, Richmond, Va.

[Continued from July No.]

In addition to the above remarks, which relate especially to the care of the eyes of school-children, particularly in reference to the prevention of near-sightedness and its accompanying diseases, it would not be out of place to call attention to some common troubles and popular errors about eyes, and to make some suggestions about caring for the eye-sight of adults as well as children.

Among the commonest of eye-troubles is what is frequently called a cold in the eye. Often this inflammation is of little consequence, and gets well without treatment, but if accompanied by secretion or discharge it should have the careful attention of a competent eyesurgeon, as it may pass on into a violent inflammation that may destroy the eye-ball. Moreover, the discharge is usually more or less contagious, and great care should be taken that others in the same house or family are not exposed to the risk of contagion by using the same towels, basins, &c. Especially is this true of that intractable affection called granular lids, which has been known to extend through whole communities, leaving destruction in its path, when a little care in the prevention of contagion would have confined it to

one or two cases.

It is a very common thing for persons travelling, and for the employees of railroads to get foreign bodies, such as a cinder, for example, into their eyes, and they at once begin to rub the eye with hand or handkerchief until they have thoroughly imbedded the foreign body and caused great irritation of the eye. When such a body enters the eye, close the eye gently-do not rub it at all-and when the tears have accumulated, open the eye, lift the upper lid

away from the eye-ball, and the tears will usually wash away the offending particle. If it does not disappear at once, it will soon do so if the eye is let alone.

Red Eye-lids, with falling out of the lashes or inflammation of the edges of the eye-lids, is a very common eye trouble, and is usually due to defective general health, and is cured by tonic treatment with local use of a stimulating salve.

When not curable in this way, it is usually dependent upon overstraining of the accommodation from some optical defect, which same cause also produces the condition usually known as weak eyes, with inability to keep up continuous eye-work, and is only to be remedied by properly adjusted glasses.

Among popular errors are the following:

It is believed that dark eyes are stronger than light ones, whilst, in reality, the color of an eye makes no difference in regard to its ability to see or do eye-work.

Again, that near-sighted eyes are the strongest and best eyes, because the time of wearing reading glasses is put off from forty-five years of age to fifty, fifty-five or sixty years. This is a fallacy, as in reality, the majority of near-sighted eyes are essentially diseased eyes, and require more care and attention than any other kind of eye; the wearing of convex reading glasses being put off to a late period of life because the defect in accommodation, which comes with age, is partly compensated for by the defect in the shape of the eye-ball, glasses being required only at the age when the two defects equalize each other.

Another popular error is that the wearing of glasses for reading should be put off as long as possible, whereas, in order to keep up the strength of the accommodation, glasses should be worn as soon as we find we cannot read fine print with ease by artificial light. By so doing we assist the accommodation and prevent over-straining; by not doing so we over-tax the accommodation or focusing muscle unnecessarily and weaken it still more.

In regard to crossed eyes we frequently hear persons and even phy. sicians say that the child will outgrow it, especially as he or she was not born cross-eyed. The fact is that no one is born with the eyes crossed and only become so at from two to six years of age because of some refractive error causing imperfect or difficult vision, resulting in turning one eye out of the way to see without trouble with the other eye; or from paralysis of one of the eye muscles. In either event the eyes should at once receive the attention of an eye sur