very good place to pass through,") whence to proceed further on one's journey. To whom is there not wisdom in the remonstrance of Epictetus: "Man, thou hast forgetten thine object; thy journey was not to this, but through this."

Many a working hypothesis, like the above hasty conclusions of Young America, must melt before the warmth of new light. The stone arch, once firmly in place, no longer needs the wooden framework for support; having served its purpose it must be discarded. Yet it was a means to a noble end. So with the "blank misgivings" and confused struggles of every boy or girl "moving about in worlds not realized"; without them, amusing as they often are to an old struggler, we can no more expect subsequent mental grasp and discernment than summer fruit without May blossoms.

Minneapolis.

OLD TEXT BOOKS.

The following excellent sonnets were written by Will Dilman, formerly of Revillo, S. D., and now preparing at the Minneapolis Academy to enter the University of Minnesota.

Neglected comrades, unremembered books,

Old friends of mine that patiently repose
There on your dusty shelves, arranged in rows
Like soldiers; you reproach me with your looks
For my neglect; your titles worn and dim

And half obliterated gaze at me
Like patient eyes; and once again I see
Myself a student grappling with your grim
And stubborn contents. Yet I love you more,
For you have always been the same to me,
While other things have changed; and I, like he
Who wandered lonely by the ocean shore,
Repeat the words upon the broken oar:
"Oft was I weary when I toiled at thee.”

A QUESTION.

When once the English language shall have died,
And this proud nation shall have fallen hence,
In the ordained succession of events;
Then, when the student, pale and heavy-eyed,

By the dim midnight lamp shall flounder on Through some old English masters, ages dead, As I, tonight, with heavy heart and head,

Am groping through the Greek of Xenophon; In that dim distant time that is to be, Will some philologist, perusing o'er Long-buried treasures of linguistic lore,

Stumble upon my homely song and say: "Some homeless bard of olden time was he, Forgotten harp that rang but for a day?"

A bright little miss of six summers put the following conundrum to her father: "Which is heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of me ?" He guessed they were equal, but she replied, "The feathers are heavier, for there are sixteen ounces of them in a pound; but precious things like me are weighed by Troy."

A MODERN ENTERPRISE.

BY R. B. HAZARD, MANAGER OF THE NORTHWESTERN SCHOOL AGENCY.

Recent times have witnessed a wonderful extension of the principle of division of labor. Not only has the progress of the mechanical arts given existence to new occupations and lines of special employment, but the pressing demands of modern life have made necessary the use of every means that will economize time and hasten the despatch of business. We buy, sell, rent, lease, transmit messages, give to the poor, protect life and property, and perform a thousand other services by proxy. Civilization is division of labor, and the very old saying has become true in a most practical sense that no man lives to himself.

Among the lines of business, distinctively modern, is the so-called teachers' agency or bureau. The purpose of this article is to discuss the relations of these agencies to schools and teachers and the methods under which they are operated. The fact that the first agency established in the United States, though dating from 1855, is still doing business under the original owner, and that many other agencies have apparently become renumerative, is evidence that the business meets a definite public demand. It is a fact that a large proportion of all vacancies occurring throughout the country are every year filled directly or indirectly by teacher agencies. Many schools regularly employ all their teachers in this way. One manager claims that three-fourths of all the vacancies above the grade of the country district school are thus supplied. Certainly, the number is much larger than the general public, or even well-informed educators, imagine. To quote a recent example, one of the agencies placed twenty-five high and graded school principals in Minnesota alone during the season of 1893, and the list includes some of the best high schools in the state. Other agencies are active here, and it is an undoubted fact that but few of the better positions are otherwise supplied.

What are the results? The economic effect of the business is not difficult to determine. It is an accepted principle in political economy that whatever makes it easier for labor to move from place to place in search of employment, tends to increase wages. The qualified but underpaid teacher receives from the agency not only information of better openings, but in very many instances, effective assistance in securing advancement. Nor is the benefit confined alone to those registered with agencies. All teachers throughout the country enjoy higher salaries through the influence of this business. On the other hand the interests of better teaching are conserved. No school need retain incompetent teachers when from any properly managed agency, candidates of the best grade may be had at any time without charge. As a prominent editorial writer has said, the business is in the interest of better teaching and better rewards to the well-qualified, progressive teacher. Hence, the leading educators have very generally given their indorsement. Says Dr. E. E. White, "Teachers' agencies seem to me to meet a real demand, and if properly conducted they must be valuable to educators."

Since teachers' bureaus have become a part of our educational system, it is well to recognize a suitable code of business ethics to which they should be compelled by general educational sentiment to conform. In this connection it may be said, first, that there should be no occasion for violating any of the acknowledged courtesies of the profession. While we may look in vain among teachers for any authoritative statement of professional ethics, it is pretty well conceded to be an exhibition of poor taste for a teacher to apply

Second, the number of candidates recommended for any given vacancy should be limited. The practice of many of the leading agencies is satisfactory in this respect. One agency advertises, and no doubt truthfully, that it will notify only one candidate of each vacancy. Others, and most of the best agencies follow this plan, will recommend two or three candidates for each vacant position. Patronage should be given only to those agencies which recommend teachers directly to the employing officers. Where this is done it is certain that neither will the board be overwhelmed by a host of applicants nor the teacher thrown into futile competition with a multitude of rivals.

Third, the "registration fee" should be expended by the agency in investigating the candidate's record and qualifications. Some preliminary attention is required on the part of the manager and some expense in making records in each case; hence it is very proper that the teacher should pay a small advance fee. While this payment places the agency under no obligation save that suggested above, it leaves the teacher free to withdraw his application at any time without obligation to the agency.

Lastly, the agency should make no guaranty under which it will be obliged to recommend for positions every teacher who may register. As to the objection that some individnal teacher failed to secure a position though registered with this or that agency, the fact is that no bureau can secure employment for the incompetent and no bureau with any business sense will undertake to do it. It is worthy of note in this connection that most of the managers are men of liberal education and themselves of extended experience as educators. The list embraces several who have held important educational positions, including at least one ex-state superintendent of schools. A fair presumption should obtain that these men can act intelligently and will be inclined to act honestly in recommending teachers.

Among the difficulties in the way of a satisfactory selection of teachers none is more annoying than the doubtful practice of granting testimonials indiscriminately. With no wish to deceive, school boards and superintendents are perhaps too apt to be influenced by sympathy in granting commendatory letters. It is also to be questioned whether the teachers opinion of his pupil's talent is always the most reliable basis for a recommendation, and whether, from the nature of things, more attention should not be paid the recommendation of a reliable agency based on the teacher's actual experience than to that of a school principal, who must redeem his pledges to secure each and every one of his graduates a position.

Two conclusions may be drawn from this brief discussion. First, as to the attitude of school officers toward the agencies. Since a very large proportion of the best teachers in every department are registered in one agency or another,the employing officer will find here the most convenient and the most reliable means of securing satisfactory talent. Second, the teacher will consult his best interests by recognizing the existing facts. To register in a teachers agency is not to confess lack of merit or inability to secure a position otherwise; nor is there need of any extenuation or apology whatever for the teacher who guards his own interests personally or through others whose aid he may command. It is simply a matter of good business

sense.

What of the future of teachers bureaus? None of the prosperous agencies have shown signs of retiring from business. Once established with a good patronage no agency has been known to fail, though as yet very few, if any, plutocrats are

numbered among the managers. It is safe to predict that so long as the American school remains a democratic institution the agencies will continue their beneficial work. Minneapolis.

INFLUENCE OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL ON CHARACTER.

BY HATTIE B. DEWART.

The training in a perfect or ideal home is an effort to prepare the child for the social world by forming habits of punctuality, regularity, truthfulness, silence, kindness, justice and industry.

As many parents neglect this training, and the home is too small a society in which to do it perfectly, and as the state recognizes the fact that the child must be imbued with these principles before he can be a useful member of society, she has instituted the public school to supplement home training.

The school is the social world in miniature where the pupil is taught to acquire and practice those virtues he must possess if he is to take his place and act well his part in society.

The main object of the public school is to fit pupils to take their true place in the social organization,and to prepare and train them to do their proper work as citizens.

The school does this by leading the children to practice the virtues of the social world until they become habits and to continue these habits until they become a part of their nature. If the common school succeeded in doing perfectly what it is trying to do, every pupil would leave it and begin life with a nature which made it a pleasure for him to be punctual, regular, truthful, silent, kind, just and industrious. The practice of each one of these habits, or virtues, involves the producing in him a spirit of obedience, self-denial and self-control, the three essentials of real manhood.

The first law of school life is punctuality. The pupil must leave his play, take his seat promptly and pass to his class at a given signal. In everything he is taught to regulate his conduct and actions and bring them into harmony with the law governing the organization of which he is a member. If each one were to follow his own inclinations and caprices, punctuality and regularity would be impossible and a disorderly school would be the result.

The teacher by holding every one accountable for his actions and statements, teaches truthfulness, not merely by precept, but in every lesson.

Silence is the unchanging law of the school-room. In considering the world of affairs we have seen the necessity of all concentrating their attention upon the common purpose they are seeking to accomplish. Ability to concentrate all the power upon a given ob

The young child lacks this power of concentration, every noise distracts him, his mind wanders aimlessly from one object of sense to another. If interruptions from without are wanting, the images and wayward thoughts of his own mind lead him astray. He must have silence, objective and subjective. Absolute order and quiet must prevail in the room where he is to accomplish the task imposed upon him. The lessons assigned him must be so arranged that his mind can go readily from one related part to another, and he must be held responsible for the results demanded of him as a means of assisting him to acquire subjective silence or the ability to hold his mind to the work in which he is engaged, and to exclude everything else. "Silence is the soil in which thought grows."

Kindness and justice are taught in every lesson and in every practice of the school-room. No system of prizes is admitted into a school which regards character as the principal thing. In such a school love of truth, enjoyment of free-activity and consciousness of self-realization are sufficient motives to induce the youth to respond to the subject adapted to his stage of development and presented in accordance with the laws of his mind. Truth is the one essential thing. By cultivating an unselfish love of truth the generous youth will rejoice in the triumph of his fellow who has solved the problem which he himself has failed to master. A stranger to the motives of envy and jealousy, he enjoys participation in the results of his fellow's labor and watches for an opportunity to render him assistance in return.

Truth is the conformity of things to the divine intention and love is the highest motive, the noblest principle of conduct in all the relations of life.

"How skillful grows the hand
That obeyeth Love's command!
It is the heart and not the brain,
That to the highest doth attain,
And he who followeth Love's behest
Far excelleth all the rest!"

All the exercises of the school may be made a means of cultivating this noblest of passions.

The pupil is made to feel that he is not simply an isolated unit, but a part of a larger whole. The class now becomes the unit, he is only a part of it. The class law must govern, he must bring his individual will into subjection to the principles which govern the class; soon he discovers even the class is not an independent unit, but only a part of a larger whole called the school. The will of the class must now be subject to the law of the school. He starts out with the idea that he is an independent unit; soon he is made to feel that he is only a very small fraction of a larger whole, that he is unavoidably bound up with

the whole are his interests, that their well-being is his well-being, that what injures them, injures him, what benefits them, benefits him. He is made to feel he is only a branch of this social tree, only a limb of this social body, that as he desires them to act kindly and justly to him so he must act kindly and justly to them; that an unkindness to them is an injury to himself; an injustice to them, an injury to him.

Thus he is prepared to take his place in the larger society, called the state, of which the school is only a miniature, and to act justly and kindly towards its members. Industry is the condition of success in the school-room. The pupil is made to feel that everything depends upon his own effort, no one can learn his lesson for him. Activity is the essential nature of mind and self-activity is the law of its development. All the teacher can do is to supply proper conditions to stimulate and inspire the pupil's freeactivity. He must do the work.

Thus the school when rightly understood is an institution where pupils are induced to practice certain habits essential to life, until they become principles inhering in their nature.

As the mind of the pupil develops he discovers that these rules are not arbitrarily imposed upon the school by authority from without, but inhere in the very nature of the school, and obedience to them is necessary that the purpose of the school be realized in him; that he may be transformed from a capricious, self-destructive animal into a self-determined, free, rational spirit. He discovers that what is true of the school is true of all human institutions; that they were devised that he might have the assistance of his fellows in emancipating himself from the tyranny of nature, from the oppression of anarchy, and the limits imposed upon him by his own superstition and malice. He learns that society is the estate of reason; that the divine reason embodied in the institutional world is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world; and by identifying himself with the institutional world he becomes a free man of the estate of reason, a branch of the true vine, an adjunct to God Himself, in whom we live and move and have our being.

St. Cloud, Minn.

JUMPING SEED.

A number of plants have seeds which occasionally seem to have the property of leaping. It is now ascertained that this is in consequence of the motion of insects which make their home in the seeds. One kind, known as the "Mexican Jumping Bean," owes the motion, according to Prof. Riley, to an insect which he calls Carpocapsa saltitans.—Meehans' Monthly for January.

POSITION OF THE COMMON SCHOOL TEACHER.

BY E. HEGSTROM.

It can be asserted without much danger of coming wide of the truth that at least fifty per cent. of the common school teachers of this state are hired on consideration of salary alone, twenty-five per cent. get their position through personal influence or other secondary motive, while scarcely twenty-five per cent. are employed on merit.

The effect this has on our teachers, and the growing generation can hardly escape the notice of any observer. It demoralizes teachers and schools to a degree that is truly alarming.

We are often reminded of the deficiency of the schools some twenty or thirty years ago, and hymns of praise are often sung over the proficiency of the schools of the present, but if we make a careful comparison of persons turned out of the schools of those times with those persons more recently educated, it will be difficult to discover the advantage of the latter over the former.

One of the main causes of this condition is the above mentioned. The value of school work is not fully realized by the people at large. They consider the few cents saved on the salary of a poor teacher is enough to balance the loss in knowledge imparted to the pupils of the school.

It is no wonder that a teacher put into a school under such circumstances becomes demoralized. He is considered of about as much value in the community where he works as the most worthless menial. For it is evident that when a man, looking for an employee, only takes price into consideration he can not think much of the work to be performed, because if he did he would also take proficiency into account.

That the common school teacher, under these circumstances, is in just such position as a common workingman would be, and receives no more respect, is soon apparent from the conduct of the children. They come to school with the impression that it is only a place of torture and that the teacher is the head of the institution. They therefore almost invariably bring with them an enormous stock of obstinacy, in order to make the influence of the teacher as insignificant as possible. Their equipment for work is also very incomplete, for they are only going to read, write, figure and get whipped.

The common school teacher is human. It is no wonder if many fail most dismally. Much blame for the poor condition of our schools has been laid on them, but it is possible that it has been unjustly done in many cases. Most teachers start out with the right kind of feeling, but some are not equal to the situation, because circumstances are such that more

than common ability is required to overcome the obstacles that are in the way.

Is the teacher to blame because he is not a genius? He may learn that the school-room is not the place for him, but that does not help the matter. The place is open to others for experiment, with probably the same success, or rather want of success. The teacher is a good medium through which reform may be brought about, but in many cases he is not the best. It is better to adapt the remedy to the case than to make one medicine a cure-all, for it is then liable to become a patent nostrum. The state ought to make a thorough diagnosis and apply different methods of treatment to different localities to suit the varying wants.

Science Department.

All communications intended for this department should be addressed to Ulysses O. Cox, Mankato, Minn.

COMMENTS ON THE TEACHING OF CHEMISTRY.

JULIUS HORTVET.

In the teaching of elementary chemistry, as much as in any other line of work, it is important, first, that the teacher maintain a frank independence in ideas and methods and, second, that he be open to the opinions and criticisms of others. Let there be honest effort, fearless self-criticism, and a perfect willingness to modify one's ideas and methods as often as seems consistent with improvement. What shall be the sign by which the work of a teacher may be judged? Simply that he is intelligently and earnestly trying to accomplish something. And by what shall the teacher judge himself? Chiefly by a consciousness of striving and growing. What appears to the observer as faulty and inefficient now may have hidden the secret of a future success. Let no man be your judge; respect all men's opinions and suggestions with the freedom that becomes the spirit of the true worker. Many ideas may begained from occasional visits to other schools where some effort is being put forth to accomplish better results. More indeed may be learned from a careful inspection of a few laboratories where work is actually going on than from any other source. It is important that there be more opportunity among teachers for a free and frank inspection and criticism of each others work. Progress is delayed, no one can tell how much, for want of more intimate exchange of ideas. As a first suggestion looking toward improvement in the teaching of chemistry, I propose that each teacher begin at once by bringing himself more in touch with his co-workers.

So much regarding the teacher's conduct of himself and his attitude toward others. A few words on the matter of textbooks. The time is long past when the text-book was looked upon as the embodiment of all that could be known upon the particular subject with which it dealt. Authors are becoming more modest in the preface and are rapidly infusing the same spirit into the text. A book is no longer the book, and the best is good only in part and serves particular needs. Yet, as a guide in study nothing is better than a good book-full of the most recent facts and principles of the science. And in the text-book, as in any other, the subject matter is inreparable from the manner, method and order of treatment.

Much depends upon the appearance of the page and the paragraph. Some texts in common use suggest an utter want

of discrimination and neatness on the part of author and editor. In a few cases, it is easily believed that the work was merely as a makeshift and the pages arranged under the blind guidance of printer and binder. This sort of hap-hazard treatment is to be discouraged at the outset by the teacher who aims toward any definite results. Any progressive teacher will soon outgrow the best of texts. Besides the regular text-book guide, there should be connected with the study in each school a collection, however small, of well selected treatesis on general chemistry. Such a collection of books will soon relieve the monotony of the every-day text and allow the instructor greater freedom and scope in his presentation of the subject, both in the recitation and in the laboratory. It is becoming plain that the matter of easily available and special reference books in connection with many high school studies demand attention, and in the study of a branch in science on scientific principles it will soon become impossible to do without them. I would propose then, as a second recommendation, that the teacher of chemistry acquaint himself early with the literature of his subject, in order that he may place within reach of his pupils the choicest and freshest information that can come through reading.

There is a good point made by Mr. Fullerton in SCHOOL EDUCATION of last September on the extension of study beyond the text-book. The limited space allowed for this article will not admit even a brief summary of his argument, but before passing to the consideration of the laboratory method in the teaching of chemistry, I wish to admit in substance what Mr. Fullerton said and recommend a careful reading of his article by all teachers who care to improve their work. I will therefore, to begin with, re-emphasize the point referred to and also extend the same emphasis to the importance of the laboratory method. Let the pupil's fund of observation be made to supplement the text; but let it be reviewed in its most important points and embodied into a system in the laboratory. Indeed, many facts of common observation do not appear in their true meanings until studied by the pupil during the progress of his experiments. The point above all others toward which the teacher should lead in the laboratory, is the method of science and the peculiar meaning and method of the subject studied. Order, reason, purpose, law, these are important ideas to be developed. Good logic, definiteness and honest conclusions are not secondary in importance. The laboratory is not a place for the performance of experiments calculated merely to startle or please-a play-room where pupils may be turned loose for an occasional period of amusement. There prevails generally these days a tendency toward the popularization of science accordingly teachers are encouraged to dwell upon commonplace facts and to amplify that which is only trivial or secondary. Some teachers pride themselves on a mere ability to please and surprise, an ability that too often amounts to a disguise of one's ignorance. Then, too, science is looked upon as a sort of recreation, a light accomplishment affected by many who desire a mere pleasing diversion from the daily routine of a business or a profession. All this tends to create in the popular mind a false idea of what science is; it does not cultivate the true scientific spirit and method. There is no imperative need that any subject of study should be popularized. Because the public inclines to be superficial and desires to be pleased, is no reason why a science should suffer from false treatment. Even the young at school may as well be trained to more vigor and seriousness in study. Life and interest there should be, and real pleasure there is often sure to be; but there is nothing so important in science as the cultivation of seriousness, reverence and system. The student should be trained to be real; he should not be allowed to develop the conceit that rests content with a "little learning," and feeds too constantly upon the light

literature of many readable books. The laboratory is also a place for the training of neatness, accuracy, skill, patience, and thoughtfulness. As a preparation for life as well as for advanced work in science, nothing is more worthy of encouragement. That experiments performed by the teacher in the presence of his class, excepting for purposes of illustration in a lecture or a recitation, cannot answer the purpose of work actually carried out by each student needs no further comment here. As a foundation in the real working methods of the science of chemistry, systematic individual laboratory practice has no substitute. The recitation and the lecture are only secondary and supplementary and neither is the best opportunity of either teacher or pupil. Preparation of recitations only from text-books, or even from references furnished by the instructor, is anything but studying chemistry; it is merely getting ready to recite. Those who have begun to apprehend the first principles of modern science will know what I mean by saying that pupils who are studying a text-book on chemistry are not really studying chemistry. We read about things and study about things when there is no direct opportunity for the study of the things themselves. A chemist's study-room is his laboratory; books are only records of discovered facts and principles and are employed by him for reference. Whether students to-day shall begin at the beginning and attempt to work over the entire ground covered by years of careful research in order that their knowledge may be real is a frequent subject of discussion and shows want of comprehension. Some experiments, more or less, must be properly performed by every boy or girl who desires a genuine preparation in the science. To teach the chemist's methods of study are of more value than to give to young minds his conclusions. To train in mere skill in manipulation is of more worth than the hearing of recitations. It seems to be a mere forcing of things when we see any subject in physical science taught in a school unprovided with the least trace of apparatus or laboratory. The teaching of chemistry in a high school is not imperative to the extent that it must be done at so great a sacrifice. The American village is characterized by an ambition to own a high school, and, of course, the sciences, just now become popular, must go into the curriculum. No laboratory is thought of, the text-book is selected, and the public is satisfied. No science should enter into the high school course of study before some reasonable and adequate provision has been made for teaching sciences.

Schools in which chemistry is offered with no laboratory equipment are sadly behind. The American ambition to be "up with the times" needs another stimulus. Something must be done in schools that have done nothing, or only a little, in this matter. Teachers as a class are not wholly responsible, in fact it is not easy to say that anybody is to blame. Things as they are have come about by natural growth; the thing needed is to change things. Each teacher can do something in furtherance of that end; each can do something by way of a beginning. As a third point, then, in conclusion, I would urge that the teacher who cared anything for his subject begin at once to develop the laboratory method in his school. The public will not favor a change until that is done and done persistently.

In another article I have a few suggestions to make that I hope will be helpful to those who are trying to conduct a class in individual laboratory work.

The greatest merit of a teacher is to secure his own effacement. His greatest honor is when the pupil thinks that he has learned everything by his own unaided efforts.-Oscar Browning.