the time. Oregonians are known as "Web-foots," and the inhabitants of the Puget Sound country as "Clams;" but this regularity of attendance at the public schools is a commentary on the weather, of which Iowa school teachers can see the force. A few Iowa blizzards would mar the beauty of their statistics in regard to attendance and punctuality. Hence we infer that the rain of Oregon is not a wet rain. Or, we might infer that it rains continuously, and as one day is just like the rest, there would be no reason why pupils should remain at home. It is our changeable Iowa climate that cuts down our records of attendance and punctuality.

There is one feature in the finances of Oregon schools that is peculiar. The first tax levied (about 5 mills) is uniform all over the State, and is paid into a County fund. This tax is based upon the valuation, but is distributed according to the population. Hence, as the wealth per capita is usually greater in cities, the cities not only support their own schools, but assist also in supporting the country schools. Cities may levy an additional tax for the support of their schools, which does not go into this county fund. The last school levy in Portland was 5 mills for the county fund and 31⁄2 mills additional for their own schools. Their income for the present year is estimated at $110,250.

This shows the wealth of Portland. What Iowa city can support its schools with a total levy of 81⁄2 mills? Dr. G. H. Atkinson, of Portland, said in 1880: "The average city school tax for thirteen years has been 3 mills." This in addition to the county tax of 5 mills.

All Pacific coast schools are not equal to the Portland schools. California has a national reputation for the severity of her teachers' examination. Yet I saw there one man, who was receiving $1.500 per year, tell his pupils to decline bonus and to translate the future perfect Latin tense into the English perfect.

But it is but justice to say that the Portland schools are among the best to be found anywhere. Many of the teachers have been here for long periods, and have had not only unusual natural talent, but ample time in which to make their schools conform to their ideal standard.

I must not close without a reference to the mountain peaks, looking down like tutelary divinities upon the Portland schoolsfive snow-white peaks, the most beloved of which is glorious Mount Hood, its rugged sides rising above the clouds, snow-white, vast, and satisfactory. To sit under the shadow of that sublime old mountain is a daily development of soul. "Glorious, glorious, old Mount Hood! How we love you!" is the exclamation made with passionate loyalty by those so fortunate as to pass their lives under the shadow of this, the grandest of mountain peaks.

Nath an ich Hawthoruk.

It is a tradition among critics that the flower of art blooms only where the soil is deep; that it takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature. Of writing romances and laying the scene of them in the New Western World, Hawthorne himself has said: "No author, without a trial, can conceive of the difficulty of writing a romance about a country where there is no shadow, no antiquity, no mystery, no picturesque and gloomy wrong, nor anything but a commonplace prosperity in broad and simple daylight, as is happily the case with my dear native land."

The deposit of history in America is thin when we compare it with the depth of fifteen centuries of English history, or with two thousand years of French history. There was little in America fifty years ago, and little even now, though the time is equal to any two centuries of previous history, to furnish the texture for a ro

mance. There are no novels where there are no, palaces, no castles, no old country houses, nor thatched cottages, nor ivied ruins. Hawthorne, the dreamy romancer, in his "contemplative saunterings and reveries," looked out on wild, crude nature. He beheld in a new country, a plain, democratic and busy people, who gave little time to literature; a people busy in quarry and mine, and factory and forest, in building houses and cultivating fields. Hawthorne undertook the difficult task of catching the ear of this people with his romances. This feat he accomplished, but not till he had passed the meridian of life, when with "The Scarlet Letter," "The House of Seven Gables," and "Blithedale Romance," he charmed his countrymen into an attention that grew into rapturous praise and pride. And well might it be so, for Hawthorne had given to America some masterpieces that contained nothing English, nothing foreign, but whose warp and woof was wholly Ameri

can.

The genius of Hawthorne took deep root in the soil of New England, and here the scene of his romances was laid.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

There is nothing dramatic about the life of Hawthorne. In the quiet, the simplicity, and the solitude of a little New England village, he passed the greater part of his life. He was born at Salem, Mass., in a house built by his grandfather, July 4, 1804, on the anniversary of American Independence. American life had just begun to be when Hawthorne was ushered into the world. His forefathers had crossed the Atlantic for conscience sake, and for a hundred and seventy years his ancestors had trod the quiet streets of Salem. For generations back they had made seamanship the business of life. Hawthorne's father was a shipmaster, and he died in foreign lands when Nathaniel was but four years of age. There is little in the career of Hawthorne's childhood that is not common to many a lad for whom fame has nothing in keeping. It is said "He was a pleasant child, quite handsome, with golden curls." In an article written in 1853, Hawthorne says: "One of the peculiarities of my boyhood was a grievous disinclination to go to school, and I never did go half as much as other boys, partly owing to delicate health, and partly because, much of the time, there were no schools within reach." But he was by no means idle; he was a great reader of books, even from early childhood. When he was six years old his favorite book was Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." The first book he bought with his own morey was a copy of

Spencer's "Fairy Queen." He early began to read Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, and Thomson. "The Castle of Indolence" was an especial favorite with him during his boyhood.

Up to the year 1825, when Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoin College, he gives the following brief account of himself: "When I was eight or nine years old, my mother, with her three children, took up her residence on the banks of the Sebago Lake, in Maine, where the family owned a large tract of land; and here I ran quite wild, and would, I doubt not, have willingly ran wild till this time, fishing all day long, or shooting with an old fowling-piece; but reading a good deal, too, on the rainy days, especially in Shakespeare and the Pilgrim's Progress,' and any poetry or light books within my reach. Those were delightful days; for that part of the country was wild then, with only scattered clearings, and ninetenths of it primeval woods. I was educated (as the phrase is) at Bowdoin College. I was an idle student, negligent of college rules and the procrustean details of academic life, rather choosing to nurse my own fancies than to dig into Greek roots and be numbered among the learned Thebans."

Among Hawthorne's fellow-students were H. W. Longfellow, Franklin Pierce and Horatio Bridge. To this latter personage Hawthorne attributes the responsibility of his becoming an author. Bridge and Pierce remained his intimate friends through life. After leaving college Hawthorne returned to Salem, whither the family had removed from Maine. Here he lived in solitude, writing little masterpieces for the next twelve years, with little or no remuneration and without becoming known. In 1837 he collected from various sources a number of his short stories and sketches and published them at Boston, under the title of "Twice Told Tales." He begins the preface to a later edition of "Twice Told Tales" by remarking that he was for many years the obscurest man of letters in America." It was this volume of charming sketches, published in 1837, that brought Hawthorne into recognition; honor at last had dawned on his career.

From 1838 to 1841 the author of "Twice Told Tales" filled the position of Weigher and Gauger in the Boston custom house. In 1842 he was married to Miss Sophia Peabody, and almost immediately took up his residence in Concord, in the historic parsonage known as the "Old Manse." The union of these two was a happy one, and no cloud or change ever passed over their affection even

for a moment, but every succeeding year found their union more exquisitely complete."

His four years of happy life at Concord, during which time he wrote "Mosses from an Old Manse," were succeeded by four years in his native town of Salem, where he was for three years Surveyor of the Custom House. During his leisure time he gave himself to planning some new romances. In 1849, on the advent of the Whig party, he was discharged. His biographer says: "On the day he received the news of his discharge, Hawthorne came home several hours earlier than usual; and when his wife expressed pleasure and surprise at his prompt reappearance, he called her attention to the fact that he had left his head behind him. "Oh, then," exclaimed Mrs. Hawthorne, buoyantly, "you can write your book!" So he began "The Scarlet Letter" that afternoon, and the next year, 1850, this wonderful tragic romance appeared, and fame dawned full upon the author. It gave to him a lofty and wide-spread literary reputation.

ter

In

In the early summer after the publication of "The Scarlet Lethe removed from Salem to Lenox, among the Berkshire hills. Here, in a little red cottage, surrounded by his happy young family, he took up his magic pen, and during the next three years, he wrote "The House of Seven Gables,' The Blithedale Romance," The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls," "The Tanglewood Tales," and a short life of Franklin Pierce, candidate for president. In the meantime, 1852, Hawthorne had returned to Concord, where he bought a small house and established his permanent home there. He called the place "The Wayside." Here he lived that part of the rest of his days that he spent in his own country. 1853, Hawthorne, with his family, went to England, having been appointed United States Consul to Liverpool. He remained in this position four years. He then traveled for nearly three years in France and Italy. During these seven years he kept copious note-books, which were published in two volumes a few years after his death, one entitled "English Note-Books," and another "French and Italian Note-Books." While abroad he also wrote "The Marble Faun," a romance, the scene of which is laid in Italy. It was published on Hawthorne's return to America, in 1860, and it is considered one of his best books. On his return to America Hawthorne retired to "The Wayside" home at Concord. Here he wrote Our Old Home," which was published in 1862. He began another story called "The Dolliver Romance," but it was

1