more than five in 100 are capable of ex- can perform vastly more and superior plaining what they do know. Out of work, he knows that this capability is every 100, there may be also five who not due to either advantages of brute have a knowledge of mathematics suffi- or school education, but to some indecient to make the calculations absolute- finable qualification known as skill. ly necessary to their work, if required This seems to him to set education, perto do so; then, perhaps, five per cent. severence and strength at defiance; of workmen can make a decent me- then respect creeps in, and the skill bechanical drawing. But, on the other comes a shrine and its possessor an idol. hand, five per cent. are unsteady, five An example of this kind occurs to our per cent. are comparatively untutored, mind. A tall, strong man, with brawand so on; so that the chance of finding ny arms and with muscles hard and the above mentioned combination in well developed, was engaged in filing one man is somewhat small. It be- up some parallel bars; he had the work comes apparent, then, that as a rule it by contract, and had filed up scores of is not the most useful workmen who them. He was an experienced meare promoted into better positions, for chanic, and had gotten himself into the reason that the requisites to fill trouble for working so quickly as to get those include requirements other than those men who chanced to have the manipulative skill; which requirements same work to do by day's work into in the aggregate give practical expert- disrepute, because of their inability to ness a comparatively small place in the compete with him, even in cost, let general qualification of the foreman. alone in time. On one occasion, howThus it happens that we may find a ever, a somewhat delicate-looking hundred cases wherein the workmen of workman, who worked near, challenged a shop have a profound respect for him to file up a bar in competition some particular expert workman, while with himself (the challenger.) The only one case in which such respect is gauntlet thus thrown down was acceptentertained by the workmen for the ed, and for three hours the contest foreman of a shop; and it generally raged. Each was allowed new, rough, happens that where such respect does second cut and smooth files; and the exist, it is a bar to the advancement of excitement among the other workmen, the expert for the reason of the impossi- of whom there were eight, ranged along bility of his assuming control over men the sides of the same bench, was at a with whom his relations have been so high pitch. The challenger finished intimate. That this should be so is not his work first, and it was examined by at all unreasonable, because his superi- his opponent and pronounced well exeority is brought before them almost cuted; but a repetition of the trial of every day of their lives. He is to them, skill was requested, and made with the to a certain extent, a mystery in and same result. It was in winter; the upon a matter in which they them- workshop had no heating apparatus of selves are to themselves master; for of any kind, and, though it was freezing, what does the ordinary mechanic as- the contestants were in their shirtsume to know more than of the trade sleeves, and yet were perspiring. Then at which he spends his days from the challenger was thus addressed by morning till night, year in and year his opponent, who had ceased working out? When a mechanic exerts him- and had been engaged a few moments self to his utmost, when he puts forth the whole strength of his muscles as well as his mind, when he calls to aid all his knowledge, experience, determination, and all his strength, and then fails, and meets another who, with the same tools under the same conditions, in apparent deep thought: "I cannot understand it; I can only accept and respect it. I have nearly twice your strength, and have had ten years more experience. I can look clear over your head, and can hold you with one hand ; and yet I am beaten, beaten at my own "The Poor Ye Have Always." job, too; and, worse than all, I cannot lence words they never hear-gossip for the life of me tell how it was done." and slander are the deadliest and cruelHe surveyed himself, held out his est weapons man has ever forged for strong arms and went on with his work. his brother's heart. He might look within himself, and find, so far as his understanding was capable of judging, every element of superiority, except in that mysterious, intangible, indescribable qualification known to him under the cognomen of skill, which the closest scrutiny of the most experienced eye cannot detect save in its results.-Scientific American. Evils of Gossip. The pitiful story of the woman who gathered her little ones together and went to Greenwood cemetery, to lie down beside her father's grave to die, because they were starving in the great city and knew not where to ask for assistance, is one of the most touching sermons of the day. For two days they had waited by the grave, longing for death to bring relief from their sorrows. All around them were rare and costly marbles piercing the sky, wonderful mausoleums which represented countless wealth, names of the great and good whose works do follow them. Pomps and vanities of life carried even into the place of the dead. And yet in the city where thousands of palaces are filled with every luxury that heart could crave, there are countless numbers of wretchedly poor people crowded together in miserable tenements and cellars, poor and friendless, without work, and without hope. There are lofty churches at every turn, where well fed ministers assure the elegantly attired congregations that "The poor they have always with them." The model man of God feels, no doubt, that he has done his duty when he has lifted his white hands in benediction over the sleepy audience. Such dispair as that which filled the heart of the poor woman in Greenwood is fearful to contemplate, when we hear I have known a country society which withered away all to nothing under the dry root of gossip. Friendships once as firm as granite dissolved to jelly, and then ran away to water, only because of this; love, that promised a future as enduring as heaven and as stable as truth, evaporated into a morning mist that turned to a day's long tears, only because of this; a father and son were set foot to foot with the fiery breath of an anger that would never cool again between them; and a husband and his young wife, each straining at the heated leash which, in the beginning, had been the golden bandage of a Godblessed love,sat mournfully by the grave where all their love and all their joy lay buried, and all because of this. I have seen faith transformed to mean doubt, joy give place to grim despair, and charity take on itself the features of black malevolence, all because of the small words of scandal, and the magic mutterings of gossip. Great crimes work great wrongs, and deeper trage- of so many charitable institutions in the dies of human life spring from the larger passions; but woful and most mournful are the uncatalogued tragedies that issue from gossip and detraction; most mournful the shipwreck often made of noble natures and lovely lives by the bitter winds and dead salt waters of slander. So easy to say, yet so hard Nothing is more 'strange than the reto disprove-throwing on the innocent production of old thoughts under the all the burden and the strain of demon- guise of new and advanced opinions. strating their innocence, and punishing It would seem as if the human mind, them as guilty if unable to pluck out with all its restless activity, was destinthe stings they cannot see, and to si-ed to revolve in an, endless circle. Its city. Where is the active Christianity which is not content with empty words? These are not times to thrust tracts into the trembling hands of the starving poor. Re-production of Old Thoughts. progress is marked by many changes What a strange disposition is that and discoveries; it sees and understands which leads people to say "hateful" far more clearly what lies along the things for the mere pleasure of saying line of its route, and the modes or law them! You are never safe with such a under which these facts occur; but this person. route in its higher levels always returns upon itself. Nature and all its secrets become better known, and the powers of nature are brought more under human control; but the sources of nature and life and thought-all the ultimate problems of being-never become more clearly intelligible. Not only so, but the last efforts of human reasoning on these subjects are even as the first. Differing in form, and even sometimes not greatly in form, they are in substance the same. Bold as the course of scientific adventure has seemed for a time, it ends very much as it began; and men of the nineteenth century look over the same abysses of speculation as did their fore-fathers thousands of years before. No philosophy of theism can be said to have advanced beyond the book of Job; and Prof. Tyndall, addressing the world from the throne of modern science-which the chair of the British Association ought to be-repeats the thoughts of Democritus and Epicurus, as the best guesses of the modern scientific mind. When you have done your best to please, and are feeling very kindly and pleasantly, out will come some underhand stab which you alone can comprehend, a sneer which is masked, but which is too well aimed to be misunderstood. It may be at your person, your mental feelings and foolish habits of thought, or some little secret opinions confessed in a moment of genuine confidence. It matters not how sacred it may be to you, he will have his fling at it; and, since the wish is to make you suffer, he is all the happier the nearer he touches your heart. Just half a dozen words, only for the pleasure of seeing a cheek flush and an eye lose its brightness; only spoken because he is afraid you are too happy or too conceited. Yet they are worse than so many blows. How many sleepless nights have such mean attacks caused tender-hearted mortals! How, after them, one awakes with aching eyes and head, to remember that speech before everything that bright, sharp, well aimed needle of a speech, that probed the very center of your soul. National Series School Books, A. S. BARNES & CO., Publishers, New York and Chicago. Teachers everywhere, we want you to become acquainted with this POPULAR Series of School Books. Independent Readers, Independent Spellers, Monteith's Geographies, Barnes' U, S. History, They are the Best Common School Books Published, and are used in every part of the United States and Territories. The NATIONAL SERIES comprises more than three hundred publications, presenting text-books adapted to every grade of common school and college classes, all of which will be found fully described in our new descriptive catalogue, mailed free on application. Sample copies when desired for examination with view to introduction, will be forwarded on receipt of half the retail price. Special prices given for first supplies for introduction. Correspondence solicited, and promptly attended to. Address A..S. BARNES & Co., 113 and 115 State St., Chicago, Ill. ECLECTIC EDUCATIONAL SERIES, Embodying the most approved methods of instruction; indorsed by the leading educators; used in the best schools; the best books at the lowest prices. The following prices are, first, regular retail price; second, introduction price, for first introduction into schools where not already in use, and for single specimen copies to teachers or school officers for examination with a view to first introduction; third, exchange price, (one-half retail) for first introduction into schools in exchange for the corresponding old books of other series in use in the schools. MCGUFFEY'S READERS AND SPELLER-Indorsed by more leading teachers and now in use in more schools than any other series: McGuffey's New First Eclectic Reader....... Second Eclectic Reader..... $0.18 $0.14 $0.09 .35 .27 .18 HARVEY'S READERS AND SPELLER-Harvey's Graded-school Readers and Primary Speller, (by Thomas W. Harvey, A. M., author of Harvey's Language Course), are just published. A new fresh series, adapted to either of the best methods of teaching and reading; admirably graded; superbly illustrated; handsomely and substantially bound, and cheap in point of cost: Harvey's Graded-school First Reader.... .20 .15 .10 Second Reader... ECLECTIC GEOGRAPHIES—The general plan of these books, the maps, system of map drawing, illustrations and typography are superior to those of any other similar American text-book: Eclectic Primary Geography, No. 1..... Eclectic Intermediate Geography, No. 2 Eclectic School Geography, No. 3..... Eclectic Educational Series. ECLECTIC SYSTEM OF PENMANSHIP-The simplest and most business-like and practical system published: Eclectic Elementary Course, Nos. 1, 2, 3, per copy..... $0.10 $0.08 Eclectic Copy-books, 9 numbers. .15 .10 Eclectic Primary Copy-book........... Eclectic Exercise-book... Eclectic Copy-book Covers, with blotters, per dozen... 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A Popular Series.-It is more widely recommended by prominent educators, and more extensively introduced and used than any other in America. 5. An Artistic and Durable Series.-In the manufacture of these books the best material and the most skilled artists in the various departments of the work are employed, insuring thorough excellence in all mechanical features. 6. A Cheap Series.-The long experience of the publishers in the manufacture and publication of school text-books exclusively, and the wide introduction and use of the Eclectic Series enable them to offer their list at the lowest prices. Teachers and school officers are invited to correspond with the publishers for further information as to terms of introduction, etc. State what books are now in use, and give in full your name, postoffice address, county and State. Descriptive circulars on application. WILSON, HINKLE & CO., PUBLISHERS, CINCINNATI, O., AND NEW YORK, N. Y. |