or on long cards, for convenient reference. Where the list is not very long, the card catalogues are generally preferred. A third plan for a catalogue is that of card slips. A wooden box or drawer, without a cover, is filled with cards of the size of ordinary envelopes, which fit into it like envelopes in a box, except that the box or drawer is shallower, so that the cards can be easily taken up. Beginning with the first card, and proceeding in the regular alphabetical order of the authors' names, the titles of the books are written upon the several cards (one on each), together with any matter of special interest in reference to the book—its relation to any other works, the edition, etc.

In a card slip catalogue of this sort, various independent parts of a single volume are given upon separate cards. In the case of such a work as Seven American Classics, a part of the book containing selections from any one of the seven authors-Irving, Cooper, Bryant, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier, and Holmes-is catalogued separately. This is apt to make the card slip system rather cumbrous, but it proves, in the end, a great saving of time and trouble.

As the cards are frequently consulted, they will be occasionally replaced (even by careful persons) in a wrong order, unless this is prevented by some practical device to secure a return to their proper place in the case. A favorite plan is to have a slot cut in each card, so that the entire number can be strung upon wires or rods. The slot should be cut near to the bottom of the card, and should be long enough to permit the card to be raised for convenient reading, after the wire is strung through it and fastened upon the ends of the box or drawer. The cards should be very loosely strung, to leave room for the fingers to pass in picking them up.

In many details of its management, the teacher or superintendent in charge of a considerable school library will profit by a visit to some city library for the purpose of studying its workings.

A New Profession. The care of libraries is now recognized as a distinct profession. There are at the present time various excellent schools for the training of librarians. In these, every subject relating to the interests of the reading public is studied in detail. As a result, there is now a more general consensus of opinion than at any previous time in respect to the real character and value of the books in the market; also in respect to plans of library buildings, modes of classifying, preserving, and distributing books; and whatever else pertains to libraries and publications.

Ambitious girls are entering this profession in every State, for it offers an excellent field for woman's work. Boys, too, are looking with interest upon the rise of the new profession. The management of a modest school library will offer an excellent preparation for a library course.

In the selection of suitable books, the teacher will find the opinions of library experts very valuable, for there are few books in our language which have not been passed upon by competent library critics.

The reckless provision of books of questionable character for the use of children is disappearing under the higher criticism of library experts, and authors of juvenile books in the future will find themselves under restrictions unheard of hitherto. From being perhaps the most careless nation in the world in the matter of reading for the young, we may soon change to the most critical and careful. The books of the future which are professionally "approved" under the high standard of the later librarians must be of the best that can be written.

In the matter of a school library, the true modern teacher will make his influence felt. He will leave his impress upon the community by aiding to secure wholesome literature for the pupils, and by encouraging in them habits of systematic reading the reading which "maketh a full man." If the teacher fails to do this, he leaves unperformed one of the most important of his duties.

CHAPTER IX

SCHOOL MORALS

To what extent are morals taught in the public schools? How can the parent coöperate with the teacher in the moral training of the children? Should there be a definite effort to impart instruction in morals?

These are questions which
There are many persons

Moral Training in the Schools. will be discussed in this chapter. who will say that there should be no attempt to impart instruction in morals, since, as they aver, this is not the province of the school. They confound moral training with religious instruction, and fear that it means the inculcation of sectarian doctrines. These persons are not numerous. The idea that instruction in morals means the performance of a religious ceremony is dropping very rapidly out of sight.

The divorce between Church and State has been followed largely by the nonobservance of religious rites in secular employments. The great majority of the people recognize the fact that moral training can be inculcated without religious instruction, except that religion is understood to be the foundation of all sense of obligation; for we understand morality to be a sense of the obligation which one person owes to his fellow, to society, and to himself.

There is a large number of teachers who believe in what they call "moral training." It should occupy, they conceive, fifteen minutes of each school session, and the time on the programme assigned to "Opening Exercises " is de

voted to it daily, or perhaps several times every week. This "moral training" consists in the reading of a story to impress, perhaps, a lesson of kindness. Or it may be that patriotism, honesty, benevolence, or bravery is the theme. Then a song is sung - perhaps Kind Words Can Never Die. It may be that a chapter of the Bible is read, without comment, and a short prayer is offered. All this is beautiful, and, in the hands of the tactful teacher, may be made strikingly impressive, and may bear good fruit in better lives.

Other teachers there are, who do not give the subject any thought at all. They conceive their duty to be ended when they have duly carried out the set recitations of the programme, and have done all they can do to impart instruction in the branches they have engaged to teach.

We believe that both these classes lose sight of the deeper fact that, whether they will it or not, there is a training in morals going on all the time in their schoolrooms. It would be well, indeed, that they should realize the fact; for when once awakened to it, they can be conscious, instead of unconscious, factors in the development of a moral atmosphere which will have a lasting influence on the plastic souls of the children.

Let the teachers continue the beautiful stories, if they like. It is well that they do this. Any story that will strike a responsive thrill will give an impulse towards the ideal of the tale. Any charming narrative of kindness displayed toward the brute creation will have its softening influence on hard, cruel tendencies of young souls. Any description of scenes where nobility of character is displayed in showing reverence for gray hairs will awaken to thoughtfulness the indifferent carelessness which is the cause of young people's forgetting so often to do the little act of kind courtesy that would warm a mother's heart or bring to the eyes of the neglected and distressed stranger the tears of gratitude. These exercises may bear fruit in beautiful deeds that will make the world brighter.

But it should be remembered that the training of the morals is certain to go beyond the fifteen minutes of the opening exercises. The tender emotions awakened by the beautiful story and stirred by the sweet song will have no effect on character unless followed by some definite act of the will. Indeed, in some respects it is better not to have resolved at all than to have resolved and then made no effort to carry out the resolution. If the tale of kindness leads the child to abstain from cruelty, it has wrought a lasting good. If the story of patriotic fervor has awakened a thrill at the sight of the flag, it has not been wasted. It is insisted that morality is a training of the will and a formation of habits, rather than a knowledge of theoretical principles.

The Teacher's Responsibility. The school is one of the greatest forces that can be wielded in the moral training for citizenship. It stands next to, and in some points ahead of, the family. The teacher-every teacher- is, of course, aware of the fact that his own life and actions are having their effect on the destinies of his pupils. Every teacher is conscious of the fact that his tastes and modes of thought are molding theirs; so must his bearing and habits affect theirs.

The teacher feels this strongly at times, I think, and he must have a sense of it always. If he has flippant notions of life, if he regards it as a great jest, many a boy will come to look upon it in the same way. If his view is a morbid one, if he is a lugubrious pessimist, he will have no greater immediate effect, perhaps, on the sunny brightness of youth than a sudden shower on an April morning. The dire influence of his blighted life may make its appearance later.

The Discipline of the School. -But it is not only the teacher's personal influence that I wish to emphasize at this time; it is of the influence of the school as an institution that I would speak. The mechanical discipline of the school has a great weight in moral training. The teacher who is lax