In oral as in written communication a certain

vital proportion must be maintained, quantitatively, between subject matter and treatment. Brilliant or effective writing, like brilliant or effective conversation, must say more than it tells.

The ability to say more than is told is not a hard accomplishment to achieve, for all normal children do that without being taught. Indeed, it takes a bright child some time to lose this ability by study in school English. It was that quality that made Mr. Smith's essay (p. 174, October NORTH WESTERN) seem so remarkable to his class. Compare with that the following on the same subject, "by a writer of note," which is considerably less than one-third of what Mr. Smith's teacher had read, and didn't like (bot. p. 173, ibid.).

"Hence it is that it is almost a definition of a gentle

man to say he is one who never inflicts pain. He is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles which

hinder the free and unembarrassed action of those

about him; and he concurs with their movements

rather than takes the initiative himself. His benefits may be considered as parallel to what are called comforts or conveniences in arrangements of a personal nature; like an easy chair or a good fire, which do their part in dispelling cold and fatigue, though nature provides both means of rest and animal heat without them. The true gentleman in like manner carefully avoids whatever may cause a jar or a jolt in the minds of those with whom he is cast;-all clashing of opinion, or collision of feeling, all restraint, or suspicion, or gloom, or resentment; his great concern being to make

every one at their ease and at home. He has his eyes on all the company; he is tender towards the bashful, gentle towards the distant, and merciful towards the absurd; he can recollect to whom he is speaking; he guards against unreasonable allusions, or topics which may irritate; he is seldom prominent in conversation, and never wearisome. L. A. SHERMAN, University of Nebraska.

"

Unused School Supplies Ta meeting of the County Teachers' Association in one of our counties recently, one of the questions discussed with great energy by the teachers was "School supplies; do you have any trouble to get them?" The discussion took a very wide range as the different teachers related their experience and told of the methods employed to obtain for their schools the supplies that they actually needed. The discussion developed another very important fact: that in many of our schools there are a large number of unused supplies in the form of charts and kindred material that never have been used, that never will be used, and for which a vast amount of money has been paid. It would astound the school directors and boards of education if they could see side by side the original manufacturers' cost of the supplies and the price the schools have paid for them; the difference between the two would be amazing. If we could only collate the amount of money that has been paid by the school districts for this class of unused school supplies it would be an enormous sum. It would help solve the vexing problem that confronts so many school districts, viz., "Where does the money go?" Are you a school director or a member of the board of education?

Look up the matter just once in your buildings. On a close inspection of your school buildings or store-rooms for supplies you will be astonished to find how much of this unused and useless material has been purchased. Then, if you will go back over the records and investigate the expense account and note what they cost the district, you will readily observe that that sum of money put in useless school supplies would have allowed you to have paid the teacher a better salary. This one question, the purchasing of school supplies that are unused, helps greatly in the solving of the problem of why teachers' wages had to be reduced. I visited recently the store-room of a board of education in one of our cities and saw piled on the floor and in the original packages six complete sets of a certain chart costing $35.00 each. Within ten days I visited that board of education in their regular session and heard the secretary read a proposition to sell the board seventy-five sets of the same chart at $25.00 each. The superintendent gave a very hearty endorsement of the chart and recommended the purchase of the seventy-five sets. The motion was made instructing the secretary to close the contract, when the president of the board called a halt and asked for one week for investigation; at the next meeting he reported that he had found in

the store-rooms of several of the buildings copies of this same chart among a lot of unused supplies. When the inventory was all completed they found that the board had paid over $1,000 for these charts and were about to put $1,800 more in the same kind of supplies. We dwell at length upon this one item because thousands of dollars that ought to go into useful school work is expended in these supplies that are of no use to the teacher or scholar, and still the work goes on because, as one has said, "the fools are not all dead yet, and the sharp agent knows where to find them when he turns his direct attention to the school directors of to-day."

The Importance of Being Posted HE members of the board of education of any city should be the best informed individuals on modern school methods in the city, for with them rests largely the formation of the character of the next generation. The kind of teachers, the methods employed, the books to be used, the health and comfort of the children of the growing generation is in the hands of the members of the board. They are the great power behind the throne. The time has gone by when members of the board can delegate all of these matters to others and they content themselves with the few business problems that are presented to them. It is money well expended by any board of education when they subscribe for live educational journals for their members. What would be thought of a merchant who just let his store run with a sort of "happen so" management? The wide awake merchant reads the trade journals, keeps himself fully abreast of the times with these trade reviews. The lawyer studies carefully the legal news as it is gathered and published from all parts of our land. The progressive physician keeps in close touch with the medical world through his splendid medical journals. The farmer keeps himself informed as to best methods or how others succeed by his agricultural papers. We might go through all the trades and occupations and we would find the same old story, except when you come to the very important department of the boards of education, and we find a most lamentable neg lect. If it is essential that others keep abreast of the times by reading and studying how similar work is done elsewhere, why is it not essential that members of the board of education

should be on the constant lookout for best methods, and where can they get them except in the best educational journals where educators speak to the world their plans and purposes.

Truant Schools

ONE of the annoying problems in connection with the administration of school affairs is, what shall we do with our truant boys and girls? In some form it meets the board at almost every meeting during the nine or ten months of the school year. Various methods have been employed, but still we have truancies coming up before the board. Truant officers, corporal punishment, co-operation of the parents and painstaking teachers have help.d solve the problem partially, but truancy still The outcome of the new truant school remains. in greater New York, at 215 East 21st street, will be watched by boards of education with great interest. The management of this school has been placed in the hands of experts along the line of truancy. Wm. W. Locke, the old supervisor of the department of truancy, has been placed in charge of the school, with Miss Julia Byrne as assistant. The discipline will be very rigid; the truant boys will be taken direct to the building, and if truancy has become chronic with them they will be detained constantly at the building. When they have attained a sufficient number of credits by good behavior, on Sunday they will be allowed to leave the building as a special favor or reward. It is heroic treatment of this question, but possibly it will be the solution of this vexing problem that absorbs so much energy and thought of the department of school administration.

School Ventilation

SCHOOL ventilation and school hygiene are

subjects very frequently neglected by the department of school administration. The superintendent or teachers will try to carry out some systematic plan, but will run against a snag in the peremptory orders from the board, who never stop to look into the merits of the case. In the old-fashioned schoolhouse, where there was one or two outside doors opening directly into the school room, with several poorly fitted windows, possibly the air was continually on the change, but in our better equipped buildings of to-day, where there is no outside door opening into the room and windows are well

fitted, more attention should be given to this subject. The old English law on school hygiene requires 150 cubic feet of air space and fifteen feet of floor space for each pupil in the school, and thn for healthy respiration the air should be changed every fifteen minutes by some forced process. Where we have only the natural means of changing the air the cubic feet should be increased to 300 or 350 for each pupil. Massa chusetts made a decided move in the right direction in the year 1888 by enacting a law governing the ventilation of school buildings. The events leading up to that act showed by careful investigation that practically no advance had been made in this direction of school ventilation for many years. The outcome of this law was watched with interest. It failed to accomplish the desired results because no one was entrusted with its enforcement, and in 1893 it was amended, requiring that plans for buildings show the method of ventilating and making it the duty of the inspecting department to see that the work was properly executed. As a result the boards of education of Massachusetts had to study the matter of school ventilation, and properly ventilated school buildings are found all over that state. It brought forward a new industry; companies were quickly formed, and several systems patented for improved ventilation, none of which were perfect. The state inspectors were able to take the best of several, and have greatly aided in this work. The good work is not yet completed and there is an abundant opportunity for improvement in this direction in all of the schools of this country.

Rural School Buildings

THE rural schools of the United States are educating one-half of all the school children. The school directors of these schools ought to study very carefully the suggested methods of reform in their schools. One of the most important is that of school buildings for the rural districts. No more important work comes before these school directors than that of their school buildings. How many of these directors give a thought to the healthful conditions of their schoolhouse? It is generally how little money can we expend to have the building passably comfortable, and perhaps leave it in such a condition that it will be a regular breeder of disease. The taxes may be kept

down, but what about the doctors' bills? Every year thousands of rural schoolhouses are built or completely overhauled, and yet as you pass through the country how many different styles of architecture do you find? Not many; you will find the same exterior appearance, and then when you go inside the building there is the everlasting sameness in lighting, heating, ventilating, seating, etc., that was in vogue thirty or forty years ago. It is rigid economy everywhere. We need not object to this, but the same money spent in building an up-to-date building would add infinitely to the comfort, health, and convenience of the teacher and scholars. Here, then, is field for school reformation. It is a simple problem, but one that needs constant agitation, that the eight and onefourth millions of country school boys and girls may have the same conveniences in school work that their more fortunate city cousins enjoy. Great advance has been made in the modern city school building, and equal advance can be made in the rural schools. Who will lead the way?

The Decorating of School Rooms

NE of the greatly neglected methods of teaching that our boards of education are overlooking is that of beautifying the school rooms. Improvement societies have left the impress of the worth on the external appearance of the school grounds and surroundings, but little attention has been paid to the decorating of the school rooms. This is a peculiar age in school teaching, a departure from many of the methods employed in the good old days. The teacher works not so much to pour into the child the knowledge as to arouse the thinking power and the imagination and observing power. Compare the four blank walls with four walls properly beautified. It is not the occasional look at the picture on the wall. The educational influence comes from the constant presence of that picture on the wall. The child nor teacher may not be able to tell how, but somehow the impress of that picture grows into the soul of the observer. More than that, it is refining and elevating in its influence. The silent influence of the work of art must awaken and deepen a feeling of refinement and a love for the beautiful. Boards of education do well, then, to encourage the teacher and school in the proper decoration of their school rooms.

by questions and suggestions to a connected picture of the whole. Use blackboard illustrations, pictures found in histories and magazines, and objects where obtainable, to make the study full of life and interest. Picture the curious ship sailing in mid-ocean. Tell about the people in it. Describe dress. Tell of the different characters, as Priscilla, Miles Standish, John Alden, Wm. Bradford, and the baby, Peregrine White.

From supposed conversation between the travelers we might find out where they come from, about their homes in England, why they have left, and where they are going. Describe the furniture, tools, and implements which we see in the ship.

Tell about the storms on the ocean, the bravery of the people, sight of land; the country which they have reached, landscape, season, no houses, no stores. What is the first thing the Pilgrims must do?

MAKING OF HOMES.-1. The kind of materials which are obtainable. 2. Tools used. 3. Compare the Pilgrim house with the wigwam, with our own homes. 4. Give the children correct ideas of the size of the real Pilgrim house, then construct to a definite scale a small log house. 5. The children should collect twigs, cut them the right size, and help nail them together, also make a plaster to fill the cracks.

Dolls might be dressed and made to act and tell the story to make the whole picture clearer and more dramatic. Small models of spinning wheels and crude reproductions of Pilgrim furniture may easily be made by the teacher and copied by the pupils.

Tell of the hardships, lack of food, cold, visit from Indians, the winter of sickness and death. Describe next year's plentiful harvest; the Thanksgiving feast; our way of celebrating Thanksgiving Day.

THANKSGIVING SONG.

Summer is gone, autumn is here,
This is the harvest for all the year,
Corn in the crib, oats in the bin,
Wheat is all threshed, barley drawn in.

Carrots in cellars, beets by their side, Full is the hayloft, what fun to ride! Apples are barreled, nuts laid to dry, Frost in the garden, winter is nigh.

Father in heaven, thank Thee for all,
Winter and springtime, summer and fall;
All Thine own gifts to Thee we bring,
Help us to praise Thee, our heavenly king.
-Music by Eleanor Smith.

ence.

THANKSGIVING DAY.

Over the river and through the wood,
To grandfather's house we go;
The horse knows the way

To carry the sleigh

Through the white and drifted snow.

Over the river and through the wood-
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes
And bites the nose,

As over the ground we go.

Over the river and through the wood
To have a first-rate play.

Hear the bells ring,
"Ting-a-ling-ding!"

Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!

Over the river and through the wood-
Trot fast, my dapple-gray!

Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting-hound!

For this is Thanksgiving Day.

Over the river and through the wood,
And straight through the barn-yard gate.
We seem to go
Extremely slow-

It is so hard to wait!

We begin school in September with a great abundance of material for study in natural sciIt is thrust upon us on all sides, animal and plant life, in so many and varied forms that we almost feel at a loss what to use and what to omit. And now the falling leaves remind us of the approach of winter. In a short time most of the birds will have left for milder

climes, the insects are disappearing, and plants finish their work for the season.

Now, perhaps, we might complain of a new But let seeming difficulty, the lack of material. us see. How different the landscape looks today from what it did a month ago. The trees were still in summer dress, the birds singing, flowers blooming, insects filling every nook and Corner. Now before us we have the beautiful red and yellows of autumn foliage, flowers gone, grass dried, birds flown, a grasshopper or two only seen on particularly bright days.

So quietly, steadily, day by day has the change been wrought, we cannot tell when it commenced or how it came about.

Can this change in life and landscapes be made a subject of educative thought to the chil dren? If we daily note the weather we shall