Answered Rodney then: "I will ride with speed; When stands it?" "Tonight. Not a moment spare "Ho, saddle the black! I've but half a day, He is up; he is off! and the black horse flies It is two of the clock; and the fleet hoofs fling Four; and he spurs into Newcastle town. It is five; and the beams of the western sun Flies back in a cloud from his courser's feet. It is seven; the horse-boat, broad of beam, At the Schuykill ferry crawls over the stream The Congress is met; the debate's begun, Not a moment late! and that half-day's ride For the Act was passed, ere the midnight stroke O'er the Quaker City its echoes woke. At Tyranny's feet was the gauntlet flung; "We are free!" all the bells through the colonies rung. And the sons of the free may recall with pride. The day of Delegate Rodney's ride. St. Nicholas. O. T. R. C.- OUTLINE FOR OCTOBER. "LA SALLE AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT WEST." By Supt. J. P. Sharkey, Member of Board of Control, Van Wert, Ohio. Study Chapters IV and V and read related matter in Parkman's "Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV." BIBLIOGRAPHY. "American History and its Geographic Conditions," Chaps. II, XIII. Thwaites' "Down Historic Waterways." Justin Winsor, "The Mississippi Basin," and "The Westward Movement." Monette, "History of the Mississippi Valley." Roosevelt's "Winning of the West," Vol. I, pp. 160 to 180. Shaler's "Nature and Man in America." Mackenzie in the "Trail Maker" series. Study good map of Great Lakes portages and of Trans-Allegheny trails. Read estimates of character, aims, and influence of La Salle by four writers: Gravier, Parkman, Shea, Justin Winsor. QUESTIONS. Is it true that La Salle closes the "Heroic Period" of French and Spanish exploration? Describe the ceremony at Sault Ste. Marie upon the occasion of the formal declaration of possession by the French. Classify La Salle, Joliet, Frontenac, Talon, Hennepin, Saint-Lusson, Perrot as priests, fur-traders, adventurers, statesmen. Locate Kaskaskia, The Menomonee, Green Bay, the Ottawa R. portage, St. Ignace, Fox River. Locate ten portages between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi val ley. What were the objects of the great activity shown by the French along the Great Lakes? THE TEACHER AND THE VOICE. By Margaret Dennis Vail, Newark. Examinations of candidates for teachers' positions rarely take account of voice values, though the quality of the teacher's voice is so important that one might paraphrase Scripture and say that though he spoke with the tongues of men and of angels and voiced not his utterances in the tones, inflections and cadences calculated to make the right impressions on the spirit of the child it would profit him nothing. Some of the objectionable physical qualities of voice are hardness, thinness, nasality, shrillness, indistinctness. They can be much improved by training under teachers of voice culture, or if such a teacher is not accessible the person may himself eradicate the bad qualities and substitute good ones by persistent effort. But the physical defects are of only relative importance after all. The bad qualities of the spirit as shown in the voice are irritability, querulousness, egotism, contempt, a disposition to browbeat, to be overbearing, and a lack of faith in the good intentions and motives of the child: The last is perhaps the most important. The vocal inflections may say to the child "I trust you," or "I don't trust you" without taking into account the words used, and the influence of the teacher over children, her power to guide and direct their development may be in many instances correctly gauged by that simple test. A teacher may use entirely unobjectionable words, saying nothing. that if repeated verbatim would convict her of unkindness, and yet her spirit as made manifest through the tones used in speaking make wounds upon the soul of the child whose scars can never be eradicated. The How can these bad qualities of the spirit be changed to their good opposites? Perhaps as was said in the Scripture of a certain kind of devil, only by prayer and fasting. voice change must be preceded by a soul change. An artificial benevolence and kindness introduced into the voice for the purpose of producing certain effects is a ghastly, terrifying thing and always fails to accomplish the end sought. It is almost as bad as an artificial, set smile. "She kind of smiled all the time, but we could see she was mad clear through," was the graphically expressed tribute paid by a pupil to a teacher before whom she had been brought with others for discipline. There is no use in counterfeiting a benevolent, kindly attitude before pupils. The sham is detected at once by most of them. Unless the teacher can discipline her own soul into the possession of the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, she had better not try to create the impression that they are a part of her spiritual equipment. IN MEMORY OF THE CHARTER OAK. The Society of Colonial Wars of Connecticut lately unveiled a monument which marks the site of the famous Charter Oak. The monument is a thick column placed inside an iron fence that protects an angle of lawn between two roads Charter Oak Avenue and Charter Oak Place. A globe rests upon the backs of four dolphins. Beneath it is a bank of oak leaves encircling the granite monolith. The inscription reads: NEAR THIS SPOT STOOD THE CHARTER OAK MEMORABLE IN THE HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF CONNECTICUT AS THE HIDING PLACE OF THE CHARTER October 31, 1687. THE TREE FELL August 21, 1856. The original oak was seven feet in diameter, and it blew down in a storm. A considerable quantity of the timber is preserved. There are as many relics of the charter oak here and hereabouts as there are articles of furniture from the Mayflower at Plymouth and scattered among the descendants of the Pilgrims · School Journal. OCTOBER. October is the treasurer of the year, And all the months pay bounty to her store; The fields and orchards still their tribute bear, And fill her brimming coffers more and more. But she, with youthful lavishness, Spends all her wealth in gaudy dress, And decks herself in garments bold Of scarlet, purple, red, and gold. She heedeth not how swift the hours fly, But smiles and sings her happy life along; She only sees above a shining sky; She only hears the breezes' voice in song. SUBSCRIPTION RATES. Single subscriptions, cash, or subscriptions taken at the institutes, $1.00 each. Single subscriptions, time, $1.25. Subscriptions taken at the institutes and not paid before December 1, or within three months of date of institute, $1.25 each. Cash renewals $1.00. Time Renewals $1.25. Single number 10 cents. MONEY should be sent by express, draft, money order or registered letter. Make all remittances payable to O. T. CORSON. THE MONTHLY is mailed the first week of each month. Any subscriber failing to receive a copy by the fifteenth should give notice promptly, and another will be sent. Any person wishing his address changed should send notice not later than the twenty-fifth of the month, and must give both the old and the new address. NOTICE WILL BE GIVEN TO EACH SUBSCEIBER OF NO SUBCRIPTION WILL BE DISCONTINUHD American Education, Albany, N. Y. Ohio Educational Monthly, Columbus, Ohio. Pennsylvania School Journal, Lancaster, Pa. Rocky Mountain_Educator, Denver, Colo. School Science and Mathematics, Chicago, Ill THE teacher who is trying to show how much he knows shows that he knows too little. * * * THE teacher who talks down to the children really very often needs a step-ladder to get up to them. * * * WE might have one of our pupils count the words we use unnecessarily in one day. LET all the public school men who like to be called "Professor" stand while we take the names. * * * THE teacher who received thirty one-year certificates wept at her failure to get another one. * TEACHING School is rather more than moving the disks about on a mental checker-board. * * * To become all wrought up over school work is bad for the digestion and also spoils the complexion. * HERE'S a good creed: "To live and work and get as much fun as possible out of both." That will keep people sweet. * * * THESE children are just about all right if only we come up to them on the right side and don't patronize. |