streets about, and here Mr. Gardiner told us something of the practical work of the colony and its difficulties.

Four evenings of the week are devoted, in the lectureroom opposite, to courses of lectures respectively on history, physiology, astronomy, and English Literature, the fee being one shilling for each complete course. Another evening there is a concert, and always on Saturday evening a "popular" lecture. The sixth evening of the week is given to a social reception in the drawing-room of the club-house, where the men of Toynbee Hall are assisted by friends from the West End in receiving and entertaining the poor people of the neighborhood. The difficulties of mingling classes are, after all, much the same in England as at home. There is a good deal of human nature everywhere. I asked Mr. Gardiner what kind of people proved the best entertainers. He replied that those who were popular at the West End were popular at the East, and there was, indeed, great difficulty in getting the right sort of people, because they were so much in demand in their own class of "society." Some practiced "entertainers," as they call them, could interest easily eight or ten of the poorer people, whereas others could take care of only one or two. The chief difficulty to

poorer

overcome was the narrow sphere in which the people did their thinking and their talking, and the whole purpose of these receptions, and of much of the other work, was to broaden the mental horizon of these people, and give them more and pleasanter things to think and talk about outside of the narrow circle of their tenement-house or neighborhood gossip. These men were hoping to accomplish much through the "national teachers,"-young men and women selected from the ranks of trades-people and the like, without much culture themselves, but who could be made the means of spreading the wider life among their pupils when they came to teach. To this end they organized reading-parties, as was the fashion at the universities, for those who showed special interest in the weekly

lectures, and one or two of their best outdoor men were charged with forming cricket and tennis clubs and other outdoor circles, to broaden the life of their protégés in those directions.

The classes and reading-parties are organized into groups, each under the management of an Honorary (unpaid) Secretary. One group comprises one class studying the Old Testament, another studying moral philosophy, a course of Sunday afternoon lectures on the Ethics of the Ancient and Modern World, three classes in Victorian literature (one entirely of women), one in English history, two in political economy. A second group includes reading-parties on Mazzini, Ruskin, and literature, to each of which admission is by election, and classes in French, German, and Latin. Another group covers the physical sciences and includes an ambulance class. A fourth comprises singing-classes, instruction and entertainment for deaf and dumb, drawing-classes, elementary evening classes for boys, lantern illustrations in geography for boys, musical drill for boys, and several classes in shorthand. A fifth provides instruction and practice in carpentering, in wood-carving and in modeling, both for boys and men.

The work of Toynbee Hall is in the right direction, and, moreover, it is justified not only by its results but

by the enjoyment which men have in the doing of it. "I could not give up this East End work," said one of them to me; "I could not live my life in content away from the people I have learned to know and love here." R. R. Bowker.

Notes.

LINCOLN AND EMERSON.

BEFORE our editorial in the April CENTURY on "Lincoln and Lowell" was published, Mr. Lowell had added another to his sayings concerning the martyr President, in his speech at Chicago on the evening of Washington's Birthday, in which he referred to Lincoln as, "on the whole, the most remarkable statesman of all times."

In this connection it should be noted that while Emerson did not write in verse of Lincoln, yet in prose he divides with Lowell the honor of early appreciation and fortunate characterization. In "Miscellanies" will be found an essay entitled "American Civilization," which, according to a note by Mr. Cabot, is “part of a lecture delivered at Washington, January 31st, 1862, it is said, in the presence of President Lincoln and some of his Cabinet, some months before the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation." Mr. Lincoln may have

been present, but his secretaries have no memorandum showing the fact, and the Washington papers of the next day throw no light on the subject: in fact, Mr. Emerson's son now believes that Lincoln was probably not present. The lecturer praised the "angelic virtue" of the Administration, but urged emancipation; and at the close of this essay, as printed, is a supplement commending the President for his proposal" to Congress that the Government shall coöperate with any State that shall enact a gradual abolishment of slavery." Next comes his address on the Emancipation Proclamation, in which the President is greatly praised for his moderation, fairness of mind, reticence, and firmness. "All these," Emerson says, "have bespoken such favor to the act, that, great as the popularity of the President has been, we are beginning to think that we have underestimated the capacity and virtue which the Divine Providence has made an instrument of benefit so vast. He has been permitted to do more for America than any other American man," etc. After this, in the same volume, comes Emerson's brief but memorable essay on the death of Lincoln, in which he says: "He is the true history of the American people in his time. Step by step he walked before them; slow with their slowness, quickening his march by theirs, the true representative of this continent; an entirely public man; father of his country, the pulse of twenty millions throbbing in his heart, the thought of their minds articulated by his tongue."

Again, in the essay on " Eloquence" ("Essays and Social Aims"), Emerson praises the Gettysburg speech, and in the essay on "Greatness" in the same volume he gives Lincoln as an example of the "great style of hero" who "draws equally all classes"; "His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong."

SINCE the publication of the reference to the death of Black Hawk given in the "Life of Lincoln," in the December CENTURY, the authors have learned that Black Hawk was not buried on the bank of the Mississippi, as certain authorities have stated, but on the Des Moines river, and without unusual honors.

An "apt alliteration" at the start;

Phrase fanciful, turned t'other-end-to with art; And then a rhyme makes 1st and 4th agree.

Ee words enough,-so this next quatrain we Will therefore rhyme to match. Here sometimes 66 heart"

Comes in, as "hot" or "throbbing," to impart
A tang of sentiment to our idee.

Then the sextette, wherein there strictly ought
To be a kind of winding up of things;
Only two rhymes (to have it nicely wrought),

On which it settles, lark-like, as it sings.
And so 'tis perfect, head and tail and wings.
"Lacks something?" Oh, as usual, but a thought.

Wait a Bit.

Anthony Morehead.

WHEN Johnny came a-courting,

I thought him overbold,

For I was but a young thing,

And he no' very old.

And though I liked him well enough,
I sent him on his way,
With, "Wait a bit, bide a bit,
Wait a week and a day!"

When Johnny passed me in the lane,
And pleaded for a kiss,

And vowed he'd love me evermore
For granting of the bliss;
Although I'd liked it ower well,
I ran from him away,

With, "Wait a bit, bide a bit,

Wait a week and a day!

When Johnny fell a-ranting, my wife?"

With, "Jenny, be

And vowed I never should regret,
However long my life;
Although I liked it best o' all,
I turned from him away,
With, "Wait a bit, bide a bit,
Wait a week and a day!

The April-Face; or, The Stub-tailed Mule.

(AN IDYL OF A RICHMOND STREET-CAR.) ALL up the street at a stately pace The maiden came with her April-face, And the roses I'd paid for,- upon her breast, Were white as the eggs in a partridge-nest, While behind her- the driver upon his stool. Tinkled the bell of the street-car mule.

"Going to walk up the street?" I said;
She graciously bowed her beautiful head.
"Then I'll walk too; 't's a lovely day".
Thus I opened the ball in my usual way.
"Do you see the car behind?" inquired
The April-face, "I'm a trifle tired."

I urged a walk; 'twas a useless suit!
She gently waved her parachute;
The stub-tailed mule stopped quick enow;
I handed her in with a stately bow.
And the bell rang out with a jangled quirk,
As the stub-tailed mule went off with a jerk.

Three men as she entered solemnly rose, And quietly trampled their neighbors' toes; A dudish masher left his place,

And edged near the girl with the April-face,
Who sat on the side you'd call "the lee "
(With the same sweet smile she'd sat on me).

The day was lovely; mild the air;
The sky like the maiden's face was fair;
The car was full, and a trifle stale
(Attached to the mule with the stubby tail);
Yet the maiden preferred the seat she hired
To the stroll with me; for I made her tired.

And now when the maiden walks the street
With another's flowers, and a smile so sweet,
I wave to the driver upon his stool,
And stop the stub-tailed street-car mule,
While I purchase a seat with half my pelf;
For it makes me a trifle tired myself.

Thomas Nelson Page.

Uncle Esek's Wisdom.

PROFUSENESS is not liberality, any more than niggardliness is economy.

THERE isn't enough bad luck in the world, all together, to ruin one real live man.

MAN is a two-legged animal, whose ruling passion is to dicker and to be an alderman.

NO MAN ever got rid of a lie by telling it; it is sure to come home, sooner or later, to hobnob with its author.

THE world owes the most of its civilization to the Bible, and the looking-glass.

HE who thinks he can't win is quite sure to be right about it, for he has already lost.

THE man who can do four things fairly well will find four men who can do each one of the four things better, and thus his occupation is gone.

Uncle Esek.