a revolving head-piece from which depend half a dozen ropes, each terminating in a ring. Grasping these rings and running swiftly, the children are lifted from their feet by centrifugal force and swung wildly around in a great circle-greatly to the improvement of legs, arms and chests.

Our whole equipment has cost some fifty dollars, paid for partly by the efforts of the children themselves, but principally by the Trustees,-who--may their tribe increase !-have never yet refused us sympathy and encouragement in our plans. Our physical drill cost us only ten minutes per day of school time. Much more is done by turning the children's natural energies in the right direction during their play times: our bars are never idle children get there at 7 o'clock in the morning to play on the rings: at 5 o'clock in the evening we sometimes have to scatter them to their homes: during the four years they have stood I do not remember having seen them unused five consecutive minutes during recesses or noon times. The school yard during an intermission presents a scene of life, variety and motion that I have never seen equalled. The shady side of the house is occupied by a hundred children, the younger ones, turning and twisting on the bars, climbing like monkeys the perpendiculars, walking and jumping from the parallels, swinging like mad in the rings, hanging by the legs from the swaying trapeze, doing the giant light off, the camel swing, the knee-circle, the bull-frog race, the grass-hopper and a dozen more feats, the names of which I have not breath to repeat. They never stop, they never tire-while one is doing a trick half a dozen are anxiously waiting for him to let go in order to spring into his place.

On the opposite side of the building can be seen a smooth, hard piece of ground occupied by forty girls, the older ones, enthusiastically drilling to the music of the piano, with wands or dumb-bells; or perhaps executing their beautiful marchings in time to the "Red, White and Blue," in which every one joins. They are in the open air, the sun shines, the wind fans their hair and rustles their ribbons, their voices ring out clear and sweet, their movements are lithe and free, their cheeks are red, their eyes are dancing and bright.

Marching around in various places can be seen the older boys, who have organized themselves into a Company for military drill, an orderly, disciplined, little troop. They are uniformed, they have their own commanders selected by ballot, and they are greatly improving in carriage and bearing. Their rifles shine in the sun, their bayonets flash as they spring through the vigorous and athletic exercise of the

soldier. Who shall say that their patriotism, their usefulness, are not made greater by this self-imposed labor?

Altogether the grounds present a bewildering picture of life, vivacity and color; hardly a day passes without carriages and spectators; the townspeople call it better than the circus.

To our discouragements and blue Mondays I need not refer : teachers will know without telling that any undertaking of this or any other kind implies a deal of worry and work, much patience and submission, some ignorant opposition, many rebuffs and seeming failures: what we have learned by hard knocks and cautious experiment may save some one else trouble: if we can assist any one by giving plans, dimensions, estimates, uses of apparatus, ways and means of construction, cost, materials, music, text-books, details or any of the other appurtenances thereunto belonging, it will be a real pleasure to do so, either by letter or in person.

May, 1890.

EDWARD HYATT,

San Jacinto, San Diego Co.,

STANISLAUS COUNTY.

HOISTING THE FLAG.

Fellow-citizens and children of Oakdale: This ceremony, which has brought the citizens and the school children of Oakdale and vicinity together at our school house and on these grounds dedicated to education, is to more impressively and more fully consecrate our school house to the principles and to the flag of our country. It is a patriotic act, to more thoroughly educate our children in their love of country, and that they may more definitely understand the meaning of our national flag, its history and what it represents, while being educated under its protecting folds. And in placing the stars and stripes on the domes of our school houses throughout our land we are placing them there that our children on every school day may see that flag waving its glorious and protecting folds over them and know that it is by that flag and those who have carried it to victory on many a bloody battle field that they are now enjoying the privileges of education and liberty.

History tells us that it has been the custom of all nations to have a flag which represents that nation at home, abroad, on land and on the ocean, carried by their soldiers on the battle field and by their navies on the sea. A nation without a flag would be a nation without

a history. And a nation without love and devotion for its flag, however tyrannical and oppressive that government may be, is something that does not exist. Wherever a man may be born, and under whatever flag his boyhood days may be passed, the associations and remembrances of those days and the flag of that country will remain dear to his memory through life.

"Breathes there a man with soul so dead,

That never to himself hath said,
This is my own my native land?
If such there be, go mark him well.
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
And doubly dying shall go down

To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored and unsung."

I'll say to you, children who are educated under the protecting folds of the American flag, learn to love that flag in your youth and swear to protect it in your manhood-love it for what it has done for you and for humanity. In a few years we will have passed away, and you, the boys and girls of to-day, will have taken our places. And you will take control of this government and this flag with all its history, with all its stars, with all its glory. Pledge yourselves that not a star shall be effaced, and that it shall remain untarnished forIf there be a nation, if there be a people above all other nations who should love, honor and respect its flag, it is the American people. On July 2, 1776, 114 years ago, Congress adopted this resolution: "That the United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States. And they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and all political connections between them and Great Britain is and ought to be dissolved."

ever.

And on the 4th of July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was formally adopted. It was not until June, 1777, that the flag of thirteen stars on a blue ground, representing the thirteen States, and thirteen stripes, red, white and blue, was formally adopted by Congress as the American flag.

"When freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,

She tore the azure robe of night,

And placed the stars of empire there."

One hundred and thirteen years have passed, and the stars now number forty-two. Twenty-nine States have been added, and over sixty millions of freemen render homage to that flag. Children of America, those patriots who gave forth to the world that Declaration

of Independence, and gave you that flag, represented less than three million people, inhabiting mainly the Atlantic seaboard of our continent. To-day from the enchantment of this vast and beautiful valley, lying between the Sierras and the Pacific sea, we reach our “iron arms" 3,000 miles to the eastern ocean. Northward, the gleaming train of the aurora borealis lights our icy confines. Southward, the breath of the tropics is swept up from our southern boundaries. Westward-ah! we are the west. And that is our banner.

By those brave spirits that rose to heaven from Bunker Hill; by Marion's men who carried that banner through the pine woods of the Carolinas; by the heaven-blessed form of Washington, nerving his men to stem the icy current of the Delaware; by the phalanxed host of Valley Forge; by the glory obtained for our armies and our flag on the battle fields of Buena Vista, Cerro Gordo, Molena del Rey, Resaca de la Palma, and at last floating over the proud capital of Mexico, conquering a lasting peace; by the crimson current of Chickamauga; by those who struggled for liberty's cause amongst the clouds of Lookout Mountain; by those who sang the chorus of freedom as they marched through Georgia to the sea; by the thunder of Sheridan's horsemen through the beautiful valley of the Shenandoah, snatching victory from defeat; by our sacred household altars and hearth-stones; and by the memory of those who have sacrificed their lives for their country-swear that this noble heritage they have left us, you, the children of America, will protect and defend, and that this flag, the banner of the free, as the harbinger of liberty, shall be a beacon light to the world.

"By angel's hands to valor given,

Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,
And all thy hues were born in heaven.
Forever float that standard sheet,

Where breathes the foe, but fell before us,
With freedom's soil beneath our feet,

And freedom's banner floating o'er us,
Flag of freedom's only hope."

A. S. EMERY,

Trustee of Oakdale School District,
STANISLAUS COUNTY.

MANNERS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

We are hearing a good deal just now of the need of other kinds of training than mere literary training in the schools. There is a loud demand not only for manual, but for moral and religious trainingsomething very hard to get in a satisfactory shape, because its efficiency must largely depend on the character of the teacher. But there is a branch of ethics which might be taught, and which ought to be taught

in every school, but is grossly neglected to the great national detriment - we mean what is called manners or "minor morals." In this field it is safe to say our common schools do nothing, or next to nothing, and there is none within their reach in which they might do so much. We are not now talking of the kind of demeanor in ordinary intercourse known as "politeness," though this is terribly deficient in nearly all our boys and girls. Little or nothing is done in the schools to combat the mischievous delusion that suavity of manner is a confession of social or other inferiority, and that in order to preserve his self-respect and maintain his republican equality, an American has to be surly or indifferent, after the manner of hotel clerks, expressmen, etc. The result is, that we have probably the worst mannered children in the civilized world. And the result of this neglect of the schools is to give a great many young people a dull, unready air-that is, they avoid quick responsiveness, lest it should seem like servile eagerness to please, and the habit of dilatory answering ends in giving an appearance of dulness and stupidity. One of the great uses of schools is to fortify the children of the State against whatever is evil and deteriorating in the political or economical condition of their lives. One of the great uses of the American schools should be to fortify American boys and girls against the bad influence, either on mind or manners, of the passion for equality pushed to extremes, and the still more corrupting passion for notoriety fostered by the newspapers. One of the defects in our civilization is the filthy and squalid condition of our streets and highways and the surroundings of our houses. It is not easy to teach neatness to grown men and women, but it is possible to infuse into children a horror of the anti-social practice of throwing down refuse of whatever nature-peanut shells, bits of paper, ends of cigarettes and cigars, old shoes, hats, ashes, etc., in places frequented by or seen by one's fellow citizens, such as streets, roads, lanes, sidewalks, etc. Our indifference to this practice, which appears to be the result of a long familiarity, is incomprehensible to foreigners. It disappeared from European countries completely fully one hundred years ago. It is now found nowhere in the Eastern hemisphere except in Turkish or other Mussulman towns and cities, and is looked upon as the sure sign of a low civilization. It is considered in every European city a grievous offence against a man's neighbors to make any public display of offal, or to sit down quietly in the presence of filth or rubbish of any description. A horror of it might be taught to every child in the public schools by an average teacher. To instil it should be one of a teacher's first duties, for it must be remembered that the chief observable superiority of the civilized man over the savage lies in the greater cleanliness of his person and dwelling.-Exchange.