The Pasadena Star compiles the following glossary of common California names:

The proposition of Senator Vrooman to pension public school teachers after thirty years of faithful service is one of those indications, too few among our prominent politicians, of far-seeing statesmanship. He can hardly expect to see it enacted soon into a law; but, looking into the future, and realizing its importance, he has dared to introduce the measure for the consideration of thoughtful men, in order that it may bear fruit by and by. If it were but possible to carry it through the Legislature at an early day, it would very soon place California in the front rank in educational matters, and, at no distant day, in the van of intellectual as well as material progress-a step more honorable than all her brilliant achievements in agriculture, commerce, or the arts; for it would contribute to lay broad and deep the solid foundation of all prosperity.

The argument in favor of such legislation is short and decisive. You cannot have the highest prosperity without general enlightenment and integrity. You cannot have these without the efficient and thorough instruction of the young. Such instruction cannot be had outside the public schools; nor there, without skillful teachers. To secure such teachers, and to hold them to their work, three requisites are indispersable: fair compensation, reasonable security in the tenure of office, and the assurance of a comfortable subsistence in old age.

The compensation of the average teacher in the public schools of San Francisco at present is not sufficient to enable him to bring up creditably a family of children, and at the same time lay by an adequate provision for the helplessness that is sure to come at last. But a guarantee by the State that, after thirty years of successful

labor for the public good in this profession, such recognition should surely come, would tend powerfully to draw a fair proportion of the best intellects into the ranks of the teaching fraternity, and to hold them there. The great evil of the system at present is that few of the really gifted enter upon the business, or, having entered upon it, make it their life-work. However well fitted for it, and however attractive in its nature, it may be then they dare not remain in it. The liability to be ousted from it without fault of theirs, and the sure prospect of being dropped at last, like a broken-down horse turned loose to starve on the highway, stare them in the face; and common prudence, to say nothing of the aspirations of ambition, dictates the early abandonment of the business for more lucrative and stable employment.

Bnt why pension the teacher rather than the member of any other profession? The question is a fair one, and the answer is conclusive. It is not for the sake of the teacher, but for the sake of the community. It cannot be too deeply impressed upon all minds that it is the bounden duty and the highest interest of the State to train all its children, if possible, to be intelligent and skillful in public matters, and patriotic and high-minded in all things. The only sufficient instrumentality at the disposal of the State is the public school. Universities, colleges, seminaries, private schools, parochial schools, Sunday schools and home training may do something, but they cannot do enough. They leave the great mass of the children and youth uninstructed in citizenship. It is the public schools, and these only, that can do this work and do it well. That is their special object and proper function. In such training and instruction may be found the means of solution of every difficult political problem and the remedy for every political evil. A right public school system, generously maintained and wisely managed, is therefore the one thing most indispensable. We may be pardoned for reiterating that the public school is not only the most important of all agencies in the hands of the State for the production of good citizenship, but it is the only instrumentality in the hands of the State for the attainment and preservation of that most fundamental and vital of all public interests. For the accomplishment of this end the best instructors must be secured.

Something might here be said on the right of the children of California-the children of the common people-to the best training; their right to the most wholesome intellectual food while undergoing this training; but the safety of the State is the principal thing. It might be urged, too, that Senator Vrooman's proposition is a measure of economy. No parent who rightly values the education of his child would like to see the salaries of faithful instructors cut down. They are too low already. But this is certain, that the promise of a retiring pension, and of honorable recognition after long and successful service, would make the great majority willing to labor for less compensation than would otherwise be sufficient to retain them in their chosen field of labor. But

this, too, is a consideration of secondary importance. First, last, and always let us remember that good citizenship through good schools, and good schools through good teaching, are the allimportant end and means.

This is a matter that vitally concerns the whole physical, as well as mental and moral progress of California. Give the teachers this assurance of a sufficient support in old age, and you not only lift a load of anxiety from thousands, and inspire them to work for the young with more diligence, more cheerfulness and courage, but our sons and daughters are at once the gainers, and ere long the whole body politic will feel the thrill of new life and health. California is eager to draw to herself a desirable population, but the best will not come without a certainty of good schools.

Given this guarantee to teachers, and there would be need of but one other great measure of legislation, viz., free text-books for every child, to make the public schools of California in the near future the pride of America, and to insure for her a population whose intellectual advancement would be commensurate with her wonderful material prosperity. HOMER B. SPRAGUE.

San Francisco.

A CHAPTER FROM "THE STORY OP PATSY."

It had been a long, wearisome day at the charity Kindergarten, and the teacher was alone in the silent, deserted room. Gone were all the little heads, yellow and black, frizzled and smooth; the dancing, restless, curious eyes; the too mischievous, naughty, eager hands and noisy feet, that had made the great room human, but now left it quiet and empty. Eighty pairs of tiny boots had clattered down the stairs; eighty baby woes had been relieved; eighty torn coats pulled on with loving hands; eighty sloppy little kisses fondly pressed on a willing cheek, and another day was over.

I sank into my small rocking-chair, and, clasping my arms over my head, bent it upon the table, and closed my eyes. The sun shone gratefully in at the west windows (he was our most generous subscriber, and the children's warmest friend), touched the gold fish with rosy glory, and poured a flood of grateful heat over my shoulders.

The clatter of a tin pail outside the door, the uncertain turning of the knob by a hand too small to grasp it. "I forgitted my bucket. Good-bye, Miss Kate." (Another kiss.) "Good-bye, little man; run along." Silence again, this time continued and profound. Mrs. Jinkins was evidently not coming to-day to ask me if she should give blow for blow in her next connubial fracas. I was grateful to be spared until the morrow, when I should perhaps have greater strength to attack Mr. Jinkins, and help Mrs. Somers' dropsy, and find mourning for the Jones funeral, and clothes for the

Higgins twins. (Oh, Mrs. Higgins, would not one have sufficed you?)

The events of the day march through my tired brain; so tired! so tired and just a bit discouraged and sad too. Had I been patient enough with the children? Had I forgiven cheerfully enough the seventy times seven sins of omission and commission? Had I poured out the love-bountiful, disinterested, long-suffering -of which God shows us the measure and fullness? Had I But the sun sank lower and lower behind the dull brown hills, and sleep brought forgetfulness for a half hour, until I was awakened by a subdued and apologetic cough. Starting from my nap, I sat bolt upright in astonishment, for, quietly esconced in a small red chair by my table, and sitting as still as a mouse, was the weirdest apparition ever seen in human form. A boy, seeming-how many years old shall I say? for in some ways he might have been a century old when he was born-looking, in fact, as if he had never been young, and would never grow older. He had a shrunken, somewhat deformed body, a curious, melancholy face, with a hedge of eyebrow, and such a head of hair that he might have been shocked for a door-mat. The sole redeemers of the countenance were two big, pathetic, soft, dark eyes-so appealing that one could hardly meet their glance without feeling instinctively in one's pocket for a biscuit or a ten-cent piece. But such a face! He had apparently made an attempt at a toilet without the aid of a mirror, for there was a clean circle like a race-track round his nose, which member reared its crest, untouched and grimy, from the center like a sort of judge's-stand, while the dusky rim outside represented the space for audience seats.

I gazed at this astonishing diagram of a countenance for a minute spellbound, thinking it resembled nothing so much as a geological map, marked with coal deposits. And as for his clothes, his jacket was ragged and arbitrarily docked at the waist, while one of his trouser legs was slit up at the side, and flapped hither and thither like a lugsail in a calm.

"Well, sir," said I at length, waking up to my duties as hostess, "did you come to see me?"

"Yes, I did."

"Let me think; I don't seem to remember. Are you one of my little friends?"

"No, I hain't yit, but I'm goin' to be !"

"That's good, and we'll begin right now, shall we?"

"I know'd yer for Miss Kate the minute I seen yer.”

"How was that, eh?"

"The boys said as how you was a kind o' pretty lady, with towzly hair in front." (Shades of my cherished crimps!)

"I'm very much obliged to the boys!"

"Kin yer take me in?"

"What? Here! Into the Kindergarten?"

"Yis, I bin waitin' this yer long whiles fur to git in."