THE older we get, the more we realize this fact, and he who says he does not, be he young or old, humble or mighty, has either a colossal conceit or an elastic conscience, and one is as bad as the other: Deliver us from the man who is always in the right and never in the wrong. If there is an everlasting nuisance in the world, it is he. The reflection in the glass shows him the one whose judgment is infallible, and in sorrow his eyes gaze upon the multitude in the wrong because they do not agree with him. The boy who starts out realizing that he must make errors, but with the determination to profit by them and not repeat them, has learned one of the world's great lessons. Our youth should be trained not to be over cautious through fear of making mistakes, not to be over proud and ashamed to acknowledge mistakes, but frankly confessing when he finds himself in the wrong, undismayed, through perseverance to succeed in spite of mistakes.-Midland Schools.

THE kindergartners say it is a growing opinion that it is near the age of eight that the child begins to see the end to be gained in contradistinction to something to be done, says James Champlin Fernald in the Atlantic. * * *The assumption is not true of real children. The present writer knew, for instance, a little cherub of two years' terrestrial experience, who found the cat in his high chair after he had left it, and went to eject her. The cat objected and scratched his hand, whereupon he withdrew to think it over. That high chair was of the dislocating kind that can become a low easy chair by pulling a handle. The two-year-old walked round the table, came up behind Pussy's strategic position, pulled that handle, and brought the whole fortification down like thunder. That cat made a leap such as could only have been inspired by a conviction of the approaching end of all things; and young humanity had established forever the "dominion" given him in Genesis over the "beast of the field."

STATE SUPERINTENDENT HAMMOND has issued a statement in regard to the rural schools of Michigan in which he traces a number of the sources of waste of the public moneys. He says:

1. Money paid to young and immature teachers is, in a large degree, wasted.

2. Money paid to strangers for highpriced apparatus is more than half wasted.

3. Much of the money spent for fuel in trying to heat old and poorly inclosed schoolrooms is wasted.

4. Frequent changes of teachers and the confusion resulting therefrom wastes both time and money.

5. Frequent changes of text-books without the advice of the county school commissioner cause considerable unnecessary expense.

Superintendent Hammond believes that money could be saved in these directions and applied to increases of salary for teachers. The result would be that a superior class of teachers would at once be available for the rural schools.-The School Journal.

THE teachers of New York City have urged from time to time that their salaries ought to be increased and that in many instances the janitor of a public school received a larger salary than the principal. This assertion has been unexpectedly proved in the City Record just issued by the municipal authorities:

E. H. Terwilliger, janitor of School No. I, draws $3,887 annually and William H. Ettinger, principal of the same school, $3,250. Henry Cassidy, principal of School No. 5, is paid at the rate of $3,250 a year and C. K. Birdsall, who sees that the same building is swept out and that the fires are kept burning, gets $4,420. Of the 180 janitors of public schools in New York City, 26 draw salaries of $3,500 a year or more.

Quite a number are paid more than $4,000 each, while hundreds of teachers are on the rolls at $600 a year. Even some of the professors and practically all of the assistant professors and instructors in the College of the City of New York are paid less than the leaders among the head janitors of the public schools.

We all have troubles-things in our daily personal life that are vexing and annoying, sometimes things that are painful and burdensome. But we should not talk about them. We have no right to scatter our briers and thorns about us so that others' feet may be torn by them.

Silence about ourselves should be a rule almost without exception. Especially

should the rule never to complain be an absolute one. No matter how poorly we have rested through the night, we need not tell the whole family about it at breakfast. Patient bearing of the portion of life's ills that come to us is the characteristic of ideal Christian faith.-Forward.

IN speaking of agricultural education for the farmer, L. F. Weekley, a young farmer of Cooper county, Missouri, remarks: "The back-number farmer will never realize the truth of the statement that he needs agricultural education, for he is set in his ways, not subject to change. Education is for the young only, yet it is said that a man never gets too old to learn; but the greater number of people I know are both too old and too wise to learn, and not many of them know anything about farming as a science." -Farmers' Voice.

THE WANDERER

Upon a mountain height, far from the sea, I found a shell,

And to my listening ear the lonely thing Ever a song of ocean seemed to sing, Ever a tale of ocean seemed to tell.

How came that shell upon the mountain height? Ah, who can say

Whether there dropped by some too careless hand,

Or whether there cast when Ocean swept the Land,

Ere the Eternal had ordained the Day. Strange was it not? Far from its native deep, One song it sang,

Sang of the awful mysteries of the tide,
Sang of the misty sea, profound and wide,

Ever with echoes of the ocean rang.

And the shell upon the mountain height
Sings of the sea,

So do I ever, leagues and leagues away,-
So do I ever, wandering where I may,-

Sing, O my home! sing, O my home! of thee.
-Eugene Field.

DEFECTS IN ENGLISH

PRINCIPAL SCUDDER, of the New Paltz, N. Y. Normal School, has sent out the following circular letter:

The State Normal School at New Paltz begs to bring to the attention of the principals and teachers of neighboring schools the embarrassment under which the faculty labors with respect to the bad spelling, crude English and lack of power to apply the technical rules of English grammar that is shown by so many students who come to us, including even those who enter on regents' credentials. Over and over again students are obliged to extend their course, perhaps give up altogether, because of their inability to use their mother tongue with correctness and facility. If students cannot express their thought clearly, if they are unable to present creditable written exercises, if their written and oral work is marred by uncouth expressions, grammatical errors and mis-spelled words, surely the normal school has no right to send them out into the world with a life license to teach, whatever their attainments may be in other subjects.

To be sure the normal schools require of those in the high school graduates' course 20 weeks in rhetoric, 20 weeks in English literature and 30 weeks of methods in grammar and language, but even with the most careful attention to details and the most arduous efforts on the part of the teachers the previous deficiencies in English are often such that the students cannot make such progress as would entitle them to graduation.

In reply to a request to indicate principal defects, details of some of the more glaring faults are given by several members of the faculty as follows:

"A great many of the students are poor spellers.

Verbs do not agree with their subjects. Pronouns do not agree with their antecedents.

Sentences lack clearness.

Many students have so limited a vocabulary that they cannot express their thoughts. well."

"Feebleness and meagreness of expres

sion.

Inaccurate use of words.

Loose construction.

Carelessness in spelling and punctuation. The use of 'some' as an adverb, particularly in the expression 'quite some.'

The use with a dative, of a preposition that should govern only the accusative, e. g. 'I can't see any sense into it.' 'There is no x into the equation.'

999

"I find many of our students deficient in their ability to speak correctly. They show lack of training and of sharp criticism in the ordinary use of language.

The defects are about equally distributed between poor enunciation, incorrect pronunciation and awkward construction. Their spelling also, I think, might be improved.'

"In general, the students have ability to use good English, but they are extremely careless and fail to realize its importance. In some cases, the lack of ability is appalling.

Principal defects: Slovenly use of 'shall and will;' use of 'to' for 'at,' 'like' for 'as,' 'can' for 'may,' 'good' for 'well,' 'who' for 'whom,' 'into' for 'in,' 'in' for 'into,' present tense for past, 'we was,' 'he don't,' double negatives, indefinite use of pronouns."

"In general, I might say, the crudities of expression and the incorrect use of English heard from teachers in our training school would not be tolerated in teachers in good public schools."

"In an average class of 90 members 45 per cent. are seriously handicapped by their ignorance of the underlying principles of correct diction and sentence structure, or by their inability to apply such principles, or by both. They are conscious of the fact that they cannot express themselves with clearness, and therefore sometimes even refuse to attempt to recite when called on.

Comparatively few grammatical errors are made in written work beyond those common to students of secondary schools; 'will' for 'shall,' 'would' for 'should,' adjectives for adverbs, etc. The serious defects lie in