May-Day Welcome-The May Queen's Speech.

Friends, parents, and children-merry welcome to all!
My rule is supreme in this beautiful hall;
The happiest queen that reigns under the sun,
I command you to join in the frolic and fun!

Dear subjects, from lessons I set you all free,
Neither schoolma'm or master dare contradict me;
And puzzling committee-men, sober and glum,
Within my dominions will never dare come.

Brave boys! from the school-room I turn you all out
To grass, like young calves, to cut capers about ;

Sweet girls! you may romp till each sunburnt cheek glows
With a color that vies with the red of the rose.

My books are the fields and the beautiful flowers,

My play-grounds, the hillsides, my school-rooms, the bowers;
The birds, my musicians; my harps, the green trees;
My scholars may laugh and play, just as they please.

Ye mathematicians! no longer perplex

Your heads over uncertain values of X;

Leave your slates and your pencils, your blackboards and chalk,

And find out the worth of nonsensical talk.

Ye "old folks!" just think of your merry May-days,

When you, handsome boys, joined the girls in their plays,
When plump little maidens, with coquettish arts
And sweetest of glances, tormented your hearts!

Dear fathers and mothers! were not you once young?
The sweet songs of youth were they not by you sung?
Hearts still are the same as in good days of old,
And the same pleasant story forever is told!

The girls meet you here with sweetest of glances,
The toes of the boys ache to join in the dances.
And mothers! if you do not join with us too,
I'll tell the old tale of our fathers and you!

So, young folks and old folks, join all in the fun,
The dancers are waiting, the talking is done;
And if there's a single sour fault-finder here,
We'll send him home with a flea in his ear.

COMMON SCHOOL READINGS.

THE MOTHER'S INFLUENCE.-Children require affection. If they do not get it from their parents they will get it elsewhere. And would a parent trust a child's affection to strangers? Thus we see the importance of parental affection. Secure the love of your child, and you secure his attention; then you can mould him, but not other

wise. If the rude society of the street, of promiscuous children attract him-if here he finds his greatest pleasure, he will there find the means of his education; and this early education, the principles then implanted, will never be effaced. He will be good or bad, according to these early impressions; and he will be influenced by them; he must, from necessity; that inquisitive mind of his must gather, and grow on what it gathers. It is important, then, to see that he gathers from the right source. There is no source like that of the parental fount; no one will so take his interest to heart as the parent; and with this advantage the mother may mould her child as she wishes. There are exceptions, but the truth holds good in general.-Herald of Health

Home from School.

BY LUELLA CLARK.

Home from the school when the day is done,

Its trials ended, its triumphs won;

Home by the warning western light,

Where the hearts are warm and the hearth is bright.

Home, down the cozy street, crisp with snow,
What does it matter if the bleak winds blow?
What does it matter when love and cheer,
And warmth of summer are waiting so near?

What matters it now that lessons were long,
And puzzling problems come always wrong,
Since, at last, all are righted, all lessons said,
Though with weary eye and aching head?

Then home to the hearthstone shining bright,
Home to the rest of the kindly night;

Home to the love that, early and late,

To cheer and to strengthen you always doth wait.

So we workers all, down the pathway of life,
Turn home from the mist of the toiling and strife;
Home from our work and our wanderings turn,
When the love-lighted fires of our childhood burn.

So too, shall we all, when life is done,
All its strivings over, its triumphs won,

While the shadows fall thick on this earthly shore,
Go home through the twilight to wander no more.

OUR SCHOOL DAY VISITOR

Whipping in Schools.

(From an Ohio Exchange.)

The decision of Judge Warren of the Police Court, that Corporal punishment in Schools is contrary to the laws of Ohio, has provoked a number of communications upon the subject, which have appeared in the columns of our cotemporaries. We have also received several letters, a few of which we publish to-day. They go to show that the subject is widely agitated.

FROM A NUMEROUS MOTHER.

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EDITOR TIMES: They are raising a nice rumpus about spankin' the brats as goes to school. Now, I've got nine of 'em and they all need walloping every blessed day. If I tried to do justice by them, it would keep me busy doing that and nothing else. So I sends 'em to school where I know, if the teacher does what a teacher ought to do, they'll get their deserts. It takes a heap of trouble off my hands. You don't know what a relief to know that your children are havin' their jackets well tanned as they deserve, when you havent time to do it yourself. For instance my Sam, a spiteful little brat, smashes the water pail all over his brother Pete's head. I am busy doin' my washing, both hands in the suus, consequently can't give him what he deHow soothin' it is to feel that he is getting his reward of merit of the school teacher, at regular intervals during the day. And would you deprive us of that heavenly consolation.

serves.

If they are goin' to 'bolish lickin' younguns in school I'm just goin to take mine out, and that is all there is to that. I have read somewhere that the chief end of man was to be happy, but I think the chief end of a boy is to be spanked, and I am in favor of the teacher who spanks the most. Education is very well, but wallopin' is what a boy wants to develop his faculties and wake up his idees generally.

It don't do to let boys off without a whippin when they've been do ing wrong. It might answer in the case of George Washington, though I've always thought George's father set a bad example in not tannın' his skin when he tommyhawked that cherry tree; but all boys don't make General Washingtons; not General Washingtionally speakin'.

There is a good deal of feelin' on this subject in my neighborhood. Of course there is a diversity of opinion about it. Several old maids

are horrified about younguns bein' licked, but every mother of a large family of boys, who are continually entitlin' themselves to lickings, which a press of other duties obliges her to postpone, wants them licked as often as possible while pursoon' their daily studies. I can always tell wehen the teacher has failed to do his duty by my boys, when he has neglected, as it were, the welfare of their respective jackets. They complain of their vittels, sass their dad, swagger round the house with their hats on, holler "what" when I ask them a question, pinch the cat's tail, snicker when the blesin' is being asked, play ball in the parlor, and demand swoller-tailed coats; but when the teacher has walloped them according to their daily need, how different the pictur. They's as meek and humble as any other poor relashins you got on hand; they says "yes mom; they hangs up their hats on the proper pegs; they are respectful at the table, and they'll take a piece of bread and butter and go off to bed at once, without a murmur.

I tell you, our schools wouldn't be worth a postage stamp that had been used twice, without the wallopin' branch was kept up. I'm in favor of examinin' every teacher's muscle before hiring him—refuse all that are weak in the arms, and discharge them as don't use them vigorously.— In that way our schools will be worth something to us, and our children grow to be a blessin' and comfort.

A NUMEROUS MOTHER.

FROM A BAD LITTLE BOY

MISTER EDITOR, ime a badd littul boy. i rather like bein a badd boy, it's more fun. I kin lick enny good littul boy of my sighs and wait. ef youve got one send him on. i hear that there is tauk of doin away with lickin in the skools-ime agin it, skool woodent be a skool wurth a cent if they dident wale us any moer, its fun to see um skip, and hear em holler, mi! id git a lickin enny day to see the others ketch it.

Wot fun would ther be in runnin awa from skool ef you wasent goin to get likt for it i want to no. its the expectashun of the lickin that maix the pleasure. i no a boy as gows to skool where they stopt lickins, he used to run awa and ack wus nor i do b4 that; now wot is he? a wuthless Sunny skooler, and he dont chaw 2backer nuther i lok on im with kontemp. i say, go on a lickin of us. its wot maix us smart. Sum teachers koodent make us smart enny other wa.

A BADD LITTLE BOY.

FROM A BIG BOY.

I'm one of the big boys in our school. There can't any boy throw me in a square holt; and once I had hold of our teacher just for fun —we didn't rassel for keeps-and I floped him fair and square. Now he has been in the habit of whaling us boys every day. I've stood it so far, cause I sposed it was all right. I've hurd father tell how he used to get licked at school, and I think I can stand anything the old man could when he was a boy. But it is played out -- do you hear? I aint going to stand it any longer. It aint constitutional. Besides that I'm going to lick him for what he has done. I'm mad at myself too. Here I am big enough to take the teacher down like hard drink, standing up and taking a whaling like an old sarpent, and he no right to do it, nuther. But I'll fix him, I'm going to ask him to stay after school is dismissed, and then I'll take it out of him. I'll pay him for lickings I've taken so patiently from him. The law is on my side and I know my rights.

EDITOR TIMES: Us girls would like to have a hearing in this matter of punishment in schools. We don't wish to have it done away with altogether. We know the boys need it, and ought to have it; and relieves the monotony of school life to see them catch it. They are apt to put on too many airs when they don't get whipped regularly by the teacher. We are willing to be punished a little too. We respectfully suggest, however, that the punishment be confined to being made to sit with the boys, allowing us to pick out the boys.

I am glad that whipping in school is unlawful, and that Judge Warren has so decided. The Judge was always a very decided man. How my heart has bied for the poor innocents when I have passed by a school and heard the scholars all crying out with one voice, as loud as they could screech, being tortured by their teachers. I couldn't stand it one day, and I went to the door and called a teacher out. I asked him why they would torture those poor children every day about that hour. What do you suppose that hardened and unprincipled wretch