The society wishes to acknowledge its indebtedness to its sis ter societies for a number of excellent musical numbers that have been contributed to its programs. The mandolin and banjo clubs from the Literati deserve especial mention, also a male quartette composed of members from each of the four societies.

In the football game between the Literati and the all-school teams, though the victory went to the society of the crimson, we were proud of the three Reeds who represented us in the all-school team. Defeat is not hard to bear if you have plenty of company.

The meeting of three societies in Albert Taylor Hall was one of the pleasant features of the year, and although because of the nature of the meeting one of the societies of the school was not represented, all felt that the meeting was beneficial in the promotion of a spirit of friendliness and comradeship among the societies.

Many new members have been added to the society during the past month and several old ones have returned to school. Among the latter are Mr. Carson and Mr. Ganoung.

The Literati Society.

Literati, 15-All-School, o! The contest is over and the invincibles stand ready for new worlds to conquer. The team work of the Literati boys far outclassed that of the all-school, and with the good luck a rabbit's foot would bring, there could be but one end for the Literati-victory! one for the all-school -defeat! When we think of the awful defeat the all-school received at the hands of the invincibles, when we think of the agony of spirit that came over the fusionists as their mournful procession filed from the conquered grounds, we have a feeling of deep sorrow. But why should we mourn? Why should we invite sadness? We are a sympathetic people, and when we think of 15 to o, when we picture the advance of the invincibles on the gridiron, when we think of the sorrow that must have come to the fusionists in their joint meeting, our hearts go out in sympathy for the dead! The dead, did I say? There is a chance for life. The opposing forces have combined. They have determined to live, although it takes three to make one. The days come and go, the bright morning sun spreads a glow of beauty over all the earth, filling our hearts with gladness; but their sorrow is intense. One or two of the all-school aggregation have been seen to smile. Yes, they even dared to laugh when they were sure no Literati was near. Let it be the duty of every Literati to remove that feeling of defeat from our friends. Speak words of comfort and cheer to our forlorn neighbors, and teach them that although our opponents, yet our friends.

Professor and Mrs. Picken gave us a very pleasant call. Professor Picken was principal of the Iola schools for a number of years, but last summer resigned his position to take one in the Normal. He responded very aptly when called on for a talk. He told of his school days in the Normal, when he did not have the kindest regard for the Literati society because they won in the contest. Those days are now past, and the Professor congratulated us on having such a good society. We are always glad to welcome visiting members of the faculty.

Although the three societies held a joint meeting, it did not detract any from the Literati hall. A large crowd was present and listened with interest to one of the best programs of the year.

The Lyceum Society.

Four weeks have passed with great advancement for the Lyceum society. Every society night sees the hall filled with the bright and eager faces of the Lyceumites and their friends, ready to enjoy to the fullest extent the programs prepared for them by an active, energetic committee. The programs during the past month have been unusually entertaining and delight

ful, and on account of them, every member feels a new enthusiasm.

Not only have our officers and committees been at work, but also our representatives for the oratorical contest. Persistent and diligent work has counted, for we have secured two contestants. We predict for the remainder of this year nothing but success-great and glorious successes in essay, oratory, dramatic art and debate. How could it be otherwise with the contestants, who will so ably represent us? We expect much and we shall receive much for, "according to your faith, be it unto you."

On the night of December second, the three societies,-the Belles-Lettres, the Philomathians, and the Lyceums held a joint meeting in the assembly room. This was to revive the spirits of the football players, who had their hearts and records broken in the game with the Literati boys. Too bad, boys, but another time we'll show 'em who can play! The program consisted of the combined talent of the three societies, and each participant acquitted himself nobly, as the occasion demanded. We can shine as literary lights, if we cannot play football, owing to the fact, as Mr. Stroup so nicely put it, that we had no "Priests" on the all-school side. History teaches us that success usually attends Priesthood.

Mr. Thurman's oration deserves special notice, for he expressed the feelings of the majority of the Lyceum society, when he remarked that his only regret was that four societies were not represented instead of three.

Hon. Wm. Stryker, retiring state superintendent of public instruction, graduated at the Fort Scott Normal in the class of 1880. After teaching eight years in that school, he became president of the Central Normal College at Great Bend. His energy and administrative ability made him the logical choice of his party for state superintendent in 1896. Though he had spent nearly all of his professional life in higher institutions of learning, his work as instructor and conductor in county institutes had given him such familiarity with our public school system and its needs that his administration has been one of the most efficient in the history of the state. He is in hearty sympathy with nearly all advanced movements in education and leaves his office with the good wishes of our educational forces without regard to party.

Bliss Carman's latest collection of verses, "By the Aurelian Wall and Other Elegies," awakens recollection of that promising poet's earlier efforts.

Mr. Carman, who is now thirty-eight years old, is a native of Frederickton, New Brunswick. He has, at different times been on the editorial staff of The Independent, The Cosmopolitan, and The Atlantic. During the last few years, he has spent his winters in Washington and his summers in Grand Pre.

The several editions of Mr. Carman's poems are "Low Tide on Grand Pre," published in 1893; "Songs from Vagabondia," with Richard Hovey, in 1894; "Behind the Arras: A Book of the Unseen," in 1895; "By the Amelian Wall and Other Elegies," in 1898.

This poet's philosophy, briefly stated, is—the development of the soul by means of the senses; the final annihilation of evil; the perfect fruition of love.

"Low tide at Grand Pre" is a beautiful twilight picture, fraught with recollections of an absent loved one, and closely associated with nature. The last stanza is typical.

"The night has fallen and the tide-
Now and again comes drifting home,
Across the aching barrens wide,
A sigh like driven wind or foam;
In grief the flood is bursting home."

"Songs from Vagabondia" are gay, frank, joyous, and, perhaps, a little bit heathenish, with no very evident tendency, unless it be the enjoyment of life. The best of these poems are "The Joys of the Road,” “A Spring Song," "The Farm," "The Captain of the Press Gang," "Evening on the Potomac," and "At Sea."

"Behind the Arras" carries the reader to a mystic realm, where, by means of symbols, he catches glimpses of the vanishing points of thought, and the spirit becomes cognizant of higher regions of beauty ruled by love.

"The Moon Dial" is more mysterious still. It treats of the world's supreme passions, whose meaning none have ever seen and lived to tell.

In "The Cruise of the Galleon" and "The Song Before Sailing" the soul starts on its voyage for eternity. The following stanza illustrates Mr. Carman's use of the seen as a symbol of the unseen, by which he presents to the mind a startling comprehension of the unimaginable:

"Not a fear but all the sea-room,
Wherein time is but a bay;
Yet shall sparkle out for lee-room
In that vast Altrurian day."

"By the Aurelian Wall and Other Elegies" takes its name from the Protestant cemetery, on the banks of the Tiber, where the dark cypress trees cast their shade o'er the tombs of Keats and Shelley; and the first two of the eighteen elegies are dedicated to the memories of these two poets. Others, to whom the author pays a touching tribute, are Richard Lovelace, William Blake, Raphael, Phillips Brooks, Henry George, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Eliot Bowers, P. V.; G. B. R., and Andrew Stratton.

These poems are not so musical as Mr. Carman's verses are wont to be, but they are rythmical, and full of sympathy with nature, freedom, and life. The closing lines are characteristic.

"Let me have a scarlet maple,
For the grave-stone at my head,
With the quiet sun behind it,
In the years when I am dead.

EVA MCNALLY.

The Study of Psychology.

People are often deterred from reading a book because of its apparently meaningless title. Psychology is a big word with a deep and serious import. It means literally "the science of the soul." Considered from a practical, a scientific or a religious point of view, there is no subject of greater importance or interest than psychology. The subject has acquired a new importance in very recent years. Education is now based upon the laws of the soul or the mind as never before in the history of the world. An educator who is ignorant of psychology is working in the dark. We may further assert that one ignorant of modern psychology has but poor preparation for teaching even a young child. The old school of psychologists knew and taught many valuable things, but they were as far astray in their speculations as were the alchemists or the astrologers of the middle ages. While there is entirely too much materialism in the speculations of modern psychologists, yet the science as now taught is infinitely superior to the speculations of the ancient and even of comparatively recent writers. The student who opens a modern treatise on psychology, provided the author has adopted modern methods of investigation, enters a new world. He enters the world of experiment instead of the world of speculation. He begins to discover himself and to find in himself wonders of which he never dreamed.

Modern psychology employs the so-called inductive method so productive of wonderful results in physical science. It begins with the study of the five senses and proceeds by experiments, step by step, through all the operations of the mind. All philosophers concede that all knowledge begins with the physical senses. The five senses-taste, smell, hearing, sight and touch-are the gateways to the mind. Philosophers in the past have generally ignored the approaches to the mind and have contented themselves with the abstract study of the laws of the mind. But the modern psychologist reverses the process and devotes his attention very largely to the mind as revealed to us through the senses. Of course there is danger that many will lose sight of the nature of mind in studying the mechanism which the mind uses in revealing itself. If we guard against this error, we can find no more profitable study than the study of modern psychology. In passing from the consideration of the five senses to the study of sensation, perception, attention, memory, imagination, thought, feeling and will there is danger that we may conclude that the whole process of intellection is mechanical, but the best psychologists concede that there is a mystery behind all phenomena that the most intimate knowledge of matter does not reveal. What has impressed us most about the new psychology is the value of educating the senses in early life. It is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of educating and developing the physical senses of young children. Many a child has been pronounced stupid whose only defect was in hearing or seeing, or in improper food. If all children were properly trained to observe ordinary phenomena, there would be marvelous results in their mental processes. It has been demonstrated beyond a doubt that the materials upon which the mind works reach the soul through the senses, and if there is defective vision or hearing or touch the mind is dwarfed. The memory, the imagination, the judgment, the reason and the will are all concerned in the training of the senses. The greatest poem or symphony or oration is a creation which rests back upon the materials admitted to the mind through its five gateways. All the intricacies of logic, of calculus, of music and of the drama are traceable to the nervous system, which uses the eyes and the ears, and the organs of sense to get the beginnings of knowledge. It has been proved that the mind supplied with the best eyes,

ears and sense organs stands the best chance to be strong and vigorous. This is not saying that mental operations are all mechanical but that the mechanic who has the best tools is likely to do the best work. The will, the very center and fountain of moral eharacter, is closely connected with our sensuous organism. We are not bodies with souls; we are souls with bodies. We feel that we can do parents or teachers no better service than to recommend them to take up the study of modern psychology.-D. M. Harris.

"For somehow, not only for Christmas, but all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you;
And the more you spend in blessing the poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your hearts' possessing returns to make you glad."

Among Our Friends.

The Teacher's Outside Interests. It is a far cry from the boy just out of college, who adopts teaching merely as a stepping stone to another profession, to the devoted pedagogue, whose whole energy is spent in his work or in direct preparation for it. Each makes a cardinal mistake. The boy in his haste to leave teaching fails to see in it the possibilities of a noble profession; the enthusiast does not realize that teaching is, in and for itself, narrowing.

Yet experience has shown that it is narrowing. The pedagogical type has in all times been noticeable. Under the most favorable conditions the teacher is brought into constant contact with intellects less developed than his own; he is unable to enter into week-long, year-long competition with minds of better calibre than his own. Conceit and cock-sureness are only too apt to grow upon him, while his ability to cope with any but frequently recurring conditions steadily growing less. The only salvation for most lies in not allowing the one enthusiasm to crush out all others. It must co-exist with other interests, with pursuits carried on in mere amateurish fashion. Though there may be no intention, no design, of ever leaving the teacher's calling, it is well to gain the mastery in some other line. The thing is not to kick the traces and quit teaching forever, but to escape its more unfavorable consequences.

The secret of being happy, though a teacher, lies in bringing to the work a full and intense personality. There are plenty of men and women who add to their physical strength and clearness of thought a fine bluff manner that makes of them masterful craftsmen, but only to those who have themselves drunk of the fullness of life is greatness in teaching possible.

The sort of outside interest the teacher needs is entirely a matter of temperament. For some there is in the fine arts that which contributes to perpetual growth. If one writes or draws or makes music in no dilettant manner, but seeking to get out of the stubborn medium the finest expression of one's self, one is bound to progress toward the inward peace that is born of contention. It is the struggle that avails. Some may find field for their efforts in business, some in science or invention, some in philanthropy. In any case the important thing is that there should be something in sight besides immediate professional success. It is a mistake to suppose that because a great deal of direct preparation is essential to successful teaching, still more is desirable. Frequently the indirect preparation counts for more than all. Not what we have got, but what we are is the supreme test.-F. W. Coburn.

**

What a wealth of colors in the autumn leaves and flowers. They are easily obtained. Children are delighted to make collections for themselves and the teachers. They will furnish ample material for many lessons'in observation and the best

material for language. How easy it will be to draw upon the rich treasures of literature to supplement observations. Now, I beg of you, do not make this a formal, technical matter. Do not look at this work from the informal side. Let the knowledge gained be incidental. We are after pleasure, keenness of sight and touch, taste and smell. We do not care "a fig" for stem or blade, midrib or veins or veinlets; and parenchyma and chlorophyll would probably paralyze every nerve, make our blood run cold. It is pleasure we want and incidentally knowledge. The stuff out of which dreams are made and which may sometime be woven into thoughts which may cheer and bless, strengthen and inspire some poor soul lies concealed in these autumn leaves and flowers. Here is the gold. Why not let your pupils hunt for it? Every tint or leaf or flower will have its effect upon your pupils. It is food for their brain. As they gaze into the depths of the flower and behold its glorious tints, those soft shadings of colors, that delicate tracing which Nature alone can create, their souls are being fed. Yea, verily, this is the ambrosial nectar, and we have found the source of that strength, and skill and wisdom which the gods alone possessed.-D. E. Sanders.

We are in receipt of a copy of the Winona Daily Republican, giving an account of the reception to President Irwin Shepard, who has recently resigned the office which he has filled with such signal ability, to accept the position of secretary of the National Educational Association. He has been at the head of the Winona Normal School for nineteen years and has seen it grow to become a great power for good throughout the entire Northwest.

The faculty and former students joined in presenting him with a handsome parchment "diploma" with the resolutions adopted at a meeting of the members of the faculty and many former students. President Shepard responded to the beautiful testimony with much emotion, closing with the expression of a wish that he might be permitted to stand with them while life lasts "in upholding the beautiful ideals of this institution which we have been permitted to serve, that in the future, as in the past, 'our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth, and our daughters may be as corner stones polished after the similitude of a palace."" A rare chest of silverware was found on the table before the guests departed, with the following ininscription: "Presented to Irwin Shepard by the former and present members of the faculty of the State Normal School at Winona, Minnessta. 1879-1898."

The MONTHLY joins in the tribute to the high character and great ability of President Shepard and wishes him abundant success in the field upon which he now enters.

THE STATE NORMAL MONTHLY.

THE following named former Normal students, in addition to those given in the last number of the MONTHLY, were elected as county superintendents last month: Mitchell, George D. Carney; Sheridan, L. G. Taylor; Harper, A. B. Heacock;' Coffey, L. H. Hannen; Cherokee, C. F. Cool; Cowley, Julia King; Chase, George W. Stevenson; Allen, Grant Billbe; Morris, M. E. Leatherwood.

THE department of music gave a unique entertainment on the evening of November 29, in the way of a lecture recital by Professor Aldrich, of Rochester, N. Y. The professor gave a very interesting address on the characteristics of the popular music among various nations and illustrated his classification by single typical popular songs. Though he lacked animation and delivered his address in a very mediocre way, the recital as a whole was quite delightful.

MISS FRANCES HAYS writes from Chicago that her work is progressing with great satisfaction and that the Kansas State Normal School people in and around Chicago are planning for a reunion in the near future. There are some fifteen or twenty graduates and undergraduates there now, several of them holding responsible positions in the city schools and in the professional world. The editor of the MONTHLY hopes that it may be his good fortune to be present at the first reunion.

treat.

ent.

OUR winter's course of lectures and entertainments has opened most auspiciously. The first lecture by Dr. Russel H. Conwell, of Philadelphia, on "Acres of Diamonds,' 99 was a rare He spoke for nearly two hours to a delighted and attentive audience. The stimulating effects of that wholesome lecture will not soon be lost upon the young men and women presHis sermon the next morning in Albert Taylor Hall to the Y. P. S. C. E. and the congregation of the Baptist church was deeply interesting and helpful. Though he had not consented to speak on Sunday until after the audience had gone home, the telephones and boarding clubs spread the news so rapidly on Sunday morning that almost every seat in the great hall was occupied. The Doctor, being at the head of a great institutional church of nearly three thousand members in Philadelphia, is, of course deeply interested in all educational work. He is president of his church college and is doing wonderful things for the young people coming under the influence of his spirit. The second entertainment was an instrumental concert by the Boston Symphony Club of twenty ladies under the direction of Mr. Frank McKee. From beginning to end, the program was most acceptable. Almost every selection was heartily appreciated by the cultivated audience present. Either of the above named entertainments is worthy a place on the best platform on the continent, and we hope to repeat them here at no distant day.

Hon. Frank Nelson.

Professor Nelson, the new state superintendent of public instruction, was born at Andover, Illinois, in 1865. He taught several terms in the public schools of Iowa, and finished a course in the Southern Iowa Normal School at Bloomfield. Soon after, he entered the University of Iowa, graduating in the normal and philosophical courses in 1893. Immediately after graduation he secured a position at the head of the normal department in Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas. He has engaged part of the time in editorial work, and has been a popular speaker at normal institutes and teachers' conventions. For some years he has been a member of the school board at Lindsborg, and has made a careful study of public school problems. Professor Nelson is a pleasing speaker, scholarly and courteous, and comes into office with an earnest desire to advance the interests of our educational system in all parts of the state. He will receive the hearty cooperation of the teachers everywhere.

WE regret to learn of the death of President George L. Osborne, of the Missouri State Normal School at Warrensburg. President Osborne has been one of the most successful normal school men in the entire West. Under his administration the school at Warrensburg has become one of the largest and best equipped in the Mississippi Valley. He was a man of fine scholarship, an indefatigable worker, of lofty ideals, and withal of modest demeanor and gentle manners. He has been in poor health for some years past, and his friends have long seen that the end was near. He has done a great work tor education in Missouri, and thousands of teachers throughout the state hold him in precious memory.

AT the preliminary oratorical rehearshal, on the evening of December 6, the following named were selected to participate in the contest on the evening of December 21: Mary F. Balcomb, W. H. Daniels, Anna Paterson and W. A. Ward.

'86. We are pleased to note that our old friend, John A. McClain, is selected from the senior class in the University of Pennsylvania as the editor-in-chief of the Penn Dental Journal.

'92. S. L. Fogleman has accepted the principalship of the Wellsville, Kansas, schools for the present,

Among Ourselves.

"If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;

But when they seldom come, they wished-for come,
And nothing pleasant but rare accidents.

-Shakespeare. Shearing but Not Feeding. Dr. Johnson is said to have refused a very desirable pastorate because, to use his own words, "I am unwilling to shear a flock that I am unable to feed." If a little more of that same spirit were to enter into all of the professions, it would be a great blessing to humanity. The disposition to crowd into positions without fitting ourselves for them is the crying evil of the age. The tempting fleece rather than the food for the flock is the one moving desire. If such a great man as Dr. Johnson was hesitating, how much more should we be assured of our ability to meet the demands, in the larger sense of the word, of the position to which we aspire.

Saw Himself. When Orson was about to strike down his brother with whom he was engaged in mortal combat, it is said that he saw his own image reflected in his brother's burnished shield and that his battle axe fell harmless to the ground. In taking my pupils to task, I have often seen my earlier self reflected in them and have thus been able to understand them better and have frequently been led to treat them more kindly on account of it. Sometimes the image has reminded me of failures to understand my teachers, sometimes of my inability to resist temptation even though conscious of wrong-doing, sometimes of a perverseness which I needed somebody to fathom, sometimes of a seeming disrespect which I did not feel nor intend to express, sometimes of the fact that once I was a boy with notions and passions very much like these of boys and girls of the present generation.

Kindling Wood. The Sunday School Times says that a certain church member was being put down by a neighboring pastor as poorly educated and evidently of little value to the congregation to which he belonged, when his own pastor interfered and said: "That man is worth one hundred dollars per year for kindling wood." He has a warm and sympathetic nature and his zeal never flags. He is always at prayer meeting and his simple, heartfelt testimonies seldom fail to arouse and quicken interest on every side. How often are teachers' associations kept alive by just such a man or woman. The one who throws in a cheery word now and then, who leads in generous applause as a good point is made, who comes early and shakes everybody's hands, who insists that "we have had a good meeting, and it has done me lots of good," is just as necessary to the maintenance of a live teachers' association as the brethren and sisters who do most of the thinking and talking along the lines of higher criticism. This very same phosphoric little body often excels his more philosophic brother in the schoolroom because his pupils are always alert and eager to learn.

"A Kind of Schoolmaster's Laugh!" Recently a distinguished speaker was addressing a company of students and indulging in a reminiscence of his school days, when he remarked that "the teacher laughed, a kind of schoolmaster's laugh, you know!" Since then I have been wondering what a schoolmaster's laugh is, anyhow: whether it is really different from that of the preacher or lawyer or the merchant or the politician; whether it is dyspeptic or healthful, sad or merry, suppressed or free; whether it is like that of a Shylock or a Falstaff, of a Uriah Heep or a Pegotty, of a Jeremiah or a Zagloba; whether it is like the coarse guffaw of the Northmen or the rippling roundelay of the Castillian maidens, the rich roar of the mountaineer, or the gay cackle of gondolier, the amused grunt of the Kaffir chief or the silly giggle of the girl of the

period; whether he laughs with his hands on his sides or on his head, with his mouth open or shut,-explosively, repulsively, expulsively, or effusively,-grammatically, mathematically, æsthetically, or apologetically,-sincerely, hypocritically, patronizingly, painfully or pleasurably, lazily or industriously, affectedly or naturally, boldly or timidly, conceitedly or depreciatingly? Does he laugh in orotund, oral, pectoral, guttural or nasal tones? Does he laugh impulsively or reflectively, individually or collectively, disjointedly or in a logical order,proceeding from the known to the unknown, from the concrete to the abstract, analytically or synthetically? Does he laugh like the ghost that pursued Gabriel Grubb, or the witch that hailed Macbeth? Does the schoolmaster laugh at all? Does he not simply smile? Poor schoolmaster!

Adeliam S. 1. Metary

MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY, whose picture we give above, is a Bostonian by birth and education. Her father was a wealthy shipping merchant who gave his daughter most liberal opportunities for culture. In 1843, at the early age of nineteen, she was married to Mr. Seth Whitney, and her life has been preeminently a domestic one. She has been wife and mother primarily, authoress secondarily, though she has ranked high as a story-writer. Mrs. Stowe once described her home at Milton, Massachusetts, as "full of old-fashioned furniture, surrounded by an old-fashioned garden, and merry with voices of children." The description is still true in some respects, for several grandchildren brighten her later years. Mrs. Whitney's writings are marked by tender sympathy with all young life and by great spiritual insight and delicacy. Among her most widely read novels are "Faith Gartney's Girlhood," "A Summer in Leslie Goldthwarte's Life," "Hitherto," and "We Girls."

Nearly all the Kodaks are gone. Those persons who may desire a copy should order promptly. Address Miss Hattie Cochran, Emporia, Kansas.