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NOTES ON EDUCATION
MATTERS OF INTEREST TO PU
PIL AND TEACHER
The Subject of a College Education Is
Again Discussed by Eminent Men
Brave Teacher Saves Her Pupils
from a Mountain Lion
Shall the Boy Go toCollogc
Good judges differ as to whether a
college education is the best training
for a boy designed for a business ca
reer The editor of Magazine
some tfme ago collected from some of
New Yorks most prominent and suc
cessful business men some opinions that
are interesting
Mayor Strong thinks a college educa
tion a good thing but not indispensa
ble to the business man but if he had
to choose between a college bred man
and one with only a public school edu
cation being equally bright and ac
tive he would choose the one with the
college training He says
A college education requires the in
vestment of a suiall capital and the ex
penditure of several years of study
The boy of natural talent who enters
business life when he leaves the public
schools begins to earn money at once
but it does not follow that the college
mans time and money have been wast
ed His increased broadness of vision
sthe greater extent of resources at his
command will equip him to contend
with the exigencies of life and to grasp
the business problems that will con
front him with a surer hand a clearer
head and more ready determination
than his brother The latters advance
in his chosen field will be steady the
result of unceasing labor The college
sbred man will gallop gracefully to the
front while the others gait is slow and
plodding formed in the painful school
of experience
Ex Gov Flower says that if he had
a dozen boys he would not send all of
them to college but would carefully
from the number those he judged
to be best fitted for higher education
and the rest would have to get along as
best they could with elementary knowl
edge He calls attention also to the
careers of some of Americas great in
tellectual leaders of the past who had
no college education suck as Clay
Douglas and Lincoln He says
I think a college education the great
est boon that can fall to the lot of a
boy endowed with a clever and active
mind and a wholesome thirst for knowl
edge However humble a mans sta
tion in life knowledge will enrich him
1 in the long run one way or another At
the same time a university training is
not essential to success in business life
Moreover I should hesitate to advise
a parent to send even the brightest boy
to college if I was not quite sure that
he would withstand tbe temptations
sure to be offered to him there There
is too much luxury about our present
day college life
Henry Clews the celebrated banker
seems to have but little faith in a col
lege training for business He says
Think of a man going into business
with three fourths of his brain cells
filled with classical knowledge dead
languages and nigh sounding but un
practical Ideas
I have been severely criticised for
saying that 1 would not have a college
bred man in my office Here is my rea
son To become a successful merchant
banker or broker one must begin young
Most college boys when ready to enter
an office are over twenty years of age
I have a son at college a six footer in
his twenty first year Can I ask him
to undergo the training I deem neces
sary for every business man Would
he be willing to commence at the foot
of the ladder with boys of sixteen and
on a salary of 150 per year Why
that youth not only knows more in
every branch of knowledge than all
the office boys and clerks in this office
he knows more than his father too
A collegian cannot or perhaps will
not humble himself sufficiently to learn
the rudiments of the business mans vo
cation He rebels against the discipline
necessarily imposed upon a subordi
nate He has been used to regard him
self as a brilliant young gentleman for
several years can you blame him for
objecting to sit on the same bench with
errand boys And has he enough prac
tical knowledge to deserve a place be
hind the desk In my opinion the av
erage graduate does not even know
enough of arithmetic and caligraphy to
earn upon his arrival in an office a
salary of five dollars week My legi
ble hand secured for me the first good
position 1 ever held the average col
lege graduate writes an awful scrawl
and is proud of it 1 understand that
none of our universities employs a
teacher of caligraphy This is a sad de
fect of which the collegian does not
become aware as a rule until it is too
late to remedy the evil
1 have practically tested the prob
lem whether a college education is de
sirable for a business man Years ago
I employed several college men one
after another none of them succeeded
in benefiting either my business or him
self So I got rid of them Of the boys
who came to me equipped with nothing
beyond a common school education a
sound mind and an ambition to work
dozens are now independent business
men while as many hold responsible
positions with large firms
Dr Chauncey M Depew on the other
hand is a warm advocate of college
training for the broadening of the busi
ness man Mr Depew is himself a col
lege graduate He says
While the world gives on its mate
rial side such examples of success as
Commudore Vanderbilt and such in
stances of wise statesmanship and ser
vice to his country as Abraham Lin
coin we must remember that In the
affairs of lie no comparisons can be
made with the phenomenally gifted
who are eDdowed by the Almighty from
their birth with powers far beyond the
equipment of their fellows With the
business man who must be more than
his vocation the artisan larger than
his trade and the farmer more learned
than in the traditions of his fathers it
is the trained intellect disciplined by
higher education which alone has any
certainty of success
This is not a modern thought a new
fangled idea American independence
and the founding of our nation upon
constitutional lines embodying the ex
perience and the lessons of the ages
was the work of the graduates of the
colonial colleges Harvard Yale
Princeton Columbia and William and
Mary were the architects of the Declar
ation of Independence of the Constitu
tion of the United States of the union
of States and of the incomparable sys
tem of executive legislative and judi
cial independence which have survived
so successfully a century of extraordi
nary trial and unprecedented develop
ment Samuel Adams in his com
mencement thesis at Harvard struck
the keynote of colonial resistance John
Morin Scott brought from Yale to New
York the lessons which prepared that
rich and prosperous colony for the sac
rifices of the rebellion Alexander Ham
ilton a student at Columbia though
only seventeen years of age educated
the popular mind to the necessity of
the struggle while the pen of Jeffer
son of William and Mary wrote that
immortal document which lives and
will live forever as the most complete
charter of liberty
The best proof of the value of a col
lege education in all pursuits of life Is
to be found in the eminent success of
those who have enjoyed it in the higher
walks of the professions of statesman
ship of business
A BUSINESS MAN
A Brave Teacher
In a town in the Rockies a short
while ago a young girl who taught in
the little schoolhouse of the place per
formed an act of heroism worthy of the
highest commendation One of her
scholars had a pet antelope a sweet
docile little creature that followed its
mistress to school remaining quiet near
the door during class hours
One day it lay as usual near the door
lazily basking in the sunlight while the
children pored over their studies Sud
denly there came a light thud and a
scream There with his forefeet crush
ing the little creature crouched a big
mountain lion savagely switching his
tail from side to side and eyeing the
children The littletots screaming
wildly ran to the furthest corner hud
dling there in a heap
The teacher although pale with fear
did not for a moment lose her nerve
but searched the room for some means
of rescuing her little scholars Hang
ing on the wall near the door was a
shotgun and she determined to obtain
it although to do so she had to pass
the lion Summoning all her courage
she advanced down the room facing
the savage beast who stopped tearing
at the antelope and growled ominously
Nothing deterred in her purpose how
ever she passed by him and took the
gun from the pegs
The lion turned his head and curious
ly watched her as she retreated up the
room again The gun was empty It
was necessary to return to her desk to
procure some shells and load it Savage
from its taste of blood the lion left the
antelope and prepared to spring upon
the group of children He made one
leap over the benches which landed
him in front of the teachers desk and
his eyes catching sight of her he
changed his purpose and swinging
around was about to spring upon her
Noticing this the teacher who had
been watching for a good opportunity
to shoot instead of waiting for him to
make the leap walked quickly up to
him and before the astonished brute
could recover she placed the muzzle of
the gun in his ear and pulled both trig
gers
The recoil knocked her over and she
fell to the floor unconscious The gun
did its work however for the lions
head was almost blown to pieces and
the brute lay a quivering heap upon
the floor The children ran screaming
down the road and men hastened to
the schoolhouse to find the brave girl
recovered but wildly trembling After
learning the circumstances they seized
a chair and seating the girl in it car
ried her with the dead lion through
the town cheering and praising her
brave act
Literature and Podajjosry
There are really only two things the
successful teacher needs to have
knowledge of his subject matter and
knowledge of his pupils The first of
these can be gained only by study the
second only by experience The man
who has never had a real child himself
cannot effectively teach children and
he who does not know by experience
the warm hearted exuberant gaiety of
school and college boys cannot success
fully teach them Furthermore the
teacher who spends more time on the
method of teaching literature than on
literature itself is sure to come to grief
Greatest of all forces is the personality
of the instructor nothing in teaching Is
so effective as this nothing is so in
stantly recognized and responded to by
pupils and nothing is more neglected
by those who insist that teaching is a
science rather than an art After hear
ing a convention of very serious peda
gogues discuss educational methods in
which they use all sorts of technical
phraseology one feels like apply Glad-
stones cablegram Only common
sense required The Century
Fr Stojalowskl the Polish Christian
socialist who was recently suspended
from his priestly functions by the papal
nuncio at Vienna is g ing to run for
the reichsrath in a district now repre
sented by a priest
THE HOLD UPS AND THEIR FATE WHO WILL TACKLE HIM NEXT
i
REVOLT OF PLUTOCRACY
No single issue ever raised in the his
tory of American politics exceeds in
importance that of opening our mints
and redeeming our currency from the
control of those foreign and domestic
corporations which seek to inflict on us
as a permanent system their usurpation
of the sovereign power of issuing and
regulating the circulating medium The
only single evil greater than corpora
tion control of the taxing power is this
of corporation control of the currency
It is greater because when the people
are robbed whether by direct or in
direct taxation the results quickly ap
pear But when the robbery is carried
on through contraction of cash and the
inflation of corporation credit paper
they are brought to bankruptcy -before
realizing the cause
But great as is this issue it is only an
incident of the present campaign The
higher and broader issue which has
been forced is between the millionaires
of the country and the American peo
ple The entire Plutocracy is in revolt
against our system of popular consti
tutional government So menacing a
movement of class against people has
never occurred before in our history
not even when the same class under the
leadership of the Biddies of the United
States Bank captured the administra
tion of John Quincy Adams and so in
trenched themselves in control of the
government that they looked with con
tempt on the attempt made by the peo
ple under Jacksons leadership to dis
lodge them and restore popular govern
ment John Quincy Adams had been
elected as a Democrat but he aban
doned the party repudiated the -principles
to which it had pledged his ad
ministration and endeavored to revive
the Federalistic party whose funda
mental maxim as defined by Daniel
Webster himself was that all stable
and orderly government must be based
on property As the fundamental tenet
of Democracy is that all just govern
ment must be based on manhood right
and on the consent of the governed the
masses of the Democratic party felt
the same hot resentment against the
Adams administration which they now
feel when they see Federal officeholders
controlling the action of conventions
called at the instance of Mr Whitney
of the Standard Oil Co and Mr Bel
mont American agent of the Roths
child banks
Andrew Jackson but voiced this just
resentment of the masses when in his
inaugural address he declared that it
was the right of the people to eject
from office those officials wrho had used
office in an attempt to dictate the re
sult of elections It was because the
people had seen Federal offices used
to control State Legislatures to dictate
nominations to interfere at the polls
that Jackson denounced life tenure in
office as foreign to the spirit of Ameri
ca and declared that whatever the evils
of change they were less than those of
the permanent tenure which breeds in
the office holder the spirit of insolence
and of despotism He was again the
exponent and champion of the masses
when he followed his attack on Federal
bureaucracy with a determined as
sault on the National bank and its con
trol of the Treasury and of Congress
For this he was denounced in New York
City and Boston as no other American
President had ever been denounced be
fore But he did not swerve With a su
preme confidence in the people and in
his own integrity he forced the fighting
keeping the aggressive always and not
stopping to defend himself until over
whelming victory showed that no man
who really represents the cause of pop
ular freedom need fear to appeal to the
masses for support of the principles on
which their freedom and progress de
pend
On the issue as it was then presented
appeal has once more been made to the
people The plutocracy has once more
usurped control of the government
Democracy has once more been be
trayed Once more the millionaires of
the country are in the field openly as
serting that property has a divine right
to rule manhood and that it is treason
to deny it They have drawn their
lines of class and caste andv drawn
xhem hard Those of them who once
called themselves Democrats do so no
longer They call the Democracy of
Jefferson and Jackson as they do the
Republicanism of Lincoln an evil
thing They say that the rule of the
ffcople is anarchy and they threaten
Vxe country witlr the worst they can
do against it unless they are allowed to
name the next President and put
Messrs Hanna and Morgan Whitney
and Belmont in control at Washington
as their agents But they cannot win
There is not money there are not rifles
and cannon enough in America or in the
world to impose plutocracy on America
as a permanent condition Against
plutocracy and class government the
Democratic party has made its ap
peal to Caesar And in America there
is no king but Caesar and no Caesar
but the people St Louis Post-Dispatch
TRUTHS THAT LIVK
Epigrams Culled from Bryans Great
Speech
Truth will vindicate itself only error
fears free speech
Between bimetallism and the gold
standard there is an impassable gulf
We do not propose to transfer the re
wards of industry to the lap of indo
lence
The well being of tho nation aye civ
ilization itself depends upon the pros
perity of the masses
We would not invade the home of the
provident in order to supply the wants of
the spendthrift
Vicious legislation must be remedied
by the people who suffer from it and not
by those who enjoy its benefits
Those who daily follow the injunction
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread are the bulwark of law and order
So long as the scramble for gold con
tinues prices must fall and a general fall
in prices is but another definition of hard
times
The people who in 177G rejected the
doctrine that kings rule by right divine
will not subscribe to a doctrine that mon
ey is omnipotent
No public official who conscientiously
discharges his duty will desire to deny to
those whom he serves the right to discuss
his official conduct
They the people of the West invite
you to accept the principles of a living
faith rather than listen to those who
preach the gospel of despair
No government is worthy of the name
which is not able to protect from every
arm uplifted for his injury the humblest
citizen who lives beneath the flag
Salaries in business occupations de
pend upon business conditions and the
gold standard both lessens the amount
and threatens the permanency of such
salaries
A law which collects from some citi
zens more than their share of the taxes
and collects from other citizens less than
their share is simply an indirect means
of transferring one mans property to an
other mans pocket
Prices can be lowered as effectually by
decreasing the demand for an article as
by increasing the supply of it and it
seems certain that the fall in the gold
price of silver is due to hostile legislation
and not to natural laws
Whenever it is necessary for the peo
ple as a whole to obtain consent from the
owners of money and the changers of
money before they can legislate upon
financial questions we shall have passed
from a democracy to a plutocracy
In a government like ours every pub
lic official is a public servant whether he
holds office by election or by appoint
ment whether he serves for a term of
years or during good behavior and the
people have a right to criticise his official
acts
Bad Newsfor Hanna
Rainbow chasing seems to be a sport
to which the Republican campaign
managers are very much devoted this
year and if Mark Hanna is not careful
he will get a reputation in that line
which will eclipse even the best per
formances of the past in national poli
tics Here he has been calculating on
a seventy five thousand majority for
McKinley in Iowa and now comes for
ward the chairman of the Republican
State Committee there with the state
ment that if the election were held to
morrow the chances arc that Bryan
would have a majority
Iowa is one of the States which nas
ordinarily been so strongly Republican
in Presidential years that the growth of
free silver sentiment was regarded as
an intrusion by the railroad corpora
tions who have been particularly active
in politics there When they heard of
it they notified their employes without
delay that the election of Bryan would
iuvuu u icuuuuuu iu yuj uuu u yvaaium
loss of their situations It was as bare
faced a case of bulldozing as has ever
been attempted in an American elec
tion and it has naturally acted as a
boomerang as such tactics always
will do when applied to men who ard
intelligent enough to value their rights
as citizens
Iowa reflects the sentiment of In
diana Illinois Minnesota Wisconsin
and the neighboring States generally
and without these the election of Mc
Kinley is absolutely hopeless It is not
surprising therefore that the canvass
which the Republicans have made
there is a startling revelation to them
It means that unless they- can per
form wonders between now and No
vembertheir cause is lost for with all
the bluster that Hanna and Quay are
indulging in they have no hope of
breaking the solid South since the Ar
kansas returns have come in New
York News
Voting on Railroad Trains
The railroad car voting has begun
Our Republican contemporaries are be
ginning to keep up the courage of their
fellow partisans by prinx reports
that on such and such a ti a vote of
the passengers was taken where Mc
Kinley had forty votes and Bryan four
or figures to that effect This thing
will be repeated daily from now until
election It will only deceive those
who are desirous to be deceived
All the world knows that the sup
porters of Bryan are plain people stay
ing at home or working in stores fac
tories works or employments for their
bread and butter The people who are
flying about the country on railroad
trains and casting the McKinley votes
are of the classes who can be found
abroad
It has not happened often in this
country that a campaign for the Presi
dency has involved questions dividing
one class from another in fact we
have not known of classes at all in our
political contests But now we have
a class issue forced upon us by the re
morseless gold standard advocates It
is not the wage earning class that has
raised that issue it is the idle and com
fortable class It is not at all wonder
ful that the traveling members of the
better element should be giving Mc
Kinley a majority in these car elec
tions It will be otherwise at the polls
when the stay-at-homes leave home
and workshop long enough to deposit
real ballots on election day New York
News
A STONE FROM THE CHINESE WALL OF PROTECTION
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I -
DICKENS DUMMY BOOKS
The Most Delicious Satire Was In
Kcribed on Their Covers
Gads Hill was a merry house
writes Stephen Fiske In fondly recall
ing incidents of his visits to Charles
Dickens in an article telling of the
personal side of the novelist in the La
dies Home Journal Dickens was a
wellspring of mirth and his humor in
jected the whole party Often when I
came down from London he would
walk out and lean against the doorpost
while I was at the gate and we would
ehout with laughter over the fun that
we had had and were going to hare
When everything else failed the li
brary was an unending amusement
The room was lined with books fronr
floor to ceiling even the backs tot the
doors being bookcases but the books
on the doors and along the floor were
bogus Dummy backs had been letter j
od with titles and pasted on the glass
and the titles had been selectedby such
wits as Dickens Yates the Collins t
brothers Albert Smith and Mark
Lemon of Punch We used to sit on
the floor to study this mock library and
roil over with delight at some clever
satire I remember The Virtues of
Our Ancestors a volume so thin that
the title had to be printed lengthwise
Five Minutes in India by a British
Tourist In two volumes as large as an
unabridged dictionary Lives of the
Poets a mere pamphlet Eggs on Ba j
con to match Coke on Littleton
Statues Erected to the Duke of Wel
lington fifteen portly volumes and
there were dozens of other quips and
cranks A catalogue of these bogus
books should have been preserved but
nobody thought of writing it out bo j
body realized that Dickens would ever
die
KING JOSEPH
Said o Be the Moat Nearly Perfect
Violin in the World
Ralph Granger a rich mine owner
of San Diego Calf Is the fortunate pos-
sessor of the finest collection of rare
violins in America perhaps the finest
private collection in the world Amongj
the dozen treasures the most precious
and the sweetest of all Is the famous
King Joseph of Guarneri the crown
ing achievement of that masters life
an instrument with a tone as rich as
sweet and as mellow as Calabrian
honey This celebrated sounding
board has a history running back
through 150 years and has stood In
all that time unrivaled as a talisman
of melody Other great masters in
the art of fiddle making are represent
ed in the San Diego collectidn There
is a Lupot a Stainer a GuadagninL
There is too a fiddle from the hands
of Giovanni Mazzini who learned his
art from the father of all
KI2TG JOSEPH
ters Gaspan di SaJo The wealth of
beauty of this collection can be ap
preciated only by one in touch with the
mysteries of the craft the color values
of the rich old varnishes the curious
turns of the magic scrolls the swell
of the body and the mysterious fasten
ing of rare selected woods into which
was breathed the very soul and life
blood of the maker Mr Granger did1
not make his collection He bought it
outright for the sum of 20000 at the
sale of the estate of the late R D Haw
ley of New Haven Conm who spent
a life and a fortune in picking up these
old masters
Explicit Instructions
What you want to do said the olai
politician to the young man who had
Volunteered to do missionary work
among the voters in a remote section of
the country is to make yourself per
sonally popular If you can make peo
ple like yon theyre almost sure to
vote your way
Yes I suppose so You mean that ij
am to cultivate an unaffected style of j
speaking and that I am to use smalU
words and put my arguments into
homely phrase wherever it is possible
to do so I am to sedulously avoid any-
thing either in the matter of my
course or in the manner of its delivery
which may be beyond the
sion of my audience or which may pos-
sibly create a prejudice against me be
cause in the opinion of my audience ifr
savors of affectation
The old time politician dropped into
his chair and looked weary
No he said emphatically that is1
not it at all
Have I misinterpreted your instruc
tions
You have What I mean is that
whenever a woman holds a baby up at
you you have to chuck it under the chlni
and kiss it and whenever you see a
man with a dog you have to stop and
tell the owner that if s one of the finest
thoroughbred specimens you ever laidf
your eyes on Thats what I mean
The Vanilla Bean
The so called vanilla bean is not a
bean at all but the fruit of a climbing
orchid the capsule or pod of which is
about three eighths of an Inch in
eter and from six to ten inches long
and has a certain resemblance to the
so called catalpa bean The plant in it3
native home in Mexico and tropical
America climbs over trees and shrubs
by means of slender rootlets sent out
from the joints of the stem In its wild
state it climbs to a height of twenty
feet but in cultivation it is kept within
bounds so that the nnripe pods are noU
injured when the others are gathered
In Mexico the plant is propagated by
cuttings and then trained over some
rough bark trellis work in partiaj
shade
I say Triwet can you lend me fifty
dollars for a few days I have only
lone dollar about me Dicer WelL
1111 try to make that do Judge