I
THE COURIER
,
at which time lie mj tired from active orncd" who have, and who have not,
life, lie was a student of Shakspero given their consent to authority,
and a reader of English poetry. It
dvrelt in his memory and lingered Tlie number of candidates for the
upon his lips and his gaze was that of mayoralty in the city council is said
a dreamer and a mystic, lie said to Include it. There aro several men
once as he pointed to the typewriter:
"It's an ugly little tiling hull have
pounded out on it the education of
my live children and I am content. "
of his longings for literary
In the council whose good judgment
lias been repeatedly demonstrated.
They have also had considerable expe
rience In city affairs and their services
in an executive position would be of
In spite
life and labors and the scenes of bin immense advantage to the city both
native land he was not an exile and in financially and morally.
moments when he contemplated the
real results of his life he was cheered
It would have been tin; same had he
remained in England. He was esseu
tially a mystic and would have been
The Grand Island Republican in a
recent number deliius the class and
character of the' men who stand near
est Mr. Thompson in Lincoln. Whoth-
as Isolate in the valley of the Thames er one agrees with the editor or not
as in the valley of the Mississippi, the article is very interesting.
Under the name of Idyla Mr. Million In this connection it may be noted
was a contributor to iiik Count ku mat tuo spring candidates are coming
for several veins. This noem of The '!. .(,"l.' the snow
Weaver is selected for its form and
pathos and the orientalism which
characterized most of his poems.
THE WEAVER.
Sits in the cottage the weaver,
And quickly his shuttle flies,
Weaving his piece that the children's food
May come from the tas! that he plies.
In a cottage on a moorland,
Built in a fern-clad dell,
Whose sunlight silvers the heather,
He doeth his life-task well.
Scarce looking out on the sunshine,
Half-hearing the lark's brave song,
Pausing not in the throw of the shuttle;
11 is toil, it is dreary and long.
Ave. hard is the lot ol the craftsman,
When the children have hunger for bread,
Seldom his labor hath ending
Till he sleeps with his fellow dead.
Tay, life can never have ending,
But pain has its end with the just;
Who sows true seed, if in sorrow,
Sees the food grow up from the dust.
And the weaver in the cottage -Where
the sun is shadowed in gloom
There waits the call of the master;
Waits till the Lord gives doom.
When, another web he is weaving
Before the Judge shall be spread
A web that an Angel's lingers
Is guiding its every thread.
At the ether-built loom I see him,
Plying the shuttle and beam;
The warp and the woof are the weaver's
thoughts,
And the weaver's work, I ween.
And bright is the web there woven
To earth's eyes mazy and quaint
Fair-shaping a holy garment,
For the soul of the weaver saint.
The 1)111 to erect a monument to the
Nebiaska volunteers who were killed
in the Spanish war encourages those
who are still expatriated to believe
that their country appreciates the
sacrifice they have all made for it.
rIMwii-ii le ..vm-t t-nnumi iv-liv t. linen linvc
I IIV.lv; in;.v. .v,iti-w.i ....j u..w -;'
kucrociitHes and
with the same apparent premature
ness. As far as hea'-d from they are de
claring themselves as anti-Thompson
men, which gives a name to a new line
of demarcation in city politics. Al
though antithompson means nothing
to one unfamiliar with the language
of Lincoln, to a resident It means a
combination of the manly, self-respecting,
public-spirited citizen of Lincoln
against the corruption of ready-made
politics. The Thompson men, on the
other hand, have their places all
picked out and it is understood that
the places have been promised them
for "being good." For instance, Slier
ill' Trompen is said to have been pon
derously treading up and down the
halls of the Lindell a short time ago
announcing that there was not a man
in his district who wanted to see Mr.
Thompson sent to the United States
senate. Tlie next day, which, by the
way, was Sunday, when the sheriff 'is
not supposed to work, he rode over his
district and the next time he appeared
at the hotel he said that there were
several men he had found who were
not opposed to Mr. Thompson, and
since thun, like Hre'r Fox, he has
not been saying anything at all. His
conversion is laid to his desire for a
third term mid the representations
which arc supposed to have been made
to him us to tlie power of tlie Thomp
son influence to secure his ronoiulna-
t ion.
Of course the members of the
Thompson delegation arc liable to
spells of discouragement when they
retlect upon how fatal the Thompson
influence was to George Woods and
how it has blighted the political pros
pects of several councilmen, but the
redaction, that at any rate they have
burnt the bridges behind them and
suutt'cd the boats, keeps them steadily
in the course they entered upon with
so much docility.
Aguliiiildo, according to tlie Review
of lie views, is an educated man and
not a sanguinary savage. He is com
pared to Napoleon for his ability to
make extensive plans, his establishing
and maintaining communication be
tween all parts of his forces in a coun
try without railroads, uis power to
who willingly accepted the probability )1'K Kffi, .." , "!?" JIM
of death and of burial in heaps, should accomi)Ushmeiil' of his plans. It is
have some other memorial than their worth our while after defeating such
unidentitled graves. Whatever the a man to make a friend of him. That
present legislature does, or does not accomplished, Aguinaldo. more than
j ... . .-,.. ,...i, I,,.. ..r ,i, ny other man, would be able to help
do, this one act of recognition ot the 1m thepacillcation and setting In order
youth that perished in the late war of the Philippines,
should not bo forgotten. Anappropri-
atlon for such an object would be like That Colonel Stotzenburg, of the
a memorial glft-of more meaning sen- volunteers, has been made a captain
tlmentally than materially. An tin- In the regular army, indicates how his
recognized sacriilce has a tendency to soldierly qualities and services are
weaken patriotism. Human nature appreciated by tlie department in
has not yet risen to the height of be- Washington. There is little doubt
lug willing to give anonymously for VMSV ,,u. is I1 fl'10 ,aml l)Ui1(-'tlio118
. , I i i i ii .i . dr lmaster, b t the boys who have
the gilt's sake, and especially that had their little feelings punttured by
last and supromest gilt ot a young lines and imprisonment in the guard
life. The bitterest rellection of the house should retlect that drilling is
mothers and fathers who cherish the tter than dying, and baths are better
?.. .. ti.ni ii,mUti.niii.r..r ii... lllil" ftJvlM'' Th0 magnificent order
letters from their sons telling of the iU,( response of the Nebraska troops at
discomforts of camp life, or the. sud- Manila under Colonel Stotzenburg is
den sickness, and last of all the notili- evidence enough that he has boon u
cation from an otllcer of the soldier's f'l1,t,,ful11u1,,d "to'KetcommaiiUaiit.
i .1. ?..,.., t.niw.wi fnvn,-.. i.,.ii..h.i The well known question of Prescient
death from typhoid feei oi malaila, AlKitu in regard to the kind of whis-
or the cablegram of his death on the key which General Grant was drink-
battlefield, is that his Bacrllico and ing, might be urged in the Stotzon-
thelrs was for naught. Recognition bnr cubo. Only in the hitter's case it
by the state at this time of those who StltXlXt
died would be endorsed by the "gov- view of getting more of it.
LA MORATORY WORK IN THE
SOHOOLKOOM.
Ei.i.kn M. Austin.
Some ono aptly buh: "In tho teach
or's profusion thero is nothing so much
needed as boiibILIo teuchers." "Ah!
there's tho rub.' Not thut I nm willing
to admit thut teachers aro more lacking
in senso than other people, but the
work requires an unusual endowment.
Surely, it iB i.ot un eiisy thing to bo a
progressive toucher without being u fad
chaser, to be conservative, without be
ing a moss-back. I approcidto tho edu
cated, thinking toucher who hue tho in
dependence to wenr no tug of school or
Buct. Tho teacher who can appropriuto
tho good of tho child study cult, tho
epoch period or any other teaching
propngandu without getting into a con
tracted rut where eho is vainly trjing to
follow some loudor in this line. Agnin
and again has it been repeated and still
wo reitorato it with omphusiB, "Tho
teacher who iB not moro than tho
method will ruin nny mo'licd. Right
hero lies tho danger. Child study is tho
nigo. Tho teachor fools thut unless sho
makes some uttompt in this lino sho iB
not in tho Bwiin. Sho has no qualifica
tions for tho work. Absolutely no in
terest in it. Instoud of grasping tho
great grand plans of tho sympathizers
with thin movement she looks upon it
us Bomothing sho must forco upon her
self. A fud is based upon at least a
partial truth. Tho fud thut ib nearest
ttio exact truth is likely to bo most dan
geroUB. Why is it thut wo teachers uro
Boofton decoivod in theso things? Is it
thut wo aro coDtinuully trying to lind
Borne royal road to learning? Wo favor
improvement, progrcBB and bettor meth
ods. Tho dotrimentul process of contin
ually experimenting at tho expense of
tho pupils wo deprecate. Ono yoar the
syntbotic method of reading overturns
our whole structure; next, vorticul writ
ing or Eomo special system of drawing
will boIvo the knotty problemB of tho
school room. How soon will wo seo
that Buporceded by cluy modeling? At
tho beginning of tho next your possibly
tho whole touching profession tumbles
over ono unother liko u tlock of Bheop in
u rush to bo tho first to Bhout for tho
Speor number work. Is it not time wo
stopped and ueked ourselves tho ques
tion, "Where uro wo at?" Ono after
noon while visiting at a farm houso in
tho interior of tho wolverine stato my
attention was called to a largo Hock of
Bheop, who woro circling around and
around a large barn and straw stack.
Upon looking closely I discovered that
the bell sheep that all woro following
was so nour the reur ono that he wan
blindly following him. How much of
that sort of thing iB being done. It is
tho old play of Simon says thumbs up;
up go tho thumbs cr off comes the head.
Aguin tho Bupeiintendent says wiggle
wagglo and wigglo-wuggle it is, oven if
it bo in imbecile, idiotic imitation.
Some of us who aro still young in every
thing but years have seen tho pendulum
swing backward and forward so many
times that wo uro ready to generalize.
Education is still a growth, a develop
ment. Better knowledge of psychic
laws can but bo helpful. This knowl
edge can hardly como from the hap
hazard manner in which much of tho
so-callod child study is curried on. Tho
young teachor who has roud ono or two
articles upon the subject buys a psy
chology and pcEsibly reads a few chap
ters and imagines sho is equipped to do
Ecientitic work in tho child laboratory.
She discovers that Johnny Smith has
doublo toes on his right foot and that
he is tho only ono among her forty
pupils who has such a malformation of
the pedal phalanges. Theroforo sho
knows that such a multiplication of the
phulungial attachmonti of tho right
pedal extremity aro very rare, occurring
not moro thun onco in forty childron,
and further sho Iiub discovered that
thero uro three colored childron in hor
school and that thero is n peculiar odor
about them which sho has not yet
analyzed. Sho considers her investiga
tion thus far of tho greatest importnnco
and especially to her patrons, as sho can
now ussuro thorn, taking her own school
which Eho has carefully investigated,
that ordinarily thero would not bo more
than throo black childron in forty and
thut under ordinnry circumstances par
ents need have but littlo concorn as to
tho color of their childron. This ono
fact sho hiiH fully Bottled by her scien
tific child Btudy would bo grateful news
to parents. On hearing the result of
her observations tho preeidnnt of tho
county aseociation rocommondeo that
tho association show its appreciation of
hor original work by a voto of thanks.
And all tho smaller lights suid, Anion.
Tho bell sheep was evidently following
tho roar ono. This iB not au overdrawn
picture. Hundreds of pictures aro do
ing just bucIi work based on no moro
correct data or method, and they aro
posing as scientific students of Child
Study. Right hero I deBiro not to bo
misunderstood. It is no wonder that
tho sensible painstaking, sympathetic
teachers, unskilled in all the scientific
and abstract statements of psychological
principles are driven to question whether
there is such a thisg as child study, not
knowing that all tin while eho hue been
a trun student of child life. Dr. Muns
torborg of Harvard, Bays: "Thero iB a
great psychological field for us to inves
tigate in the development of child work;
but it iB not to bo mado known by uny
such utterly unciontitic methods as uro
now being pursued by thousands of
teachers over tho country." To bo of
valuo, tho data must bo collected by
thoso trained in scientific methods. Then
again it iB true in this field as in all
others, there aro students of tho Bcienco
of psychology who aro not, neither can
they be, scientific students. Thoir work
counts for naught in tho grout Held of
child phieiology. I would not, I do not,
diEcourugo child etudy. I would em
phasize it by warning teachers to bo
ware lest they lay to tha blame of the
child tho Bins and tho weakness of tho
toucher. I believe there iB nothing
moro needed just now thun that led by
tho Will of tho Wisps of Child Study,
touchers do not forget or lose sight of
the need of studying themselves. Wo
have teachers of a stronger typo who
know something of psychology, but they
consider tho child hb a bundlo of physi
cal elements rather than as a living be
ing. A being that cun lovo und hate,
think and act; ono that must bo hold by
a chord of sympathy if wo hope to do
him good. Thoro aro a few, very few,
who can collec und compuro duta und
draw tho correct conclusions therefrom.
They can and do study scinntitlcally,
and tho results ot thoir investigation
aro of greut valuo. They are tho deep
undercurrent in tho river that seoma all
foam and froth. Tho foam will blow
away and tho under How will give of its
life giving properties to all who Book it.
I remember onco standing by a cano
presB whore tho juice as it ran into tho
vat was so covered with a thick foam,
that tho foam alone was visible. But
us tho fire wub applied and the masB
southed and boiled, tho froth wbb skim
med ofr and that which wbb loft made,
when proporly roducod, lino syrup. Pos
sibly tho syrup could not bo without tho
froth, but I do know that at first
tho Bight of that groon, filthy scum,
turned me against anything that might
como from underneath. So it Booms to
mo iB child stndy to day, a groat soath
inu mass of froth. All of tho weak, in
olllciont teachers havo entered into thia
now stream of thought and by thoir
holpleBB oirortB beaten it into a foam bo
that tho real thought contributed by
tho fow minds that aro roally doing or
are able to do tho work, iB concealed
from viow.
The foro going is a mutilated copy of
tho vory excellent paper road by Prin
cipal Ellon M. Austin of Pondor, Nobr.,
beforo tho Stato Teachers Association
which met hero a few weeks ago.
N
)r
Y
