THE COURIER.
v
In this wav Uic conspirators against
foreigners indicate to the Chinese
that they are patriotic and that they
die voluntarily for the love of the
cause and their country.
J j
Education.
The annual repqrt.of the United
States commission of education shows
that the grand total of pupils enrolled
iu all schools is IG.738,362 of which
the number enrolled in the common
schools, elementary and secondary, is
15,15715. The school population is
about twenty per cent of the entire
population. The Methodist church
has $30,000,000 invested in schools
which employ 3600 teachers to in
struct 50,000 pupils. ..
." Social Settlements.
Miss Jane Addams and Dr. Graham
Taylor have established, the one, a
social settlement and the other, a
university settlement in Chicago. In
most of the large cities of this coun
try there are social settlements more
tfr leas prosperous and influential. It
is proposed to help and inspire the
poor by living in squalid neighbor
boods. To set the untidy residents of
poor neighborhoods an example of
clean, wholesome cheerful living. In
the case of undergraduate students of
economics the poor neighborhoods,
serve and is meant to serve exactly
as a laboratory. Poor people object
to. being studied and their misery
;nade use of in this way. The access
ft generous feeling and pity for an
other's distress frequently felt by
young people and the conviction that
'they can change it all by giving up
something or other and by associat
ing -with the poor is sometimes un
pleasantly evident in this movement
to 'provide a laboratory for college
students. Miss Addams and Dr. Gra
Ifam Tavlor are inspired with unusual
fflfts of common sense. They live
. with their poor neighbors exactly as
(jhey might live next door to rich
ones. Tbey assume cot the patroniz
ing air, and tbey use the human ma
terial for a thesis with a just consid
eration for the feelings of the appar
atus. It is also blessed to receive but
itTequires a profound Christian grace
cot always possessed by poor people.
It-is reported that Miss Addams her
self confesses that very little can be
done for the poor, who are even as you
and I, by people who take to settle
ment work for the sake of "the expe
rience" and the opportunities for
tudy at first hand of very interesting
"types." Only the love of doing good
and of making one's life helpful to
somebody is the motive of the real
social settlement settler.
. When Dr. Graham Taylor was in
Lincoln, be advised -the purchase of a
house wherein the light intended to
illuminate the neighborhood may be
-sheltered and made a permanent
jjuide. For four years members of the
faculty and students of the State Uni
versity hav2 coptfucted a social settle
ment In the northern part of tbe city.
.They think the time has come, and I
(believe tbey are right, to establish
Ufle settlement in a house of their
own from which . to extend the work
Jto all parts of the city. The locality
decided upon is in the neighborhood
of twenty first and M streets. Ibe
university people Interested propose
4 live in the house tbey desire to
purchase. Instruction in, sewing
.looking and varieties of manual train
ing will be contributed. Reading and
.game rooms will be opened. Ibe
bouse will furnish a place for sociable
neighborhood gatherings and enter
tainments. Lectures will be given.
.There will be a "free for all" platform
where people of all opinions may meet
in friendly discussion. In a word, it
will be a sort of social clearing house
for the city of Lincoln. The student
committee of the university says: "To
do wtiat we have here outlined is out
of the question, if we are t depend
upon the university for the means.
And yet, this is a needed thing. The
city needs it', the working people need
it, and we of the university need it.
By its help we may to some extent
ward off that monastic influence of
student life which kills the interest
in every day life and people. It will
also help bring the university and the
people into closer touch for the good
of both. But since this ought tube
done, and we cannot do it alone, we
turn to you for help in the financial
burdens that this work will impose.
Firstly: Being largely ethical, it is
not hampered by the sectarian lines
which cripple churches. Secondly:
The work we are contemplating is not
done by any other agency, nor can
very well be done by any other.
Thirdly: All the money goes directly
into the work, not one cent is paid
for superintendents of work, if you
could see this work and its possibili
ties as we do, you would contribute to
it, not as a charity, we do not want
that, but as a part of the debt you
owe to society. We ask you to trust
us that if you contribute at this time,
we shall present you with a balance
sheet next year that will convince
you of the wisdom of your invest
ment." The Y. W. C. A. is doing work simi
lar in character. The board of that
institution provides amusements and
mild educational classes for all young
women who can be induced to accept
its mediation. It is a strictly ortho
dox institution and the rules and reg
ulations accepted by the board, sev
eral years ago, exclude everybody
who is not a member of an evangelical
church from any influecce in the
management of the association, the
object of which, primarily is not to
clothe the naked, nor provide home
less girls with temporary shelter, not
to amuse them, instruct them, nor
teach them the hygienic advantages
of cleanliness truthfulness and hon
esty, but the object is 'to save souls"
in a strictly orthodox a ay. The
good the institution has accomplished
is reckoned up at the end of the year,
by the number of young women who
have joined an orttodox church di
rectly induced thereto by members or
officers of the association. The asso
ciation really accomplishes much more
than this every year. The good it
does can not be included in a annual
report. At the present time it is the
only place in Lincoln where a woman,
stranded, but respectable can be cared
for, encouraged advised and sent upon
soms way rejoicing. Although the
evangelical clause iu the constitution
is objectionable to many people, they
continue to Lelp the association be
cause of its actual unreported aid to
those who. without it, might perisn.
lhe many whose principles have
prevented them from helping the
association at all, and those who have
ascribed their neutrality to the uar
rownes of the exclusion clause in the
constitution, can help with a good
conscience, if they love their kind,
this social settlement movement,
which in striving to secure a shelter
aud point of radiation in the neigh
borhood of twenty-first and S streets.
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Seventy Times Seven.
Everybody knows that however
ki dandge tie King Humbert I of
Italy was he was not loyal busand.
Queen Margherita of Italy was hu
miliated aud neglected even when
she was beautiful aud young She
was always queenly and always beau
tiful to the people of Italy and finally
supremely beautiful and desirable at
last to the King whom she forgave and
revered while be was still alive in spite
of his excursions. Since bis death
she has written a prayer, which she
wrote, she says: "Just as I thought
it, simply, and from my heart, so that
everyone may understand it." The
prayer was promulgated by her bishop
to the people of Italy.
Prayer in memory of King Hum
bert I., my lord and most beloved con
sort.: "Because he was merciful according
to Thy law, O Lord, be merciful to
him and give him peace; because be
cared only for justice, have pity on
him, O Lord; because he always for
gave every one, forgive Thou his
errors, inevitable to human nature,
O Lord; because he loved his people,
the good of la patria, receive Thou
bim into Thy glorious kingdom, O
Lord; because he was good until his
last breath, and fell a victim to his
goodness, give him the crown of
martyrs, O Lord."
This prayer bears internal evidences
of sincerity and Queen Margherita,
the dowager, is quite unconscious that
she herself has worn the crown of
martyrdom for many years.
. J
New York F.W.C.
The Sixth annual Federatipn of Wo
men's Clubs of New York was held in
Albany this week from Tuesday, No
vember 13 to Saturday, November 17
inclusive. More than two hundred
clubs are represented and ninety-five
are from greater New York. The
total membership of the federation is
more than 30.000. The convention
met in the assembly room of the Cap
itol. There were three sessions daily
devoted to art, science, law, litera
ture, housekeeping, and child train
ing with social affairs and business
sea-urns interspersed, lhe programme
is devided into sixteen departments
each of which has a separate set of
speakers. This programme will be
found by those who desire to examine
it in the club columns of The Courier.
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Free Text-Books.
It is idle to expect children to pay
a more ascetic observance to duty and
rules than we pay ourselves. Yet the
free text book and the school board's
rules impose such rules on the child
ren of the public schools. The school
books which are used by the pupils of
the public schools of Nebraska are
bought by the school-boards in ac
cordance with the state law and
fun.ished the childred with printed
rules and penalties glued to them.
The books are very soon soiled. A
neat child has no respect for a dirty
book and a slovenly child has less.
There is something in the clean black
aud white of a new book that delights
a child especially if it be his property,
Mothers used to sew gingham or cali
co covers on their children's books and
they were carried carefully to and
from school in a bag. They were re
garded with a peculiar delight because
they were the first property aside
from toys and clothes that children
possessed in the dajs of yore when
children bad few treasures. Then the
little children held pieces of paper or
the corner of a handkerchief on the
inside angles of the pages where their
sweaty little thumbs grasped their
books A very dirty torn book was a
disgrace. It bad only one owner and
he was solely responsible for itscondi
tion Tbe present generation receives
dirty, greasy, torn, schoolbooks from
their school-mates of the class above,
who had them from tbeir betters.
Their firs'; introduction to a book as a
guide to knowledge and power being
in this guise, it is no wonder that the
high school teachers complain that
tbe alumni of eight grades have no
scholarly reverence for a book and
little curiosity in regard to literature.
Nor is it surprising that tbe books
loaned from the university library are
returned written full of marginal an
notations. University undergradu
ates are products of the lower schools
and if the lower schools have insti
gated assaults on books a few polite
requests from a librarian naturally
have little effect.
But it is not the hard usage of the
books that matters so much nor the
germs of measles, scarlet fever and
diphtheria shut in their pages, it is
the reactionary effect upon the child
ren themselves of tbjs law. Tbe law
is making thieves as well as paupers
of the children. In order to pursue
tbe study of history in accordance
with the teachings of the "source"
school it is necessary that the high
school pupils have access to the
sources. Therefore perhaps thirty
duplicates are bought and kept on
hand for their convenience. These
books are constantly disappearing, tbe
pupils evidently thinking them use
ful and valuable enough to have in
the house permanently. These boys
will become mayors, treasurers, audi
tors, governors, cashiers, tellers. When
called upon at the bar or by the pros
ecuting attorney to relate the story of
their lives they will be unable to trace
the sewing, cultivating, and harvest
ing of dishonest habits. A few may
Le analytical and still honest enough
to find the beginning of their disre
gard for mine and thine in the work
ings of the paternalistic text-book
law. For the moral and physical
health of the children the law should
be repealed. Neither Teachers, mem
bers of the school-board or school
superintendents approve of the law,
but yet the attempts to repeal it have
been defeated by a silent but power
ful influence. School book publisheis
are in favor of the law. School boards
change books oflenerwben their ac
tion is not likely to be criticised by
and does not involve direct expense to
the patrons of the schools. The de
moralizing effect of paternalism is al
ways the same, but it is a pity that
the most paternalistic law in the
state should apply solely to children
before they are old enough to resist
its insidious poison.
The Pure Food Congress.
The domestic problem has received
much thought, much has beeu writ
ten concerning it, and many theories
have been proclaimed, but until the
last few years, in spite of much ado,
there has been little practical expe
riment. The new School of House
keeping in Boston has excited wide
interest in the results it may accom
plish. The home and economic depart
ments of clubs are giving time to this
question and it is sincerely hoped
that they may aid greatly in its solu
tion. The Housewifery Congress held
in Chicago two weeks ago was an im
portant movement in this direction.
The congress considered ways and
means to make housekeeping more
effective. The first meeting was held
in October, 1897, but it was organized
on paper in 1894 by the Ladies' Aid
Association. Soon after tbe first con
ference the Fruit and Flower League
of Alabama was consolidated with it.
At the recent meeting of tbe congress
tbe exhibits of pure foods, manufac
tured, grown or developed, was most
interesting. The department of
cookery for the sick, started at the re
quest cf Chicago physicians, has been
popular and successful. Valuable pa
pers were read and discussed on sub-
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