THE COURIER
:j
Then woman Is perverse, anil just as
soon as it is not necessary for her to
marry either for position or a homo
she is more apt to marry. No free
horn American female likes to feel that
she must get married in order to Ret
a home. If that is the real reason for
matrimony her mate is likely sooner or
later to regret the necessity which
drove his wife toward him. If the
woman cannot take it out of fate she
will out of the nearest individual who
is prohibited by the code and by law
from striking back. "When woman can
do exactly as she pleases, when there
is no material or social reason why
she should get married unless her free
heart and judgment imperatively desig
nate her mate, there will be many more
happy and permanent marriages.
All that Professor Munsterberg has
to say about woman, our school sys
tem, about democracy and about the
difference between Germans and Amer
icans is very interesting. "American
Traits" has the prime quality of inter
est. Then the author has an untram
meled and original mind. His criti
cisms are sound and will be received
by the candid mind in the spirit in
which they are offered. It seems to
me that like all professional scholars,
he overestimates the value of scholar
ship. He thinks professors should be
set on a little eminence all by them
selves as they .are in Germany, and
should be accorded larger salaries and
greater social deference than they re
ceive in America. This is not so clear.
It is hard enough as it is to maintain
our consciousness of an equal calling
and service to the state in the pres
ence of a man who makes books or
original investigation his lifework.
The attitude of teaching gradually in
fects a man's attitude toward the
world and he comes to think on a dais.
Certainly the people in this country
are not contributory to that state of
mind. In Boston, perhaps, but Bos
ton is no longer an American city.
. j .i
Lives of the Hunted
On the cover of Mr. Krnest Seton
Thompson's book, "The T..ives of the
Hunted." there is .a picture of a row
of six trees. On the dense foliage of
the trees a large eye is stamped, and
near it a hand with index and little
fingers pointing to the eye. Beneath
and between the large boles of the trees
are live four-legged animals: a dog. a
coyote, a bear, a ram and a deer. An
artist like Mr. Thompson could not
have permitted himself the banality of
a hand nppliqued to a tree pointing to
a large rayed eye unless he had a
strong reason for it. It is said that no
man has a right to add to the large
number of books in the world if he has
not a message to mankind that the
swarm must hear soon or suffer great
inconvenience and perhaps death.
There are too many books on groaning
shelves now; and no matter what lit
erary or artistic message clamors for
utterance. It is not enough that a man
can say more gracefully what has once
been said. I'nless he has been on the
mountain and seen a burning bush let
him keep still and read the message
that the faltering, tongue-tied Moses
who has seen the bush, lias already de
livered. No one can read Mr. Seton-Thomp-son's
books without being convinced
that he lias a message to mankind
from the dog. the wolf, the coyote and
the bear. The eye that the author has
so daringly placed on the cover of his
newest book is his reason for writing.
To show man that the holy passion of
maternity the old masters labored to
portray stimulates the little foxes to
surprising interpretations of man's ar
tifices to catch them, and that all the
animals adapted themselves to man's
new inventions and finally to show that
the Creator loves man and beast, and
has not made the animals for man any
more than he has made man for the
animals, is Mr. Thompson's message.
For its graceful delivery he has chos
en to illuminate the wide pages on
which his stories are printed with spir
ited sketches of wild animals or their
t nicks or parts of their wide-awake
flexible little bodies.
Sometimes when a truthful man is
talking about the intellectual processes
of his favorite horse the stories are so
marvellous that much must be accred
ited to favoritism and the owner's
unconsciously strong Interpretative
imagination. It is necessary to re
member when Mr. Seton-Thnnip-son
Is telling about a favorite
coyote, deer or mustang that he is
a lover describing the miraculous beau
ties and clevernesses of his mistress.
Yet if all the world beheld beauty with
a lover's eye the hlnzzy dwellers in a
weary sphere would see beauty that
is always near and be the better for
the sight. The story that reveals the
human love and unselfish care of a
little fox for her litter widens our sym
pathy and deepens our sense of kin
ship to the world of animals. At any
rate that animals think and love to a
certain degree is true. The old idea
that animals were governed entirely by
instinct or an unconscious, mechanical
process conferred upon them instead of
a mind by their Creator, is no longer a
tenet of our instruction to children.
"Krag," the Kootenay ram, with his
herd of ewes was chased by a small
pack of wolves. The ewes" strength
gave out, Krag stopped at a shoulder
of rock where the path was only wide
enough for one to pass at a time and
let his ewes pass him while he faced
the foe. One after another he threw
the wolves into the chasm below. The
fifth anil last one tried to pull him
the illustrations whlchact ompany them
are spirited, faithful sttldhs of the
animals that the author is telling
about. In all there are over live hun
dred drawings. The hook Is published
by '"hailes Scribner's Sons. New York.
.i j .
The School Board
When, in the course of events, it be
comes necessary for a city to econo
mize, it is never proposed to cut down
the salary of the loafers for whom
places have been made in order to re
ward activity at elections. If there is
one function of the city government
that councils consider more useless
than another, it is that of education.
Itesides it Is conveyed to the young by
women who cannot vote. The places
they hold and the salaries they draw
are wasted patronage ami wasted
money, politically considered. If it
were not for the teachers think
how many more chairs would be
tipped up in the county and city
buildings, how many more spittoons
would be needed for office-holders
whose services to the city would be as
remote from need as those of King Kd
ward's armor-bearer. It is not sur
prising, therefore, that economizing
city fathers begin on the teachers.
From their point of view teachers are
useless. In the case of the Omaha
school board which has just reduced
the salaries of the kindergarten teach-
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From a test recently made at Murray, Kentuek, there Is strong n.ison
to suppose that Nathan Stubblefield, an eccentric electrician, will rial
Marconi's fame as a discoverer. Stubblefield and his 14-year-old son have
invented a wireless telephone that appears to work perfectly.
down. "None but a mad wolf could
have failed to take warning: but on he
came, and Krag, in savage glory of
the fight, let loose that living thunder
bolt himself and met the last of the
furry monsters with a shock that
crushed him Hat against a rock, then
picked him up on his horns as he might
a rag, and hurled him farthest yet.
and standing on the edge he watched
him whirl and gasp till swallowed in
the chasm. The great ram raised his
splendid head, blew a long blast from
his nostrils. like a warhorse, and gazed
a moment to see if more were coining:
then turned and lightly bounded after
the ewes he had so ably guarded."
Mr. Thompson's descriptions of the
heroic animal are like nothing else in
literature. They stir the blood like the
old tales of knightly deeds and chiv
alrous, unselfish giving from the strong
to the weak. The tales are true, for
Mr. Thompson vouches for them with
his knightly word. The spirited style
and devotion are his. and by that sign
he has conquered the heart of the
American boy and his sister and his
cousins and his aunts. There are few
Seton-Thompson boys when they grow
to be men who will shoot at pigeons
thrown into the air by a trap. The
first lesson this good author teaches is
to give every creature his chance.
Only the coward takes a mean advan
tage. The stories are wholesoir and
ers, the members doubtless believe that
anyone who can read and write is com
petent to teach a little child. There is
no period in the unfolding of a rose
more critical than the hud period.
Bungling hands will injure it forever,
where later they might only rub the
bloom off a petal or two. The com
position of school boards is an inter
esting study. As a political reward it
is one of the first. If a man has been
active in the primaries or at elections
for a few years, he naturally requires
encouragement, so he is frequently
offered a place on the school board.
The place does not pay any salary,
but there are contracts to be let and
patronage to be bartered and the man
of ideas makes it pay. When the men
who allow thi or that candidate to
run sort out the various city offices
they talk about the composition of the
school board without regard to the fit
ness of the candidates for the special
duties connected with the place. In
Lincoln it is considered essential that
an employe from each of the principal
railroads should be a member of the
school board. Not that a railroad man
Is supremely interested in educational
matters, but it is a convention of poli
tics that the railroads should he rep
resented on "the board."
.2 .2 .?
r r .-
Works
The March primaries, which will set
tle the composition of the city coun
cil, are approaching. A large number
of respectable citizens are disgusted
with the city council as at present con
stituted, but it is likely It will he the
same or worse. If the present activity
of the politicians Is not defeated. The
good, overtaxed citizen hopes that the
primaries will nominate worthy men
for couucUuicii from his ward: but he
does nothing himself to bring such men
forward. The politician who hopes to
work some nefarious scheme with u
aid of the city council does not ('in
line himself to hopes and prayeiSj uor
to activity in his own wind. He Is Ac
quainted with "the good men" In all
the wards, ami he Is making it his bus
iness to see that their chances for re
nomination are of the best. Hopes ami
fears and prayers. IT not' supplemented
by muscular energy actively directed,
are mere forms or speech. Hut they
are about all the instruments the av
erage citizen makes use of before a
city election. Afterwards lie bewails
the corruption of American city poll
tics, pays his taxes meekly enough,
though he knows they will probably
be wasted in wages to supernumeraries
holding sinecures in the city or county
building because they know this or
that ward boss and vole as he direets.
X
TeU
School grailings or markings are
based upon the accuracy with which
the seholars repeat or write down what
they have learned. The prizes or life
are won by the men who have worked
their experience, their instinct, their
knowledge ami their Inspiration all to
gether; the product is the man, the ego,
the individual, different from any other
man. What does it profit a. man to
know how plants grow, what the earth
is made of, how to speak with tongues,
or all about the stars if he does not
incorporate his knowledge Into himself?
If It is only loosely attached to him
and may he amputated without killing
him, he might pass a good examination
in college, hut not until It has passed
into liis bone and marrow will the
whole collection be of any use to him.
The boy with an overmastering tend
ency to think ills own thoughts in his
own way is quite likely to he near the
foot of the class in school and at the
head of a large number of men In life.
A schoolmaster who has noticed this
said. "I always make friends of the
dull boys in my school; they are sucfi
useful rriends after they get into busi
ness." No examination can test the
individual quality of a boy's inspira
tion. If it is abundant and it is some
thing like good sense, when the boy
becomes a man it is more than likely
that he will be one of the principal men
in the community, or in the nation.
Success is made up of foresight and
sense, energy and again sense. The
power to think independently and
soundly is the object of education,
sometimes attained and sometimes
overlooked. The grown man witha reo
utation for knowledge Is the man whose
knowledge lias been digested and as
similated into himself and not the
pedant who has accumulated a large
number of facts on related and unre
lated subjects.
JXijeXii.
St
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