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needle. If none of these or the like will fit us, the felon's chain should be round our wrist, and our hand on the prisoner's crank. But for each willing man and woman there is a tool they may learn to handle; for all there is the command: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."

OLD LAND MEASUREMENTS.

N the "Beauties of Nature," by Sir

John Lubbock, we find the following curious information with regard to ancient land measurements in some parts of England. It is interesting thus to trace indications of old customs and modes of life.

In many of our midland and northern counties most of the meadows lie in parallel undulations or "rigs." These are generally about a furlong (220 yards) in length, and either one or two poles (5% or 11 yards) in breadth. They seldom run straight, but tend to curve towards the left. At each end of the field a high bank, locally called a balk, often three or four feet high, runs at right angles to the rigs. In small fields there are generally eight, but sometimes ten, of these rigs, which make in the one case four, in the other five acres. These curious characters take us back to the old tenures, and archaic cultivation of land, and to a period when the fields were not in pasture, but were arable.

They also explain our curious system of land measurement. The "acre" is the amount which a team of oxen were supposed to plough in a day. It corresponds

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the German morgen" and the French "journée." The furlong or long "furrow" is the distance which a team of oxen can plough conveniently without stopping to rest. Oxen, as we know, were driven not with a whip, but with a goad or pole, the most convenient length for which was 161⁄2 feet, and the ancient ploughman used his "pole" or "perch of 161⁄2 feet, which at first sight seems a very singular unit to have selected. This width is also convenient both for turning the plough, and also for sowing. Hence the most convenient unit of land for arable purposes was a furlong in length and a perch or pole in width.

The team generally consisted of eight Few peasants, however, possessed a whole team, several generally joining

oxen.

together, and dividing the produce. Hence the number of "rigs," one for each ox. We often, however, find ten instead of eight; one being for the parson's tithe, the other tenth going to the plough

man.

When eight oxen were employed, the goad would not of course reach the leaders, which were guided by a man who walked on the near side. On arriving at the end of each furrow he turned them round, and as it was easier to pull than to push them, this gradually gave the furrow a turn towards the left, thus accounting for the slight curvature. Lastly, while the oxen rested on arriving at the end of the furrow, the ploughman scraped off the earth which had accumulated on the coulter and ploughshare, and the accumulation of these scrapings gradually formed the balk.

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"Well, look it up after dinner."

"What do we eat that begins with B?"! A simultaneous shout, "Beef;" then "Bananas," and "Butter," "Beans," "Bread," followed in quick succession.

"Now I want you to make up lists of all the articles of food used by us, or any humans except cannibals. You may hunt through the cook-books, through the dictionary, through the botany, through the encyclopedias and books of travel. Put each list under its appropriate letter, and at the bottom of each list the number it aggregates then the aggregate of the whole. We shall then easily see on what the human race subsists. The one that gets the longest list is to have a prize."

Right after dinner the children made little blank books, leaving a page for each letter of the alphabet, and set to work on their quest. It couldn't be concluded in half a day or half a year, but it was decided that in three months they should compare notes, and see which one had made the largest aggregate.

The books were a curious study when

they came in. In going over the lists a great many items were struck out, Meat being one, though beef, mutton, and pork were allowed to remain. Cake was struck from the lists, and its components, wheat, eggs, sugar, butter, etc., allowed to remain. What was left when the revision was made represented the original staples used as food.

Of course; some of the pages, as K and Q. were not very well filled.

"I think C is a mean letter," said one of the boys; "it robs poor K of nearly all that belongs to him, and not content with that, filches from S what rightly belongs to him. Indeed, if C gave up all he has taken away from his neighbors, I don't know what he'd have left if H didn't come to help him out."-N. Y. Christian | Advocate.

LESSON ON THE PANSY.

THE

children came home from school, talking about their lesson on flowers. They had learned the parts of the flower, and were talking of sepals and petals and of the colors of the calyx and the corolla.

"Come," said the mother, "sit around me and I will tell you the legend of the pansy."

"A legend! what is that?" exclaimed. John.

"That is a story," said Helen, "and there in the flower-bed grow several beautiful pansies."

At this point a pansy was plucked and brought to the mother.

"Take a good look at the pansy," said she, "and you will see that it has five petals, while in the centre, far down in the flower, is a small figure like the head of a man with a cloak over his shoulders. The chief petal, the lower one, is most gorgeous and spreads itself out to display its beauty."

The children were delighted at its colors and thought they had never seen any one so well dressed. They also noticed that the two upper petals were of plain colors and that the two remaining ones were just a little less gay than the chief petal.

"Now then, my children, you are ready for the story, and I will tell it to you as I have it from the lips of Mr. Story, who calls this flower the stepmother flower,' which, he says, is the name given to it in Germany.

"Once there was a king who had a

beautiful wife and two charming and accomplished daughters. The wife died, and after a time the king married a queen who also had two daughters. The queen grew very jealous of the praise bestowed upon the king's daughters, and did all in her power to make them unhappy. She caused them to be dressed in the plainest clothes, but they did not mind this, for they cared more for the adornment of the mind than of the body. Her own daughters she arrayed in the brightest hues and costliest fabrics, and decked them with rich and rare jewels only a little less costly than her own. Around the throne in the palace were five massive state chairs. The wicked queen made her two step-daughters sit on one chair together." Here the mother pulled off the two upper petals of the pansy and the children shouted with delight as they saw the one green chair upon which the daughters were seated. "To each of her own daughters the step-mother gave one chair." Here the two side petals were pulled off, exposing to view the two green chairs, one on each side.

"As there were five women and five chairs, the queen, in order to have an excuse for seating the two step-daughters on one chair, occupied the remaining two chairs herself, saying that her robes were so elegant that she feared she would crush them if she sat on one chair, and that she really needed two so that she could spread out her gorgeous skirts."

The youngest child in the group was here allowed to pull off the last petal, and all saw how the haughty step-mother had occupied two chairs.

"She persisted in her cruel treatment of her step-daughters until it became so marked that the king in his indignation banished the queen and her daughters from his kingdom. The queen went away in a rage, vowing revenge. She thought, and thought, and thought, and finally remembered that when young she had learned magic from an old wizard. She succeeded in reviving her magic power, and condemned the king to sit forever on his throne with his feet plunged into boiling water."

The mother then pointed out in the centre of the five chairs the poor old king seated on his throne clad in his golden and orange robes of state, and just beneath him the tub of boiling water, and with a needle she gently disclosed his parboiled legs and feet.

From that day to this the group of children pluck pansies and pull them to pieces, telling the story of the cruel stepmother, and showing conclusively how a beautiful myth in skillful hands may be used to lend interest to the facts of science and to stimulate the love of children for the fairyland of flowers.

MAK

TEACHING SPELLING.

AKE a judicious combination of oral spelling with written exercises. Oral spelling secures correct pronunciation, and awakens a keener interest in the pupils; written spelling is more practical, but is apt to become wearisome if carried on exclusively.

2. Train primary pupils on short lists of names of common things.

3. Require them to copy at least one paragraph from each reading lesson.

4. In oral spelling excite a spirit of emulation by allowing pupils to win their rank in line by "going up" when they spell a word that has been missed.

5. Allow pupils, at least once a week, to "choose sides" and have a spelling match.

6. If a spelling book is in the hands of your pupils, when you assign a lesson pronounce all new or difficult words, and require the class to pronounce in concert after you, in order to secure correct pronunciation. Then let each scholar in turn pronounce one word, going over the lesson a second time. Call special attention to words of difficult spelling, and to those containing silent letters. Occasionally call upon some pupil to dictate the spelling lesson. Require pupils to study their lessons, both oral and written, by copying the words on their slates. The act of writing will secure attention to the lesson.

7. If a spelling book is not used, in some measure supply the lack of one by grouping words into short lessons, and dictating them to the pupils to be copied into their blank books. There is great waste of labor in taking up words heterogeneously, instead of by groups.

8. In written exercises, after the papers or slates are corrected, require pupils to rewrite their mispelled words.

9. Require pupils to pronounce each word before spelling it.

10. In all grades above the lowest, make out carefully arranged lists of words

which pupils are liable to misspell; let the pupils copy the words into blankbooks and study the lessons until they are thoroughly learned.

11. Give early and continued attention to the practical application of a few of the important rules of spelling, such as doubling the final consonant before ing and ed, dropping the final e, etc. By this means pupils will learn to spell correctly a large class of words in current use.

12. The teaching of spelling should be so conducted as to unfold something of the meaning of words, and of the formation of derivatives from primitive words and roots. The exercise then becomes a part of good intellectual training, instead of a blind effort of the memory.

13. Correct spelling is a conventional test of accurate scholarship. The teacher should endeavor to secure the best results by stimulating the interest of pupils by the charm of novelty, and amusement.— Swett's Method of Teaching.

DOTS AND DASHES IN SCHOOL ECONOMY.

[AVE you ever tried to listen to your

HA

own voice? Have you ever made the unpleasant discovery that your voice is "scratchy?" Have you taught your pupils the names of the common wildflowers? Mistake, if you have not. That debate seemed childish to you, and you thought the arguments on both sides very weak, but it did the participants a world of good. Let them try it again.

Some trouble of course--a class picnic -but it pays. Let committees of scholars make the arrangements as to place, time, conveyances, etc. They will do it as well as you can, and the responsibility is good for them.

The beans in the window box are growing well, when we consider how many times they were pulled up to be examined.

The flaxseed which was sown on a layer of cotton batting in a glass of water is now a beautiful mass of dainty green.

When the teacher is obliged to compel attention, there is something wrong. It was Garfield who said that when he was teaching, if he saw a young man inattentive, he tried to throw so much earnestness and interest into his teaching as to win his attention. He felt that it was humiliating to the teacher to be obliged

1893.]

DOTS AND DASHES IN SCHOOL ECONOMY.

to demand a pupil's attention. Have you ever thought of the distinction between real and apparent attention? Much of the attention secured in school is only apparent. Though the pupil sits erect, looks at the teacher and has the semblance of attention, it is not genuine-the essential thing, the thought, is not secured. That boy who seems to be hanging on your words is really planning a base-ball game for next Saturday. That lovely girl whose absorbing interest is so flattering to you as you explain a new point, is actually trying to find out how you do up your hair. You may secure by compulsion certain attitudes of the body, but you cannot compel the mindthat must be won.

A good plan. Go out into the hall and close your school-room door behind you. Then play you are a visitor and walk in. Try to see just how the room and the pupils look to a stranger. Examine the whole effect critically; give attention to details of floor, windows, curtains, condition of teacher's desk, pupils, general appearance-hair, faces, clothing, manner of sitting, etc. My word for it, you will discover some things that ought to be changed, and you will say, mentally, "Why did I never notice that before?"

The teacher often fails to understand how much of the pupils' recitation is unintelligible to a visitor on account of the low and indistinct tone. The teacher is familiar with the child's voice, and, besides, knows what he is probably trying to say. The visitor has no such data to depend upon. Can you not persuade a good friend of yours to visit your schoolroom some day on purpose to tell you how the voices and the articulation impress him?

It is a good plan to impress upon pupils that it is rude to speak so low or indistinctly that people are inconvenienced in trying to hear. Whatever puts others to unnecessary trouble and inconvenience is undeniably ill-mannered. Pupils can understand this, and even those girls who have thought it nice and elegant to speak in a low, inaudible tone and a sort of dieaway voice begin to realize that it is not so lady-like a performance as they imagined.

On a warm June day, violent gymnastics may well give way to a march, or an action song, or even to a whispering reWhen the teacher feels that it will take all the will power she has to make

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her go throught a set of gymnastic exercises, it is safe to conclude that the pupils have no surplus energy to be worked off.

The "thirsty season is here. Pupils will want to get a drink in school hours, and especially will they yearn for it if they can not have it. It is perfectly safe to have a pitcher and glass in the school room and let it be the rule that (except in recitation time) a pupil may quietly get a drink whenever he wishes to do so. A small stand covered with a dainty white cloth and bearing an amber water set (which may be gotten cheap now, as its fashionable race is run) will make a pretty spot in the room. A's the

"Pull down the blinds!" bright sunny days come on, many of the rooms are kept too light. There is a noticeable glare as one enters that is unpleasant. Many curtains are adjusted at the mid-winter level. There is a pedagogical importance in this curtain matter that some teachers can not see even after it is explained to them. When the days are hot, you can make your room look cool, by tempering the light and securing that degree of shade which is so restful to the eye and brain. The children will think it is cool, and will work much harder and much more cheerfully than in a sunny glare.

The cocoons had hung in the windows two or three weeks. I began to think that the tenants were sleeping a "sleep that knows no waking," but the other morning when I went to school there was a glorious butterfly gently opening and shutting its wings on the ivy. He was a huge fellow, with four gorgeous wings of drab and red that measured six inches from tip to tip.

Each room in the building was allowed to send a committee of four to see His Majesty and to report to the rest of the scholars. Each much-elated committee gravely viewed him on all sides. They counted his legs and the spots on his wings and the rings on his body. When they returned to their rooms the other children questioned them rigidly as to what the butterfly did and how he looked. There were few homes that night where the story of Miss T.'s butterfly was not told. Every tree is now scanned for cocoons.

In a Primary room the other day, the pupils were having their regular "spelling down." The little folks were eager and watchful. While I looked on, two

or three did not understand the word. Instead of saying "I didn't understand" or drawling out "What, ma'am?" each little seven-year-old said, sweetly, " I beg | your pardon." And when Alice spelled too indistinctly and Miss H. could not understand, she did not say sharply "Speak up," or "I can't hear you," but again it .was the courteous "I beg your pardon," said in the same pleasant voice that would have been used in speaking to the Superintendent. - The School-Room.

TWO NOBLE LIVES.

A GOOD MAN PAYS WORTHY TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF HIS LIFE-LONG FRIEND.

THE

HE death of this eminent American, Anthony J. Drexel, the head of the great banking house with which his name is associated, has a wider significance than any circumscribed by the love of family, the friendship of associates, and the esteem of acquaintances. It leaves a deep, broad gap in the financial and mercantile communities of America and Europe, as the great undertakings of the house of Drexel, under its respective names in Philadelphia, New York and Paris, were extended into nearly all countries on either side of the Atlantic. The famous house will still stand, but the chief builder of its usefulness and power, the careful director of its fortunes, will no longer have share or part in it.

Men of thought and conscience at the beginning of their careers commonly adopt a governing rule by which their steps are directed. Anthony J. Drexel adopted one, and until death removed him from the busy, helpful path that he had trod so long in the world of business, it was his sole guiding principle in all the important and multitudinous affairs with which he had to do. That rule was, Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. The transactions of the Drexel banks, especially during the more recent years of their activity, were largely with governments-national, state, municipal; with great corporations-railroads, banks and other financial institutions, as well as with important firms that came to rely upon the late Mr. Drexel as a man of unusual sagacity and of unquestionable and unquestioned honor. If the record of the operations of this house were made public,

it would be perceived how often the latter had been the prop and stay of public and private credit, the sustainer of institutions, corporations, firms and individuals; to whom it gave assistance when their ruin had been else inevitable. This record would show as plainly as anything could do how public-spirited a man, how sincere a friend, how wise and broad-minded a citizen Anthony J. Drexel was. It would show that by no single act of his life had he taken advantage of the misfortunes, difficulties or embarrassments of any man or men, or even of corporations, which are said to have no souls, to enhance his own fortune. This record would show that again and again, and many times again, the money of his house was given or its stable credit pledged to prevent the financial ruin of those whom ruin menaced.

As a man of affairs, no one has ever spoken ill of Anthony J. Drexel, and he spoke no ill word of any one. He did not drive sharp bargains; he did not profit by the needs of others; he did not exact from those in his employ hard tasks and give them an inadequate wage. He was in active business a lenient, liberal creditor, a generous employer, considerate of, sympathetic with, every one who worked with and for him. His pride in the city of his birth was exceedingly great, as he so frequently demonstrated in the active part he took in all movements tending to Philadelphia's advantage.

This is the brief record of Anthony J. Drexel as a man of business, as it was revealed to me during the many years I enjoyed the rare and inestimable privilege of daily association and frank interchange of thought and feeling with him. For forty years he was my friend and companion; for more than a quarter of a century he was my partner in the ownership of the Public Ledger. It is difficult for me to speak of him at all; it would be impossible for me to do so if I could not speak of him as I knew him, as his character was revealed to me by the expression of his pure thought, his kindly, earnest sympathies, by the daily beauties of his life, which was so fruitful and friendly for all human kind, and by "his brave old wisdom of sincerity," for he, at least, was one man who would not and could not lie. If my affection, esteem and admiration for him were to combine and conspire to over-estimate the clear-grained human

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