exceptional advantages under the direction of six competent instructors.

It is an aim of the Trustees of the Western to select for the members of the Faculty teachers of thorough Christian culture from the best colleges of the land. The object of this policy is to secure for the Western the best and most approved methods of instruction pursued successfully in other institutions. The University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, Oberlin College, Vassar College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College and Seminary, and Wellesley College, and several of the leading schools of music,

Sophomore Shepherdesses-Tree Day

1

are thus represented in the work of the Western, while many of its Faculty have done advanced work abroad. While the College is undenominational in character, it has always been in active sympathy with the practice and precepts of the Christian religion. The Bible is systematically and thoroughly studied under instructors whose attitude toward it is devout and reverent.

The Western is often, and justly, commended for the health of its students. A prime necessity for this was secured at the outset in a healthful location. But in the complicated conditions of modern social life much more is required. In light, heat, ventilation, plumbing, water supply-and diet, exercise, physical training, cheerful surroundings, and agreeable companions as well-there are sanitary conditions requiring vigilant and intelligent care. These are matters for experts, and no expense has been spared to secure the best hygienic results. Col. Latham Anderson, of Cincinnati, a sanitary expert of wide experience and observation, was employed last year to make a thorough examination of the sanitary condition of the buildings and premises, and closed his report in these words:

" I desire to express my admiration for the high state of discipline of the institution everywhere apparent, especially as affecting the cleanliness and sanitary condition of the place. An unusual degree of intelligence and sound judgment has been evinced by the management in the precautions which have been taken for maintaining good hygienic conditions. The conservatism of the general management is also shown by the fact that tank water, as I am informed, has never been used for cooking purposes, although, as shown by the above examination, it is sufficiently pure for such purposes.

"It would be well for the rising generations of students if all educational institutions were managed with the same care and intelligence apparent here."

Every student is required to receive a systematic physical education under the direction of a competent expert. The system of training is after the method of the Anderson School of Gymnastics at New Haven. In cases of defective muscular development the intelligent application of such a system to the wants of a particular individual often secures results of the highest value. In addition to the regular gymnasium

work, a large athletic field gives ample opportunity for outdoor sports, and athletics are in high favor with the Western girls. Tennis, cricket, basket-ball, baseball, and bicycling vie with each other in popularity, and doubtless contribute in no little degree to the excellent health the students enjoy.

The campus of the Western, beautiful at any time, is never more attractive than at the "Tree Day" season. May and June divide honors with October, for the trees are then in their glory, and its bit of woodland is the pride

of the College. "Tree Day" is celebrated in the month of May, and the Western is the only "Western" college which makes a special feature of the ceremony. It has become the grand fête of the year, and guests attend from miles around. The students appear in costumes of every contrivance and color, and a spirit of fun and good will and merrymaking pervades the exercises. The ceremonies consist in farewells by the Senior Class to the tree they planted in the Freshman year, followed by the planting of another tree by the present Freshman Class. A splendid pageant forms part of the ceremonies, and there are many speeches, witty and learned, and much hilarity and frolic. The Western should be visited on "Tree Day" to be seen at its best. The grounds are in gala array, the girls are more charming than any landscape, and the mirth

and light-hearted gayety in which the exercises

are conducted realize a college girl's idea of a "good time." The Trustees and Alumnæ Association are now engaged in an undertaking to raise a fund of fifty thousand dollars to endow the Chair of Christian Evidences, and to be known as the Helen Peabody Endowment Fund. Mrs. Calvin S. Brice has lately sent to her Alma Mater, by cablegram from St. Petersburg, a subscription of one thousand dollars to this fund.

The Western has undoubtedly a future before it. With its unique and most creditable history; with the affection of its alumnæ; with its unsurpassed location; with its handsome grounds and buildings; and with its excellent Faculty, there is every prospect that it will continue to grow in its influence and usefulness.

The accompanying cuts give some idea, though an inadequate one, of the beauty of the place. The graceful outlines of Alumnæ Hall; the stately proportions of the Main Building, with its vine-covered chapel; the charm of the winding drive; and the hills and dales of the rolling

Bits of Fun

Making His Mark. - She-Have you heard that our minister is to be tried for heresy? He-Yes, it is quite a distinction for so young

a man.-Brooklyn Life.

He Wondered. -" Dearest," she said, cooingly, "I wish you were a great statesman, with your picture on our greenbacks." “I wonder if she knows that a man has to be dead to get his picture on the currency," he thought to himself. There are some things it is better not to know. Indianapolis Jour

nal.

Mr. Anstey, the author of "Vice Versa," tells a story to illustrate the inappropriate way in which Scripture texts are sometimes used. At a small seaside resort in England a generous citizen presented a number of free seats for the promenade, each adorned with an iron label stating that "Mr. Jones, of this town, presented these seats for the public use. The sea is his and he made it." - New York Tribune.

In one of the smaller towns of Kentucky lives a negro familiarly known as "Tim White." On one occasion it was necessary to record his full name. The not unusual supposition that "Tim" stood for "Timothy" was met with flat denial. "No, sah! My right name is What-timorous-souls-we-poor-mortalsbe White. Dey jes' calls me Tim fo' short, sah."-Exchange.

It is not often that the House of Commons has the chance of enjoying a good and innocent joke. But it found the occasion the other night, and at the expense of Mr. John Burns, who is far too earnest a man to indulge in jokes of malice prepense. "Since I came into the House, four years ago," Mr. Burns said, "the confidence of the public in it has much diminished." The laughter that here broke forth prevented him from finishing the sentence. Household Words.

"It is a wonder to me," said Willie Wishington, "to see how quickly the minds of some men act. There are people who can decide in an instant what it would take others

a long time to consider. I met a man the other evening who is that way." "Was he a lawyer?" "I don't know. But he had an intellectual grasp that was astounding. I met him in the hall just as he was reaching for an umbrella. 'Is that your umbrella?" he inquired. 'No,' replied I. In that case,' he answered, it's mine.' "-Washington Star. Mark Twain has been telling the South African pressmen some yarns and cracking some jokes at his own expense. One of the latter is related by a Johannesburg paper. Mark was talking about South Africa's numerous recent afflictions. "Yes," he said, "you have had a fearful time here lately-what with wars, revolutions, rinderpest, locusts, drought -and me. I guess you can go no further

with plagues. Now that I've come, you must take a change for the better." - Westminster Gazette.

The preacher spoke of little things,
Their influence and power,
And how the little pitted speck
Made all the apple sour.

He told how great, big, sturdy oaks
From little acorns grew,

And how the tiny little stone

The burly giant slew.

But the cyclist sat there unimpressed

By all the speaker's fire,

Until he went outside and found
A pin had pierced his tire.

-Wilkesbarre News Dealer.

One old-fashioned divine of my early youth (writes A. K. H. B.) preached every Sunday upon "The Broken Covenant." At length the long-suffering parishioners could stand it no longer, and a deputation was organized to visit the manse. The deputation informed the minister that they were extremely weary of hearing continually of "The Broken Covenant," and that there was a general desire to have at least one new sermon. "You shall have it," said the worthy minister, in conciliatory strain; "you shall have a perfectly new sermon next Sunday." Accordingly the church was fuller than usual, and a thrill of satisfaction ran round when the text was announced

in these words: "And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack." "Let me tell you, my friends," said the preacher, "the day is coming when all your sacks will be rypit. And what, think you, will be found in them? Yes, what will be found in them? Again I ask you, what will be found in them? The first thing found in them will be The Broken Covenant,' on which I will now proceed to speak at great length." Thus was hope dashed to the ground, and the congregation fell back into the state of utter misery in which they had listened to that dismal orator on many past days.

An Electrical Fancy

The astonishing progress of electrical science is neatly satirized by a Parisian paper, which imagines Mr. Edison, in his laboratory, hearing the news of a declaration of war between Great Britain and the United States. A young man, his assistant, rushes in, pale and out of breath, and exclaims to the great electrician : "Oh, master, war is declared! It is terri

ble!"

"Ah!" says the master. "War declared, eh? And where is the British army at this moment?"

"Embarking, sir." "Embarking where?" "At Liverpool." "At Liverpool-yes. Now, my friend, would you please join the ends of those two wires hanging there against the wall? That's right.

Now bring them to me. Good! And be kind enough to press that button."

The assistant, wondering and half-amused, presses the button.

"Very well," says the inventor. "Now do you know what is taking place at Liverpool?" "The British army is embarking, sir."

The inventor pulls out his watch and glances at the time. "There is no British army," he says, coolly.

"What?"" screams the assistant.

"When you touched that button you de

stroyed it."

"Oh, this is frightful!"

"Oh! oh!" screams the young man. "Now we can go on quietly with our work," says the master. at war with any other nation, you have only to notify me. I have an electric button connecting with every foreign country which will destroy it when pressed. In ten minutes I could destroy every country in the world, the United States included. Be careful, now, that you don't touch any of those buttons accidently-you might do a lot of damage!"Youth's Companion.

"And if we should ever be

[PUBLISHER'S DEPARTMENT]

new era compared to which those were unimportant times when slaves were turned loose into the condition of self-dependent freemen, and vast armies were disbanded after having forgot all crafts but the craft of war. History took on a new turn in this revolution, or evolution, to which almost no other can compare. The hands and hearts and minds of millions of women, born and yet to be born, stood ready for new occupations in large degree, and some of the gravest questions this old world has propounded stared in the faces of both men and women then, nor have they ceased their insistence or their gravity even now.

In what may woman engage to do best justice to her powers and most good with them, and suffer least detriment to her womanliness? We are told that there are over two thousand occupations open to women to-day, as against only three to which they could turn a generation ago. The general aspect of the world to-day toward a woman at the bar or on the jury, for instance, is far different from what it would have been thirty years ago, but there are still thousands who are unreconciled to such conditions, and among womankind there are almost as many, proportionately, who view with dread the prospect of going into the world as bread-winners, as there were a halfcentury ago. To these the first choice of occupation is one of the very first which opened to the woman in search of opportunity. Teaching is the nearest and dearest work to the truly feminine heart, and although it was one of woman's first resources, it has been outclassed by none subsequent to it, either in the extent of its demands or the rewards they offer. From the college presidency to the teaching of babes, there is call in every field for the capable woman; but in no branch of labor, educational or otherwise, can women find a field so peculiarly their own as in the kindergarten.

Kindergarten! Beautiful word, suggesting the flowers of childhood and the tender study and love and care of the coaxing gardener, who is wise beyond the point where men expect roses to flourish under the same treatment as violets, but give to each tender plant the care which, by minute, individual study, they have found it to be in need of. This branch of education is offering, perhaps, the most and the choicest inducements of any occupation open to women. It is a field in which they need fear no stress of competition except among themselves, for in it there can be none of the vexed strife between men and women, such as works so sorely on the spirits of those women who choose the more advanced stages of educational work. In it, moreover, women find a vocation which is more than breadwinning, a calling next of kin to their crown of glory, motherhood! For that sacredest of offices it fits such as God may, in time, elevate thereto; and for those who may always find their work outside the walls of home, it opens up opportunities of a depth and breadth and beauty any one might well envy. The science of child-study, to which it has given birth and impetus, is assuming proportions and revealing charms which take captive the finest minds, and from being first misunderstood as a scheme for "amusing children," kindergartning has come to be recognized as one of the most subtly delicate and beautiful, as well as one of the most important, of all sciences.

From Mrs. J. N. Crouse, the Principal of the Chicago Kindergarten College, No. 10 East Van Buren Street, Chicago, Ill., where many of the best teachers in the country have been trained, it was learned that the demand for good

Woman's Work in New Fields

When the spinning-wheel and the loom went from cottage to factory, there began a world-revolution not equaled by any overturning of an old order which civilization has witnessed. When cloth was no longer spun and woven and bleached and fashioned by home skill, but came from factories and called for a price instead of for effort at first hand; when baking and brewing and churning became great separate industries, like soap-boiling, candle-making, and a score of other tasks which had once filled woman's days to the full, civilization stood on the threshold of a great

places are sometimes open months looking for "the right woman." Further inquiry also brought out the facts that a knowledge of kindergartning is a strong recommendation for applicants for ordinary positions the country over, and that salaries may be said to be better in this than in almost any other branch of woman's work. For instance, teachers who have had but two years' instruction receive from $500 to $600 per year for services during half a day through the school year, and students who have had three or four years of theoretical and practical instruction receive from $800 to $1,500 per year. These, then, are some of the facts of one of the promising and honorable avocations open to women.

About People

-Dr. George Taylor Winston, President of the University of North Carolina, was unanimously elected President of the University of Texas. He has accepted.

-Christina Rossetti is to have a memorial in Christ Church, Woburn Square, where she attended for nearly twenty years. It will consist of a series of paintings for the reredos by

Sir Edward Burne-Jones.

-In an interview on the late Jules Simon, Rochefort said: "Although he was Minister several times, he accomplished the feat-a rarity, under the circumstances, which deserves emphasizing of acquiring no fortune and dying poor."

-John Hardy, the inventor of the vacuum brake, died recently in Vienna, where for many years he had been employed by the State railroads. He was born in 1820, worked for a time under George Stephenson, and is believed to have been the last survivor of his assistants.

-Besançon was the birthplace of Victor Hugo and Pasteur. Its Town Council recently had a warm debate over the question whether the town lycée, now named after the former, should be named the Lycée Pasteur instead. The advocates of the change declared that Pasteur had cured many people in the department, while Victor Hugo had never done anything for them. But a majority of the Council voted to retain the present name. -Miss Kingsley, the African traveler, gives an amusing account of the beginning of her love of adventure. She was at the Canary Islands, and, hearing " very dreadful accounts of the dangers and horrors of traveling in West Africa," she felt she must go, out of mere feminine curiosity. She continues: "I asked a man who knew the country what I should find most useful to take out with me, and he replied: 'An introduction to the Wesleyan mission, because they have hearse and plumes at the station, and would be able to give you a grand funeral.'"

a

fine

-The wife of Bishop Wightman, of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, has given to Bishop Hurst, for the American University, an autograph letter of John Wesley, written March 31, 1790, the closing paragraph of which is as follows: "As soon as possible you should put the Believers in Bands and introduce ye whole Methodist Discipline. But, I pray, do not introduce slouched hats; let us not imitate Clowns or Quakers. Next to the Bible, I love Common Sense. Therefore I wd never be singular for singularity sake. I am, dear Billy, your affectionate Friend and Brother, J. Wesley. Beware of

women."

-Writing of Dr. Newman Hall, a correspondent of the London "Daily News" says: "Never were fourscore years borne more brightly and buoyantly than by the great Congregationalist minister, who first saw the light on May 22, 1816. It is but a brief while ago that I watched him chasing an omnibus in the Strand with all the nimbleness of a man of thirty; and when, one day this week, he came into the library of Vine House, Hampstead, to greet me, it required a distinct effort of the imagination to realize that Dr. Newman Hall was within a day or two of eighty. No stranger who met him and conversed with him, without being informed beforehand of the fact, would dream of charging the famous successor of Rowland Hill with the burden of forescore years. His good health Mrs. Hall attributes in large measure to her husband's bright way of looking at things in general, and to his singularly happy temperament."

-A letter in the daily papers suggests that some lasting memorial of Mrs. Rundle Charles, the well-known author of "Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family," would be in harmony with the wishes of the large circle of friends and readers who hold her and her work in warm appreciation, and to whom her death is a deep sorrow and an irreparable loss. Mrs. Charles, the writer adds, took a great interest in the North London Hospital for Consumptives, near which she lived, and for many years she regularly attended its committee meetings. She also frequently visited the sick and suffering in the wards. It is felt that many would like to contribute towards the endow

ment of a bed to be called "The Elizabeth Rundle Charles Bed," thus forwarding the work so dear to her, and at the same time appealing to the sympathies of the public at large. Contributions may be sent to Basilwoodd Smith, Branch Hill Lodge, Hampstead Heath, London, N. W., England.

-Major J. B. Pond, in a recent article in the "Cosmopolitan," writes as follows of

Jonn B. Gough :

It is strange, but it is a fact, that although Gough never broke down in his life as an orator, and never failed to capture his audience, he always had a mild sort of stage-fright which never vanished until he began to speak. To get time to master this fright was his reason for insisting upon being "introduced" to his audiences before he spoke, and he so insisted even in New England, where the absurd custom had been abandoned for years. While the chairman was introducing him, Mr. Gough was "bracing up" to overcome his stage-fright. By the way, let me say right here (as the phrase "bracing up" has two meanings) that the slanderous statements often started against Mr. Gough, to the effect that he sometimes took a drink in secret, were wholly and wickedly untrue. In his autobiography Mr. Gough has told the story of his fall, his conversion, and his one relapse, and has told it truthfully. He was absolutely and always, after his first relapse, a total abstinence man in creed and life. There never lived a truer man.

-Ernst Curtius, the well-known German Hellenist, who died in Berlin on July 11, was born at Lubeck on September 2, 1814, and, after a preliminary training in the college of his native town, pursued his studies at the universities of Bonn, Göttingen, and Berlin, and in 1837 visited Athens, in company with Professor Brandis, in order to begin at headquarters his researches into Greek antiquities. Subsequently he accompanied Otfried Müller in his archæological expedition to the Peloponnesus. On the death of that eminent scholar in 1840, he returned to his native country; was made doctor by the University of Halle; taught for some time in the colleges of Berlin; became professor extraordinary there, and was appointed tutor to Prince Frederick William, the father of the present Emperor of Germany, and Secretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences. In 1856 he succeeded Hermann as professor at Göttingen. He went to Athens to undertake excavations at Olympia in April, 1864, and in 1875 was sent by the German Government to Greece, where he concluded a convention with the Greek authorities, by which the Germans obtained a monopoly of the excavations at Olympia. Since 1870 he had been director of the antiquarian department in the Royal Museum.

They Didn't Know What to Make of It

Once upon a time there was an island in the Pacific Ocean inhabited by a people that had no acquaintance with matters outside their own domain. On a certain day there was a terrific storm at sea, and among the things thrown upon the shores of the island was a ladder.

When the islanders saw the ladder they marveled much as to what it was and for what purpose created.

Some thought one thing and some another. Finally there were but two opinions, and behind each was ranged half of the people, the other half being behind the other opinion.

One party held that the rungs of the ladder were intended to hold the sides together, while the other party as stoutly maintained that their purpose was to keep the sides apart.

However the people might agree or differ as to what the ladder was intended for, upon the rung question they stood unalterably divided, one side holding to the keep-apart theory, while the other side clung to the theory of holdtogether.

If an islander set the ladder upon its side and proceeded to prove, at least to his own satisfaction, that it was the section of a fence (although he would not go so far as to explain what kind of an animal it was that was so large that he could not get through the palings and yet so sluggish that he could not top so low a wall), it was only for a moment that he received attention; for it was only a question

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of time how soon the old contention asserted itself, and the people began again the old question as to the object for which the rungs were created and put in place.

The same result was sure to follow when some other theorist placed the ladder flat upon the ground and sought to show that it was the skeleton of a raft, or possibly a wellventilated palanquin. The keep-apart and hold-together controversy was sure to rekindle.

There is no knowing how long this condition of things might have gone on had not a sailor from some far-off country been washed ashore.

He was shown the ladder, and was asked in signs what it was for. He replied by standing it on end against a tree and mounting into the latter's branches.

The islanders were astonished, but their minds, as usual, reverted to the old puzzlewere the rungs designed to keep the sides apart or to hold them together?

The sailor explained that both parties were equally in the wrong; the rungs were there neither to keep the sides apart nor to hold them together. But the sides were there to hold the rungs in place.

Moral: Very much depends upon the point of view; and, ten chances to one, notwithstanding you think you know it all, there may be a few things not included in your mental stock-in-trade.-Boston Transcript.