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important difficulty. With the pocketknife, which one of the sailors had given him when he was put ashore, he cut the long quill from the feather and fashioned a "sucker," which enabled him to secure a temporary supply of the liquid refreshment that had before been inaccessible to him.

No sooner were the pangs of thirst appeased than hunger pressed its demands. He first attempted to kill one of the gulls, but all his efforts in this direction were futile. Then he searched the shore and rocks for their nests. The one egg which he found was so thoroughly decomposed that he was unable, even in his famishing condition, to eat it.

The meeting between the mother and her rescued sailor boy was deeply affecting. At first she was stunned and confused, and appeared momentarily uncertain that he was really her son. Then, as all doubts vanished, she became well-limbs trembling from extreme exhaustion, nigh wild with joy.

Robert's account of his life upon the island was as follows:

As the Recruit disappeared from view, the morning after he had been landed upon the island, he gave himself up to despair; but his thirst soon aroused him to action, and he set out in search of water. Finding several pools which were clear and limpid, he unhesitatingly began to drink from them. To his horror he found that they were salty, and the few swallows of their brackish water greatly aggravated his thirst.

Then the terrible fear flashed upon him that the island might be barren of streams or even pools of fresh water. Hour after hour he clambered over the sharp rocks, closely scrutinizing every nook and crevice, but to no avail. Meantime the tortures of thirst increased with each moment, and the most awful fate seemed surely in store for him. The third night, however, brought him relief from an unexpected

source.

A gentle rain fell, and as soon as the light was sufficient to disclose the little pools which had formed in the shallow basins in the surfaces of the higher rocks, he crept forth and eagerly sipped enough of the refreshing rain to partially relieve his distress. But a survey of the field by daylight convinced him that the supply of water in the more open and exposed places would become quickly evaporated, and he must devise some means of securing that which had collected in the deeper crevices of the rocks. The fortunate finding of a large feather dropped by one of the huge gulls with which the island swarmed immediately solved this most

As he wandered along the beach, his

he came upon a quantity of the green bark of a tree which had been washed to the shore. This he chewed, and his terrible cravings were relieved.

One morning, while indulging in this vegetarian feast, and looking wearily out to sea, he caught sight of a tiny white speck upon the horizon. His hopes became instantly excited, and, as the speck developed into the distinct outlines of a sail, he felt sure that deliverance was at hand. When the big merchantman approached the island, Jeffery flaunted his handkerchief with all the energy that he could command. But his hope was turned to bitterest despair, for the ship passed on and disappeared from view. Four times was this cruel experience repeated, not one of the vessels giving the slightest heed to his frantic signals.

Finally he dropped to the beach, completely overcome with exhaustion and despair. There he was found by the crew of a small American vessel. The vast flocks of gulls which hovered about the island had excited the curiosity of the captain of the craft.

The sailors immediately carried Jeffery aboard the ship, where he was tenderly cared for, and finally landed at Marblehead. The sympathetic inhabitants of the famous Massachusetts coast village gave him clothes and employment, and he remained among them until her Majesty's ship came to summon him to England, where he received the honors and good fortune which have already been described.

The presence upon the island of the tomahawk handle and the pair of trousers, found by the captain of the Recruit, was

never explained. They were doubtless left there by some venturesome fishermen who visited Sombero after Jeffery had been rescued. Jeffery's signing the paper with a cross was merely a whim.-The Outlook.

MAT

FORMATIVE STUDIES.

BY SIR JOSHUA FITCH.

ATTHEW ARNOLD, who was for many years connected with the work of education in England, always insisted on the necessity of including in the course of even the elementary school some ingredients which, though they might have no visible and immediate bearing on the industrial career of the pupil, were what he called "formative."

Sewing, calculating, writing, spelling," he said, are necessary; they have utility, but they are not formative. To have the power of reading is not in itself formative." Hence he urged the importance of better reading-books.

He ad

mitted that for the mere attainment of the mechanical art of reading, the com- | mon. reading-book, with its promiscuous variety of contents, was well enough. But as literature, as means of forming the taste and judgment of the pupil, they were contemptible. He had a special horror of that "somewhat terrible character, the scientific educator," who wanted to make school reading-books the vehicles for imparting stores of scientific, geographical, and other information. "Good poetry, however," he said, "is formative; it has, too, the precious power of acting by itself and in a way suggested by nature. Hence he always urged the importance of learning choice extracts of poetry. Learning by heart is often called disparagingly learning by rote, and is treated as an old-fashioned, unintelligent exercise and a waste of time. But he attached great value to this exercise.

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"I believe that even the rhythm and diction of good poetry are capable of exercising some formative effect, even though the sense be imperfectly understood. But of course the good of poetry is not really got unless the sense of the words is thoroughly learned and known. Thus we are remedying what I have noticed as the signal mental defect of our school children-their almost incredible scantiness of vocabulary.

"The poetry chosen should have real

beauties of expression and feeling, that these beauties should be such as the children's hearts and minds can lay hold of, and that a distinct point or centre of beauty and interest should occur within the limits of the passage learned-all these are conditions to be insisted on. Some of the short pieces by Mrs. Hemans, such as The Graves of a Household, The Homes of England, The Better Land, are to be recommended because they fulfill all three conditions; they have real merits of expression and sentiment; the merits are such as the children can feel, and the centre of interest, these pieces being so short, necessarily occurs within the limit of what is learned.

"I attach great importance to grammar, as leading the children to reflect and reason, as a very simple sort of logic, more effective than arithmetic as a logical training, because it operates with concretes or words instead of with abstracts or figures. . . . Parsing is the very best portion of the discipline of grammar, and it is not too hard for Fourth Standard children if it is taught judiciously. The analytic character of our language enables a teacher to bring its grammar more easily within a child's reach; and advantage should be taken of this analytic character, instead of teaching English grammar, as was the old plan, with a machinery borrowed from the grammar of synthetic languages. I am glad to observe that in the instruction of pupil teachers, the analytic method of parsing is coming into use more and

more.

"I have never been able to understand the contempt with which what is even now effected in grammar in our schools is regarded. The grammar required for the lower standards is spoken of as quite ridiculously insufficient. Yet, is it so insignificant a mental exercise to distinguish between the use of shelter in these two phrases, 'to shelter under an umbrella,' and 'to take shelter under an umbrella?' I do not think so; and this is the sort of elementary logic which the grammar for the Second Standard demands, which the children attain to, and which does them, in my opinion, a great deal of good."

It is the belief of some modern writers that Latin and French are subjects of secondary and higher instruction only, and that any attempt to include them in the primary course is an encroachment

on the proper province of the intermediate or higher school. That was not Arnold's opinion. He thought that the rudiments of one of these languages, at least, might with advantage be taught to the more advanced scholars even in the elementary school, as a preparation for the right use of any further educational opportunities they might enjoy after leaving that school. And even if no such opportunity occurred, he deemed it essential that the scholar should at least be made aware that there are other languages than his own, and should find what Bacon calls an "'entrance" into one of them.

EDUCATION.

BY PROF. W. W. DAVIS.

"EDUCATION!" exclaimed Dr. Samuel Hanson Cox, an eminent Presbyterian minister of the last generation, "education! What an idea! Generalized, it covers all time, affects all eternity!" Education! It is the transforming influence of the world. It is the difference between the United States and Mexico, between England and Turkey. It is the basis of our Christian culture. It takes the Indian of the plains, and puts him into the shop of the mechanic. It takes the negro from the cabin, and makes him the owner of a plantation. It carries the Bible to the cannibal, and makes him a child of the kingdom.

Education works wonders. It spans the continent with bands of steel; it drives floating palaces across the sea; it circles the earth with the message of the lightning; it analyzes the sunbeam; it weighs the stars; it reads the testimony of the rocks; it throws bridges across the yawning chasm; it brings to light the buried cities of the past; it lifts the cathedral spire to the dome of heaven.

Education grasps the pen, and gives us the poem, the essay, the novel, the drama, the oration, the historic recordLongfellow and Lamb, Dickens and Sheridan, Webster, and Macaulay.

Education seizes the pencil, and the world stands in admiration before the Last Supper and the Sistine Madonna, Da Vinci and Raphael.

Education takes the chisel, and from the marble block appears the glorious Jupiter of Phidias and the majestic Moses of Michael Angelo.

Education lifts the lyre, and heavenly harmony fills the soul in the Messiah of Handel, in the sonata of Beethoven.

Education of the hand and heart, of the mind and soul! Unceasing, endless, infinite, eternal! No subject too profound for its grasp, no thought too exalted for its touch.

Moses and St. Paul, Plato and Demosthenes, Luther and St. Augustine, Newton and Shakespeare, Goethe and Mendelssohn, Edwards and Emerson.

I

Could I in stature reach the pole,
Or grasp creation in my span,
I'd still be measured by my soul;
The mind's the stature of the man.
Lutheran Observer.

SCHOOL APPROPRIATION.

F the State undertakes to aid in the work of public education, it does so presumably because the safety of the State demands an intelligent body of voters. It is known that in many of the districts of the State the education of the school children is defective, the districts employing cheap, incompetent school teachers for only six months in the year. The State does well to intervene, but it should see to it that its appropriation insures to the children in every district better school facilities than before, and does not simply take the place of the meager and inadequate local expenditure for education, which has been much too common.

The method of distributing the money according to the number of taxables is illogical and indefensible if the advancement of public education is the object of the allotment. Dividing it in proportion to the taxables gives support to the theory that the appropriation, though nominally for schools, is really to relieve local taxation. This consideration may have weight with some of the legislators in voting for the appropriation, but it cannot be justified on that ground. It is no part of the duty of the State to put money into local treasuries. It is its interest and duty to promote public education, and the school appropriation should be distributed so as to accomplish this end most effectually.

If the money is for the benefit of the children, there is good reason for allotting it according to the number of children in a district rather than according to the taxables. But a better ratio is the num

ber of schools, for the sparsely settled regions need more school-houses and school teachers in proportion to population than the more densely settled districts require. The Merrick bill dividing the school money in part according to the number of schools is right in that respect. It is not Philadelphia alone that receives less under this allotment. All the densely settled and more wealthy districts will get less. They will in this way contribute out of their abundance to assist education in the poorer and more thinly settled sections of the State, and so benefit the State at large. This is quite right. But the Legislature

should see that these rural districts do their part towards their schools so far as their ability goes. The State grant should be conditioned on the school districts appropriating for their schools a sum at least equal to that given by the State. If this were the rule, the State school appropriation would help to get good schools all over the State, instead of confirming the country school districts in a low standard of education by relieving them of all expense and sense of responsibility for the condition of schools maintained wholly by what should be only State aid, and not State support.-Phila. Press.

EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.

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DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. HARRISBURG, September 21, 1897. THE benefits which result from Arbor Day

THE

are easily shown. The observance of this day has led to the planting of millions of trees. It has made the rising generation familiar with the uses and the charms of our forests. It has drawn attention to the value of trees for shade, for fruit, and for the arts. Very many of the pupils of our public

schools have learned how the reckless and wanton destruction of forests may ruin and has ruined some of the richest countries on earth. They have learned that coal and water are the chief sources of the mechanical power which lies at the basis of our industrial prosperity. They have been taught that the vegetable growth in geological ages was transformed into the coal which is so useful in the warming of our houses, in the preparation of our food, in the lighting of our cities, and in the running of our machinery. They have been taught the relation of trees to our water supply, without which neither man, nor his crops, nor his beasts of burden can survive. They have been taught that a sufficient flow of water can only be preserved by preserving the forests on our hillsides and mountain tops and that the roots of the trees help to hide it away in the depths of the earth until it is needed.

It cannot be denied that the observance of Arbor Day has helped to create the public sentiment which is back of our recent legislation on Forestry. A Department of Agriculture has been established in which the grave interests involved in the care of our forests are entrusted to a Commissioner who is an expert in Forestry. It is gratifying to note that laws have been enacted for the preservation of our forests from fire and for the partial relief of forest lands from taxation; and that provision has been made for the purchase of three forestry reservations near the head-waters of the Delaware, the Susquehanna, and the Ohio, each of forty thousand acres in extent.

In view of these facts it is the patriotic duty of every teacher to see to it that Arbor Day is properly observed by his school. Since many of the rural schools are not in session during either of the Arbor Days appointed in the spring of the year, it has become the established custom for the School Department to name an Arbor Day in the fall of the year. In accordance with this custom the Superintendent of Public Instruction names

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1897,

as Autumn Arbor Day and recommends that the day be observed by the planting of trees and by other exercises designed to give our pupils helpful information concerning our trees and forests.

NATHAN C. Schaeffer,
Supt. Public Instruction.

IN a group of gentlemen recently, in one of our inland towns, the subject of conversation was the variety and abundance of choice fruit, of which all had agreeable knowledge, and especially the very fine peaches that have of recent years been attracting attention in that

locality. Said one of them, "We did | Superintendents and of the Institutes not have such fruit, nor so much of it, ten or fifteen years ago." Another replied, "And it is because of the interest taken in Arbor Day that we have it now. I know that to be true in my own case, as well as in the case of others whom I could name." "I had never thought of it in that way," replied the first speaker, "but I believe you are right." As the parties talked over the matter for awhile longer, in the light of this novel suggestion, which was a new thought to all but the first speaker, they all agreed that Arbor Day must be credited with much of the improvement upon which they had been congratulating themselves. These changed conditions come about slowly, and they have been observed with hearty approval in many localities.

Let the good work go on, and become universal. Trees will grow if they are well planted, and to plant them is to observe one of the most profitable days in the round of the year-a day that has in it wise forethought for the morrow.

The appointment of Friday, October 22nd, as our Autumn Arbor Day again calls attention to the subject of treeplanting, and affords another opportunity to emphasize in the school room thoughts appropriate to the day, and to take a census of those who have already planted trees, who have never planted trees, who are resolved to begin the planting of trees, and who are non-committal on the subject or belong to the great army of those who leave all such good work to other people. The law of habit is wellnigh omnipotent with this last class of persons, whether old or young. They seldom do anything that they have not done before, and to get them into the way of doing things they must be "caught young.' Let us, therefore, catch them young, and get the boys and girls started, and then try to keep them thinking, and talking, and moving, and acting, on these lines, and great results will follow.

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Long live Arbor Day! If this be the sentiment of the schools-and it depends largely upon Superintendent and teachers whether or not it shall be so-all will go well; the forests will be renewed; and our fruits, in quality and variety and abundance, will rival if not surpass those of the mystic Garden of Eden.

It was thought, at the meeting of the State Association, that a number of the

would be desirous of taking action, during the present Institute season, to secure the portrait of Dr. Thomas H. Burrowes for their schools, and the matter was commended to their attention by the Association. To some parts of the State this portrait has been sent in large numbers, and it is upon the walls everywhere. Fifteen thousand or more copies have thus far been distributed. We would be glad to make the number at least twenty thousand. The outlay of the Memorial Committee to date has been about $4150, the receipts $3434.50, leaving a deficit of a little more than $700, towards which the Association generously voted $100, thus reducing it by that amount. The Committee owes nothing but good-will to anybody, all its bills having been promptly paid; but in Pennsylvania there is no reason for any deficit whatever in such a fund as this in honor of him who must always stand as the foremost Common School man in the history of the Commonwealth. Let us put his strong face into school rooms everywhere throughout his native State, in a spirit of pride in the noble history of these schools, and of gratitude to those who have contributed in so large a measure to their success. Superintendents and Institutes desirous of securing these portraits for their schools will address J. P. McCaskey, chairman of the committee, with whom liberal arrangements can be made for their supply. They may also be had handsomely framed at a low rate, and in any number desired to supply the schools of a town or township. The proper ornamentation of a school should not be disregarded, it being a matter of hardly less importance than apparatus and text-books.

WE have had the pleasure of hearing Dr. J. L. McLellan, author of the "Psychology of Number" and principal of the Ontario Normal College, at Hamilton, Canada, deliver a course of lectures before an institute, upon the study and teaching of literature, which was very suggestive and profitable and greatly enjoyed by the teachers. This gentleman has been one of the leading instructors at a few of our institutes. We trust that his engagements at home are such that he can be heard more frequently in Pennsylvania. The students at the Ontario Normal College are largely university men,

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