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people and things as it really is, a world which the student is inevitably bound to see and experience. His school work must prepare him for life. This is the justification of the very few unpleasant stories in the book under review. Teachers of English will find it rich in material for various classroom purposes and worthy of a prominent place on the reading-room or home table.

PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE.

An Introduction to Parliamentary

Law. By General Henry M. Robert. The Century Company. Price $1.25. The author is well known for his "Robert's Rules of Order Revised," and "Robert's Parliamentary Law Charts," which are authorities in their fields. The present volume is a condensation of a much more elaborate and comprehensive and expensive volume which the author has prepared for experts. The little book here reviewed is adapted to the use of the novice, or of students in high school and college, for women's clubs, churches, lodges, and for multitudes of other organizations which wish to conduct their business in an orderly way but have no time or disposition to enter into elaborate theories and technicalities. It illustrates practically every point in common parliamentary practice, from the standpoint of both the chairman and the member on the floor. It will be particularly useful to women, who have been unfamiliar with customs in this field, but who are ready to learn and wish to conduct their organizations in a suitable manner. Its comprehensiveness and its clarity are its distinctive features. It should find a place in the curriculum of the public school and the college.

THE LIFE OF ARTEMAS WARD. By Charles Martyn. New York, Artemas Ward, publisher, 1921. Price $3.00.

This sumptuous volume presents a worthy biography of an early American patriot and statesman. It has been written under the direction of his great-grandson, of the same name. No pains have been spared to make it at once accurate, broad-minded and interesting to the general reader, as well as, and especially to, the expert student of early Colonial times. The services of the author in digging into original sources of historical fact and tradition and shedding new light, not only upon the record of this hero, but also upon many matters of more general interest, will receive due recognition by the public and by enthusiasts in historical matters in particular. The public stands indebted to him for the patient researches and the interesting discoveries which he has made.

The subject of this important historical biography was born in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, November 26, 1727. He graduated at Har

vard College in 1748, and went at once to teach at the Groton School. Later, he opened a general store at Shrewsbury. He quickly became a leading figure, and held various local offices. He was captain and major in the County Militia. He was elected and repeatedly re-elected Representative to the General Court, became colonel and also Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Worcester County. Getting a constantly increasing knowledge of and interest in Colonial politics he rose to the high office of General of the army that was besieging Boston. The Siege of Boston chapter is full of interest and adds not a little that is new and valu. able from the historical standpoint. Chapter VI, on the Battle of Bunker Hill, is interesting and thrilling. "Shay's Rebellion" is realistically sketched. General Ward was a "Federalist" in the second and third United States Congresses. His break with Samuel Adams, and his own death in October, 1800, are closing incidents in this interesting biography.

The volume contains a number of illustrations, portraits, copperplate reproductions of autograph letters and other historical documents, sites of notable houses, etc. It is a worthy tribute to a great man by his widely known and highly successful descendant and namesake, who projected the volume, securing the services of Mr. Charles Martyn, originally for research work only, but later turning over to his able and sympathetic care the entire preparation of the book.

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MCMURRY AND PARKINS

GEOGRAPHIES

These books are the culmination of a long period of growth and development. They follow a well-defined, well-established educational procedure with reference to the subject of geography.

The one great principle on which the authors have consistently worked out the details of the series is that of adapting the materials of geography to the capacities of children instead of subordinating the child to a subject which hitherto has presented unusual difficulties.

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Devoted to the Science, Art, Philosophy and Literature

of Education

VOL. XLII.

NOVEMBER, 1921

No. 3

Beginnings of the Commercial Schools

M

CHARLES G. REIGNER, BALTIMORE, MD.

ANY years ago President Butler epitomized the spirit of American education in these terms:

"Spontaneity is the keynote of education in the United States. Its varied form, its uneven progress, its lack of symmetry, its practical effectiveness, are all due to the fact that it has sprung unbidden from the needs and aspirations of the people. Local preferences and individual initiative have been ruling forces."

To no phase of education are these words more strikingly applicable than to technical education for the business office. If the business school stands for anything today, it stands for "individual initiative." The development of a system of formal instruction, instituted and regulated by governmental agency, may be traced with certainty and its results studied with a fair degree of accuracy. But schools carried on by private enterprise and conducted for purposes of monetary gain, and not ordinarily responsible to any authority-educational, governmental, or otherwise either for the regulation of their curricula or standards, or for reports thereon, are bound to leave few or no accurate records of their inception.

It has been customary, up to this time, to think and speak of R. M. Bartlett, Peter Duff, and Nathaniel Comer as the pioneer commercial school men. It is the purpose of this paper, in brief, to present the names and activities of four other men who, too, did

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