The story of a human life is one of the most interesting forms of literature. And when a man can tell the tale well himself there is added zest to the reading of it. Autobiography is a valuable contribution to our stock of historic knowledge.

Those who knew Edward Austin Sheldon when he was the grand old man of American teachers, as well as those who had not that educative experience, will find something of interest and instruction in his account of his boyhood on a pioneer farm. We begin this month the publication of selected chapters from the recently published book in which the late Dr. Sheldon has told the history of his struggles and achievements.

No Indians at all will be left in Alaska within two or three generations unless the government at once takes vigorous measures to check disease among them. This is in substance the statement made in a report by Dr. Foster, who was sent on special detail to make a survey of the health conditions of southern Alaska. The survey was made for the Bureau of Education, which has general supervision of Alaska natives. Some way or other, however, we are not so much afraid of the Indians dying out in Alaska. They have been dying out in the school readers and in the perorations for years, and yet when the statistics come in they seem to be slowly increasing. The plain fact is that so far as careful estimates go there is evidence that fewer Indians lived in America in Columbus's day than live there to-day.

The teachers who sail on the specially chartered Grosser Kurfürst July 2, to return on the same boat August 31, will have a hearty German greeting on the other side. The travelers of the German-American Teachers' Association are likely to experience an overcrowded course of recreation. Cologne will give them a banquet; Mannheim will open the famous Niebelungen hall for the same purpose; Jena hold a typical German fair; two thousand children will sing for the visitors at Berlin; Hamburg, Wiesbaden, Dresden, Nuremberg, Leipsic and other towns are making ready for fêtes; while the grand climax will come on the lofty banks of the Rhine, opposite Bingen, under the shadow of the colossal Germania. There the best singers of Germany will make melody for the American teachers.

EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION

Since the report of last month under this head the following are the more significant and important bills pending in congress and legislatures. United States Congress

Bills pending in the Senate:

To encourage rifle practice and promote a patriotic spirit among the citizens and youth of the United States. Appropriates $100,000 annually for promotion of rifle practice in public schools, colleges, universities, and civilian rifle clubs.

To establish agricultural extension departments in connection with land-grant colleges in states receiving benefits of act of congress, July 2, 1862. Provides an annual appropriation of $6,000 to each state assenting to this act and an additional appropriation of $500,000 for fiscal year ending June 30, 1914, to be allotted to each state in the ratio of its rural population to that of all the states. Such additional appropriation to be increased annually until the maximum of $3,000,000 is reached. No state shall receive of the above additional appropriation an amount in excess of the sum appropriated by its own legislature for the same purpose.

A house bill otherwise the same as the latter provides $300,000 instead of $500,000 for the first additional appropriation.

money for supplying food or clothing to needy pupils of the public schools. Also provides that lunch rooms be established and food given free or sold at cost.

Appropriates $50,000 annually to establish free state scholarships in colleges and universities in Massachusetts.

Provides for an investigation by the State Board of Education of the advisability of establishing two schools for instruction in designing silverware and jewelry.

To abolish compulsory vaccination. Extends half street car fare privileges to pupils in business schools and colleges.

Authorizes the establishment of a diet table in each ward of Boston.

Prohibits the purchase of second-hand books for use in the public schools.

To require instruction in civics in all public high schools and all higher institutions of learning supported by state. (Passed the senate.)

To provide for placing the United States flag upon each public schoolhouse.

To equalize salaries of male and female teachers in the public schools of Virginia.

To repeal act of 1908 providing a retirement fund for public school teachers.

To provide school books anad supplies to pupils of public schools of Virginia at expense of state, and to provide for payment

MARK TWAIN'S SCHOOL DAYS Albert Bigelow Paine in Harper's Magazine

At about this time it was decided that little Sam was now ready to go to school. He was about five years old and his mother said that he gave her more trouble than all the other children put together. She declared she was willing to pay somebody to take him off her hands for a part of each day and try to teach him manners.

A certain Miss Horr was selected to receive payment for taking charge of little_Sam, directing him morally and mentally. Her school was of the primitive, old-fashioned kind, with pupils of all ages, ranging from the primer to the third reader-from the tables to long division, with a little geography and grammar, and a good deal of spelling.

Miss Horr received twenty-five cents a week for each pupil, and opened her school with prayer; after which came a chapter of the Bible, with explanations, and the Rules of Conduct. Then the A B C class was called, because their recital was a hand-to-hand struggle, requiring no preparation.

The Rules of Conduct that first day interested little Sam. He calculated how much he would need to trim in-to sail close to the danger-line and still avoid disaster. However, he made a miscalculation during the forenoon and received warning; a second offense would mean punishment. He did not mean to be caught the second time, but he had not learned Miss Horr yet, and was presently startled by being commanded to go out and bring a stick for his own correction.

This was certainly disturbing. It was sudden, and then he did not know much about the selection of sticks. His mother had usually used her hand. It required a second command to get him headed in the right direction, and he was a trifle dazed when he got outside. He had the forests of Missouri to select from, but choice was difficult. Everything looked too big and competent. Even the smallest switch had a wiry, discouraging look. Across the way was a cooper-shop with a good many shavings outside. One had blown across and lay just in front of him. It was an inspiration. He picked it up, and, solemnly entering the schoolroom, meekly handed it to Miss Horr.

Horr's

Perhaps Miss sense of humor prompted forgiveness, but discipline must be maintained.

"Samuel Langhorne Clemens," she said (he had never heard it all strung together in that ominous way), "I am ashamed of you! Jimmy Dunlap, go and bring in a switch for Sammy." And Jimmy Dunlap went, and the switch was of the sort to give the little boy an immediate and permanent distaste for school. He informed his mother when he went home at noon that he did not care for school; that he had no

Getting Ready for Business

The St. Louis meeting of the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association was a successful and enthusiastic affair from its very beginning. Delegations began to arrive as early as Sunday, and by Monday noon the hotels were crowded. The severe weather which delayed many trains and caused some inconvenience on Sunday and Monday had disappeared by Tuesday, giving place to bright sunshine and a milder temperature, which was ideal for the visitors and which encouraged sightseeing and the visiting of the St. Louis schools. The social side of the meeting was as prominent as usual. The lobbies of the principal hotels were crowded most of the time, and notwithstanding the dire prophecies made last summer as to certain things likely to happen, the best of feeling seemed to prevail. If there was discontent or lack of enthusiasm, it was not in evidence to the casual observer. A few of those who have been prominent at many meetings in the past were absent, but from one cause or another this statement is made of almost every N. E. A. meeting, and apparently it is entitled to less emphasis at this time than on several previous occasions.

The contest for the next meeting began early and was carried on in spirited fashion. Palm Beach, Buffalo and Oklahoma City were in the field at the very start, and each was strongly advocated by the usual group of "boosters." The meetings were in general well attended, and in many of their features offered more points of interest and profit than can be claimed for several meetings held in recent years.

The Health of the Children

There are approximately 20,000,000 school children in the United States to-day, and of this number more than 15,000,000 are in need of medical attention for diseases which are prejudicial to health and progress.

These sensational figures were given by Dr. Thomas Wood, professor of physical education at Columbia University, New York, in his address at the Southern Hotel on the evening of the first day's session. Going into detail, Dr. Wood said:

"Of the 20,000,000 school children in the United States, 400,000 suffer from organic heart trouble; 1,000,000 either have had or have now some disease of the lungs; 1,000,000 are suffering from curvature of the spine, or some other deformity that is interfering with their general health.

enlarged tonsils, adenoids or enlarged cervical glands; 10,000,000 of them, and in many schools, we have found that 98 per cent of the children are suffering ill health because of bad teeth.

"To effectively promote the child's health, the school must be a sanitary and healthful place. We take it for granted that school children are healthy, but the majority of them are far from being the robust specimens that they appear.”

Philander P. Claxton, United States Commissioner of Education, speaking on the topic, commended Dr. Wood's talk. Of "The Need for Health Ideal in Public Education," he said:

"Education embraces all the agencies that go to develop the child into a perfect man or woman. Hence, all agencies, whatever their nature may be, are educational factors that have to be reckoned with if they tend to bring out the latent powers of the children. "Only a few invidiuals, whom we can count on the ends of our fingers, have ever attained to enviable heights in an intellectual way unless they were endowed also with good physical health."

Dr. R. W. Corwin, chairman of the Committee of American Medical Association on Health and Public Instruction, of Pueblo, Colo., and William H. Allen, director of the Bureau of

Municipal Research of New York City, also discussed the subject.

Domestic Science Provides a Meal

Not the least interesting feature of the opening proceedings was a banquet given by the National Committee on Agricultural Education at the Planters' Hotel. A large part of the food for the meal was prepared by students of domestic science schools throughout the country, a score or more of states being represented. The schools of San Juan, rorto Rico, were represented by a large donation of dulce of guayaba and pina, a sort of very sweet candy. The pupils of a normal school in Tennessee sent a large roasted opossum with a baked apple in his mouth, and whole wheat rolls were furnished by the Young Women's Christian Association of St. Louis.

Statistic Gathering

United States Commissioner Claxton was much in evidence at St. Louis. About the first thing he did on his arrival was to call a meeting of state superintendents of schools, about thirty-five in number, to confer on methods for gathering uniform state and national statistics about schools. At present each state gathers and tabulates its statistics in its own way, and it is difficult to tabulate national statistics from the state sheets.

The Swelling Numbers

As an evidence of the unprecedented and unexpected attendance at the meetings the belated arrivals on the second day were unable to obtain membership badges. The exhausted supply was made good when Irwin Shepard, secretary, arranged to have his clerks work overnight in preparation of ribbons and buttons for the late comers. At that time the registration showed over seventeen hundred with a prospect of reaching the two thousand mark.

This large attendance made the question of the location of the next year's meeting more than usually interesting. This topic may be counted on at any such convention to make a lively topic of conversation; and the St. Louis meeting was no exception in this respect. The Palm Beach and Buffalo boomers were most in evidence.

The Florida delegation had the assistance of the members from the South generally. Five thousand Florida-grown oranges were distributed from the Palm Beach headquarters at the Planters' Hotel, and when these were exhausted the applicants for these souvenirs were informed that more were on the way. The oranges were remarkable for their sweetness, and as an object lesson were certainly a good argument for the Florida contestants. Growing pineapples, shipped to St. Louis in earth-filled tubs, were ranged about the room of the Florida headquarters. One of them was in bloom; and the majority of the school people who saw it for the first time exclaimed, "Why, I thought pineapples grew on trees." Henry M. Flagler, Standard Oil magnate, and builder of the Florida East Coast Railway along the keys, was personally interested in getting the convention for Palm Beach and backed the campaign in a substantial manner.

The large attendance also drew attention to the make-up of the nomination committee, which was as follows:

Ellis U. Graff, superintendent of schools, Omaha, Neb.; Walter E. Ranger, state superintendent of public instruction, Providence, R. I.; Ada Van Stone Harris, assistant superintendent of schools, Richmond, Va.; Otis, E. Hall, superintendent of schools of Montgomery county, Crawfordsville, Ind., and W. T. Carrington, president State Normal School, Springfield, Mo.

Schools as Social Centers

At a luncheon given by the City Club of St. Louis, recreation for children and the use of school buildings for purposes other than study was the principal theme of the speeches. The superintendents of the two largest cities in the United States, William H. Maxwell and Ella Flagg Young, were listened to on this subject with much interest. The conditions in New York, which is an advance in this line of progress, were detailed by Superintendent Maxwell.

"New York has invested $150,000,000 in school build

ings and sites," declared Superintendent Maxwell. "Until we established social centers, the buildings were used but 1,000 out of 8,640 hours a year, or about 12 per cent. In 1911 in New York, nine million persons took advantage of the opening of school buildings for social activities at night, and we have just begun.

"Churches are not doing much toward recreation. Pews in churches are fastened down, so that the only use of the edifice is to listen to the preacher, and you can't talk back, either. Desks in most schools are fastened down, and the rooms are used only for writing and reciting.

"Public school buildings and public school machinery are needed for social centers. In New York we have evening schools and a lecture system. In every school in New York a lecture is given at least once a week, attended by pupils and their relatives. Persons of distinction college professors, clergymen, lawyers, etc.,speak, and they have told me these audiences demand their best efforts-better even than students of a college require of a lecturer. Last year 1,250,000 persons attended these night lectures.

"Girls have dances in the schools at nights, and on one night each week they are permitted to invite their men friends, those who are properly vouched for. 1 have attended these dances and never yet have seen the grizzly bear or the turkey trot. The deportment of these children would not have misbecome any drawingroom in America.

"We have turned twelve of our roofs into playgrounds, and about 4,000 children crowd on to each roof every night in the hot months. We have baths, vacation schools and indoor playgrounds, the latter being built in the basement of every school we are erect

ing or will erect. The indoor playground can be used every hour of the year, and hence is of greater benefit than the outdoor playground."

Mrs. Young, following, remarked that Chicago does not have the money that New York has for this purpose, but she showed that her city was doing much despite considerable opposition. When the social center movement was first started in Chicago there was a cry from the opposition that the law did not provide for it. The other side, she said, discovered that while the law did not provide for it there was nothing in the statutes against it; and so the work went on. After it was begun, opposition to the teachers having charge of the social center work developed; but she had advocated that the work be under the direction of the teachers for she saw in it a great opportunity for a more close alliance between them and the parents of the pupils.

There was a practical result from these reports of the New York and Chicago superintendents, when the members of the City Club declared their determination to advocate the opening of every school building in St. Louis for social center work.

The Examination System

An attack upon county and state systems of examinations and incidentally upon the univer