man intends to travel beyond the seaboard. (Notice that we have already ceased to consider the matter abstractly, and have begun to test everything by its bearing on the practical purpose of the explanation, which is to help out a puzzled gentleman from London.)

The second step: a mental inventory. After we have considered briefly the problem of dividing the subject in a general way, it becomes evident that before we can decide upon that we must know more fully what the subject really involves. Therefore we begin asking ourselves all sorts of questions about currency. Some we can answer, and some we cannot; but we jot them all down as memoranda for further consideration. It will not do to let these thoughts go roving through the mind, forgotten as fast as they are displaced by others. Every one must be written down, without regard to order. We shall be able in a few minutes to catalogue the present contents of our minds on the subject of the currency, shall produce, in fact, a kind of mental inventory, the value of which will presently appear.

For example, what importance is to be attributed to the gold coins, particularly the little circulated $2.50 piece, in view of the fact that the Englishman handles gold daily at home, and will hardly see it here except in a bank or on the Pacific Coast? The speaker, to whom gold is a rarity, associated with prizes and holiday gifts, may fail to adapt himself to the point of view of the Londoner, who is never without his sovereign purse. Moreover, to an American a bill is a bill, and the distinction between silver certificates, gold certificates, government notes, and national bank notes is more or less mysterious. Does this distinction make any difference to the Englishman? Only if he is interested in our national finance, or if he should happen to have some bills left in his pocket when he boards the steamer for Liverpool. In the latter case there might be several shillings difference to him between American gold certificates and national bank notes. Again, does he need to be guarded

against taking Canadian silver? That depends on the city. Or against counterfeit money? That depends on the kind of people he deals with. Will he be fastidious enough to complain of our dirty bills, and wonder why they are not sent to the Treasury as soon as soiled? Will he be interested in the pro posed reduction in the size of bills, or the coinage of half-cent and three-cent pieces? Will he admire the new gold coins, the Lincoln cent, or the buffalo nickel?

The third step: selection of material according to purpose. As the process of making a mental inventory continues, we begin more and more to consider at the same time the choice or rejection of points; and the determining factor is always the needs of the imaginary hearer. Will it be expedient to urge upon him the superiority of a decimal currency to his own cherished £. s. d.? Probably he will not see it, any more than he will admit the absurdity of the circulation in his own country of two coins so nearly alike as a half-crown and a florin. But there will be points that he will wish to know tips, for instance. Knowing that an English porter is often satisfied with threepence, the British traveler may tempt fate by offering a nickel tip in New York. He may as well learn once for all that a nickel is of no use any more except for street-car fares and newspapers. On the other hand, it will be welcome news that a half-dollar tip will often do as much here as a half-crown in England.

Evidently we are getting into all sorts of interesting questions as the result of our British friend's trouble in counting his money. It seemed a simple matter, too simple to be worth talking or writing about. There was nothing to say; now there is too much to say. We thought we knew all about it, but we find ourselves on doubtful ground when we attempt to explain the difference between the security of our national bank notes and the notes of the Bank of England. Currency appeared to be a very dull topic, devoid of human interest that is, another man's currency - until all sorts of whimsical, funny things

began to crop out, like the anatomy of the several American eagles, the controversies about the motto, "In God we trust," and this absurd business of the tips. Where could one begin? one thought with a yawn when the subject was named. Where can one stop? one exclaims now, as he searches his pockets for the suddenly interesting dollar. How did it all happen?

This surprising curiosity about common everyday money is an example of what is bound to happen when wide-awake people begin to ask questions. A five-year-old boy can ask more questions of his father about a pair of trousers, and why they are as they are, than all the tailors in ten states can answer. Before he gets through, there are two or three comic essays on trousers struggling for utterance in his fond parent's brain. So with the money. It is all a matter of division, analysis, partition, scrutiny, challenge. However wooden the subject may appear, one has only to chop up the block, and whittle every chip till the shavings begin to curl; then it is time to touch a match and see the whole thing blaze up.

We had two or three formal divisions of our currency, which were good enough to stimulate thought; but when we began to consider which was most consistent and logical, it turned out that mere consistency and logic were not all that the case called for. There was something more to be considered: the use to which the information was to be put. The division must depend on that. One kind of Englishman might like the copper-nickel-silver-gold-paper series. Another would simply wish to know if all the bills in his wallet were full legal tender, and how to avoid being cheated in small change. Two points are enough for him. Furthermore, being uncertain which kind of British subject we were to deal with, we queried various points that might have to be omitted because of lack of interest or lack of time. Many were not mentioned at all which could Theoretical completeness might require the inclusion of the $500, $1000, and $10,000 bills. Caution might dictate a warning against smooth silver and light gold coins.

be brought in.

If we had wandered a step from the narrow limits of the money now in circulation, we might have had to write a whole chapter about obsolete currency, the three-cent silver piece, the old greenbacks, the trade dollar, and a dozen other clearly irrelevant matters. Putting in what belongs in, and canceling what is not clearly pertinent, we should have left a sufficient list of sentence-topics to make a good five-minute talk or 600-word theme.

Putting together the

The fourth step: arrangement of material according to purpose. Such a revised list of topics would still be in most confusing disorder. Division, subdivision, inquiry, addition, rejection, choice, must be followed by the equally important steps of arranging and proportioning the material. Putting in all that belongs in and leaving out all that does not will result in what may be called unity, oneness. things that belong together will give a certain orderliness that may be called coherence that is, if you put the right pieces together, they will stick. A joint that is fairly close even without glue is desirable; but when it is fittel, some rhetorical glue in the shape of adverbs, demonstratives, and reminding phrases will help to make a tight job.

The fifth step: determining proportion according to purpose. Even yet, however, the thing may be top-heavy or lopsided if one-fourth of the subject occupies two-thirds of the space. That little matter of the proper tip for a hotel bell boy or a Pullman porter might easily get us so excited that we should forget about the paper money altogether. After all, the main thing the man from London needs to remember is that the dime is nearly a sixpence, the quarter a shilling, the half a florin, the $5 bill a little more than a pound and a little less than a guinea. The important thing is to get these principal units clear in his mind. The right proportion or emphasis will prevent our dwelling on trifles and slighting the big things.

So far not a line of the theme is written, but there has been a good deal of useful labor. The plan of exploration that

we have followed has had five distinct stages, which may be reviewed as follows:

PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN CURRENCY

I. Various divisions tried, e.g.:

A. Copper, nickel, silver, gold, paper.

B. Fractional currency, gold, and paper.

C. Commonest coins and bills, rarer coins and bills.
D. Dime, quarter, $5 bill, as representing the sixpence,
shilling, and pound; other sums' multiples of these.

II. The mental inventory; an examination of the entire contents of the mind on the possible phases of American currency from the foreigner's point of view; resulting in the consideration of such points as:

A. His comparison of our system with his own.

B. His most probable mistakes.

C. His possible suspicion of our paper money.

D. His possible curiosity about finance, coin designs, etc.

III. The selection of points for unity, including:

A. Exclusion of unnecessary points, and

B. Addition of essential matters previously omitted from the inventory.

IV. The arrangement of points for coherence.

V. The classification of points for emphasis, determining:

A. Their relative position, and

B. Their relative space.

At this point we may well note that we have got all this out of our own heads by centering attention, first on the currency, and then on the Englishman. We asked ourselves first what he knew about American money, and then what he did not know but should. An audience was before us even as we imagined our speech. That was our salvation: without it we could hardly have written a page; with it we could write a dozen.

The imaginary auditor and the written inventory as aids. The first rule for self-examination of this sort, which