INSTRUCTING THE PUPIL.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE OLD AND
NEW SCHOOL TEXT-BOOKS.
I'll® Striking Changes Which Have Oc
ean eeI—KIMC of 1 lluatrutioii—Language
Books Popular— Uecllno of the "Higher
lEea(ibrs"—The Development of 'iuiito.
In the last 20 years, educatoro note,
striking changes have taken place in
school text-books, particularly those
for elementary schools. One of the
most notahaa of the differences be
tween the VeXt-boolt of today and that
of the earlier period lies in illustra
tion. Publishers, complying with the
demands of the "new education," have
employed all the wealth of modern
processes in making attractively
and accurately pictorial almost
every subject of study to which
the application of illustrations is at
all possible—and in some instances
pictures are found In books where
they occasion distinct surprise. For in
stance, it would not seem that the
subject of English composition cried
aloud for Illustration, yet in some of
the most recent text-books on the sub
ject pictures are a feature.
To the representatives of American
public schools at the Paris Exposition,
It was made plain that, in illustration
and in general effectiveness, the
Unitd States led the world in the
making of text-books. They them
selies saw nothing to equal the pro
duction of this country, and their ob
servation was confirmed by the com
ment of foreign teachers when
examining the American exhibit.
Frequent exclamations of astonish
to have fallen from them, fol
lowed by the wish that books of such
character wore at their disposal. Ad
miration appeared to proceed es
pecially from the teachers of central
and eastern Europe—Russians and
Austrians being conspicuous among
the lauders.
The books upon which illustration is
most lavished are primers and early
readers, geographies, national histo
ries, histories, and all works for the
teaching of science. No pains have
been spared to make tho pictures not
only beautiful, but correct. For in
stance, when a place is pictured, it is
no longer, as in the older text-books,
either from the sketch of some trav
eler or purely from the imagination,
hut from photographs taken on the
spot. Illustrations in color are becom
ing more ar.d more in vogue in books
intended for the youngest children.
All these results are in striking con
wast to the attempts at illustration
made ill the older hoolcs, for, of course,
such attempts have been made from
the time of Comonious, whoso "Orbis
Rictus" is one of the curiosities of edu
cational literature. But 2U vearsago the
idea of tho abundant illustration of
today bad not been conceived, and pro
cesses had not been invented, devel
oped, and brought to the point of tho
present cheapness—for school text
books must not be expensive. Hence,
such illustrating as was done was
with more or less crude wood-engrav
ing, and the effort made today to se
cure truth in the representation of ob
jects was not deemed essential.
11l no class of text-books has a
greater change taken place than iu
geographies. The old geographies
were little more than bald-presenta
tions of political divisions of the
world's surface and of lists of names
of places. The new geographies show
an entirely different conception of the
subject. They seek to exhibit man as
acting upon his environment and as
acted upon by it. Consequently, tho
new geography is full both of history
and of science.
Much of tlie change in general In
text-boohs is attributed to a wide
spread adoption of the method of in
duction in presenting knowledge to the
child. This has not only radically af
fected the treatment of nearly all
branchesof study, but has created a
new class of text-hooks for the teach
ing of the vernacular, called "language
books." It is adapted to very young
children, and is meant to teach thera
how to think and to form sentences,
and serves a3 an introduction to for
mal grammar. The popularity of works
of this type Is very great; they are
used universally throughout the coun
try. The idea originated with German
educators.
A change in Instruction Is leading
to the decline of the higher readers —
the "flftli" and "sixth," as they were
called—and the substitution of com
plete pieces of literature for the frag
ments which the readers contained.
Publishers have responded to the new
trend by bringing out small volumes,
each containing one or more complete
poems or essays, and annotated for
the special use to which they are to
be put. Dr. William H. Maxwell, the
superintendent of schools in New
York City, was one of the flrst to
discard the advanced readers, and on
this subject he says: "The memoriter
method of learning—the committing
to memory ot the text-hooks —found its
counterpart in the rote method of elo
cutionary drill on the fragments of the
school reader. The method of study
ing a Twmplete piece of literature, on
the other hand, is, or ought to be,
soi r.etliing quite different. It does not
neglect elocutionary drill, but it rele
gates It to a subordinate place; it
makes it a means to an end, not an
end in itself. It •.lae.vs an understanding
of the matter and an appreciation of
literary beauty. It shows the child
liow to read. It aims at producing im
portant effects on the mind and char
acter of the reader. It is content with
nothing loss than the development of
a taste, founded on understanding, for
what is good in literature."
Some of the associate superintend
ents in New York City agree that '.n
mechanical as well as substantial re
spects the text-books of the present
day are superior to those of two dec
ades ago. Others believe them to be
much better in conception, substance,
arrangement, and In attractiveness to
the eye, hut no better in the purely
mechanical respects of paper and
binding.—New York Post.
SHEEP FED BY ELECTRICITY.
Aa Up-to-Diitc Invention for Fui tiieri Nan
an Trial in Michigan.
A man named MeNair has devised a
system of pasturing sheep by elec
tricity and experiments are being
made with it at the agricultural ex
periment station of Michigan at Lan
sing. In recent years nearly every
town of any size has been provided
with an electric generating plant and
frequently the wirfes are strung along
country roads from town to town.
This fact led Mr. MeNair to attempt
the use of electricity on the farm.
For sheep feeding he devised a
curious pen some 15 feet square,
built of wire and mounted on broad,
flat wheels. This pen is designed to
run in any pasture, even though it be
hilly. Wires connect it with a small
motor stationed at one side of the
pasture, this, in turn, being connect
ed with the electric wires from which
power i 3 derived. A turn of a button
and the pen slowly creeps across the
field. That is the essence of the in
vention.
Two lambs and part of the time an
old ewe have been pastured in the
pen during the summer at the station
at Lansing. The field Is planted with
lucerne, growing, thick and heavy.
The pen is so arranged that it crawls
the full length of the pasture In one
month, traveling about two feet an
hour; at the end of this time it is
switched around and travels back
again. As it moves the sheep eat every
bit of fodder, eagerly cropping next
the forward side of the pen ar, it runs
over new ground. A bit of canvas duck
Is hung over one corner of the pen
so that the sheep may bo well shel
tered and, curious as it may seem,
they have become so accustomed to
the moving of the pen that when they
lie down to sleep thoy snuggle up close
to the forward end of the pen so that
they may lie as long as possible with
out being disturbed by the rear end of
the pen as it creeps toward them.
When the pen has passed, the
lucerne that has been cropped by the
sheep grows up again, and by the tlmo
the pen has made its monthly circuit
the pasture is again in good condition.
The advantages of this electrical pen
are that the sheep are kept from run
ning over, half-eating and trampling
down a large amount of pasture, and
it keeps the sheep quiet so that they
take on fiesh rapidly.
But it has its disanvantages—the
sheep must have water carried to
Ihc-m daily—and the electricity is
somewhat expensive. Still the experi
ment thus far has shown striking re
sults. One wonders what the inventor
will do next. Already ho has produced
a mechanism by means of which the
farmer, on arising in the morning, may
push a button at his bedside and feed
all his horses, there being an electrical
connection with the barn so arranged
that when the button is pushed a cer
tain quantity of oats is let down into
each feeding box.
QUAINT AND CURIOUS.
Some statistician looking after queer
facts discovers that the aterage woman
carries 40 to 60 miles of hair on her
head.
A pretty black cat is the much ad
mired pet of a lady of SL Louis. Mo.,
Mrs. Anita Comfort. The owner lias
the cat's ears pierced, and now pussy
sports a pair of diamond earrings,
which glitter attractively against her
dt.rk fur.
At a dinner given by Count Boni de
Castellane in Paris recently, dwarf
cherry trees loaded with fruit were
used for ornament and the cherries for
desert The cherries, it is said, cost
$4 each. The trees had been forced in
hot-houses.
In Maryland a man has patented a
shirt having a detachable bosom,
which can be easily removed and a
fresh one put in its place when soiled,
the shirt having a series of buttons,
to which tongues on the edges of the
bosom are attached.
Chopin's study for C. Minor for the
piano has a passage, taking two min
utes five seconds a day to play
that requires a total pressure of
the fingers on the keys estimated at
three full tons. In other words, it re
quires about a tenth of a horse-power.
The present possessor of a piece of
land in the district of Itzehoe, Den
mark, pays what Is believed to be the
smallest rent paid by anybody in the
world—a single penny. The land has
been in his family for generations, and
escapes a higher rent through the act
of one of his ancestors in saving the
life of Count Rantzau of Britenberg
castle.
The stoves of the Bolivian Indians
are curious things. A hole is dug in the
ground about 18 inches deep and
a foot square, and over this is built
a roof of clay, with holes of different
sizes to receive the various cooking
pots. Roasting is done on pots passed
through the hole, so that the meat
comes out very much smoked unless
great care is taken to have only live
coals at the bottom of the oven.
fomp, High.
"Do you refer to your titled eon-in
law as your Highness?" inquired the
old friend.
"No," answered Mr. Cumrox. "I re
fer to him as my High-priced-ness."—
Washington Star.
Suez Canal to be Widened.
The Siiei canal is to be deepened and
widened, if Mr. Linden W. Rates, the
London hydraulic engineer, who is now
at Suez, reports that the work can be
done within a reasonable figure. The
Canal Company hopes that the great
waterway can be enlarged by the use
of dredges, which are comparatively in
expensive. There is great need of more
room in the channel, for ships have
been growing even greater, while the
canal has remained unchanged.
Mr. Bates, who is now going over the
canal is enroute to Queensland, for
whose government he has built three
colossal dredges on the Tyne. These
arc to be used in clearing the harbors of
Queensland of mud and detritus. The
largest of the trio is the Hercules, a
sea-going dredge of 5.000 horse-power,
and. by permission of the Queensland
government, it will be held in the canal
for a time and experiments made under
the direction of Mr. Bates. If it proves
that dredging is a satisfactory method
of enlarging the waterway between the
Red Sea and the Mediterranean, the
Suez Canal Company will proceed forth
with to arrange for improvement on a
large scale.
Both the war office and the colonial
office are concerned in the enlargement
of the canal, and the request made to
Mr. Bates to go to Suez was endorsed
by the latter department.
Electricity in the Schools.
In an article in the current number f
Success Thomas A. Edison makes some
hopeful predictions for electricity. He
says: "Not only as a motive power for
massive enterprises will electricity find
uses during the coining half century,
hut it will also lie applied to the 'gentler
sciences,' if 1 may use the term. By
this I mean surgery, optics and astrono
my. but greater minds than mine must
dwell 011 this particular branch of elec
trical usage. Already we have surgical
instruments that are being operated by
electricity with gratifying success; in
deed. titey have gone beyond the experi
mental stage. It will find a large field
in the operation of manufacturing ma
chinery, as the Niagara Falls plant
shows, and it. may even extend to tin?
airship, but I think it best to confine Its
uses to the earth, until these uses have
been exhausted.
"Electricity as a science should be
made one of the several studies in every
school in the land. It should rank with
spelling and arithmetic; for, the iporc
it is used, the more potent it becomes
as an important element in all of the
world's general affairs, and its value, in
connection with practical business and
business affairs, cannot be given too
prominent a place in America's future."
Indigo to bo Displaced.
British manufacturers have not
thought it worth while to study the pro
gressive chemistry of analine or napthol
dyes, says a London correspondent to
the Paris Messenger. They have been
content to leave the field open to Ger
many, and the result is now obvious.
Time was when British aniline dyes
commanded the market of the world.
It is impossible to understand why that
market was ever lost. Nothing hut in-
difference can account for it, and then
we have to explain the indifference,
which is impossible. At any rate, the
market has gone, and there is not an
aniline or napthol dye used at the pres
ent day which is not produced in Ger
many.
'fhe industry of the manufacture of
British dyes is dead, and the industry in
British India of the growth of indigo
will follow it. Bchar and other prov
inces will feel it, and it will mean the
ruin of innumerable natives who have
lived year after year on the produce of
indigo. Dyeing with indigo, however,
is at best a clumsy and prolonged pro
cess. It means immersions in various
compounds according to the material of
the fabric to be dyed.
Like indigotine. the new German dye
provides for a single bath. So confident
are the manufacturers of the success of
their product that a considerable sun
has been spent on the necessary produc
tive plant, and the new year will wit
ness the advent of the new dye. Sav<
as a specialty indigo will not last be
yond a year or two, and then anotbe
British industry will have succumbed t<
German competition.
® You re bilious, got a cold, you have a throbbing sensation in your head, a bad taste in your mouth, your
eyes burn, your skin is yellow with dark rings under your eyes, your lips are parched and you feel ugly and ©
mean, as if you wanted to kick a lame infant or kill a canary bird. Your system is full of bile not properly Q
passed off, and what you need is a cleaning up inside. Don't continue being a bilious nuisance to yourself ©
and those who love you, but send out at once for a box of CASCARETS and work off the cold while you sleep. ©
0 Be sure you get CASCARETS! Don't let them sell you a fake substitute. ®
® * SOn cors I)occ ' un " 4, 1783. wh g|
'l. "1 li.TC a.fd your v.Unlilf CAR- iSte
© : S AB ®P "18 thm perfect. Couldn't B*S- Y
• jTOMr (A M'AljSl. 111 Without them, I have used them for capv A
M k<W nSs&l 'd's sot "° tlmo for indigestion and biliousness 1 - IT
fig&Sr rokiga _ an (l am now completely cured. Recommend w ° l
® /ii :l ""7 wlvcJ ffl&aßS m \° every one - ° nce trle( i- von win bac
1 THE DRUGGISTS I
© r %££&V£Z!?r n s??>u , l VK *' h a -"
headache, pl.uplrv, (.nine after eatlne, liver iron hie, .allow com- .Imllnr m"llri c i tl e w! n? V< T- 1,, V ,n l ," , . xew " V" "< t tlu any ®
• y . w, i } vl )i. ▼*• ft well and lie well,nil the time until you put your b'welM .Uy mull, or the (IrurVci frnm ~ iw. i .iV f! . le <*"Ut.V t i ,
r iV^n^^o^o^l^k,^ t r Wlt , h a OASCAaETS lod y* "nder y nn ah.oluto Imrllliith AVxeir -f-Ttke ou™.dV
o9o®9O999®#Of9eeoo®®6o9gei9oeoosee®i9fissj
1 Tf H JFH Weary Women Got Strength
| M BJNI# aisi/ Vigor from
1 On
■ * il? II [jfffjH-K had planned to go out with her husband, but
I M | Aftg her strength failed her.
I s k w jj er nerves were excited all day, and when
1 g (jS 7 El night came she just couldn't find the courage.
k Jff I/' Jpjki|jjjf a It is the old story of weakness and nervousness taking
S| If om Si E I the pleasure out of life and filling it with discontent and
31 I suffering. It is not honest fatigue resulting from the
I daily task; it is weariness born of weakness and ill health.
The ideal strengthener for weak women is Dr.
Greene's Nervura blood and nerve remedy. It builds them up in every way by toning up
the blood and strengthening the nerves. Nothing else in the world can do Nervura's work.
It seeks out the weak spots and strengthens them. It en
riches the blood and gives it a healthy circulation, thus
putting new life into the entire body.
Strength to overcome the general discouragement
is followed by the ambition to be well. A few nights
of sound, refreshing sleep brings a new sensation of
I acquired strength. How ready now is this woman for "'<§tsryt, / 1 '
I - every duty and every \ >5, V/ h I
Ffi a - P lan for Pleasure! The V&J 'J | J ;
f] SJtra gSrOOO® O new color in her cheeks \ -y. , M $ ® -jpjj Sb
I MEttVURA SZ™eK°l wo,t
I FOR THE BLOOD AND mentsmNer- IB J
Wffllfff vura. This fl m<
j. woman I MM M
cured woman, and such transforma- I'd",
tions are occurring in every community
through the use of Dr. Greene's Nervura. hf
If you are run-down and discouraged, J f %■ "slsElj
here is the certain help. JSKK
MRS. OLIVER WILSON, of North- JP|F —fk,_ .
boro, Mass., says: INNfr L -
" I was Buffering from nervous* ' J 'ij iv' ill '
neF, caused by female weakness and /\ / \v\\ V
I nervous prostration. I was so nor- / Ifcjl VIH \ is?F*
il vous ana weak I could not go up yjJffßSofi
js a common pair of stairs without TSnftafo civ, ■ W' :
j[ stopping to* rest, and troubled to \ tL-r-^k
bleep at-nighfc. 1 took Dr. Greene's MreHWaßo. /#*> Km? "<s. XW - A
Nervura and have obtained ray h
old elastic step around the house. 1
1 years, hardly oLl to do anything. 'r\t 'i f
it has proved a boon to mo truly."
I PO D I nL-' N v£--kf -C
I orr * R - -jfi -
Dr. Gresne's advice is " ¥[& m % 1
If free to ail who seek It, *>§9 ffi \<v f-" ; .-D,, ■
1 either by personal call -S'l Ml ' / Ac- ■' ■ ,1 -> ' r
iat his office, 35 w. 14th St- % jSmfi-s.: ■ iimxt
5 Street, New York City, tfm
| or by letter through TcJ® /J ,
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jS broken in health should \
i;] call or write without \
|ii delay to Nervura's dis- \
There is much talk about the chivalry
of the knights of old and all that sort
of thing, but in many instances these
men in armor were in some respects as
bad as the Chinese "Boxers." They
often took a voluntary oath never to
spare the life of an enemy.
Dr. Bull's
ti* I ■ ■vUl ■ w troubles. People praise
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Refuse substitutes. Get Dr. Bull's Cough Syi up.
/■" —-"-*•>. M y notßlibar's child wns given
S . up, the family concluded It
/ VXv \ would beueelesH to make furthei
/ 1 shorts to save it, but on being
fi 1 persuaded, they administered
r _ FREY'S VERMIFUGE,
" \ and over 100 worms were ex-
J The child recovered.—
/—J / Clai.kb II itchock .Near Zaues
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* ■ ~^iuTX— a perfect tonic for children.
li, A S. l-ItKV , Baltimore, .lid.
tvrK.it eyes, utie SThompson's Eye Waier
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[tf((( |) ) i)| JOHN A. SAL2ER CKED C
* v Lu Cronser Wis. |
T. N. U. 8, 190 J.