refinements. To neglect necessary preparation for happy and useful life in order to acquire unnecessary scholastic training is simply folly of a suicidal sort. As a for lack of time, or means, or inclination, can not become scholars in the university sense, in any case, and to set up such a standard as a common one for girls to strive to attain, seems little less than a waste of the world's most precious commodity-good womanly women. The woman is of greater worth to the world than the scholar. pany for herself. It is incapacity in this direction which makes gadabouts of some women, and melancholy-maniacs of others. That a condition so certain to exist is not provided for in education is a griev-matter of fact the great majority of women, ous wrong and cruelty. In the training already suggested as a means of giving women skill in conversation, we have the chief conditions of escape from ennui. The woman who reads her newspaper every day, and the magazines every month, and who maintains her acquaintance with books and her love for them, is not apt to find time dragging heavily on her hands. If to this she adds an intelligent interest in the affairs of the world, in education, charity, and those great political questions which involve the welfare of the race, or of classes and nations, she will always have occupation enough for her mind and heart, and will always be the best of company for herself, or for any other intelligent human being. In our scheme of education for girls, therefore, we would make everything subordinate to the one purpose of fitting them to lead the lives of women contentedly in happiness and usefulness and all grace; we would seek first of all to make women of them, women capable of doing the duties of a woman's life becomingly and well, and of enjoying that life. To that end we would make it a first care to give them good health and strong constitu- | tions; secondly, to train them thoroughly in all domestic arts; thirdly, to cultivate the æsthetic side of their natures, in order that they may know how to minister to beauty; fourthly, to train them to right ethical principles and impulses, and cultivate in them a genuine love of home and its duties; finally, we would cultivate in every girl such sympathies and tastes as are necessary to the healthful occupation of her mind and the development of her conversational powers; that is to say, we would lead her to a love of letters, of music and art, and to a reasonable interest in the affairs of mankind. Such, we think, is, in outline and substance, the education which common-sense must prompt us to give to our girls by way of preparation for that matronly life which each of them will most probably lead. If to this preparation for life any girl chooses and is able to add scholastic attainments, there can be no objection; but these are the educational necessaries of life, while scholastic attainments are life's In addition to this preparation for the life which each woman is most likely to lead, there should be in every case some preparation made for a contingency which may become a fact in any woman's life-the contingency, namely, of impoverished self-dependence. No one will dispute the abstract assertion that any given girl may some day have herself and perhaps her family to support; and yet our schemes of education for girls are framed precisely as if this were not and could not be true. As a rule no provision whatever is made for such a contingency in the education of girls, no recognition whatever is given to the fact that the chance exists. shut our eyes to the danger; we hope that the ill may never come, and we put the thought of it away from us. In brief, we trust to luck, and that is a most unwiseI was about to say an idiotic-thing to do. We Each one of us has known women to whom this mischance has happened, and each one of us knows that it may happen to the daughter whom we tenderly cherish, yet we put no arms in her hands with which to fight this danger; we equip her for every need except this sorest of all needs; we leave her at the mercy of chance, knowing that the time may come when she whom we have not taught to do any bread-winning work will have need of bread, and will know no way in which to get it except through dependence, beggary, or worse. She can teach? Yes, if she can find some politician to secure an appointment for her. She can prick back poverty with the point of her needle? Yes, at the rate of seventy-five cents a week, or, if she is a skillful needle-woman, at twice or thrice that pittance. Is it not beyond comprehension that intelligent and affectionate fathers, knowing the dreadful possibilities that lie before daughters whom they love with fond until my friend declared, in a most impressive manner: "The Americans, sir, are naturally a musical people, but the kind of music which shall kindle their hearts to a divine rapture has not yet been discovered. When it is, they will rise responsive to it like one man.' 66 est indulgence, should neglect to take the | on his box, but he did not open his eyes simplest precaution in their behalf? We are a dull, blind, precedent-loving set of animals, we human beings. We neglect this plain duty, at this terrible risk, simply because such has been the custom. Some few of us have made up our minds to set this cruel custom at defiance, and to give our girls the means of escape from this danger. It is our creed that every education is fatally defective which does not include definite skill in some art or handicraft or knowledge with which bread and shelter may be certainly won in case of need. If the necessity for putting such skill to use never arises, no harm is done, but good rather, even in that case, because the consciousness of ability to do battle with poverty frees its possessor from apprehension, and adds to that confident sense of security without which contentment is impossible. All men recognize this fact in the case of boys; its recognition in the case of girls is not one whit less necessary. It seems to me at least that every girl is grievously wronged who is suffered to grow up to womanhood and to enter the world without some marketable skill. AUNT MARIA AND THE AUTOPHONE. You're right there, stranger," said the elderly party, stretching himself. "That's just what I used to say to the old woman. I said, 'Ma, don't worry about Aunt Maria'-Aunt Maria's the old woman's sister, you see; she lives with us, and takes care of the children, 'specially John Henry-'don't worry about Maria. It ain't that there isn't any music in her soul, but you ha'n't found the right instrument yet.' Ma smiled kind of melancholy like, and allowed that she didn't believe there was any music on arth that'd please her sister. 'Then just wait,' says I, 'for some other place;' but ma mumbled out something about she'd like to see the effect of a harp upon Maria. I wanted to cheer her up a little (the old woman looks a leetle too much on the dark side); so says I, 'Well, ma, if the harp don't work, perhaps they'll try her with a sackbut, or a timbrel, or some of them 'ere Old Testament instruments, and like as not they'll fetch her with one of them.' "You see, stranger, we're the musicalOME time since I had occasion to see est family in the whole county. When I a from the shabby little station on the hill west of the town. By some mistake we arrived there a half-hour too early, and found the waiting room occupied by a single person-an elderly farmer evidently-who was dozing on a box drawn close to the whitewashed stove. My friend albeit only a commercial traveller for the Chicago firm of Butcher, Packer, and Co., dealers in pressed meats, hams, etc.--prided himself greatly on his love for music and poetry; but as his models were Wagner and Browning, our discussions were always stormy and fruitless. He had finally given up all efforts to make me sympathize with him in regard to the latter, but still hoped to convert me to his own views in respect to the former. as we too drew near the stove-for it was a raw December day-my friend was just concluding an enthusiastic reference to "the music of the future." His eloquence had once or twice the effect of making the other occupant of the room move uneasily So 'Abner,' says she, 'I kin do without a rag carpet in the kitchin, but I can't live without a melodjun in the parlor.' The "So we had a melodjun in the parlor, and the children came naturally by their love for music. Why, bless your soul! I may say they took to it with their first breaths, and kept it up always after. girls had the melodjun, and the boys had everything from a willow whistle to a fiddle, and when Marthy and Stella was draggin' a duet out of the melodjun in the parlor, and Jehiel and Jonathan scrapin' out the 'Arkansaw Traveller' in the kitchin on a fiddle and banjo, it was a musical abode. "Everything went along all right until Aunt Maria came. Lordy! how that woman did hate music! Nobody had any peace in the house, and what's the worst, a sort of bad luck came over the harmless instruments themselves. Jonathan's fiddle strings was always getting broke before he'd half tuned up, and the pesky melo djun took to leaking so that both gals to- | Maria; she straightened up and glared at gether, one on the pedals and the other on that innocent child as if she wished he the keys, could hardly pump 'Old Hun- had lived in Palestine about the year one, dred' out of her Sundays. Some did sus- and bolted out of the room without a pect Maria, but," said the old man, look- word. ing cautiously around, "I don't think she was altogether to blame; howsomever," with a significant wink, "she got the credit of it. "When John Henry-he's the youngest-came, Maria's heart seemed to kind of soften. His first drum lasted a week, and I noticed she never had anything to say agin his vocal accomplishments. Well, when John Henry was four years old, the old woman began to look around and see what instrument he'd be likely to take to. Aunt Maria said it was a burning shame to make that innocent child a stumblin'block in the way of Christians, but I said I guessed John Henry could stand it-if we could. "The next day ma went down to the village to sell her butter and eggs, and when she came home at night she had a small bundle, which she put away in the parlor until after supper. I know'd what it was-leastways, not exactly, but I guessed by the way the old woman slung the dishes on the table that night that we should hear some news soon. When the dishes was washed up, 'Ma,' says I, 'didn't I see you bring in a bundle jest now?' 'You did, Abner,' says she, and she smiled from one ear to the other. Abner,' says she, 'I've found an instrument at last for John Henry.' Aunt Maria fetched a kind of cross between a sigh and a groan, but nobody paid any attention to her. 'Well, ma,' says I, 'let's have it.' So out she brought the bundle, and there was a sort of an accordjun on two legs, and a lot of bits of white paper as full of holes as the old woman's colander. We all got around the table while ma showed us how it worked. 'You see,' says she, 'you jest poke in the paper-here, John Henry, this is your'n, and you shall have the first try; there you shove the paper in there, and work your hand so, and it plays all the music on the paper.' 'Ma,' says I, 'do you mean to say, as a member in good and regular standin', that that 'ere instrument plays them holes?' But John Henry had grabbed the instrument, and jest as sure as I set here, stranger, that four-year-old child squeezed out 'Old Hundred' jest as solemn and a derned sight faster than ma's melodjun. But you oughter see Aunt "Well, stranger, it was a sight to see John Henry on the kitchin floor with that 'ere thing between his little knees, and playing the 'Sweet By-and-By' in a way to make tears come to everybody's eyes, exceptin' always Aunt Maria's. For a month our house was the most popularest house at the Corners, and John Henry gave a free concert every night for an hour before he went to bed. The strangest thing," said the old man, in a mysterious tone, was that that 'ere instrument kept in playin' order all the time, whether it was because John Henry took it to bed with him every night, or whether it was from the superior build of the consarn, I can't say. Perhaps" with a wink "Aunt Maria didn't understand its innerd construction as well as she did a fiddle or a melodjun. 66 "Well, as I say, the instrument kept in playin' order all winter; the music, 'specially the pop'lar tunes, was a little the worse for wear, but that's all. 'I want to be an angel' and one or two others got tored in two about the middle of March, and John Henry asked Aunt Maria to mend them one day, and, bless you! she loved that darlin' child too much to refuse him anything, so she pasted the tunes together as well as she could, and next day John Henry took his instrument to Sunday-school. You see, he'd taken it a number of times, and the teacher thought it kind of 'livened up the exercises. But this day, jest as John Henry was slowly and surely grindin' out 'I want to be an angel,' and had got to the middle of the tune (where it was tored, you see), when all at onst out he came with 'Whoa, Emma!' and the innocent child was too much surprised to stop until the teacher suspended the musical exercises for that day. John Henry didn't git no prize that year, but I hold that Aunt Maria was morally responsible. You see, she had so little music in her-leastwise we thought so thenthat she couldn't even be trusted to paste two tunes together. "Howsomever, as spring came on, we thought we kind of noticed a change in Maria. It wasn't that she was gittin' musical-that was, perhaps, too much to expect on this arth, as I said to ma-but she was growin' mellow somehow. I think it was all owin' to John Henry's tender influence. You ask how I knew she was gittin' mellow, stranger? Well, you see, John Henry's instrument still kept in workin' order. She and John Henry would disappear by the hour, and what they did no one knew. Ma said one day she thought she had heard John Henry playin' on his instrument in Maria's room, leastwise she had heard a noise there, but it didn't sound like any instrument in that house. 'Perhaps,' said I, 'it was Maria singin'.' But the more I thought it over, the more mysterious the thing seemed, and I made up my mind I'd git to the bottom of it. So one day, when ma and the girls had gone to town, and the boys was hoein' potatoes, I jest slipped into the house and listened awhile. Byand-by I thought I heard a sound in the direction of Maria's room, and so I took off my boots and crawled softly up the stairs; but, lordy! I might jest as well have kept them on, for when I got up near the door I heard the most dreadful noises you ever dreamed of. If I had had any hair, it would have stood up and run off my head. I first thought that Maria was torturin' that innocent child, and was goin' to bust in the door, but I thought I'd first take a peep through the key-hole. What do you think I saw, stranger? John Henry was in his favorite attitude in the middle of the floor, workin' the instrument with one hand and feedin' the music in with the other, and Aunt Maria sat in her rockin'-chair, rockin' slowly to and fro, and keepin' time with her hands. Her glasses was pushed up on her forrard, and tears of joy was runnin' down her cheeks, and John Henry kept playin' faster and faster; but what music! No tune that I had ever hearn -and we had all sorts in that house at one time or anuther-came from that instrument. I thought something was wrong, and in I rushed. Aunt Maria cried, 'Oh!' and fell back in her chair, lookin' dreadful sheepish; but John Henry! Stranger, what do you think that lamb did? Why, he jest winked at his pa, and when I asked him what that infernal row meant, he said, kind of under his breath, 'Why, you see, pa, one day I got one of them tunes in hindside foremost, and Aunt Maria was so pleased that I've gone on that way ever since, hindside foremost or upside down.' "I said to ma that night when she got home: 'You see, ma, you was wrong about Maria; she's got as much music in her as the rest of the family, but she's obliged to take hers in a peculiar way. She can't take it straight, but jest give it to her hindside foremost or upside down, and she enjoys it as much as any one."" Just then a whistle blew, and my friend's train came along. He got into the car with a dazed expression on his face, as if an idea was trying to crystallize into words. As the train was moving away he came rushing out on the rear platform, and putting up his hands in the form of a speaking-trumpet, he shouted, "Try your Browning hindside foremost," and as the train swept around a curve I heard faintly on the clear cold air, or upside down.” POLITICAL HONORS IN CHINA. THE laws which govern the promotion positions of distinction and national trust are in China based upon sound commonsense, bearing evidence, by the manner in which her laws are administered, of being the very acme of human endeavor in this respect. The condition of affairs generally throughout this mighty empire speaks volumes in praise of her wonderfully wise lawgiver Kung Foo Tsze, from whose philosophic mind were evolved the leading ideas embodied in the governmental laws of the empire. Discretionary power is to an astonishingly great degree vested in the nation's honored sons, from the highest official dignitary to the petty magistrate who administers impartially the laws pertaining to the little community among whom he abides, appearing more like some venerable parent dwelling amid his children, whom he loves too well to allow of their falling into the ways of error unrebuked. Very seldom, be it to their honor said, are these powers abused, owing principally, no doubt, to the prevalence of good strong common-sense among the masses, added to their confidence in being able to secure immediate redress from those higher in power, which tends to make them in a measure independent of their immediate superiors, and insures an outspoken manifestation of their opinions relative to the proper or improper adjudication of any point of law coming to their notice. pertaining to law granted free of cost, the lightest tax imposed of any nation or empire in existence, and yet without a cent of national debt, save by the method which now obtains in the Chinese Empire? By the results here indicated she demonstrates mathematically her scientific attainments in political economy and governmental wisdom. We will illustrate this point that it may empire of three hundred and sixty-five be more fully understood. The law pro-millions be governed with the ease of a hibits stealing, i. e., "the appropriating to well-regulated school, with so few cases one's own use the property of another of injustice done its people, all matters without the owner's knowledge or consent, however small the quantity," the punishment therefor being from fifty to one hundred strokes of the paddle upon the back of the culprit, to be laid on with all the power possessed by the officer, who is termed "the executioner," because he executes the commands of the law. Now suppose a Chinaman to have stolen a loaf of bread by reason of being forced so to Another and a very important element do by the pangs of hunger; imagine him conducive to good government is that long detected in the very act by the watchful and diligent training from childhood in guardian of the public peace; think you Confucian schools and institutions of that, although tried and convicted by law learning of those destined to become rulof the crime of stealing, additional wrong ers of the people is required, where they would be heaped upon him by the carry- are instructed in moral science, political ing out of the sentence? I venture to economy, law and its most approved methsay that should any magistrate dare to or-ods of application, philosophy, etc., etc., der the punishment inflicted, the lookerson in that court-room would rise en masse and very likely mob the unwise magistrate for so cruelly administering the prerogatives of his official station. Compare this state of affairs with the case of a certain peddler who was recently arrested for peddling without a license in the streets of this Christian city. "Too proud to beg, too honest to steal," he was arrested, tried, convicted, and punished for the crime of trying to gain an honest livelihood! The carrying out of such a manifestly unjust sentence would in China have caused immediate action toward avenging this cruel travesty upon justice, and the offending magistrate's colleagues would have at once tendered their resignations if not assured of the offender's speedy dismissal. The Chinese believe in making laws to enable the needy to help themselves; to assist the deserving poor to earn their living by any and every means not conflicting with the unquestioned rights of their neighbor. Their laws are framed to let men live, and not to enrich and render profitable the office of ruler. Whatever controversies arise between the people, such differences must be adjudicated by the authorities free of cost to all the parties concerned. I would here offer for solution a problem which will, I think, tax even the progressive brain of America's most learned statesmen. In what other way can an which so moulds the plastic mind that by the time they have acquired knowledge sufficient to entitle them to official honors they have also become men of years and understanding, so that to govern wisely and well is but a natural consequence, besides which there are powerful incentives toward such a course. If a magistrate administer his office with uprightness, impartially, to the people under his charge, so that by reason of such wise procedure they are contented and prosperous, he is frequently memorized by his constituency to the Emperor, in which case he is often graciously allowed to govern the same city for three or more successive terms, with increase of salary and higher promotion. By too frequently or too highly recommending their favorite the people often defeat their own ends, which are his retention as ruler of their locality, for they are at times promoted to positions of too high a rank to admit of continuance as simple magistrates among the circle of their admirers, since the Emperor is desirous of placing as near his august throne as possible those who by their wise administration have gained the love and esteem of their fellow-men. In order to secure even the first-fruits of political emolument, a mode of procedure diametrically opposite to that which obtains in most nations, and especially in the United States, is required. Instead of money or its equivalent in "backers" and "heelers," brain is there required, and an |