stranger) what this letter-writing does for the child in the way of eliminating awkwardness and constraint:

DEAR FRIEND: We little boys play horse and teacher is making us some new lines out of pretty colors. I have a new sled and I get up on the snow banks, then I go down coasting, and for two or three days the boys brought their skates and skated. There is ice and snow all around the school. The old cat was bad yesterday. The big boys caught an English sparrow and they took it in the house and it flew out of their hands and the old cat ate it up. We have a funny picture in the school. We have twelve trees in the yard. There are thirteen puples in the room to-day.

Spelling Reform. THE Illinois Teachers' Association passed

a resolution favoring the new spelling. Program-(programme); tho-(though); altho-(although); thoro-(thorough); thorofare-(thoroughfare); thru (through); thruout-(throughout); catalog-(catalogue); prolog―(prologue); decalog-(decalogue); dem

agog―(demagogue); pedagog―(pedagogue).

The following is also of interest in this connection:

The American Philological Association has recommended the following Rules for New Spellings, and a resolution has been introduced in Congress, instructing the Public Printer to conform to them in all printing for the gov

ernment:

1. Drop UE at the end of words like dialogue, catalogue, etc., where the preceding vowel is short. Thus spell demagog, epilog, synagog, etc.

2. Drop final E in such words as definite, infinite, favorite, etc., where the preceding vowel is short. Thus spell opposit, preterit, hypocrit, requisit, etc.

3. Drop final TE in words like quartette, coquette, cigarette, etc. Thus spell cigaret, roset, epaulet, vedet, gazet, etc.

4. Drop final ME in words like programme. Thus spell program, oriflam, gram, etc.

5. Change PH to F in words like phantom, telegraph, phase, etc. Thus spell alfabet, paragraf, filosofy, fonetic, fotograf, etc.

6. Substitute E for the difthongs and a when they have the sound of that letter. Thus spell eolian, esthetic, diarrhea, subpena, esofagus, atheneum, etc.

This is all very sensible and time-saving, but doesn't it jar upon one's æsthetic taste somewhat as it does to come back from the land of such melodious names as Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Albuqueque, Las Vegas, Bernadillo and hear the trainmen calling Scott, Knox, Stark, Jonestown?

His Idea of an Education.

VERY pupil should be made to feel that there is work for him to do, and that his happiness lies in doing that work. The difference between a useful education and one which does not affect the future life rests mainly in the greater or less. activity which it has communicated to the pupil's mind; whether he has learned to think or to act or to gain knowledge by himself or whether he has merely followed passively as long as there was someone to draw him.

Money Sense in Children.

IN

IN THE Seventh Bulletin of the Iowa Society for Child Study, we notice a report on the "Money Sense in Children," prepared by H. E. Kratz, for the Mothers' Club. Among other deductions drawn from the answers of children in the different grades to questions regarding money, its use, its desirability, etc., is:

That the commercial instinct among the children does not require stimulating, but curbing and directing into right channels.

Their answers do not indicate as much vagueness among the lower grades as was anticipated.

Nearly one-third of the pupils want to earn money so that they may be independent.

An approximate classification is as follows:

Worthy motives for earning money-"to be indepen

dent,' ‚”“to spend in useful ways," "to save," etc..64.2 per cent. Undefined motives for earning money-“to spend,”

"no answer,”.

Unworthy motives for earning money-" to spend in
luxuries,'
"" to be rich," etc,..

....

28.7 per cent.

7.1 per cent.

The responses to the question, If you had five dollars, what would you do with them? are not easily tabulated, but follow quite closely the channels of expenditure, which were indicated in the replies given to Why do you wish to earn money? About two-fifths of them wish to spend the five dollars for food, clothing or some useful article. Threetenths quickly decide that they will not spend any of them, but save all for future use. One-twentieth just as promptly decides to spend what was given them, thus affording another illustration of "come easy, go easy." Another twentieth, actuated by wiser motives, decides to hand over the five dollars to their parents. Quite a notable sprinkling of them decide to help the poor, while others, not quite so philanthropic, compromised the egoistic and altruistic spirit which struggled within them for the mastery, by deciding to spend part for their own pleasure and give the balance to the poor.

The remainder of the responses are so scattered as to give only glimpses of individual peculiarities, such as “give to the Babies' Home," "give to the church," "give three dollars to the Lord and save the rest," "let parents decide," "would think I was rich," "join the Golf Club," "have a good time," "put them in my pocket."

Some boys with a commercial instinct say they "would buy a calf with it," "buy a pig," etc.

The Times Have
Changed.

ONE of the veteran teachers of Illinois,

Superintendent Gastman, says that forty years ago people were quarreling as to whether there should be even one normal school in the state. Dr. Edwards was about the only defender of the school.

People were quarreling about the high-schools, saying no one had a right to tax the people for high-schools.

People felt about even public grammar-schools as they did about the measles; children had to have them; thank God when it was over.

A Remarkable Case.

*

THERE is at the State Institution for the Blind at Jacksonville, Ill., a remarkable case of abnormality: A blind girl of five years, who evinces the utmost terror at the presence of a man or the sound of his voice. For six months the most soothing treatment did not suffice to overcome her fears. The physician of the Institution took her in his arms and carried her, trying to quiet her as a mother hushes a babe, but she turned pale and trembled to such an extent that it was not deemed safe to continue the experiment.

Though not disturbed by other music, she manifests the same terror at the sound of a mouth-organ, even when it is played at the farthest corner of the room.

She is mentally defective; cannot learn to distinguish one letter from another, or one number from another; yet her memory is remarkable and she can spell a hundred words, and answer so many questions in arithmetic that the hearer would mistake her for a prodigy.

Willie Smith was playing with the Jones boys. His mother called him, and said, "Willie, don't you know those Jones boys are bad boys for you to play with?" "Yes, mamma," replied the lad, "I know that; but don't you know that I am a good boy for them to play with?"

WORKINGS OF THE CHILD-MIND.

GAME FROM FIRST TO LAST.

The death of Captain Charles V. Gridley of the flagship Olympia was due to his intrepidity in going into the battle of Manila when he was already very ill.

When Gridley was a small boy living in Hillsdale, Mich., a good deacon of that city used to drive a horse with white, curly hair, resembling sheep's wool. Whenever he went by young Gridley would call out:

This so annoyed the deacon that he complained to the father, and Gridley pere proceeded to chastise his son. This leaked out among his companions, and when the boy next appeared upon the streets his playmates, thinking the joke was now on him, saluted him with:

"Bah! Bah!"

At this juncture the woolly horse came around the corner, and Master Gridley, nothing daunted, cried out to the driver:

"Yes, you got me a licking, but bah! Bah! BAH!"

YOUTHFUL WISDOM.

Mr. Smith, visiting his friends, had tried to make a good impression upon their children. After his departure Mildred's mother asked her if she didn't think Mr. Smith a very nice man; to which the little tot of four summers replied in a disgusted tone:

“Oh, mans is all alike."

AN UNRELIABLE MAMMA.

A little miss of Springfield who had accompanied her mother to the Episcopal Church said:

"Mamma, you told a naughty story in church to-day. You've always told me there wasn't no such thing as