be used for his education.

It is obvious, then, that persons who have satisfactorily completed both an elementary and a secondary course of study may still be returned as of "school age" and as "not attending any school." This fact has always to be taken into account in the interpretation of American educational statistics.

In 1897-8 the number of pupils entered upon the registers of the common schools—that is, the public elementary and the public secondary schoolswas 15,038,636, or 20.68 per cent of the total population and 70.08 per cent of the persons of "school age." The total population of Scotland and Ireland is only about half so many as this. For these pupils 409, 193 teachers were employed, of which number 131,750, or 32.2 per cent were men. The women teachers in the common schools numbered 277,443. The teachers, if brought together, would outnumber the population of Munich. The women alone far more than equal the population of Bordeaux. No fewer than 242,390 buildings were in use for common school purposes. Their aggregate value was nearly $500,000,000 ($492,703,781).

The average length of the annual school session was 143.1 days, an increase since 1870 of 11 days. In some states the length of the annual school session is very much above this average. It rises, for example, to 191 days in Rhode Island, 186 in Massachusetts, 185 in New Jersey, 176 in New York, 172 in California, 162 in Iowa, and 160 in Michigan and Wisconsin. The shortest average annual session is in North Carolina (68.8 days) and in Arkansas (69 days). Taking the entire educational resources of the United States into consideration, each individual of the population would receive school instruction for five years of 200 days each. Since 1870 this has increased from 3.36 years, and since 1880 from 3.96 years, of 200 days each.

The average monthly salary of men teachers in the common schools was $45.16 in 1897-8; that of the women teachers was $38.74. In the last forty years the average salary of common school teachers has increased 86.3 per cent in cities and 74.9 per cent in the rural districts. The total receipts for common school purposes in 1897-8 were almost $200,000,000 ($199,317.597), of which vast sum 4.6 per cent, was income from permanent funds, 17.9 per cent. was raised by state school tax, 67.3 per cent. by local (county, municipal or school district) tax, and 10.2 came from other sources. The common school expenditure per capita of population was $2.67; for each pupil, it averaged $18.86. Teachers' salaries absorb 63.8 per cent ($13,809,472) of the expenditure for common schools.

The commissioner of education believes the normal standard of enrollment in private educational institutions to be about 15 per cent. of the total enrollment. At the present time it is only a little more than 9 per cent, having been reduced apparently by the long period of commercial and financial depression which has but lately ended.

CONDUCTED BY JENNIE L. HAVICE.

"The men of this and all generations are to a greater or less degree what mothers have made them."

CARE OF BOYS.

The burden should not rest lightly upon mothers, but the responsibility need not be too great to be borne. It is a common saying that boys are more trouble and are harder to raise than girls. Teachers are wont to say: "Those boys are just awful; they keep me on the qui vive every minute. I am at my wits' end, but somehow they never get to theirs." Not long since a beautifully dressed child came out of doors and started down street perfectly happy in anticipation of some joyous event. She had gone but a few rods when a whole bevy of boys were after her, flinging jeers and cockleburs, until she was unable to proceed further. She begged piteously to be allowed to go on, but there was not a little gentleman among them, and as “men after all are only boys grown tall," what are we to expect from this same generation of boys?

Mothers generally are at fault. These same boys are hustled off to bed and out of bed; hustled off to school,- always hustled out of the way; no time for talks, no time for prayer, nothing for the children's hour.

Is it any wonder the children are growing wild? Boys in the home are quite as useful as girls, and their help should be encouraged, as it is almost sure to be a hindrance to mischief-making, which, after all, is only misdirected activity.

ACTIVITY.

Is the normal condition of the young life and a child should not be punished for doing mischief when proper material,- or more properly,-work has not been furnished him. A child's mind must be occupied, and if not guided, it will drift; therefore it is quite as important to furnish work of amusement for every hour in the day as it is needful to furnish something to eat and something to wear.

OBEDIENCE.

Boys, more than girls, should be taught implicit obedience. You "must" and you "must not " will bring about the subdued manner and self-control so commendable in girls and altogether desirable for boys. Restraint put upon them in youth will have its weight when, in later years, temptations close around them thick and fast.

COURTESY.

I am at a loss to know just where our gentlemanly boys have been relegated to. Good manners generally means to have consideration for women

in every rank of life. Etiquette books cannot instill good manners; one's deportment comes from within, and it needs experience to develop it. pretty little story is told in the New Crusade of a mother who asked her boy to excuse her for passing between him and the light. He looked up and said: "Mamma, what ought I to say back?" "What do you think would be nice?" she replied. "Sure you can," answered the boy. "That would be nice, but your papa would say, 'Certainly'; that means the same thing, you know." Teach the children that boisterous laughter and irreverence belong to the ill-mannered; also, talking of self and one's ailments and infirmities except in private. Above everything except the Book Divine — teach the boys to be patriotic, for it is said that a patriotic boy is less apt to physical depravity. Teach them while they are young, and there will be less need of preaching when they are old.

PUNISHMENTS.

It is often the case that mere corporal punishment helps to fix the harmful ideas more firmly in the brain; there is, too, something ignoble in a big, healthy man or woman whipping a child; moreover, for a moderately good child it is entirely uncalled for. A cuff on the ear injures the drum, much slapping on the mouth flattens it and takes out the beautiful curves, hard spanking gives rise to kidney trouble, and so on. It is therefore not intended that we should punish in this way. A disobedient boy that we know ate a dozen or more unwashed berries. His mother's first impulse was to Another mother would have said:

slap him good and hard, which she did. "Teddy, I am sorry you ate those berries; I will have to punish you. To-night you will have to go to bed before our company arrives, and you shall have only bread and milk to eat." Children are born with a love of right, and when justly punished will not resent it. What child would not resent the former treatment and accept the latter?

TRUTHFULNESS.

I am inclined to think that boys are more given to story-telling than girls. The surest way to get them out of it is never to tell a lie nor prevaricate in the least yourself. There are so many mothers who will say: "Johnny, if you don't stop that racket, I shall go crazy"; or, "Teddy, I shan't take you along down town, if you don't come this minute." He dawdles along with whatever he is doing, knowing very well that his mamma will not leave him at home alone, and that she will go down town, Boys, in accusing each other, will say, "I didn't," and "You did"; coax the truth from them, and be sure you let them see you are glad when you get it.

HEALTH OF BOYS.

A boy's health needs to be guarded quite as carefully as girls. The girls of England are said to be bigger. stronger, and healthier than their mothers. While complaints are not uncommon of deranged health in school boys, and at the age of fourteen or fifteen they are apt to become flaccid and constipated, and suffer from nervousness, which would make it appear that they

have been neglected. It has been attributed by some to too much athletics and too much study. It is more likely to be too little attention to the food they have to eat, of which the most objectable are highly spiced foods, pepper, pies, cakes, meat, oysters, eggs, etc., in large quantities. Do not forget that the purest and healthiest lives comes from those who do not eat meat until after the age of fifteen. Milk for babes is a divine injunction, and until two and a half years old, should not be given vegetables, much less meat of any kind; but this is a subject in itself and must be deferred.

MANAGEMENT OF BOYS.

In the management of boys there is no more helpful thought than one given by Helen Raymond Wells in "Trained Motherhood," viz: "Never to show opposition to what they want to do or to have without first showing sympathy." This is the keynote to the close, beautiful friendships that are being established with the children. Oh, the sorrow of it, where the child's confidence is lost. It is so easy to turn the child away, and such a bother to answer their eager questions; but it is in this way, little by little, that they grow away from you. Be the most intimate friend your child has. Treat nothing lightly. If you are puzzled to find suitable answer to your child's questioning, then you have not been an attendant at mother's meetings or been directed to Mary Wood Allen's "Leading Truth," and other books, or perhaps you have not even read a mother's magazine. These are helps that every thinking mother appreciates.

The report of Garfield Vacation School, given at the Oakland club, July 26th, was extremely satisfactory. The average attendance was fifty. Kitchen, garden, and Slöyd were most enthusiastically received. Many were anxious to join the class in the latter. On the playground, -kept open from 1:30 to 4:00 P. M.,- but one breakage was reported. Mothers expressed their gratitude for a vacation so well spent.

"Care of Boys," in this issue, is part of a paper by the editor, read at a Mothers' Meeting in East Oakland. The future of this Department gives promise of something interesting, as we are informed of several clubs being organized. During vacation most clubs were suspended, and interesting matter was not available.

A Woman's Club is a means of recalling forgotten study in literature, art, philanthrophy and reform, home education, philosophy and science. All these were touched upon in the lecture by Professor Albin Putzker, of the State University, before the Oakland Club, Wednesday, July 25th. Having traveled twenty thousand miles, and visited four thousand cities since May, 1899, we could not but wonder what he would choose to say in an informal talk of say thirty minutes. He began by saying that he must have refused to address any other body, but the "ladies" were simply irresistible. Our clubs elsewhere will please take note and secure the Professor whenever possible. He related as a memorable event the meeting of an editor of a

Latin newspaper, the ouly one in the United States, and until late years the only one in the world. Ye editor uses Latin much as other people use their vernacular, and the Professor solemnly affirms that he talked him out of his wits. Taking passage on a German ship, there was a cry of "fire" when six hours out. This also was a memorable event. The ship steamed slowly back. Eighty-seven thousand bushels of grain and many hundred bales of cotton were dumped away. All the openings had been hermetically covered and everybody "kept cool." The Professor went on playing chess, but the captain giving orders from above, and the replies coming from below, was understood to be "munity on board the ship." The papers came out with flaring headlines: "Fire at Sea! Mutiny on Board the Ship! The Captain Utterly Unable to Cope with the Situation," etc., etc. The Professor corrected the reports as far as possible, and gained the well-earned reputation of having rendered the company a service. The vessel sailed later, leaving superstitious passengers behind, Professor Putzker not among them, as he never gets left. He made a successful and happy voyage. The reception accorded him by the great Her von Grimm can only be told as he told it, to make one laugh. His visit to Berlin and his account of the German people was of the greatest interest. "The Germans," he said, "are the loveliest people under God's sun; so charming, so hospitable; not calculating, but ready to give themselves to the enjoyment of the moment." An amusing account was told of his desire to attend the unveiling of a monument, without having had an invitation. The place was well guarded by a cordon of police and his German modesty, as he called it, helped him out or "in," as after rushing breathlessly about for what seemed an endless time, he succeeded in getting inside, and just opposite the Empress of Germany. He then told of having walked where Plato had walked, and where Socrates died, of Schiller and Goethe and Goethe's wife, whose burial place was sadly neglected. Thru his efforts the carving on the tombstone was made legible on their one hundred and fiftieth anniversary! In several instances he was instrumental in having places properly renovated, and it was remarked: "Woe to us that a savage, from way off on the Pacific Coast, should come to us and point out this neglect." "Travel," concludes the Professor, "is the means of the greatest culture; it makes one cosmopolitan, and thru it all one realizes the great need of real Christianity :-love of other people. The selfishness of human beings is apparent in the theft of everything bearing historical evidence. Even the ink-prints where Luther's devil confronted him have been carried off, and visitors now are eyed with suspicion, and requested to Please pass in front.''' The half-hour was all too short. The Professor must be seen or heard to be fully appreciated.

To be honest, to be kind—to earn a little, and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation — above all, on the same grim condition, to keep friends with himself-here is a task for all that a man has of fortitude and delicacy.-Robert Louis Stevenson.