ment. practice in self-teaching when other satisfactory service from such appointteaching fails you is good for you. The state wants sturdy, self-reliant teachers, eration. that are not easily cast down them- Fitness the teacher's only claim to considselves, to hold pupils up to similar sturdiness and self-reliance. Preparation for short service. Perhaps you do not expect to teach long, and so question the wisdom of special preparation. Whether you teach a long time, a short time, or not at all, the training of the normal school is good for the general purposes of education as well as for the specific purposes of teaching. In any event, the need of the schools for trained teachers, whether you recognize it or not, remains constant and urgent. Local training-schools for teachers. It may be that you live in a town or city that has a local training-school for teachers, and that your only avenue to appointment, if you wish to teach at home, lies through this school. Even if you are indulgently permitted to enter this school directly from the high school, it would nevertheless be better for you to attend a normal school first. Under no circumstances have you a just claim to be employed as a teacher except that which fitness to do the work of a teacher gives you. Other claims than those of fitness no school-board has a moral right to respect. If such fitness exists, there is not only room for you there is a pressing demand for you in the schools of the commonwealth. Helpful reading on aims and methods. Let me commend to you in connection with your student work the reading of one or two helpful books. Todd's "Student's Manual," for example, is rich in suggestions for young people who are ambitious to make the most of themselves during their academic years. It is possible, too, that you might find excellent stimulus in some of the essays of Emerson, particularly those on the following themes: Power, Culture, Manners, Behavior, Self Reliance, and Spiritual Laws. Although it would be premature for you to enter upon a course of professional reading while in the high school, yet a preliminary glimpse of what is needed in the teacher-such a view as you might get, for instance, from Page's John W. Dodge was born in Hanover, September 4, 1815, and died at Enfield, February 13. Early in life he engaged in trade, but in 1866 formed a partnership with D. L. Davis, for the manufacture of flannels and hosiery at Enfield. In 1884 the business was removed to Bristol, where it is now in operation. Mr. Dodge amassed a fortune in mercantile life, and was generous in benefactions. A Democrat in politics, he was a member of the legislature in 1878-'80. GEORGE W. DODGE. George W. Dodge was born in Henniker in 1830, and was for some time at sea on a New Bedford whaler. Later, he engaged in the livery business at Manchester, but for the last 37 years had been a leader in the boot and shoe trade of that city. The soul of integrity in business and in private life, he refused to allow his name to be used for any public position. He was a 32d degree Mason. MARTIN CHASE. Martin Chase was born in Unity, September 20, 1806, and died at Marlborough, February 10. He was a shoemaker by trade, residing in Washington from 1833 to 1869, and after that date in Marlborough. He was town clerk fifteen years, selectman five years, representative to the legislature in 1837, 1839, and 1850, county treasurer two terms, justice of the court of common pleas, justice of the peace from 1839 to his death, and the holder of various other offices. He voted for Andrew Jackson in 1828, and for every Democratic presidential candidate since. THOMAS J. WHIDDEN. Thomas J. Whidden was born in Portsmouth, June 17, 1817, and died in Boston, January 30. He was a successful builder and contractor, superintending the construction of many large Boston buildings, notably the new county court house in Pemberton square. He was interested largely in real estate, and was an official of various banks and other institutions. As a Democrat, he served several terms on the board of aldermen. CHARLES BURLEY. Charles Burley was born in Exeter, August 19, 1820, and died in the same town, February 4. In early life he went to Chicago, and accumulated a fortune in the book and stationery business, which he lost through an unfortunate venture in Boston. During the rest of his life he was Exeter's leading florist. He represented Exeter in the legislature in 1861; was treasurer of Robinson Female Seminary from 1869 to 1880, and of Phillips Exeter academy from 1880 to 1889. HENRY W. CARTER. Henry W. Carter was born in Concord seventy-five years ago, and died in Lebanon, February 24. He was engaged in the manufacture and sale of Lebanon overalls, and was one of the most widely known wholesale merchants in New England. He first attracted attention by his dashing turnout of four black horses with which he toured the country when he first engaged in business for himself. EDWIN P. BURPEE. Edwin P. Burpee, member of the legislature from New London, died at his boarding-place in Concord, February 5. He was born in New London, January 10, 1829, and always resided there, carrying on the farm of his fathers. He was prominent in the grange, and had served as president of the New London Fair association, and of the New London band; also as selectman of the town. He was chairman of the committee on forestry in the house of representatives. 66 OUR SISTER REPUBLIC. MEXICO: OLD AND NEW. A WONDERLAND. By Rev. Sullivan Holman McCollester, D. D., LL. D. Author of "After Thoughts of Foreign Lands and Capital Cities," Babylon and Nineveh through American Eyes," and "Round the Globe in Old and New Paths." Cloth. Pages, 266. Indexed. With many illustrations in half-tone, from photographs taken specially for this work by Benjamin F. Freeman. Price, $1.25. The strong face of Porfirio Diaz, president of the republic of Mexico, looks out at us from the frontispiece of the handsome little volume in which Rev. Sullivan Holman McCollester, D. D., LL. D., has recorded his impressions of the wonderland to the south of us. Dr. McCollester's previous books of travel have won many readers and as many admirers for their graphic, easy style, and their value and interest of contents. A gentleman cultured both by books and by travel, sharp-eyed in observation, and broad and logical in reasoning, with a keen sense of humor and a wide knowledge of history, his records of journeyings are as interesting as romances, yet as valuable as encyclopædic essays. The country to which he introduces us in the present work is a land whose past and future are equally wonderful. Back in the days of which no written history exists, the Aztecs reared there a civilization as advanced as that of Athens, Alexandria, or Rome; then came Cortez and the Spaniards, and the red seal of bloody conquest was placed upon its temple doors; centuries pass and Maximilian and Carlotta play upon its stage the most pathetic tragedy of modern times; to-day the irresistible spirit of modern progress conquers even the Mexican "manana,” and the old giant renews its youth. Such is the story that Dr. McCollester tells by indirection in the course of his notes of Pullman car progress from Jaral to Tlaxcala. Numerous half-tone reproductions of photographs embellish the handsome pages of the book, and make even more vivid the word paintings of the author. The most fascinating book of travels of the year is a conservative estimate of what we feel sure will be the public verdict. Universalist Publishing House, Publishers, Boston, Mass. |