I. Time Relations. 1. What is the season? 2. What press feeling? (g) What feeling? 11. Study the attitells it? 3. Why did the painter select this season ? tude of the man. (a) Where is his hat? (b) What is 4. Why did he not select spring? 5. Can you tell the the position of his hands? (c) What is the position of time of day? (In the original picture it is shown to be his head ? (d) Study his facial expression. (e) Does his evening by the evening glow of colors and by the attitude express as much as the woman's? (f) What wearied flight of birds returning to roost.) 6. Why difference in degree in the attitude? (g) Does the did he select this hour? 7. Why not morning or noon? painter express a fundamental truth or just an indi II. Place Relations. 1. Where is the scene of the vidual instance in setting forth this difference in the picture? 2. Why did he select such a place? 3. Why degree of their feelings? 12. Find the church spire in not a beautiful valley or a park? 4. What things has the distance. (a) Why put it in the distance? Why he used to show the place? not have it right by them? (b) Why have just the III. The Principal Objects in the Picture. 1. What spire showing ? class of people has he selected ? 2. What things show IV. The Theme. 1. What is the theme of the picture? it? 3. Why did he select this class? 4. Why not 2. What lesson does the painter mean to teach us? select wealthy, or, at least, well-to-do people? 5. 3. What is the general mood, or feeling, in the picture? What have the peasants been doing? 6. What things 4. Notice how the time, the place, and the principal show it? 7. Why represent them as having been at objects all harmonize in point of mood. work? 8. Have they yet finished their work? 9. V. The strong point of the picture is the amount of What several things show it? 10. Study the attitude expression in the attitude of the human figures. This of the woman. (a) What is the position of her hands? is one of Millet's striking characteristics as a pa er. Study his “The Sower” for a further illustration. (6) Of her head ? (c) Trace the curve of the body from NOTE.-Some of the questions above cannot be anfoot to head. (d) Are her features in repose or dis swered in the order in which they are placed. Go over torted? (e) Assume her attitude as nearly as you can, the entire study and then try to answer the questions facial expression and all. (f) Does the attitude ex- left unanswered. W. H. SKINNER. Reprints: Single copy, 5 cents ; 10 copies, 25 cents; 50 for $1.00 ; per hundred, $1,50. J. H. MILLER, Publisher. But it is in the last suggestion of the Michi- The Mothers’ Congress will also convene in gan Committee which uncovers the root of the October, and western mothers who have not whole matter. Here it is: been able to attend the sessions of the National Congress of Mothers in Washington may look That as individuals we interest ourselves in the teachers of our several communities giving sion, for Mrs. Birney is in charge of the forward to the experience of a similar occathem the social recognition which their calling deserves, welcoming them to our homes, and re arrangements and will preside over the meet ings. fraining from hurtful criticism. Let us express to them our desire to co-operate with Spiritual Significance of Organization them in any way that will be helpful." [An address given before the General Federation of Women's Clubs, at its bi-ennial meeting in Denver, by Mrs. B. M. Stouten borough, President of the Nebraska Federation.] The educational, and especially the literary We read that in every cable of the British and fraternal congresses, which are connected navy is a red thread or strand, running through with the Trans-Mississippi Exposition will con the entire length, which was braided in with stitute an embarrassment of riches in September and October. The Art Congress which con the rest when the cable was made. By this it can be identified always and everywhere against venes September 27, will be arranged under direction of Mr. Lorado Taft, the sculptor, of wrong appropriation. Over the highways of all nations, into all harbors, this small and alChicago. In connection with it Ceramics will most unobserved sign of ownership goes, tellhave attention in sessions occupying perhaps a ing the simple story of England's supreme day, Mrs. L. Vance Phillips, of New York City, power. From London to Calcutta, from Calpresiding. A section of the congress will be de cutta to Australia, from Australia to the Fiji voted to Art Industries also, and Mrs. T. Islands, from the Fiji Islands to British ColumVernette Morse, secretary of the Central Art Association, will have charge of programs bia, from British Columbia to Hudson's Bay, this small red thread is coiled up in every anunder that head. On October 1, Mr. Hamlin chor cable. The ship trying her strength for Garland will return from the Klondike, and the first time on the broad ocean has it, and will stop in Omaha to conduct a Congress the beaten, broken wreck upon some far-off of Literature, which will occupy a week. This shore, or the deserted ship in the Polar seas, if congress will be largely representative of what belonging to the Queen, declares with honor is known as the “ Western Movement." the emblem under which it sailed. The State Federation of Nebraska is to hold Every age has its favorite fashion, its popuits annual meeting in Omaha, beginning with lar war cry—a significant word by which the October 11. It has grasped an opportunity Ephraimites may be distinguished from the which will not come its way again and will en- Gileadites. The watchword of the present time large its sessions to embrace what is to be called is Development; and by this I mean a developa “Trans-Mississippi Congress of Women's ment which may be aptly compared to a sound Clubs.” The programs are in the hands of seed cast into good soil, in favorable season, seven Federation Presidents, namely, Mrs. breathing a pure atmosphere and tended by a Stoutenborough, of Nebraska, Mrs. Scammon, good gardener -- one who will redeem the desert of Missouri, Mrs. Peters, of Kansas; Mrs. by percolating it with streams fed by the meltThatcher, of Colorado; Mrs. Van Vechten, of ing snows on the mountain side. lowa; Mrs. Tuller, of North Dakota; and Miss There are many ways of looking at the course Evans, of Minnesota. of human affairs: there is the careless glance Following close upon this Club Congress which sees but the surface; there is the hasty will appear the annual meeting of the National glance which notes only secondary causes, and Household Economic Association, and it is the facile diagnosis which sees naught but the thought that the interest which exists in do- symptoms. But the keen observer cannot fail mestic science in the trans-Mississippi region to catch twilight glimpses of kingdoms and will bring together a large number of women. nations, age behind age, into which the thread, an admiralty of heaven, so to speak, has been God's ordained pioneer, and that everyone has woven. possibilities which outreach toward the infinite. From this mountain peak of history we The highest point of view and the widest poscannot fail to notice that every forward step in sible verge and scope of the significance and the world's progress has been the direct result the importance of developments in the organiof accumulated intellectual spiritual force, ac zation of Women's Bourds of Missions and the quired through organized effort. In this half so-called Zenana work is on this “Missionary veiled remoteness that stretches out illimitably Ridge,” where the effort to widen the thought Bo us, we see Abraham, Brahma, Buddha, Zoro- and purpose broadens into a world-wide appreaster, Confucius, and, greatest of all, the humble hension. It is said that the needle of a MisNazarene with the twelve disciples as a nucleus sionary's wife was the simple instrument God of that great organization that has transformed used to give access to Oriental Zenanas. A the world. Behind us are other heights, their piece of embroidery wrought by her deft outline clear cut against the summer sky. fingers found its way to the secluded inmates On one we see a company of people listening to of a Zenana. If a woman could do such work the words of a great man who affirms that man as that, other women could learn under her inhas clothed spirit with a creation of his own, struction, and so with the consent of the Oridenominating its matter, and that it is an estab- ental husband this Christian woman was wellished fact that there must be involution of comed to the inside of his home. “As she spirit before there can be evolution of so-called taught his wives the art of embroidery she was matter. Do you not catch the words of a plain working the scarlet thread' into the more man whose early life was spent in Stockholm, delicate fabric of their hearts and lives.” One graduated at Upsala, modest and retiring, of our noted divines tells us that if we are to genial and happy, bringing a message to his have the right conception of the origin of mispeople, in which he declares that the eternal is sions and their spiritual peerlessness, we must but the shadow of the internal, and that all the go back to the creative act which gave man free societies on earth are but the reflection of the will and conscience. When the morning stars spiritual societies on the side of life. This ad- sang together “God began to seek man by givmitted, it is self-evident that all organizations, ing him capacity to seek God." whether of labor or charity or for political There lived in New York City early in the ends, have their origin on the spiritual side of sixties a sweet and gracious woman, not unlike existence. Right here the question will arise if others we know. Beside her personal gifts she all these things are of heavenly origin why are had social position and wealth and wielded the they so imperfect, unsatisfactory, and crude? sceptre of influence. She might have shone in The reply is self-evident. any gay and fashionable circle, but her pleasant Across the valley of the Christian era you presence and gracious fellowship were a beautinotice a mountain peak bathed in a flood of ful practical working out of the Christian idea light, which radiates from the cross, falling on of ministering to others, and this great work of the picture of Him, “the best of men that e'er Woman's work for Woman originated with this wore flesh about him” and the group of faith- select lady, Mrs. Doremus. It is true that ful women who compounded the spices to looking out from this peak we cannot see that embalm their crucified Lord. It is not in any reforms were wrought by that early misChristian womanhood to be an unsympathetic sionary, the gentle Harriet Newell; no converts looker on in any movement for relief of suffer- came to her feet; but the young life, breathed ing, and from the time of the Mary women, who out at nineteen, on the Isle of France, has genefollowed Jesus from Gallilee, ministering unto rated missionary trade winds wafting the gosHim, unto the present time there have been pel ships to many lands. Ann Judson died at ministering women. The history of organized fifty-seven, but her spirit, making its throne on missionary work as promoted by American the green bluff looking out on the Indian women proves that in all education woman is Ocean, holds the mastery of thousands of lives. Ask the question here to-night, what fruits re- lifting the soul of man towards its Creator, main of Mrs. Doremus's labor, and the answer God. Do you not see the “scarlet thread comes to us from all Christian churches. For winding in and out throughout the Victorian women have formed themselves into societies to era? work for women in far off lands, and these so- But we have been standing on the heights of cieties have become great organizations into our own time looking backwards. We have which thered thread” has been woven, touched seen the fifteenth century and written in our by the Master's hands lacerated in the work of notebooks that it was scholastic, the sixteenth rescue, and left an abiding impress there. May dogmatic, the seventeenth schismatic, the eightI detain you for a moment on the Victorian Peak? eenth philosophic, the nine eenth scientific. England's Queen became the type of a new era. Now turning our faces towards the twentieth She was a woman shaped of God for the times, century we write the word Altruistic. The and brought in a new democracy and toleration. keynote has already been sounded by “The In the new era there was toleration in education, General Federation of Woman's Clubs” and I in religion, and in politics. Great things in dare to predict ihat this organization will hold science, astronomy, geography, and especially a distinguished place in the march of the new along material lines have been accomplished century. There is not a member of it here or during her reign. Yet in all this progress the elsewhere who has been privileged to witness spiritual element has been prominent. The or have any kind of share in this great movespirit of Dickens glossed over the wrongs of ment-in this mighty procession of great the times. ·Mathew Arnold and George Eliot themes and great sympathies and vast hopesrecognized the deepest needs of the spiritual or even to hear as it were, the echoes of their nature, but hardly possessed the faith to meet tread at å distance: there has not come to pass it. Thos. Carlyle brought the light of a great some breaking up of petty provincialism, some stern soul to make clear that man is more and disgust for petty selfishness and the making of higher than all his conditions and environments. some broader, deeper consciousness of the world The optimism of Browning and the sweet, grand itself and withal some new sense of God's own confidence of Tennyson showed the great pro- purpose in the mighty on-going of the world's gressive spirit that had run through the era, history. T" as EDITORIAL and in which no reading is done, books that HE NORTH WESTERN MONTHLY has for are quickly forgotten, are sold to teachers who years demanded for the teachers of the spend under official pressure, and then are public schools more scholarship and gen unable to buy books that have merit. eral culture. It has demanded that scholar- The North WESTERN MONTHLY has held up ship be magnified and that the value of partic- a high standard. Fortunately, it has had from ular methods of presentation be minimized. its first number the active co-operation of one It has demanded that only disciplined and of the finest bodies of men to be found in Awell-informed minds be permitted to merica—the faculty of the University of Nesume the responsibilities of training the minds braska. These men, with the encouragement of others. It has done this, believing that in of that great-hearted helper of men, Chancellor the end such demands would redound not only Canfield, and with the active and ready assisto the benefit of the schools, but to the honor tance of the present scholarly Chancellor, of the calling. It has not hesitated to speak Geo. E. MacLean, have made the North in no uncertain tone of the indifference or lazi- WESTERN MONTHLY the most practical medium ness that serves as a hindrance to all intel- of university extension in America. It has lectual as well as professional advancement. seemed a natural and a proper step, therefore, Neither has it hesitated to criticise the misera- to assume clearly the character of a magazine ble “courses" that are annually offered to for “University Extension or Home Study." teachers. Annually thousands of books that Last year "Circles" of teachers, members of are absolutely without literary or professional women's clubs, literary clubs, and history value, books that are never heard of except clubs, in forty-one states and territories, folor "reading circles" that are not "circles," lowed one or more of the courses offered. The courses this year are arranged, therefore, Looked at wholly from a patriotic standpoint, strictly for "study." They are not for teach- the salaries of teachers should justify the most ers as teachers, but as individuals; men and brilliant young men and women in entering the women who seek more scholarship. The edit calling. The position should be esteemed the ors do not assume that they are writing for highest in honor in any community. It is not teachers, but for men and women, and caring a question as to how much a community can afnot whether they are employed in the school- ford to pay its teachers, but rather that it can room, the office, the shop, or the home. All not afford to pay low salaries. It is not always thoughtful people who want to study any or all the fault of school officers, but the blame usually of the courses are invited to do so. belongs to the people. The rate of taxation The NORTH WESTERN MONTHLY will offer for school purposes in every state is beggarly. this present year many strong papers on cer- The public needs education on this subject. tain educational problems, but they will be The teachers cannot with modesty undertake written for thoughtful American citizens. It to be leaders. This is a duty devolving rather is hoped that the magazine may find its way upon the thoughtful parents in each community. into the homes of thousands of public-spirited Can a greater matter be undertaken by the patrons, and also increase its list of readers women's clubs of America? They must begin among teachers. at the root of the matter, not with the branches. TH TH Teachers' Wages HIS is a public question, and of more mo- Drawing, Music, and Manual Training mentous importance to the state than it 'HE NORTH WESTERN MONTHLY believes is to the few thousand people engaged that these are, after reading words, the in school work. They are blind to great inter most practical subjects to be introduced ests who do not see it so. Low wages with in into any school curriculum. It believes that creasing professional academic and social de when people have any sort of an idea of the mands will inevitably drive the best teachers great educational value of these means of exfrom the calling. pression, they will be introduced into the schools In America people are too often measured and made compulsory. Several strong papers wholly by their producing capacity—by the will be presented in the Monthly during the amount of money earned. Mr. A., of a certain year by some of the ablest thinkers and writmental, ability has a salary as a teacher of $1,000. ers in this country. The process of educating Mr. B., of about the same scholarship and men a people is slow, and it demands that all believtal ability, has an income as a physician or law ers become evangelists. If regular teachers yer of $2,000. Therefore Mr. A. is not rated are not qualified to give this instruction, they among his peers the equal of Mr. B. This must become qualified. If it be held that the drives him into a sort of helpless stolidity, or regular teachers do not have time, special teachaway from the school where he is worth more ers should be provided, both for town and to the state than are scores of men like Mr. B. country schools. Parsimony toward education Children in the upper grades imbibe this ar is a crime to the state. No subjects are more tificial and un-American way of mea-uring peo- practical, more utilitarian; they are all definite ple, and the teacher is so measured and his in and natural means of expression. That educafluence is lessened. The corruption of office tion is most practical that most readily and holders in this country is not half such a men most naturally develops one into the full posace to the country's liberties as is the penurious- session of all his powers, and enables a man ness of the people in regard to salaries of to make the most out of his life. Reading, teachers. The inequalities, the atrocious in Drawing, Manual Training, and Music are consistencies, are so glaring that it is a wonder therefore the most practical subjects for an that the quick-witted American citizen does not American school. see then. |
