others not named, do sustain such schools, settles the question of ability. Nor are good High Schools confined to cities. Many of our thriving towns exceed some of the smaller cities in their advantages for obtaining a higher education. A good High School adds but little to the expense of a school system, and as a part of such system, is worth more than all it costs independent of the advantages received by its actual pupils. Its influence permeates all the other schools, causing greater uniformity and thoroughness and more regular attendance. It presents a strong and constant stimulus to the pupils in the lower classes, exciting them to a higher diligence in study and awakening a laudable desire for promotion. To parents it offers a strong inducement to continue their children in school, even at a little sacrifice, until they receive the highest educational advantages enjoyed by the children of their neighbors. A good High School is, in short, a centre of influence, and imparts dignity, reputation, and increased value to the entire school system with which it is connected. Its crowning glory is its democracy.

3. Party issues in school elections.

Our schools have not wholly escaped the sharp and bitter party feeling engendered by the late war. Its mighty issues swept over and permeated every other interest. One terrible line of strife divided the people, and every other cause or interest was, to some degree, staked upon the issue. Men met at the election polls as upon a field of battle, and cast their ballots as though they were bullets. School officers elected on party issues too often placed them above the highest interests of the schools. Teachers were selected by party tests. The result wherever such a spirit prevailed, has been deplorable. In a few localities the belief or suspicion that the schools were being used as a means of party patronage, has been to them like blight or mildew. They lost the confidence and active support of the very men who had formerly contributed most largely to their success, and, as a consequence, rapidly declined in standing and usefulness. It is true, and I am glad it is, that these cases are exceptions. They none the less. clearly reveal the danger of permitting party spirit to seize upon our schools. It is my candid belief that this is the most serious evil which now disturbs our common school system.

Whatever excuse, if any, for dragging school elections into

party issues, existed during the war, there is now happily no justification for such a course. The highest safety and success of the school system alike demand a speedy return to the policy of excluding partizan issues and strifes from school elections and from meetings of boards of education. Here men must agree to meet not as politicians or partizans, but as neighbors united in the defense of a common interest and zealous in the promotion of a common good. And good men of both parties must strike hands on this question, and must resolutely agree that whatever else is dragged into party strife, the school system shall not be.

TALKS AFTER WORKING HOURS.-IV.

BY AN EX-MECHANIC.

A bright, active lad, some fourteen years old, was one day put under my charge as an apprentice. He was the only son of one of our workmen—a thoughtless, good-natured fellow, the acknowledged wit of the shop, who enjoyed the unenviable reputation of being the best billiard player in town. The boy was like his father in more particulars than one. He was a source of constant anxiety and annoyance to his teachers, though rarely malicious, vulgar or profane. Left much of the time to his own guidance, he foraged among the saloons and livery stables for amusement. No "bummer" in Sherman's army had a keener scent for hidden treasures than he for fun. When quite young he was a favorite with most people, especially those who consider puns and repartees the best evidences of mental acuteness. As he grew older his wit became impertinence, his practical jokes positive outrages, in the world's regard. Feeling restive under the restraints of the school-room, he at last became a confirmed truant. Annoyed by his waywardness, and too fond of his own ease and the billiard room to care for him as a parent should, his father took him off the street and apprenticed him to learn a trade.

Carson and myself took a long walk that evening. He had frequently related to me some of the pranks of this young hopeful, and insisted he was one who could and would hew out a path

for himself through the world. "It may be a pretty crooked one," he would say, "but quite as straight as those most men travel in. When a boy is half-way between dog and puppy, you must make allowances for him. He will come out all right, mark my word." Many a dry, quiet chuckle had he over the thought of my patience being tried by his recklessness and impertinence. He evidently proposed the walk that we might have a chat together about him. After skirmishing around for a while, and seeing he must introduce the subject himself, for I would not, he asked, "Well, how do you like your new boy, Clarence Jones?"

Myself. I like him better than his reputation. He is not quite spoiled yet, though a few years longer in the course he has been pursuing, and he would have been. I am convinced that something should have been done with him, but I can not say I approve the course his father has seen fit to take.

Carson. Why not? He is strong and healthy. Notwithstanding his mischievousness and truancy, he has managed to learn a good deal at school. He writes a good hand, can draw as comical a picture as you ever saw, and though his spelling is not according to either Webster or Worcester, there is not one in the shop who can handle figures more rapidly and accurately than he. You admit he was on the road to ruin-then what wrong has his father done in putting him where he must take the back track? I think I once heard you call labor a "disciplinary" power.

M.-I presume you did, for I place a high estimate on the value of hard work and constant employment-not so much for their disciplinary as their restraining power, however. You mistake in supposing Clarence to be now where he "must take the back track." He must diverge from the old one-that's all. He must, during ten hours of the day, substitute industry for idleness, so far only as his body is concerned. His mental habits need not be changed in the least, for the better. He can perpetrate puns and invent conundrums in the shop as well as at school. His evenings will be at his own disposal; for he boards at home, and there is no reason to suppose that his father ever dreams of abandoning his favorite haunts and reforming his own habits. The choice of associates and the employment of his leisure will be left to himself. The formation of habit and character will go on as heretofore-and with what result?

1. He may make an exceptional man: that is, the good qualities with which he is endowed-a species of self-respect, an active intellect, a not unkindly disposition-may gradually gain strength, and finally keep his bad qualities under subjection—but that, with his present surroundings, is not probable.

2. He may make an average man: that is, be like his fathera good hand mechanic, careless, thoughtless, idling away all his spare moments in places of amusement, with just sufficient moral stamina to scorn the grosser forms of vice and dissipation, but not enough to lift him above those which to weaker spirits are but the gateways to destruction. This is his probable destiny.

3. His fate will not be an uncommon one if he becomes an outcast. He knows already the haunts of vice and sin, and is pleased with the license which reigns there. The mould and and taint of corruption are already gathering upon him. The influences must be powerful, indeed, which can lead him to detest what he now so much admires.

C.-You put things in such a queer way, always demolishing my air castles with your logic and dogmatism, that I am out of all patience with you. Why not say, just to please me, that Clarence is going to forsake his evil ways, and, under your direction, become one of those "exceptional" men, with no "if" or "but" in the case?

M.-Because I am far from believing he will do any such thing. I know it is criminal to be disheartened, and wicked to cease from well-doing-but we must never shut our eyes or close our ears against the teachings of experience. Life is not a holiday. There is work to be done by the head as well as the hand, if one wishes to rise above the common level. There is a relish for the frivolous in Clarence's disposition, which must not be overlooked in casting his horoscope. Age may sober him down somewhat, but the boy foreshadows the man. The wire-edge of his character may be worn off by contact with the world, but its temper will remain unchanged.

C.-You may be right—but why does it require so much effort to excel? Suppose you set your inventive genius at work to contrive some easier way.

M.-Excellence requires but little more effort than mediocrity -and the average man quite frequently expends as much physi

cal and mental force during the day as his talented and more successful neighbor. Eminence is obtained by applying all of one's energies to the production of some single great result, instead of dividing them up and frittering them away upon a multitude of trivial objects. The manner in which forces are expended determines the character of their product. How much time and money has it cost Clarence's father to become an expert billiard player? Had that money been expended in purchasing books and attractions to make home pleasant, and that time and effort in acquiring even some useful accomplishment, what a different lookout for the future there would be for both father and son.

C.-Then you think Jones is to blame for Clarence's peccadillos?

M.-Mainly so. He petted and indulged him when young: neglected him when he grew older; and now tries to shift the labor and responsibility of his reformation upon some one else. In this he is merely following the example of thousands like him. I hazard the assertion that a very large proportion of apprentices are put to trades several years before they should be, to relieve their parents from the expense of their support, or to free them. from the cares and duties of parenthood. A lad of fourteen summers hears the hum of the busy world around him, and becomes fascinated with the glittering tinselry of the world's great show. He deems no tyranny so great as the wholesome restraints of school. Now, when parental advice and authority are most needed, both are wanting. Immediate pecuniary interest outweighs every other consideration-the popular fallacy that the young should have their own way in the choice of a trade or profession easing any slight qualms of conscience the parent may have. They grow up to be mechanics, and nothing more. The enlightened system of education with which our country is blessed, fails to tell upon. the laboring classes. I was told, the other day, that not a single male student had ever finished the course of study in one of our best High Schools-the graduating class invariably consisting of young ladies. I hope the case is an exceptional one, but fear it is not for whenever the fresh "spoor" of a stray penny is found, a hue and cry is raised at once, which empties our school-rooms of all the larger boys. It has always seemed strange to me that with the experience of blasted hopes to guide them, parents can