Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-08-03

tuey ulleu tut CuSHlOHS 10 iOOh once more OH
the seats battered by the muskers of the British
soldiers; they gathered in the deep old windows
to point out again 10 each other, or to the stran-
gers, the "broad arrow" roughly cut in the wood
work, and the clumsily carved name of G.
Phillips, who is supposed to have been the of
fcer in command when troops were quartered in
the church. They looked their last at the fine
old pulpit, so high that it has dressing room
under it, from which steep, winding stairs lead
to the preachers desk; they fingered in the
aisles, and under the carved and pillared en-
frances, and then they gathered up all their ten
der and loving memories and went away, leaving
the old church to be torn and dismembered, and
hacked and hewed, and sold and forgotten, while
the society transplanted to a larger and
more accessible field, hopes to thrive apace.
This morning there was a small gathering at
the house of Mr.. John T. Sargent, to hear
lecture or essay by Mr.. W. T. Harris on educa
ton. The radical club has no regular meetings
in summer, as many of its prominent members
are away, but few familiar faces were to be
seen this morning. Mr.. Harris is the editor of
the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, published
at St. Louis; he is a slender, refined, intellectual
looking man, and reads rapidly and clearly
without any Evolutionary tricks or graces. His
essay was interesting and wise but the CONVEX
sation that followed did not deal with his broad
views of culture, or his historical facts; but
turned to the practical differences between edu-
cation at the west and in New England. Miss
Elizabeth Peabody and Mr.. Alcott, both of
whom have seen great deal Of the west in the
last few years, were emphatic in their state
ments that New England had great deal to
learn from the west. The conversation was
long, and carried on with great vivacity, but
the chief points made were these: That in
New England the school committees are care
lessly made up, and comparatively few mem
bers give sufficient time to the work or feel
sufficient interest in it; yet they, are
arbitrary and autocratic, and often in
terfere with the discipline and methods
of good teachers, thereby Gripping their
work. Within two years the Boston school
| committee have made law that no teacher
shall be allowed to make suggestions for i'm
proved methods of education, but shall keep to
the appointed ways. Then educational conven-
| tons here are noticeably mutual admiration
meetings; and the congratulations are inter
changed on the admirable condition of the
schools, on the noble work we are doing, and
on the fine example we offer to our younger Sis
tiers in the Union. Committees are reluctant to
consider fairly any new system of education,
and it is uphill work for reformers in this mat
ter to get their experiments fairly tried. Then
parents and other citizens feel no responsibility
to these unsuitable committees.
At the west there is great personal interest
felt in education; they are young and
have not become hardened and conceit-
ed; they say, "0ur schools are not so
good as they ought to be; let us find out
where the fault or the weakness is, and remedy
| it," They hold conventions, and teachers and
superintendent together omit praise, and seek
earnestly to discover their failings; they say,
'Let us not stop to rejoice over what we have
done, but consider what we have to do" They
are hospitable to suggestions; and they give
hearty hearing to the advocates of new theo-
ries. Their eyes and minds are open, and
they have a frank, noble, teachable spirit. They
have already done excellent work in the way of
education, and are laying foundation on which
will rise schools and colleges that will leave
selfsatisfed New England far in the back
ground. This is not a literal report, but it
shows the drift of the talk. One could not help
remembering how, in the very beginning of the
Franco-Prussian war, writer in the "Revue des
Deux Mondes" cried out to France that her self
conceit would be her winding Sheet that she
had wrapped herself in the mantle of her past
glory, and thought that the world stood still to
admire her, while in reality other countries
were surprising her in education, in science, in
armament and when the time came that her de-
lusions should be torn from her she would find
herself the last amongst nations. The picture
of New England conceit drawn by Miss Peabody
was not so terrible this, but it was suggestive
Of worse to come.
About the most attractive things to be seen
now are the china at Briggs and the frames in
the picture shops. Never before were picture
frames SO handsome, SO appropriate, in so great
variety, or so cheap. 1t used to be impossible 10
give to photograph or other inexpensive pic
ture pretty frame at a reasonable price; but
now the narrow mouldings of polished black
wood, with engraved lines Of gold or vermilion,
are just what has long been wanted The red
and gold ornament is put in elaborate tracery
on the corners of wider frames; and there is no
end to the fancies in plain gold, and in combi-
nations of different woods.
picture of Cinderella, by Van LeVins, at
tracts good deal of attention at Williams &
Everetts. An engraving has been made from
it by Atkinson, and one inducement to sub
Scribprs is that only 1hnrxu no m
lished. The only charm of the picture is its
coloring, and that of course is lost in the en-
| craving, which, although it may be fine speci-
men of the art, is not so pretty or half so salts
factory as the engraving published some years
| ago, representing Cinderella alone, sitting in a
| reverie by the embers. Van Levins makes her
| older, and very disconnected; she sits by the
fire, while her naughty sisters in gorgeous bro
cades and jewels, prink and plume themselves.
The canvas looks crowded; the sisters seem to
be dressing in the state-room of steamboat,
and look as if an unwary movement would
| plunge their heads in the drapery of the room,
Or strike them against the ceiling. Painters
still waste their time on fish and fruit, and new
groups appear of tabletop, napkin, wine
glaSs' cut lemon, half peeled orange, and other
stupid things. Mr.. Hamerton has in his art
'iougnts' chapter on furniture, in which an
ar'ls' Piahs the furnishing of the dining-room
anu urawlhg-room in a New London house,
Dui' Wy flch country gentlemen. In the din
ng-foom the walls are to be divided in panels,
win frames Oh eSqu sitely carved new oak and
the panels hlled with green velvet. a cornice
, of carved oak, with armorial shields either
t carved or illuminated, but not both carved ana
painted. Three fine, warm pictures. each
, twelve feet long, should hang on the walls. The
{ chairs should be of green velvet, and richly
5 carved oak; the carpet of ultra-marine blue
: with a broad border of green oak leaves; ant
0 the curtains of ulra-marine velvet, with Dor
der embroidered in green silk. In the drawing