The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1875-04-16
TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

A Washington correspondent thus des-
cribes Senator Christiancy's appearance
and manner: "The new Senator is tall,
slender person, without as much juice in
I him as desiccated bean-stalk He looks as
| if a slight flush ON the tip of his ear would
make his feet cold. He has sharp, pinched
up querulous face, with ferret eyes, angled
by sharp eyebrows, thin, pursed-up con-
ceited lips; about and-quarter head,
thinly clad with straight hair Of a feeble
drab color. He looks like dried man. A
more thoroughly insignificant figure never
crossed your vision. He struggled to his
legs with an odd mixture of conceit and
maueaise honte, and, after tremulous eff
fort to deliver himself, drew forth printed
slips of his speech, which trembled very
much in his hand as he proceeded to read
them with charge-to-the-jury manner, and
with little senile voice like old Granny
| Smallweed's.''
The Brooklyn Eagle thus describes the
way in which it manages to get up full
report of the Beecher trial: ''In getting
our report we employ ten competent jour
nalists, eight shorthand writer's, one de-
scriptive writer, one man to manage the
corps, and a regiment of American District
Telegraph Messenger boys. who keep up
constant communication with the Eagle
| office and the court room. The short hand
men commence each session by taking"
| each in his turn notes for ten minutes; be-
fore the eigth man has been reached in the
round of short hand writing, the notes of
the first man is written out and on their
way to our office, and he is prepared to
commence the round again"
Since compulsory education has been
| adopted in several States, it's history and
adoption in other countries become matters
of interest. Germany adopted it after be-
ing crushed in the Napoleonic wars. In
1910 a rule was adopted which compelled
every child between seven and fourteen to
attend school regularly. More recently six
and seventeen have been settled as the
years between which children must be
scholars Fichte said, and he proved to
be true prophet, that after the first gener-
alton there would be no difficulty in get
ting parents to send their children to school.
Jules Simon, late Minister of Public Instruc-
tion in France, wrote: "Prussia, with OBJ
ligatory instruction, has conquered igno-
rance, victory from which we are sepa-
rated, after thirty years of efforts, by 900,-
600 children, ignorant and neglected" J"
France spends much upon education, but
it is not compulsory and her people are
ignorant. Saxony spends less upon educa-
tion than Belgium, yet the Saxons are bet
ter educated than the Belgians, because in
Saxony attendance upon school is compul-
sorry, while in Belgium it is not. In New
York city, before the compulsory law took
effect, there were 240,000 registered schol-
ars and less than 1875, 900 regular attend
ants. These facts and figures prove most
conclusively that compulsory education
laws would be Of the greatest benefit to
every part of the United States, but espe-
cialy in the great cities. Indeed they are
the only practicable preventatives against
the rapid increase in the number Of juve-
nile criminals.