The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-05-17
Any Boy May Learn.

does not see his way clear to college
education, can get another kind of edu-
ration that will serve him about as well,
ind in some things better, when he be
fins to do newspaper work.
Remember that education has gener-
billy two purposes-to train the mind and
10 store it with knowledge. My plan for
the country boy does both. Here it is:
Think of yourself as standing on one
side of an imaginary line, and the great
world, with all its men and women and
governments and institutions, on the
other. Cross the line and find out in
what way and through what things you
come in contact with the world Then
study those ways and those things until
you know all about them or until you
know as much as you can find out about
them. This is what sociologist would
call determining the relation of the indi-
vidual to the aggregate or the relation of
man to society. Let us explain the proc
ess little.
You will be pretty sure to discover
that you have relations with the great
world through the school, the church, the
government, through trade or business,
and socially through your friends and
companions. That is not all, but that
will do very well to begin with.
First get all the information you can
about the school system of your state.
Ask the teacher all the questions you
can think of. If you are country boy,
there is probably prudential commit
teeman in your district. Ask him what
he has to do. Then get at the superin-
tending committeeman and ask him
questions.
Find out where the money comes from
to build schoolhouses and pay the teach
er. If you live in village large enough
to have graded schools, find out how the
system is organized, from the primary
grade up to the high school. Let nothing
escape you that you can possibly learn.
Then the churches in your town-study
them. You may not find it easy to get
at the differences of belief that separate
the Methodists from the Baptists and the
Congregationalists from the Presbyteri-
ans, but your minister or any minister
will probably lend you books that will
Then make yourself a master of the
system of government or control in the
various churches. Inquire what churches
have bishops, what ones elders, what ones
deacons, and what the powers and duties
of these church officers are. In short,
learn in how many ways, and go as far
as you can, why one church organization
is different from another.
Next comes government. 1t is a big
subject-take it up in detail. Your father
is a county commissioner or a selectman
or town clerk. That is a capital oppor-
tunity. Get him to tell you all he knows
about the duties of town and county Off
cers-who lays out new roads and closes
old ones, who sees to it that the paupers
are housed and fed who determines how
large a sum shall be raised by taxes in
the town, how much each taxpayers
share shall be and what shall be done
with the money
If one of your fathers neighbors is a
member of the legislature, persuade him
to tell you how bills are introduced, re-
ferred to committees, reported, discussed,
amended and passed or enacted as laws.
He will tell you that bills, after they
have been passed by the assembly or
house of representatives must be passed
also by the senate and signed by the gov
ernor, but that only opens up new fields
for your investigation.
If perchance another neighbor is to
go as a delegate to the Republican or the
Democratic convention to help nominate
his party's candidate for the presidency
get him to tell you all about the party
machinery by which conventions are as
sembled and candidates named; about
the town caucuses, the county or district
convention, thetstate convention, the
national convention and the delegates tc
| it, their number and their duties; also
about the electoral college and its work
This will lead you into inquiries and
studies in respect to parties and politics
and state and federal governments that
will be in the highest degree interesting
and profitable.
So in regard to business. Ask the
village storekeeper where he buys his
cloths, his crockery, his molasses and hii
hardware, and where they were got by
the man of whom he bought them, an(
so on until you have traced them to theil
origin. You will in this way learn some
thing of wholesale trade and manufac
turing, something about notes, credits
insurance, transportation by rail ant
water and quite likely something abou
the tariff.
Opportunities for this kind of HON,
study and training will multiply as you
follow them up until the field of research
broadens out surprisingly Your mint
will broaden with it, and in following
out these pleasant paths Of common
knowledge you will acquire fund o
information that will be constantly use
full to you in future years of newspape
work.-Henry r. Miller, in the Youth
Companion.
Migrating Birds and Their Flight.