The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1894-11-08


that special part of the brain is de-
puted to receive the sensations coming
through the optic nerve, for if this part
of the brain is injured. and useless for
time by any accident, even by sickness,
blindness occurs. The exceeding deli
cacy of this organ of sight is such that
the vibrations of light, which amount
to nearly 7OOO0O0OO of oscillations in a
single second, can be so received that
the vibrations of these oscillations by
which cOlOrS or the senses OF them on
the brain are caused, can be different
lated by the eye with the greatest ease.
When the eye is so made that by some
defect so small as to be Incompetent
sible, it cannot receive the impressions
of these different cOlOrS in order to
distinguish the difference between five
hundred and seventy-seven millions of
millions of times when the color is
green and six hundred and twenty-five
millions of times when it is blue the
unfortunate person is color blind. The
cause is small, yet great is the effect
on the human brain. After studying
the amazing delicacy of the eye, what
an idea is conveyed to the mind of men
of the unutterable vaStness of Omni-
science.-New York World.
Fletcher of SaltOun, is credited with
the memorable saying. 'Let me make
the songs for the people and care not
who makes the laws" The influence
of song has often saved nation.
Who can calculate the effect that
"HOme, Sweet Home" has had upon
the world. A story comes to us from
Colorado which illustrates most forcibly
the question in hand. The author of
that pathetic and tender little ballad,
Wait Mister Postman" sent copy of
his song to friend, the chaplain of the
Colorado Penitentiary, and the chaplain,
struck by the beautiful sentiment of
the verses, and the sweetness of the
music, asked young lady to sing it to
the convicts. The song is one of pure
sentiment and pathos. The tenderness
Of the little girls appeal to the post
man touched the hearts of even the
most hardened criminal, and tears
dimmed the eyes of those who had long
been stranger to tender emotions.
No doubt visions of happy and innocent
| do Of
was hushed in death, of little sister,
pure and guiltless, arose in their minds,
and who knows what influences for
good may follow from the singing of
that simple heart-sOng. Great
Divide.
"Full schools mean empty prisons
is the motto of the writer of an article
in the current number of the SCHOOL
MASTER, and it must be confessed, says
the London News, that the array OF
facts and figures, with which he fur
nishes his readers. yields abundant
support to this eminently encouraging
doctrine.
Far and wide we can see, that prisons
are, to considerable extent, disappear.
ing, their sites being for the most part
taken for the erection of model lodging
houses for the poorer classes. "The
jails have failed" as someone has
tersely put it, "for want of adequate
support from the criminal classes and
it is significant that they began to be
in bad way when the school board
, act came into active operation, and
, have gone on declining step by step as
the number of children on the roll OF
the primary schools has increased.
In 1870 with population under %
100000, we had in England and Wales
1900 primary schools. Then the nun
Der of prisons reached 113. In 1890 the
population had increased to nearly
100000, and the primary schools tC
$4,000, while the number of prisons hao
fallen to less than sixty. Roughly
speaking, while the number of children
in the primary schools had increased il
the period referred to about threefold
:, the number Of thieves or suspected
persons on the roll of the police records
had diminished by nearly one-third
1 and this in the face of large increase
1 in the population. Well may the writer
ask, who in 1870 would not have looked
= on the man as dreamer who haC
ventured to predict that in the short
space of a quarter of century, within
+ radius of little more than mile from
Westminster palace, jails would bt
transformed into play places for The
workers children; into art palaces fol
the improvement of workers leisure; Of
), into schools for the workers little ones
Chicago Times.