Douglas Island news., 1899-04-26
TELEPHONE Fo5.
"WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1899.

The education of ther children IS Ine great problem confronting thousands of parents in Alaska. You came here hoping to "striks 1t rich" ill q year or two: but you are still here aud your children are rapidly growing up amid inadeouate or no educational facli- ties. Many are negIecting the advan- Bages offered.
 4 child's best education depends more on the home training than on the schools, and the home is as much fac tor in Alaska as elsewhere. Some pa vents are so frivolous that they might dwell in the shadow of classic Yale or Harvard, and their children be gradua- ted, but they might be very poorly ed ucated. The city affords much better school facilities than the country, but the country boy stands ten chances to one of rising to eminenCe. The mil Ifonaires, merchants, bankers, profeS- sional men, and leaders in every de partment of life are generally from the country. The boys and girls raised in the right kind of homes on Douglas Is- land have more chances of success ln fife than they would have raised in the city of Boston. The rules and facts learned at school constitute simply the foundation for an eduCation-the college graduate is not fitted for any line of business, but his chances in life are much more favorable, for he is bet ter prepared to acquire readily that practical education which will make him a success as a miner, merchant, farmer, or professional man.
 In order to furnish good home ed ucatiou parents must be qualified to instruct or direct their children. They may be illiterate but they must under stand child life and character and in- spire their children with their own en- thusiasm. Every parent should read "Tom Brown at Rugby" especially if he has a boy to educate; and some of these novels by Charles Dickens, who did so much for child life and presents so many types of schoolmasters, good and bad: "Nicholas Nickleby," 1.-The Old Curiosity Shop" "Dombey and Son." David Copperfeld," "Our Mu- tual Friend" and Hard Times" with the educational object in view.
 Before child is old enough to learn to read it should be interested in sto- ries of history, brave and noble deeds, those beautiful biblical, mythological, and legendary stories with whichevery we'll informed person should be fla miliar. It is astonishing what a vast amount of general Information a child of six or seven may possess and how It stimulates the young mind to explore those attractive fields of history and literature. You must never grow tired even when you read for the sev- enth time the story of Farragut's cap ture of New Orleans, or Chas Kingsley's Capture of the Golden Fleece" back in ledgendary Greece. Don't desplse @AIice in Wonderland or that very old but beautiful story found among the ruins of ancient Egypt, "Cinder- ella When the child has learned to read, keep him interested by supplying him with something fascinating, and read with him. Don't be too particu- lar about what they read-lead them along the highways of good literature if possible; through stories of advent ure, history, discovery, the natural sci ences, biography and good fiction; but never let the interest lag; boy had better read the worst blood-and-thun- der stories ever written than read nothing, for he will be forming the reading habit and will probably soon CEow disgusted with such trash and commence reading something better. "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Fin' are trash by a good author, but they wal delight any boy. Get the children interested in BentyFs fascinating his torical stories, and others of similar character, together wiSh good periodi- cal literature, and they are attending a good home school
 The boy or girl who reads carefully one good general newspaper an illus trated weekly like HarpeE's or Leslie's, and a ffrst-cIass religious or scientific paper, with two or three good maga- zines, and from six to twelve good books. half of them masterpieces of