El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-03


1895 she bought little red straw
thing for S25 aud three years later the
oppressive milliner sold her another
hat almost identical with it and
charged her $50 for it-an obvious
injustice. The judges hemmed
and hawed as to whether a milliner
lars worth of straw and ribbon, and
finally the marchioness paid a thou
sand dollars more and the milliner was
obliged to be satisfied. It would seem
to the casual observer that the milliner
had q very good thing of it and the
folly OF the marchioness was only ex-
ceeded by that of the milliner who
would kill the goose that laid the gold
en- egg. And to most women, who
deem themselves very lucky if they
get $50 worth of hats q year and have
to be content with half that amount for
their milliner's bill, the whole thing
is fairy tale beyond their imagining
powers.
Mrs. Lew Wallace in a recent ar
ticle makes a vigorous protest against
the public school system. She says
that the'cramming done is outrageous,
that the notion that mathematics is
always and ever an invaluable disci-
pline is mistake, and that the tech
nicalities of English rhetoric are
taught to the neglect of the beauty and
strength of literature itself. She
seems to think ordinary pupils might
find more valuable information than
opipedons and the vagaries of synec-
doche. The public schools are so very
fine that one Ia apt to praise them
indiscriminately instead of consider
ing where they may be bettered.
Fathers and mothers are profoundly
Indifferent as to school courses and the
particular needs of their own offspring,
and as result educators are carrying
out out good INA, many ,. Impractical ,hS;I
schools is not theirs. If parents would
take genuine interest even If only in
the work of their own children, and
would make suggestions as to the
studies-an easing.up here on one study
8 persistence in another----the teachers
would listen to.the:home side and in the
years to come changes toward a per-
feet course would gradually come
about. AS long as teachers have their
own way entirely and never hear the
home side, common school education is
bound to err on the side of too much
scholarliness. but that ia far better than
to give too little. One feels the lack par
ticularly with girls. Three fourths of
them or more are certainly destined to
be homekeepers aud they never have q
chance to learn except by difficult eX-
perience and sometimes too late for
their happiness, anything about the
science and art and philosophy of the
House Beautiful.
Now Is the time for the doleful re-
marks to graduating girls and boys
about their happiest days coming to
an end, and the people who make them
always sigh and look as though they
were gazing back through the thickest
shadows to their last day of sunshine
the day when they left school. OF
course it is not true-they only say it
say and it does no harm because the
dismal prophecy goes in one ear and
out the other. Probably for neither
boy nor girl are the childhood days
the happiest. 1t is granted they are
very happy to look back upon, those
days of no heavier responsibility than
the coming of the next days lessons,
but the fulness of Joy comes with self
development. The happiness of a child
q happy man any more than the sing
ing bird can know the great Joy OF
friends that are true, the gladness of
days that are full of the harmony of
being understood and the sue
cess of right plans. Fail
ures and Misunderstanding are
many of course but the child's life
is not without them and he takes his
bumped nose as bitterly as he enjoys
stealing raisins. The difference be-
tween childhood and the life of the ma
ture human being lies in the lack or
presence of responsibilities and respon-
sibilities are as often joyful as sad,
oftener blessings than burdens. The
school boy or girl who leaves school
finds the marvel of himself to work
With; he finds himself a being of con-
trary impulses and in their struggle
for the mastery of his soul only does
he come to understand written books
and only then does the great book of
human nature open it's pages for his
perusal. School books have only given
him a peep into the fascination of life.
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of nfe for which the first was
made:
Our times are in his hand
Who saith, "A whole planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all,
nor be afraid" -'-...
Rabbi Ben Ezra.