The evening times., 1900-06-26

ing how much Of the children's touching
behavior is patriotism and how much is
parrot. The results are not edifyinq. but
perhaps. if these things really exist, it is
as well to have them known
The tour OF investigation was suggested,
it appears, by an incident which took
place at a dinner party. A CUES under
took TO quote America" but could not
remember it. and the ten-yea--olI daugh-
ter Of the house helped him out b. reciting
the whole hymn. She said she had been
taught the song at school. and would write
it down If they liked. SO they gave her
paper and pencil, and she was not again
heard from until she brought for inspec-
tion her rendering OF the national lyric
subjoiued:
MY country, tiSsut the
Sweet land Ut LiIct tea.
Or thee ] sln--
Land where ms father died
Land where the Pilgrims uriCd,
From ov'ry muuutaiE-sIde
Let fEICMyH rms
Ny native country the
Land ~ the noble free.
Thy name l love.
| love thy rGtS aud ClillS.
Thy woods ard temper pills,
Ny heart with hatcher thrills
Like that above"
Naturally. this created some consterna-
tion among the good people who had been
peacefully prat,Iiag Of the benefits of our
public school system; for the child was
more than ordinarily intelligent, and
spelled correctly. so that when she wrote
-'roJs and chills" it was evident that that
was What Sc meant. An investigation
ousucd. and the reader viii notice that, SO
far as her limited opportunities permitted.
the child had reasoned about the matter
and endeavored TO get some sense out Of
the gibberish which she seemed TO be
learning. This is the coIloquy:
'.Whlt Is Iibaet tear"
cone Of cur imp. .rJs. / guess, from China"
''AEd what Is 'tissuT -
81 don't know"
''WLIt 60 you think it ISL
''Msybe IT is 10 nh ouJ tha line. Poetry has
makes the right metre
w hat Go you mean by pred p
why. pry means 10 come where You are not
asked 10 come
Then the Pilgrims pried into Au.aricae''
'Ncs. / think So Nobody invited them"
''Nh4t Is 'frdmen -
can't make any sense 10 it
Why DO You love 'rots and clIlls!
81 don't"
But You say here that You do"
ooh, l DONE say II; its the poetry sayS that"
''W,H. what does the poetry mean by itg''
Il think IL means that we mIs- forgive great
many unpleasant things about cur country, and
say We like them just ont OF poiteness.'
Evidently the next generation is trained
to respect Its rulers.
''What are temper pisT -
'PIlls for temper, don't YOU thihSe"
did YOU ever see any such uillSE'
'vo; did yoG7 But I'd liae TO have s'ni9."
Why"
No answer to this except a half shy.
half wicked little smile toward her pareu; g..
What Is 'ratcherg''
Il really don't know
Haven't you any lCeaE
''Y,s, It sounds like disease
''HOw SOg''
1T saws like that above'-and there are chiIls
few lines above; and tariI.s are sort of chiils
anyway / looked II up in my Dictionary
The next day the Investigators vent to
one Of the public schools 10 see what the
patriotic exercises which furnished such
remarkable results were like. Their ex-
perience might have been more encour-
aging had they not insisted on asking
questions out Of their own heads instead
of those which the children, ten years
Of age on an average. were accustomed TO
answer. II broke up the routine. The
children were asked, in regard to the
flag salute how they could give their
heads to their country. One said they
could "cut their heads of and give them
that way" another thought they could
let some one put bullet through them. -
and another thought the phrase meant
that they should keep their heads inside
OF car windows. Then one of the children
was asked who discovered America She
said it was Columbia, and his first name
was Hail. After this hopeful answer the
school was asked what patriotism was.
These were the answers elected:
Putting flags your house when somebody
dies"
Getting a half holiday and going down town
to hoIer at the soldiers as they go by"
''Patriotism's KILN Spaniards.'
The children were then asked to write
verses OF their fayorite patriotic songs. A
majority chose the Star -Spangled Ban
ner," but the qualification which Mr.. Key
might have felt at this fact would probably
have been modified by an inspection Of pa
pers in which the most famous line of his
immortal lyric read;
o. say. does the star-spangled banner get
weighed?
or in which "dawn's early light was trans
muted into darn surly he" And in rem
dering the Battle Hymn Of The Republic
one line read thus:
He is tramping round the village where the
grapes arrive from shore.
But the gem Of that collection was the
following:
Dam. dam. dam, the boys are marching; cheer
UP comrade, they viii come and aneath the tarny
pag We will been airn agaii. in the freedom OF
our annie annie ONE.
The commentator charitably OBJ erves tha;
the lad who wrote that was probably tired.
The reader will admit that eh Idren ten
years old are quite capable Of singing all of
! these songs understandingiy, and that many
Of them do. in places where the phonetic
system Of teaching has not yet penetrated
There is no reason why, in the language Of
scripture, the instructor should not give
the sense, and cause them to understand