The Republican journal., 1904-05-19
beads that may be five hundred years
old. Mr.. Howe himself secured in

county, a Siberian amethyst. the value
of which at the time he had not learned.
1t was sold to Tiffany's agent for about
$3.50. This stone was included in the
great Tiffany collection at the Paris Ex-
position, and afterward bought by Pier
pont Morgan. 1t is now valued at about
$1,000. The mineral called Berylonite
is found in this county, and not else
where. About every boy has speci-
mems of this rare stone.
1t is not safe to make sweeping state
ments about the facts of natural his
tory to Mr.. Howe and his boys. A noted
scientist asserted in one of his books
that no instance of double monstrOsi-
ty bred in the wild state had ever been
known. But these Norway scientists
found and established just such case.
1t was myrtle warbler with two heads
and bodies, and it was demonstrated
that he must have migrated at least
once. Here is the demonstration of an
absolutely new fact for science. In
short, these boys and their teacher have
proved that science can be learned sys
Dramatically by ordinary village boys,
and that at the same time the boys
themselves can be transformed into en-
thusiastic and useful individuals.
Collecting specimens is fun for boys
when it is directed with the enthusiasm
displayed by Mr.. Howe. Often these
bows are found in the fields and meadows
before sunrise, hunting bugs, spiders,
moths and plants. They take trips into
the hills sometimes for twenty miles.
and stay as long as week. Frequently
they ride off for day in search of
specimens, and always come home filled
up with marvellous stories of what they
have seen and heard. They are each
provided with blanket, hammer. knife,
haversack, cup, boxes for specimens,
and other necessary things. Vivian
Akers, one of the original nine, carries
along his camera, and has taken most
interesting and valuable collection of
photographs on these various outings.
A regulation white hat and a uniform
outing coat distinguishes the boys, and
enables them to keep one another in
view in the dense forest.
Do you think boys ever get tired of
collecting, and classifying, and learning
ever so many hard names? Little
Francis Danforth, who is only twelve
years old, has collection of more than
a hundred different kinds of insects.
H lie can distinguish by name over hun
dred kinds of birds, and recognize them,
too, when he sees them in the fields
and woods. Francis is not much ahead
of the other boys, however, all of whom
have their own private collections, and
they are as careful and proud of them
as is any curator in the land. Some of
them, when Mr. Howe began with them,
were little barefoot fellows, whose only
accomplishment was swearing or cut
ting up pranks in the village. In all
the history of these Norway boys since
Mr.. Howe began with them, he has
never had to drop a boy out of his
clubs, and not one of them has ever
given up the pleasant work. Think, if
you please, of fifty eight boys, every
one of them sticking to this work for
years. And they speak the hard Latin
names now as if they were merely the
] primer,--at least, the older ones do.
They have their knowledge all CLASH
fed, too. They can tell you the king
doms, families, divisions, groups, orders
genera and species to which their specl-
mems belong. More than that, they
have learned to draw them and paint
| them. They have beautiful plates
which they have drawn of specimens
in the various departments of science
that they study. And to crown it all
they make their own apparatus, blow
| pipe instruments, crystal models, az
| cesSorieS of the microscope, and the
like.
This organization is not solely for the
purpose of collecting specimens. The
boys study cloud forms. They observe
ali the changes of light and shade on
| the land, and on the water. They know
why a snow landscape is SO nearly
shadeless, and why 1t looks level even
in a billy region. The colors and tints
Of the flowers. the mottlings and mark
| ings of the insects the formations of
the land, the erosion of the water, in
deed every kind of a truth about ma
ture these boys learn. Not a day passes
for them now in which they do not
/ store ur new facts. The little rough
village boy under this process very soon
gets serious and gentle in his talk,
leaves off his swear words, and begins
| to take on refinement and nobility of
character.
The work is really organized play
| TO see the eager faces of these boys, to
hear the tones of delight with which
they greet an old friend of the forest,
or find new stone, or discover natu-
raj freak in flower or a moth, or an
insect, at once shows the observer how
pleasurable it all is to them. Their
trips are real picnics, but are under
taken with pleasurable anticipations
that no common picnic ever inspired.
Nothing could induce them to miss q
trip,-not even the best game of base
ball that ever was played in the village.
The boys have very few set lessons to
learn, and Mr. Howe does but surpris-
ingly small amount of formal lecturing
to them. You would guess on such
showing that they would be rather law
less and disorderly in their work and
play. But in that you would be wrong.
On their trips each of the ''nine-to-
begin-with" boys has assigned to him
four of the younger lads. Each Of these
nine boys is specialist in some branch.
One, for instance, is herpatoIogist,
which means that he makes speciality
of all kinds of snakes, lizards and the
like. Another studies cryptogamic bot
any, another minerals, another batrach-
ians, that is, frogs, toads and the like,
and so on. These nine boys form the
faculty, so to speak. They are Mr..
Howe's helpers in teaching the success
sive groups of boys as they are added
from year to year. Already there is
group of little ones from six to nine
years old who are under charge of
lady; they will come into the Natural
History Club in few years. This fac
ulty of nine is now called the Sidney