Evening star., 1905-10-23

ped about the limbs and held In place by
having the ends thrown over the left arm.
The Greeks felt that the home and degree
Of culture of a person could be detected
by the manner in which the himation was
worn. In her left hand Is held the great
spear. symbol of the lightning. as the aegis
or shield was the symbol of the storm
cloud. Pushed back from her brow Is a
Corinthian helmet, and conspicuous upon
her breast is the dread Medusa head which
no enemy could see without becoming
petriied.
The story of the aegis or shred of MI
nerva is particularly interesting. Jupiter.
or Zeus. her father, gave 1t to her. II waa
made of the skin of goat AmaIthaea,
which had sucked Jupiter In Crete. The
horn of the animal was the celebrated
cornucopia. or horn of plenty which never
became empty.
Three Titular Deities.
In Rome Minerva was one of the three
ttular deities. Jupiter, Juno and Minerva
were more reverenced than all other gods.
She had three great temples there. on the
Capitoline the Aventine and the Caelian
hills. and two festivals were held annually
in her honor. Indeed the palladium itself,
upon which the safety of Rome was piously
believed to depend and which was care
fully guarded by the yestal virgins, was
nothing but small wooden statue of MI
nerva, which the faithful believed had been
of the race. Aeneas.
In dignity of character as goddess of
wisdom. war and the liberal arts, In beauty
Of execution as work of art. the Minerva
Giustinianf Is most appropriate for school
room decoration. The personffication of the
thinking, the inventive faculty, the ideal
of modesty and concentration of purpose
the creator OF the olive. symbol Of peace
and source OF life. the Minerva can hardly.
it Is said by great teachers. be constantly
in the presence of the school boy Without
giving him some part of that wisdom which
made her favorlte Ulysses, the dread of
the Trojans. Her countenance Is beautiful
earnest and thoughtful. and her whole fig
ure majestic. She stands always In the
minds of observing boys and girls as type
OF wished-for wisdom.
Worth Doing Well.
One of the many lessons which The Stars
contest for school-room decoration will teach
pupils of the city is that whatever Is worth
doing at all Is worth doing we'll. This ap-
plies to the enthusiasm with which the
pupils strive to place their school among
those that receive the fifteen gifts Of
sculpture. and also to the manner Of send
ing in coupons to the Department OF School
Room Decoration.
Teachers are accustomed to recognize the
need of doing things in a systematic man
ner, and for this reason the director makes
the following suggestions:
/. Let each school room in each building
be a society for collecting coupons. with a
president. vice president and secretary.
2. Let the secretary of each school room
turn over to the secretary Of the highest
class In the building often as agreed
upon the coupons collected by his room. the
secretary of the highest class sending or
bringing the packages of votes to School
Contest, room 100, Star building.
8. Each coupon should be carefully filed
out with pen, pencil or rubber stamp. Rub
ber stamps are desirable. but not necessary,
and can be procured for few cents.
4. Tie the votes into packages Of fifty or
more. marking upon each package the num-
Der of votes contained therein.
5. Keep five-vote and one-vote coupons in
separate packages.
u. Do not roll coupons
Z. Send coupons early and often.
The Gales School, 1st and G streets, Miss
X. T. Brown principal, has the honor Of
being the first school entered in the great
contest for school-room decoration. The
pupils of the eighth grade have already
placed sixty-five votes to the credit Of the
school, and Byron Brooks leads the list
as having collected the largest number up
to the present.