Los Angeles herald., 1907-07-28

tirely useless performance 1t relieves the
mind and only becomes foolish when in
dulged in to extravaganza, and as if one
were sent to school merely to conjugate the
verb "to weep"
1t is wholesome discipline to be thrown on
ones own resources, and many schoolgirl,
when she says goodbye to her people at the
railway station, may be thankful at being
forced to shift for herself. She may be ner-
vous and diffdent at first; but that wears off
after little. and the result is sometimes sur
prising.
we have seen girls go off to school, for. the
first time, mere ciphers and intellectual jelly
hsn, and after a year or two there they were
quite new creatures, with bright intellects
and full of life and self-possession.
There, is saying that women in all ages
have taken more pains to adorn the outside
than the inside of their heads; but in these
days this. truth is going out Of date. The
pursuit OF learning. when followed up with
dliigence, does great deal to prevent the
feeling of home-sickness.
Ine reason why many girls are home-sick
is simply because they do not keep their eyes
about them. and their attention at the proper
time fixed on those lessons to learn which
they were sent to school.
A great consolation in inconsistencies is the
thought OF meeting our loved ones again,
when we are sure to find that absence has
made the heart grow fonder, and that home
ls !, dearer to us than ever Meetings are made
an the brighter because of partings, and of all
innocent pleasures give us that of recounting
to. ,hreside> circle the experience we have
gained when separated from them.
lime hurries fast when one keeps busy,
and while to the melancholy idler term
appears an age, the industrious girl sees it go
by with such rapidity that it is quite a sur
PRISE when the end comes, and she finds her
self free to fly off to her fathers house. like
bird escaped out of cage.
1here is an old story about rich but igno-
rant woman, who, upon being told that her
daughter was wanting in capacity" order
ed the teacher to buy the capacity and put
Sensible people know that learning is not
easily gained by anybody. There is, at least,
no royal road to it in the sense that those
favored by fortune can acquire knowledge
without exertion. Rich and poor alike are
reduced to one level in finding multiplication
vexatlon and in worrying over the difficult
ties of French grammar and Latin rudi-
ments
But though learning is difficult, it is easier
to acquire in youth than at any other time
The young have no distractions; cares, ankle
ties, skeletons in cupboards, and engrossing
subjects of personal interest have not vet
come to fetter their free spirits, and they can
give undivided attention to books and les
sons. Their heads, too are like unfurnished
houses standing with the doors open and
waiting for all sorts of things to be sent to
fill them up.
Even in youth, however, study is not easy.
and those who are most diligent get on best.
Some of the labor, it must be confessed, is
not interesting.
"Of all work that produces results" says
welEknown schoolmaster, nine tenths
must be drudgery."
But it must be faced; and a well-informed
and cultivated mind is worth taking pains