The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-02-23

Whatever would we do
70 pass the time away?
| If every sky were fair
And everything we tried
Succeeded; If despair
Came never to our side;
Were every burden light,
Pray tell me. If you can,
II everything were right
What would proclaim the man?
| If no one ever failed
| And no one wronged a friend;
II no one were assailed
By hatred. and the end
Each mystery unfurled,-
Oh, what a monotone
would be this splendid world!
| Detroit Free Press.
| Compulsory Education.
Many persons will be surprised to
learn that compulsory education is a
| drawback at the present time. This is
by no means an argument against
compulsory education. but it is a fact
that as the schools are now admins
tered the comparatively recent innova-
ton has been a hardship to many of
the brighter minds among the pupils,
no matter how much good we may be
doing to derelicts. We compel chill
dren to go to school. without making
| proper provision for them. Formerly
fewer children than now passed be-
yond the fourth grade. At 10 or IL
| they left school to work or to loiter.
In the more enlightened states chill
dren are compelled to attend school
until they are 16, unless under excep-
tional circumstances. This means that
the upper grades in the grammar
| schools are filed. whereas they used
to have only about half the present
number of pupils, except in the largest
cities. 1t was then case of the sur
vival of the httest. AS the derelicts
dropped out, the teachers had small
er number of pupils to instruct. and
usually the very brightest remained.
The teachers were enabled to give
more individual attention to the schol-
ars, and thus the eighth grade pupil
left school much better equipped than
now when perforce the teacher must
give most of her attention to the back
ward children. duty which is only
slightly lessened by the special schools
for delinquents in some large cities.
In most cities 40 pupils to a division
is the normal number. In many the
actual number is much higher. Sup
pose an advertisement something like
this were inserted in newspaper:
Wanted-Governess in private fam
lily to attend to the mental, moral, and
spiritual wants of children. to take the
responsibility for their bringing up;
must be we'll educated, refined. good
tempered; should dress well and be
willing to obey one thousand rules OF
the home; only fifty children in fam
lily; salary, $40 week, without board
LWOlNG Weeks nOlludys With no salary.
/ How many answers would be re-
ceived, and what would such an ad-
i vertiser expect? Yet this, with vari-
alton in salary, is exactly what is de-
manded of the teachers in our public
schools. The wonder is that so many
apply for the position. From a finan-
cial point of view, house service is
much more profitable. One is re-
minded of the woman who wrote Nine
de Stael asking her to find tutor fol-
y oh to- -
tues she expected. The grand lady
replied that she understood the stu
alton exactly, and when she found
such man she would marry him. Nc
SO anxious to marry, or that there is q
never falling stream of young mer
anxious to have such paragons fol
wives.
It may be set down as one of the
things to be accomplished in the flu
ture that no teacher shall be called
upon to instruct more than rs pupils
Twenty would be much better
Joseph M. Rogers in January Lippin.
colts
The Marlboroughs.
English aristocratic society hal
championed the cause of an American
born duchess. The Duke of Marlbor
ough is a knight of the garter, al
order Of which King Edward is tn,
that his knights should at least out
wardly conform to the principles o
| chivalry toward ladies which were in
eulcated by the founder of the order
, Edward III. Whatever their privat
: lives may be, their public acts SHOULD
| be seemly. The relations of the duca
pair have not been too cordial of late
; The duchess was Miss Consuelo Van
derbilt before her marriage. The KIM
! and his circle have taken a stron,
| fanny IN RaoonfIxy KfrO n
Portugal, was guest at Windsor cas-
tie and was invested as a knight o
; the garter by King Edward. TIL
. Duke of Marlborough betook himself t
; windsor for the ceremony He had re
, ceived no invitation to do so, but con
sfdered 1t his right, as a member o
the order. to attend the investiture o
) a brother knight.
None said him nay, and he was pres
ent at the ceremony. After the cere
: anony, the other knights of the garter
} were asked to remain for dinner at TIL
/ castle. Not SO the scion of the Mari
boroughs. No seat was reserved 70
: him at the festive board. Upon inquiry
he learned the disgracefuI fact tina
! nobody had even thought of him
J Gracious! Socially dead and young an
l good looking, too. All the pride of tn
1 Marlborough. which Is one Of the mos
: conspicuous assets of the family, re
r VOTED at the indignity, and the feel
ings of the duke. as he changed hi
: garter costume for ordinary clothes an
e repaired to a nearby chophouse for al
f and chops, are best imagined. In novel
l fenraged dukes say all sorts of naught
e things. What Marlborough's remark
e were, are not matter for record.-Les
: lies Weekly.
s The Ocean Greyhound.
: Imagine jumping from New Yor
| to London in a little over three days
| &c r1lx I11k
probability. What a step from F'ul
n tons laborious first journey up tn
= Hudson to this new record just in GU
r grasp! Thus do things transpire in on
e generation which were entirely be
d yond the ina gination of former gener
: ations. Our forefathers who boarde
IS the old sailing vessels, trusting to tn
e wind and a kind Providence for swii