The mirror., 1915-11-11
.:PENDENNIS' CHAT.
Lake acknowledgements
By J. s.

Lake acknowledgement
This title, long and rambling,
Vowel and consonant ambling
In discordant non sequence.
Is not jest or trick,
Nor trial Of jovial Mick,
To make of wit semblance.
'Tis the name of bit of scenery
Shining brightly in northern greenry.
What it means know not,
Save that redmen long ago,
When they hunted with arrow and bow,
Named a lake acknowledgements.
A man in America may be considered by
his fellow citizens to be an able man, but
he does not attain the recognition of the
satellites in the lime light of public opin-
ion until he has been cartooned.
Oliver Goldsmith says in the Vicar of
Wakefield, that man who married and
reared large family, did more for his
country than he who remained single and
only talked of the population. This is the
substance if not the exact words used by
the gifted Goldsmith. But some men have
a different opinion on the value of mar
ried man to the state. When the question
of exempting married men from certain in
come taxation was before the New York tax
committees college professor called to give
expert testimony declared that, ''Popula-
ton tends to increase faster than means to
support it, That is how the Cincinnati
Weekly Enquirer quotes the professor.
A scientist recently stated that man had
added to his period of life ten years. This
increase in life's span has been made ac-
cording to this learned authority, by the OBJ
servance of sanitation and other means of
health. Pendennis believes that
Methuselah did not know great deal about
modern theories of physical betterment,
but still that ancient lived longer by sew
eral centuries than men do nowadays.
Perhaps the ancients had some idea on
longevity that Old Father Time has hid
den from the scientists of today, At any
rate there is the fact of several ancients
living to the green old age of over three
hundred years, to confound the theory or
opinion of the scientists of today.
Hugo, in creating the character of Fau-
chelevent in Les Miserables gave to liter
ature one of the best examples of mans
gratitude to man, that ever appeared in
print. Fanchelevent is grateful to Jean
Valjean because Hugo's hero saved the old
mans life. This service Fanchelevent mag
nifies into passion and forgetful of self sees
only his debt of gratitude to Jean Vatican.
There is much to admire in Hugo books,
but the chapters in Les Miserables which
tell the story of the grateful Fanchelevent
are the best efforts of the author to prove
the falsity of the cynic's theory that all men
are self-seeking. Hugo shows in Fanchel-
event that even the most humblest of men
can have noble attributes.
Out of the goodness of men s hearts comes
many miracles. A southern city is to re-
ceive one and half millions of dollars be-
cause years ago stranger was kindly treat
ed within its borders. The fortunate city will
use part of the bequest to erect high school
for the children of the town. What more
fitting memorial could be left by grateful
heart than magnificent school building,
with seventy acres of ground divided into
baseball field, tennis courts, football field
and golf course? All of these things are
for the benefit of the remembered city's
needy children.
The Gary Plan of public school education
is an effort at individual teaching and train
ing. The class and grade method in COM
mon use in most public schools give some
training that tends to develop individuali-
ty, but as the pupils are classified and
graded, the individuality of each pupil is
likewise graded and classed. There is
much good in the Gary Plan of individual
treatment. individuals have limits which
classes and fixed graded standards do not
recognize.
Be A Good Forgotten
Life is too short to remember the things