few years to aid the ladies in the acquirement of that information on topics current and past, that they have manifested such an eagerness to obtain. As Crete has six clubs the amount of help afforded has not been inconsiderable, and yet the work of the college has not apparently suffered; but the good cause of education, for which the college works, has been fostered. While the work has not been done with any idea of return in view, yet the interest manifested by the ladies in the matter of securing legislation for traveling libraries and in fostering li braries in general is certainly gratifying.

In these days of research and investigation the high school has caught the spirit, and even here the thesis has taken the place of the oration upon graduation. For this work books are needed, and the doors of Whitin Library have been opened to high school students, who have been allowed to use any books in the library, free of expense, and in certain cases to draw out books, not at the time needed at the college. This is in marked contrast with the custom prevailing some years ago in a college library, where a tax of $5 per year, put upon resident alumni, practically closed the library to the "children" of the institution.

In the last presidential campaign, which was carried on largely by argument and reference to records, voters were invited to use freely the many papers, pamphlets, and books possessed by the library on the money question. The following notice appeared in the local papers:

"AS YOU LIKE IT."

"The librarian of Doane College informs us that the library is supplied with a quantity of literature on both

sides of the financial question. As the people of this country will literally go to school for the next three months for the purpose of educating themselves on the money question, our citizens will do well to avail themselves of the librarian's offer. He has arranged all the matter so that you can select one or both sides of the money question. He will loan you these books, papers, and magazines for a reasonable time free of charge."

This opportunity was embraced by voters, and, while the librarian had his personal views on political issues, yet in furnishing information he labored as hard for one side as for the

other.

With decision reached by the election, the demand for this kind of material practically ceased. Men desired now to work, and here came a new opportunity. As Crete is in an agricultural community, and as Whitin Library receives reports from many sources on farm topics, the following notice was inserted in the local papers:

"Whitin Library receives from the government and from all the state experiment stations pamphlets on subjects of interest to farmers. These will be loaned to persons living in the vicinity, if they will call at the library.”

This offer was also accepted, although not to the extent true of the first. Is it that politics interests farmers more than expert views on agriculture, or does a prejudice still exist against book farming"?

Thus the influence of the library radiates forth to all living in the community; and within its sphere it becomes a positive and aggressive force in the elevation and betterment of society. W. E. JILLSON, Librarian Doane College.

Mark Twain writes for the November Century a tribute to his fellow-townsman, the late James Hammond Trumbull. Mr. Clemens relates the following anecdote:

Years ago, as I have been told, a widowed descendant of the Audubon family, in desperate need, sold a perfect copy of Audubon's "Birds" to a commercially minded scholar in America for a hundred dollars. The book was worth a thousand in the market. The scholar complimented himself upon his shrewd stroke of business. That was not Hammond Trumbull's style. After the war a lady in the far South wrote him that among the wreckage of her bet

ter days she had a book which some had told her was worth a hundred dollars, and had advised her to offer it to him; she added that she was very poor, and that if he would buy it at that price, it would be a great favor to her. It was Eliot's Indian Bible. Trumbull answered that if it was a perfect copy it had an established market value, like a gold coin, and was worth a thousand dollars; that if she would send it to him he would examine it, and if it proved to be perfect he would sell it to the British Museum and forward the money to her. It did prove to be perfect, and she got her thousand dollars without delay, and intact.

Uniformity in School Records

T is simply surprising to see the lack of uniformity in the work of the average school board secretary. In the blanks, warrant register, day book, journal, and ledgers there is everything but harmony and uniformity. A short time ago I made a collection of blanks and specimen pages of the various books used in the office work of many of the boards of education in the largest cities from all parts of the country. They presented a curious revelation; they show

somewhat a sameness in the methods employed in keeping the books and in the blanks used. At the same time, the exhibition demonstrated the lack of uniformity in the office work in the boards of education in this country. It demonstrated that the secretaries and those who worked with them were doing an unnecessary amount of hard work in the caring for the books. The samples show that the books of the board have been especially made as the work of the different boards require. With most of the boards, the warrant register becomes the book of original entry for claims of every nature. It is also made the book for division of accounts, and is specially ruled and printed, in about this

order: Number of warrant, date, when paid, name, amount, what for. This will cover, when

properly spaced, a wide page. At first sight, it looks like a convenient arrangement, and yet, when you come to check up the returned or paid warrant, the eye has to travel across the page from the number on the margin to the amount, nearly two-thirds across the page, and back and forth. It is a tiresome process and takes much time. Suppose the book had been arranged in this order: Date, name, number, when paid, amount, what for, etc. It is just as easy to make the original entry, and you have the amount, when paid, and number together. Take the adjoining page upon which the account is segregated. The order for ruling and printing should be very carefully studied, for the printing of this page should form the basis of all other books, in their ruling and printing, and also the basis for all printed blanks used in connection with the books. A convenient method is to begin at the left of the page as

ruled and place in the first few columns these items that you charge to buildings and in the other columns the other accounts, in the order most frequently used, thus bringing the accounts least needed to the extreme right of the page. Suppose that you arrange your books in page. this form, the accounts would stand, say, teachers' salaries, janitors, repairs, fuel, rent of room, etc. If that is the order decided upon in the lowed all through the books, journal and ledger, warrant register, the same order should be fol

and in the blanks used in the office work.

In

the journal let the first entry be teachers' salaties, then janitors, then repairs, etc. In the ledger, where accounts are charged to buildings, follow the same ruling, first column teachers' A system of books salary, then janitors, etc. ruled like this produces uniformity, saves valua ble time, helps avoid errors in transcribing accounts. I have examined a large number of school board books and find in them all this lack of uniformity. They will be ruled almost the same, one or two of the accounts just reversed in their order in the ledger from the same accounts in the register. To illustrate, fuel in the warrant register will be found in the fourth column, while in the ledger it will be found in the third

column, and every time an entry is made that strange mental process has to be gone through with lest a mistake in entry is made, and many times the fuel will be found entered upon the be followed in all the blanks that are used in repair account. The same uniformity should connection with the books. In the large collection that I have made in the past three years I do not find a single secretary that carries out it is just as essential as uniformity in the books. this uniformity down to their blanks, and yet A little attention along this line and working mental relief and tend to accuracy. with the books and blanks would bring great

New Buildings

EVERYWHERE new school buildings are being erected, and the one great essential thing is often neglected,-looking after the plans. So many times the boards of education think it is not necessary to pay money for

an architect. The money paid for the services of a good architect, whether it is a large building or a small building, is well expended. Note he must be a good architect. The time has gone by when the money of the school district can be invested safely in the fancy things for the building. The plain, straightforward plan of building is the most satisfactory after all. It has taken a long while to come to the educating up process, but it is coming. At first you may be subject to all sorts of criticism, but in a little while it is found that the plain building pleases after all.

Everything designed with a view to cleanliness, avoiding dust gathering places. A few years ago the school architecture turned its at tention to the beautiful, even though not so convenient or substantial. These severe times have driven them back toward the plain, substantial building, devoid of "fads" or flashy ideals. Those artificial conditions that once existed, have been swept away. A little care in selecting the colors of the brick, and then placing them with the proper shading, makes a vast difference in the appearance of the building. Proper belt courses of stone, with terra cotta trimmings, slate roof, and copper cornice make a building that will grow in the eyes of the people. The best and simplest is the cheapest in the long run.

How Can We Decorate

HE article in the October number of THE

NORTH WESTERN MONTHLY on decorating the schoolroom has brought forth a series of inquiries from many places, all of which may be summed up in one question, "How can we decorate with least expense?" Like every other department of the school board's work, we are met at the start with, What will it cost? That question should be met with the other important question, What is it worth? The school period is the most wonderful part of the individual's whole life. It is the time when the mind, like the plastic clay, is easily impressed. Schoolroom decoration, in a systematic way, began in England. Ruskin and his associates formed an association, made collections of pictures, loaned them to schools, and had someone fully competent visit the school and give the history of the pictures and tell something of the life of the artist. Massachusetts took the lead in this country, others quickly followed; various

art associations were formed to help promote the work. Public interest has been aroused; appreciation and co-operation has been secured from teachers and pupils. The part for the board of education is to see that the work that they do in the way of painting rooms or calcimining walls and kindred work, is in perfect harmony with the end in view by those who would help beautify our schoolrooms. The question of cost is really a small item. It is not necessary that the board buy the magnificent carbon photograph or even the photogravure. The bromide enlargement of the master-piece will do real well; or less expensive still is the photo-lithograph. Through the loans and purchasing, as above indicated, at, comparatively speaking, no cost, the rooms may be decorated. Still another method is to gather the cast-aside magazines, take from them the best pictures, mount them upon a large sheet of paper of some suitable color for contrast, pin them around the room, not too high, and the effect will be pleasing. Many of the papers are giving colored illustrated supplements that are well worth a place in the schoolrooms. This simple statement must be suggestive of other means at little expense that will brighten the wall of the schoolroom, shedding an influence that must be lasting, uplifting in its influence, and at the same time enriching the schools everywhere. It is a subject of vast importance, and the boards of education and the active thinking people will do well to carefully consider it.

The Beautiful in School Work.

T is only recently that the boards of education have had their attention called to the question of beautifying their buildings and grounds. A great number of people arise immediately and call it a "fad," without stopping to consider that the public school, of all places, is the very place where the boards of education should direct their energies to develop a beautiful public life in America. The environ. ment that the board throws around about the child cannot help but have a very marked influence upon the life of the child. If in the school life the child is surrounded by the beautiful, it will come to frown down upon the ugly, no matter where it is found, in the home, on the street, or in the great markets of the world. The mind must be brought into contact with the beautiful, before there will ever be any apprecia

tion of these things in the life of the individual. No better time to start these things than in the school days. Upon no one does more responsibility devolve than upon the members of the board of education. Of course there is a limit to the power of the board to furnish all that they might desire, but every energy should be put forth until that limit is reached. There was a time when much of the above work was called theory work; but we have passed the theory stage. It is now simply an open pathway for the proper training of the ready eye, strong arm, and quick foot. It is contrary to some old, old theories of school work, but it will remedy the shortcomings of those days as its work is seen in the enlightening and developing of humanity. The effect will be noted in the future of an honest, broad, liberal, and tolerant manhood, and a more dignified and refined womanhood.

How many times the members of the board of education in carrying out their plans totally ig. nore the professional skill and ability in deciding important school matters.

THE Puritan home made the much admired and oft quoted Puritan character. From these homes there went forth the noble army of sturdy, honored New Englanders. A return to these old home methods of training children and the department of school administration would send forth one great sigh of relief.

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THE department of administration in school affairs is often severely criticised, because of the conduct of many of the scholars in the school and out of the school. The blame is placed upon the board, the superintendent, and the teachers. The real place is overlooked, and that is the home of the child. The family is the great training school of character.

In this urban age the home training seems to be sadly neglected. Everything seems to be done by federation, and it seems to be a very proper time for the helping of the disciplining of our schools by the starting of a new sort of

federation-the federation of the homes.

How to bring this about may be one of the problems that will soon confront the boards of education in our larger cities. Some time ago

the president of the board of education in Detroit suggested that they establish special courses of study for parents, that parents might be able to keep up with their children. It would also tend to bring the teacher and parent into closer touch and might remedy many of the sad defects in home training that we see today in our modern schools.

all over the land what a very prominent place DID you ever notice in all of the discussions they give to education? This one thing ought to stir boards of education to greater activity in their work of seeing that their school is among the best; that they keep pace with the advanc ing work.

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ONE has but to glance back and look at the methods in vogue a few years ago, and then look at the methods of to-day, to see the strides

forward in education advancement. Then it was forms and rules, or rules and forms. But in the great centers of educational activity this is all changed, and in the schoolrooms of to-day we find a nobler education set forth; it will come up to higher plains yet, with the active support on the part of the boards of education.

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WE profit by the past; it is not a blank or blot on the page; it is full of lessons. But new problems are before us. Teachers have to have a higher preparation, for they must do their part in the aiding of the pupils of to-day to come into that position of life in which they will be enabled to get the most out of life. When we look carefully at these rapidly growing prob lems we ask ourselves the question, do we understand education and its marvelous possibility?

A QUESTION with two answers, are schools for the children, or are the children for the schools? If you can put yourself in the place of the members of the board of education, you will readily answer the question one way, but if you put yourself as a member of the board in a listening posture, you will hear a vastly different answer coming from-well, from people who know just what and for whom the schools are established. And that is one of the hard problems that conHow to conduct fronts the board of education. the schools so as to be of the greatest benefit to