Weekly Mail

113 ABY ON FIRE WITH ECZEMA. JgABY ON FIRE WITH ECZEMA. BABL ON URIC WITH ECZEMA. My little nephew suffered fearfully about two years ago from eczema following vaccination. His head, face, arid parts of his body weru in a terrible state, and caused him sucli p.iin and irritation that his mother could get no rest at night, through having to watch him to prevent him scratching himself in his sleep. For six months he was treated by the best doctors at Hertford and at the Infirmary, but. though they altcre(I the treatment, from time to time, their bLst did him no good, causing the mother to lose all hope. Just about this time I sent her a set of the CUTICCUA. IfEMEDlES. they having done a friend of mine great good. The effect upon the child, directly the soap and CirricuRA were applied, was truly mar- vellous. The mother shortly after wrots me faying, "Thank God am! you for the CirricuRt REME- DIES The dear bjy s head, face, ami bants are almost well; you would not know him for the same child." My nephew continued to improve rapidly, until now I am able to tell you that the child is quite cured, his skin is perfectly clear and smooth, and he enjoys good health, thanks to the CiTiciTRA REMEDIES. HAURY HARVEY, No. 267, Crrr or LOXDON POLICE. A BAD BURNING- SORE LIMB. A BAD BURNING SORE LIMB. I was a sufferer with a most obstinate and painful eczema ill my left leg and foot about four years. I was under treatment of different doctors with no good result. I was persuaded by my friend, Constable Harvey, of the London force, to try your Cvticvra. Kkui.diks, and! thank the day I did, for, after four months' use, l found my leg and foot completely cured. JOHN LYES, 65, Fetter-lune, London, E.C. Every disease of the blood, skin, and scalp from infancy to age, whether itching, burning bleeding, scaly, crusted, pimply, or blotchy, with loss of hair, is speedily cured by CUTICURA. the great skin cure, CUTICUKA BOAP, an exquisite likin beautifier, and CUTICURA RESOLVENT, the greatest of humour remedies, when physicians, hospitals, and all other remedies fail. Bold by all chemists. Price CUTICURA, 29. 3J,; RICBOLVXNT, 4S. 6d.; SOAP. Is.; or the set, post free, for 7s. 9d., of F. NHWBBRY and SONS, 1, King Edward-street, Newgate-street, London, E.C., depot for Potter Drug and Chemical Corporation, Send for How to Cure Skin and Blood Diseases," 6 pages, fully illustrated. PIMPLES, blotches, blackheads, red, rough, Chapped, and oily skin prevented by CuncuRA CURED BY CUTICURA REMEDIES. c ULL'I) 13Y CUTICURA REMEDIES. w L800i-1

NATIONAL ODDITIES. .0 Peculiar Characteristics of the World's Peoples. DIFFERENT IN ENGLAND. A Chinese gentleman always sends a pair of geese to the lady of his choice, and they are looked upon as the emblems of conjugal fidelity. WHAT WOULD IRVING BE WORTH. Satisfaction in a Japanese theatre is pro- claimed by shouting out the name of the actor, or by the words, Ten riyo One thousand riyo /"—a riyo is a yen, a silver dollar, or three shillings-expres-iive of the cash value of the actor in the estimation of the crier. INVOKING THE ADVICE OF HEAVEN. A Persian never takes a dose of physic until he has previously obtained a favourable answer from Heaven in the shape of an omen. Should he have the potion at his lips, if he happens to sneeze it is enough the physic is thrown to the dogs, and another praotitioner is called in. LUMBAGO PATIENTS HEED THIS. In Westphalia the peasants, on hearing the cuckoo for the first time, roll over and o /er on the grass in order to insure themselves against lumbago for the rest of the year. This is con- sidered all the more likely to happen if the bird repeats his cry while they are on the ground. BInTH AND SICKNESS. Holland has some peculiar customs. In many towns bulletins are affixed to the doors of houses in which persons are sick, in order, that their friends may be apprised of the state of their health without knocking of ringing, and in Haarlem the birth of a child is announced by nv-ans of a small placard adorned with red silli and lace. HOUSES ON POLES. The natives of King's Island, in the Arctic Ocean, are a curious people, who live upon a precipitous hillside, as no other people live. Their houses are erected upon poles. The entrance to each is effected through a hole in the front wall about 18in. in diameter. Having clambered through this entrance, one finds oneself in a room about 8ft. square, which is the common living-room of each house. From the sides of this room are found several apertures similar to the main one of entrance, which lead to as many sleep- ing apartments. WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN KOREA. Among the most peculiar of women's rights in Korea is the curious oustom forbidding any males from being out after eight o'clock in the evening. When the Korean curfew sounds all men must be indoors, while women are free to roam abroad till one a.m. Indoors, the violation of the privaoy of women's quar- ters is punishable by exile or severe flagella- tions. It is not proper for a widow to re- marry she is expected to weep for her de- ceased husband, and to wear mourning all her life; it would be infamy to marry a second time. JAPANESE DENTISTRY. The Japanese dentist does not frighten his patient with an array of steel instruments. All his operations in tooth-drawing are per- formed by the thumb and forefinger of one hand. The skill necessary to do this is acquired only after long practice, but when once it is obtained the operator is able to extract half a dozen teeth in about thirty seconds without once removing his fingers from the patient's mouth. The dentist's education commences with the pulling out of pegs which have been pressed into soft wood; it ends with the drawing of hard pegs which have been driven into an oak plank with a heavy mallet. MARRIAGES IN GENOA. I Marriage brokers are regularly important business men in Genoa. They have their pocket-books filled with the names of mar- riageable girls of all stations in lifo, with notes on their figures, personal attractions, fortunes, &e. Theso brokers go about from place to place endeavouring to arrange mar- riages, and when they do succeed they get a commission of 2 or 3 per cent. upon the dowry. At Genoa marriage is purely a matter of financial calculation, generally settled by the parents or relatives, who often draw up the contract before the parties have seen each other, and it is only when every- thing is arranged, and a few days previous to the marriage ceremony, that the future hus- band is introduced to his intended partner tor life. She he be displeased with her manners and appearance, he may break off the match, on condition that he pays the cost of broker- age and any other incidental expenses which may have been incurred. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Christening or naming among the Quojas of Guinea is a curious ceremony. When a boy is to be named, the father walks through the village armed with bows and arrows; he keeps continually singing, and as he passes along, the neighbours join him with musical instruments as soon as the people are assembled they form a ring, and the person appointed to perform the ceremony takes the child from the mother's arms, lays it upon a shield, puts a bow into one hand, and a quiver in the other; he then makes a long harangue to the people, after which he addresses himself to the infant, wishing him to be like his father, industrious, hospitable, and a good husbandman he then names the child, after which the company retire. A CURIOUS SAVAGE CUSTOM. At last week's sitting of the British Asso- ciation a curious paper was read by Mr. Ling Roth on Couvade." This is the name of a curious custom which orders that when a child is born the father takes to his sleeping corner and behaves as though be, and not the mother, had brought forth. The origin of the word is French, from couver, to hatch. To Europeans the custom appears barbarous in its treatment of the wife, who has to get up and go about her usual duties, and, perhaps, now attend to her husband. Savage women, however, do not suffer in labour to the same extent as more civilised women do. On this inquiry the suffering of the women may, therefore, be neglected. The custom is met with in Europe, Africa, Asia, and mostly in America. In the West Indies and South America to this day travellers fre- quently come across it as a living custom. It is mostly found to exist amongst people who live in isolated districts, and who appear to have been driven from more fruitful lands. Couvade is not found to exist among the Australians. The savage believes that there is some hidden link which binds the new-born ohild to its father. Many curious beliefs are met with among the uncivilised, showing a similar belief in occult links or bonds or lines of force. These forms of belief are usually described under the general heading of ii witchcraft." The father is to avoid bewitching his ohild, so that the custom is in effect an example of aberrant form of reasoning. FIGHTING FOR THE BRIDE. A mock battle between the followers of bride and bridegroom forms part of the mar- riage ceremonials of the Circassians, and of the llookies, a race dwelling on the north- 11 east frontiers of India. The comedy is thus described:—"After the purchase money agreed upon has been paid down the friend^ of the bride-buyer essay to fetch his bargalif. and get well thrashed for their pains. Bow the hurly-burly over, the woman is brought out, conduoted to the cottage gate, and then given up without any more ado. Amongst certain Bengali tribe it is the gentleman's ar6 to feign unwillingness to don the wedding garment, and the lady goes a-courting. The maid pursues the unwilling swain, and, havIDf secured him, he is carried to the water an well dipped therein. The parents, with • great howling, rescue him from the hands ot his captors, and declare they will not paro with the darling boy. A sham fight ensue" with the usual ending-a wedding. The Kurds have a very curious and soOJS" what dangerous marriage custom, which one would think would be more honoured in the breach than in the observance. The husband, surrounded by a bodyguard of twenty of thirty young men, carries his wife home oB his back in a scarlei; cloth, and 18 desperately assaulted the whole way by a nuJ11- ber of girls. Sticks and stones are hurled at the bridegroom, who, in the home-corai°S with his bride, can hardly be considered a very happy man, for the irate Amazons often inflict on him marks which be carries to his grave. It may be that amongst the lady pursuers are some of the bridegroom's former flames,' who turn the mock attack into down* right earnest to avenge slighted love, A. farce similar to this was oustomary in Ireland some couple of hundred years ago. and modern 'throwing of the slipper for good luck is nothing more than a survival of of those very old, very widely diffused, afld very foolish marriage customs." 1, SPANISH BURIAL CUSTOMS. A correspondent writes:— "IJave you ever seen a Spanish funeral? N?? Well, if you want to be astonished go to the Ol Cemetery this afternoon. So was advised by an American in hotel at Barcelona. I went. The Old Cemetery of Barcelona was in truth a "city of the dead; Streets upon streets of wal's, with five or 51 stories of niches, into which the coffins were too bØ pluced, gave, indeed, the idea of a deserted cwJ' This fnshion obtains all over Spain, and in parts of Italy. Wandering through the streets I was attracted by a hammering souDfl' On arriving I found, to my horror and a couple of women in deep mourning standing "A a ladder, against which leant n coflin, tilted t>°. upright, holding the remains of a working-ma11 I full working dre-s, even to his cap. The remainS, sav, for his face and hands could only be pared to those of a figure comros<;d of ^r,ej tub c JO. That was the substance the colour of the flesh, dried up t>y atmosphere in the hermetically niches in which the coffins are placed. OJP of the women then took what I afterward* found was a religious card from the pocket.of corpse He had beer, I suppose, her husband, aO had been buried in this niche two years t)eforo. The niche coulJ not be opened before, for tw years is the limit. I asked if it was a bnrid, aO was told by the cigarette-smoking sexton was not, but only a visit paid to the remains. vi-it over, the two women commenced to scre* a hysterically, as was not to be wondered at, the coffin was once more packed into the A sans ceremonie by the sexton. Afterwar I saw a funeral—that is, the interment of the —as the funeral service was already at the church, and nonte save distant friends 8 with the corpse to the cemetery. I met a sion of two priests, & black coffin, three or with the corpse to the cemetery. I met sion of two priests, & black coffin, three or black clad mourners, and two leisurely ciSar -Ig amoking sextons. Arrived at the niche belo"g'r| to the family, the priests left. The slab of t", niche, already removed, wa? on the ground. .effin wns taken out, opened, and its contents uioved, the head deposited in one plac, 'ho boi es in another, and the other remains carey £ jj eolheted. Then the,coffin was broken up* a rule that the last interred enjoys a c"ffi'» Afnr<r detriment of the previously interred; there » the lady who in full evening costume was tog her last resting-place,'ind who, in t his condit ion,w exposed to us by our cigarette smoking there in her coffin, ami the disturbed remnins packed around as bc&t thny would fit in. So the burial ptocesi continued, until the niche, four feet wide by seven feet long1, was full of t fc dried, mummy-like substance. The old coffin the 1 italy deceased was, perhaps, used as firewo by the sextons. A pretty fune a! was that o little b)y of about seven years ol 1, who his last littlo children's pirty dro.-s. Poor H feliow, he looked like wax as he lay in his c°^0j and n:o.e than ever showed the utter wafl5e01 reverence characteristic of tiie whole °^. jn burials. It is curious to note such a thing such a superstitious country as Spain.

[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.1 OUR BOYS AND GIRLS: WHAT TO DO WITH THEM. No. 11.—The Scholastic Pro- fession for Men. By J. H. YOXDALL, (President National Union of Teachers.) I will sketch the scholastic profession for men as seen from the interior, the seainy side; for the exterior view of it is somewhat deceptive. My aim is to show the parent who may be contemplating schoolmastership as an occupation for his son, how the son would be likely to regard his position, if he became a teacher, in the after years. There is much need for a faithful presentment of the interior aspect of teaching as a life-work. The old idea was that schoolmastering was a light and easy avocation, suitable for any person not fit for anything else. In the past, the presence of ill-health or lameness in a lad was held to be a heaven-sent hint to make him a teacher and failure in any other position was almost a credential for keeping-school." Such ideas are now almost vanished, but even yet there is no occupation so lightly entered on, and therefore so fruitful of disappointment, as that of the schoolmaster. To a mere super- ficial view the teacher's position seems to be one with many advantages and few drawbacks; the public importance of the worker blinds the eye to the private unimportance of the worker the shortness of the hours and the length of the holidays obscure from view the inadequacy of the remuneration the work is apparently so easy that few of the uninitiated suspect how really difficult and exhausting it is the highly respeotable exterior of the schoolmaster does not betray his lack of inde- pendence of meddling and irritating outside control. And so much mouth-honour is rendered, by press and platform, to the high willing of training those who own the Joining years" that the rough-and-ready Observer fails to note that a teacher, as a teacher, gains far less social consideration }ban by the dignity of his work he deserves. QUALIFICATIONS, But the wise father, who is said proverbially to know his own son," will less consider how the profession of teaching looks from the outside than how far the son is fitted to succeed in the profession; and will care less with what eyes the boy regards the occupa- tion than in what light the man will view his position when he knows it by experience. The foremost considerations will probably be, U Will it be a step higher socially for my son and W ill it be an advance pecu- niarily for him ? But there are other and more important considerations to be kept in view. Chief of all is the fitness or unfitness of the lad for the work. It must be under- stood from the first that school-mastering is not a suitable refuge either for the delicate Id or "the fool of the family." The physical /ax whioh the successful teacher pays for his suooess is considerable; and the mental tax is obvious. Robust health is almost an essen- tial quickness, clearness, and general power of mind are indispensable. A dull man, or a weakly man, may scramble and limp through life as a teacher, no doubt; many are doing it to-day. But the soramble will be a weari- some, heart-breaking affair, and all his life long, conscious of his inefficiency, the dull or weakly man will exeorate the paternal mis- take which made him-in name, that is-a teacher. Few sights are more piteous than the hourly failure of the dull teacher to put things clearly, or the daily fag of the weak- ling, killing himself by fruitless labour, the Sisyphus of the modern world. But health and brain-power are not all the requisites which go to make up a successful teacher. Knowledge, bookishnesa," and study are useless to the schoolmaster unless they are combined with the art of putting things," the faculty of luoid explanation. Then there is patience—patience the indis- pensable but uncommon quality. There should also be cheeriness of demeanour, freshness and gaiety of manner—the child- like heart in the adult breast. Most impera- tive of all is the faculty of discipline. It shou'd be noticed that good health and over- weening lung-power are not infallible in- dices of the knack for control. Discipline is perhaps the chief requisite for a teacher; the calm, easy mastery over others, which is the indispensable oondition to good work in school, is to the teacher what the eye is to the artist, what a turn for figures is to the actuary, what self-possession and unfaltering fingers are to the surgeon. Discipline," as it is oalled among teachers, the mastering and controlling power, seems purely a product of the individual's personality; it is a rare capacity, born, not made;" it cannot be made; it can only slightly be developed. A chief question for the father to ask himself is, therefore, Has my son more than the common amount of individuality, and has he force and tact enough to impress his indivi- duality on others ? I may summarise the qualifications for a teacher as follows :—Brain, health, patience, cheeriness, lucidity, individuality, tact, and management; endowed with these, a lad may be certain of success as a teacher if he but work, and persist, and bear himself blame- Vsss. "SUCCESS"—WHAT IT MEANS. Let us now see what is meant by success'' as a teaoher. I will not here dwell on the pleasure and satisfaction of worthy work rightly done, of a high; duty fitly dis- charged, though these in themselves are success and reward to the teacher who values his vooation., But we must measure success by the common rule and standard-we must estimate it by £ s. d. What in the way of £ s. d., then, can the successful" teacher command? There are two great classes of schools-the public elementary day school, Government- inspected and State-aided—and the secondary school, all schools which lie between the public elementary school and the University. First let us oonsider the chances in the public elementary school. There are 17,800 men teachers, fully certi- ficated and possessed of all the usual formal qualifications, at work in the public elemen- tary schools of England and Wales. Their salaries range from jE45 or £50 to JE400, and the neophyte will have about equal chances of sinking at once to a sovereign per week or rising in twenty years to £400 per year. The average salary of the fully qualified master in such schools is £ 120. About 7,000 masters reoeive less than £ 100 per year; about 3,000 receive less than £75; 2UO receive less than f:50. We may estimate, from the parent's pomt of view, that" success 11 as a schoolmaster means a payment of more than the average salary. We I, there are less than 4,000 teachers in dementary schools who receive more t an £ 150; and there are less than 1,600 who reoeive more than £ 200. Only 750 receive ™°f&than £ 250; only 350 reoeive more tnag jwuo £ 400 may be taken as the iii.-Olimum pay- ment, which few indeed-receive, and they only for a part of their lives as teaohers. Beyond that P,400 the most successful, most abJe) most worthy teaoher cannov and there are about 90 chances to 1 that any given teacher will never reach the £ 400 limit. Such are the rewards for the exhausting and much-interfered-with labours of the teachers nipublic elementary schools. What, then, are the pecuniary prospects of the teachers in secondary schools—the grammar schools, boarding schools, academies, seminaries, "colleges," &c., that stud the land? Statistics on this head are not avail- able, and only general statements are possible. But the student of the advertising lists which scholastic agents," the middleman of the profession, send out monthly, will find that hosts of assistant masters will accept posts as ushers at £ .30 to zC50 per annum, plus the usual board and residence; while even the wrangler or first-class man in classics, thirty years o.'d, does not refuse a stipend of zE120 to £200. The head master of a minor gram- mar school may receive from k300 to £ 600 from the endowments and fees, eked out by the charges on residential scholars but such posts are few. The teacher who is "head of a house in a great public school may make nearly P,1,000 by his teaching and catering for boarding scholars; and the heads of the great schools, such as Eton, Harrow, Win- chester, Rugby, Mill Hill, &c., enjoy stipends running up into the thousands. But these are the great and rare prizes of the profes- sion, often unattainable by "mere merit withont interest, few in number, and tena- ciously held. And most of the superior posts of the profession are tenable only by men in holy orders. The private schoolmaster," head of a "private adventure school," in which he has embarked from £ 200 to £2,000 capital, may expect to make a fair interest on his capital, in addition to a good remuneration for his labours, if he be skilful, respected, and in- dustrious. Yet here again the lottery element enters; for one such success there are scores of failures. The average owner of such a venture makes perhaps J6150 clear per year. The fact that very many secondary teachers look with something like envy on the posi- tion of a board school master who earns JE250 per year will serve to show that, right through the scholastic profession for men, the rule is indifferent pay. THE ENTRANCES TO THE PROFESSION. The chief entrance to masterships in a pub- lic elementary school lies through pupil- teachership: there side entrances, but so un- satisfactory are they that I will not dwell upon them. A suitable lad will find no difficulty in becoming a pupil teaoher if he bi between the ages of thirteen and seven- teen. As a rule pupil teachership lasts for four years; a boy must be properly inden- tured, and during the term of his indentures he will receive a nominal payment, rising from about -212 to about JE20. The expenses on books for study during that period will amount to about thirty shillings per year. At the end of his pupil teachership the youth will sit for examination at some training college, and if successful he will obtain a Queen's Scholarship. The Queen's Scholarship will entitle him to board, lodg- ing, and tuition free for two years. But a condition to this is his acceptance at some recognised training college; and as about 2,400 candidates annually apply for 1,400 vacancies, only those on the upper part of the list in order of merit can expeot to enter such a college. And as nearly all the training colleges are denominational in oreed and management, only those who can subscribe to the tenets in vogue at any given training college can expect to be admitted there. If admitted, the young man must expend some- thing like k25 per year for two years on en- trance fees, clothes, books, travelling ex- penses, and pocket-money; he must further pass two strict examinations before he can become recognised as a certificated teacher and three or four times during his pre- liminary career he must satisfy medical in- spection. Day training colleges, non-residential, have recently been established in several large towns, and the winner of a Queen's Scholar- ship at one of the day training colleges is entitled to the educational advantages of the place, plus a yearly sum of t25 in lieu of board and lodging. The pupil teacher who finds himself too low on the list" to enter a training college has two courses then open to him. lie may serve in some sohool or other as an ex- pupil teacher," or from 240 to £ 60 per vear, and at the end of a year or so may try again at the Queen's Scholarship Examination. Or he may give up the idea of a college- training, and while teaohing by day as an ex-pupil-teacher, may study at night until he is able to paas the certificate examination. Having done this last, be may compete with those who have passed through a training college; but he will compete under disad- vantages, and it cannot be made too plain that only the lad who is in a position to pay the cost of residence at a training college is likely, nowadays, to succeed to the higher posts of the profession. Very many excel- lent teachers are now at work who have had no college training; but a recent regulation of the Education Department tends to dis- credit all buch who may enter the profession in future. The way into the secondary school lies often through student teacherships," but mainly, in the better class of secondary schools, through a university. Whether they enter as ordinary paving undergraduates, or I as sizars, by means of scholarships, large num- bers of varsity men are now turning their attention to teaching as a profession. The result is a orowding and elbowing, and a con- sequent lowering of stipends. But there will always be a chance for a clever lad who earns a scholarship of £ 60 or JE80 per year for three or four years, to take a degree at Oxford or Cambridge, and become an assistant master at a good secondary school. Exceptional ability as a student is needed to win such scholar- ships, and they are not many in number; yet it is quite possible, and not very uncommon, for a clever lad to keep himself" after the age of seventeen or so, by means of entrance scholarships and the further exhibitions open to undergrads. Again, there is a method of unattached studentship." At a cost of f:70 or jE80 per year for four years a young man may reside at Oxford or Cambridge outside the colleges, and yet study in their lecture- rooms and pass their degree examinations. In one way or the other, however, the posses- sion of an aoademic degree is essential to suc- cess in the secondary school. Among the teachers in elementary schools, too, the acade- mic degree is now no unusual possession. In very many oases, both in the one olass of school and the other, the degree is that of an examining university such as the London University or the Royal University of Ire- land. The existance of such examining uni- versities affords a path to a degree on a much cheaper scale than the Oxford or Cambridge method. THE EXITS. These are many, in the elementary school area, especially, An ill-tempered annual report" from the Government inspector, a oantankerous or spiteful school board mem- ber or voluntary school-manager, a failure to shop at the emporium of the chairman of the school board, or to worship at the ohuroh of the clerical school manager, may any of them indirectly cause a teacher's dismissal from a post; and a post once lost is not eaa'Jy replaced, The life of a teacher in a elementary sohool ia too often a round ot Qimoult ill-assisted work, harried by inter- l £ S&. ?%i*i§ wks teftW iittlv of the difficulties of the work, and care less for the comfort and dignity of the worker. A large percentage of teachers quit the profession every year, some for the auctioneer's ham- mer, some for the counter, some for the church, some for the (licensed) bar. Those who remanin have no system of pensions to rely on in their old age, although they serve the country as truly as does the soldier, the civil servant, or the statesman. Secondary teachers often take holy orders, and failing to succeed in school, accept cura- cies or small livings. There is no proper system of promotion from one grade of school to another, and none for transforming the successful teacher into an inspector of schools. The teacher's life may be described as a rut, with few outlets, and little reward at the end of it. QUOTATIONS. I will quote two passages bearing on the scholastic profession for men, and with them I end this brief and neoessarily imperfect account of the avocation. A prominent member of the elementary school branch thus describes The seven ages of the certificated teacher First the monitor at fourpence a day; second, the pupil teacher, with pay that merely finds him in clothes and books; third, the ex-pupil-teacher at a pound a week (perhaps); fourth, the Queen's scholar, at nothing a year and finds himself; fifth, the certificated assistant with less than the wages of a mechanic; sixth, the middle-aged teacher worried to death on JE120 a year; seventh, the lean and hopeless oldster, sans berth, sans savings, sans pension." Lest this should be thought a bitter and prejudiced statement, let me add what a great daily paper recently published in a leading article: In these days of high pressure, and of those manifold examinations which are regarded by many people as the end and aim of all school life, the master has not yet been cast who could, for any greater length of time than now, stand the strain of the work which is ex-1 pected of him. It is a laudable custom to hold up to honour the profession of the schoolmaster. It is a oustom less laudable, but far more commcn, to hold the man him- self up to ridicule. The pedagogue" is always considered fair game. The masters in the great public schools have, it is true, a recognised position. But the private school- master, honourable as his calling is declared to be, useful and important as it certainly is, is-unless exceptionally favourable circum- stances have brought him to the front-no. man. How any mortal in his sober senses can voluntarily adopt such a profession is a standing marvel."

A PEER ON HANGING. Writing to the Times on the objection taken to hanging on circumstantial evidence, Lord Grim- thorpo says :rliese trit i-I iar)gers are evcrlastiugly quoting one of Dicken's silly bits of sentimental cant, that hanging a man is the wo! st use we can put him to." Substituto for man the true word murderer," and the cant dissolves at oner, and no Dickens dared have written it. Though it is contrary to the princip'es of all faddists to look at any reason or experience on the other side, nobidy" el-e has any doubt that hanging any murderer saves many more flom being murderers, to say noihing of the insignifi- cant lives ot murderers, bscause the fear of it stops many a robber from pulling out his pis' ol or his knife the moment he sees a difficulty in the way of his business. Therefore, the balance is decidedly in favour of cutting off th; roughly bad heads ai well as bad legs, notwithstanding the possibility of a mistake. Nine nurder, ri out of ten are necessarily convicted on circumstantial evidence, and, in fact, nearly every criminal is, if it only means evidence which may turn out to have beAi wrong, or rather, the conclusion from it wrong. All evidence is 80, short of the jury having seen the prisoner do the act, and having never last sigiit of him, as in the old days, when we are t)ld that thoy were the circumstantes. If they did not, there may immediately come in doubtful identity; alibis sworn up to the hilt; (" Sammy, vy weren't thtro a halibi ?") po-ssibili- ties of perjury in all degrees. Only let these people get an Act against hanging on "circum- stantial evidence," and all evidence wiil very soon be argued and decided as circumstantial; and then, why should murderers only have the benefit of the Act ? And so we shall be landed in universal impunity, and lynch law, the proper reaction of society against either faddistn or cor- ruption.

Lo 11 lis year the hop crop is said to bo fine, Glad news for the browing community '■ For the bines best behoof let beer lovo.'S CO bine And sing songs ecstatic To airs (h)op-t-ratic, Hooraying at each hop-ortunity ?" A Catch Question-" Will you be mine? Age brings us wisdom, but doesn't give US much time to use it. Troubles, like sleeping curs, always awa]íÐ and bite when their ears are palled. Figgs: You have an independent incoio'' havn't you?" Diggs: Independent? -A I should say 1 had. It has utterly igo°r me for years.. Ilow strange it is that most men rather be flattered for possessing what J have not, than be justly praised for &aV1 what they possess. Liquor," said the lecturer, is respond*?5 for much of the misery in this v?or • That's so," said an old toper in the I am always unhappy when I can't get Mr. Brickett (in a loud whisper): ^ea Voice from the Ante-room Whad jy Brickett Doan' ihek dem dices s' hard- congergashun cain't heah me 'spostulatin 'm- fl Fair Maiden (a summer visitor): savagely that cow looks at me. Farmer your red parasol, mum. Fair Maiden Ve me I knew it was a little out of fasb'0.^ me I knew it was a little out of rlsbiollf but 1 didn't suppose a country cow \VO notice it. "I think we ought to have the Milo on exhibition in the art depart I oil said a Chicago director of the World's air. I think so, too," replied another direo If you'll give me his address, I'll wrIte. Mr. Uilo about it." Little Barling: That was white almond I gave oo, M r. Squeams. Does oo U it ? Crusty Old Batchelor (^who is trying v hard to swallow the dainty in <lueStl^i/le Very much indeed, thank you. Darling It was pink, once. Anxious Mamma Little Dick is ap9^ crying with the toothache. Practical Take him round to the dentist's. Haven't any money. Papa You won't 0 any money. The toothache will stop be*° you get there. An old farmer said to his sons, "BoYstaoilit to you ever spekerlate or wait for sometbiD turn up. You might just as well go an~Lj0c down on a stone in the middle of a i»eCl with a pail 'twixtyour legs and wait for#0 to back up to you to be milked."

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