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Show THE CHURCH REVIEW. <br><br> W. C. T. U. News. <br> Our meeting this week is a mother's meeting. <br><br> A Saloon-Keeper's Fears. <br> From the Golden Rule. <br> There are your Y. M. C. A. and your W. C. T. U. and your I. O. O. G. T.; and if there are any more letters I've skipped, I suppose they've got them in some sort of a society-or something; and every one of them are doing their level best to draw the rising generation away from us. The boys used to come into my saloon. They said it was pleasanter than the church, it was so bright, and fixed up nice, you know; but the folks in these societies have learned the trick, and I declare if they aren't trimming up most as fine as we do. So I don't see the boys as I did. I have a few left yet who stand by me, but I'm afraid they won't stay much longer, if these women hold out. This is where the trouble is to come from, these persisting women. You may vote high-license or low-license, Sunday law or no Sunday law; you may stand at the polls from sunrise to sunset, and pass your little papers in as fast as you can count; you may raise your temperance platforms as high as a meeting house and plant your temperance lecturers upon it as thick as they can stand; they may raise their voices till the tones reach the top of Eiffel tower, and mark off their figures and statistics on their elegant fingers as long as they can add and subtract. We will still hold up our heads and keep up our spirits. This skirmishing doesn't affect us much, but so long as there is one woman left to wave her white handkerchief as the blue-ribbon, cold-water boys march along the streets, depend upon it, she'll do more damage to our trade than all the other things put together. Then the children, when they shall grow up, rooted and grounded in temperance-they're beginning it now-why, even in the schools they're taught the effect of alcohol on their little systems-along this line, I say, is where the trouble is going to come in for us saloon-keepers. <br> But I am bound not to give up, if I can help it. I'll rally new forces if I can, but if I have to surrender, you may know it was one of those little women that stole a march on me; and when that day comes, I hope you'll paint over my saloon door, just to make me feel mean and sneaking on account of deserting my colors, <br> Left Camp! <br> Driven Out By a Woman! <br><br> THE SPIRIT OF THE KINDERGARTEN, <br> The kindergarten movement lies at the foundation of the new and progressive education. Once started in a baby room the kindergarten methods hold good through all the rooms, and wherever the higher grades forget the spirit of the kindergarten they take a long step away from the true course of education. Harmony is the keynote of this new education which was born of the reforms in the baby room. No clashing and crippling, no undoing, no apologies permitted here. The very depths of human nature are reached and all the faculties and attributes appealed to. All that is truest and best in the human soul and the universe is striven for. The very vitality of education is stored away in the principles of the kindergarten. It seems remarkable when we think of all that the kindergarten has dared and done. It is the exponent; of true liberty. Without pain or penalty it steadily accomplishes all the fundamentals of good citizenship. The smiling little ones, busy, happy, knowing no law but that of love, are already better citizens than most parents. The thorough training of hand, head and heart will accomplish grand things for those little ones who are to live in the new age. The benign influence of the kindergarten school room extends beyond the child. The first class teacher there is the very genius of the profession. Upon entering one of those fine school rooms such us the World's Fair visitor was privileged to see, one is immediately struck with the presence of the teacher. Such tact and knowledge and courtesy and altogether such cultivated humanity cannot fail to be an inspiration and guide to her little charges. It is demanded of her that she bring only the happiest and best to her school room, and right here is the great lesson. Although she may have heavy cares and disappointments weighing upon her life out side the schoolroom, she must shake them off during her hours of service, and thus part of the day at least is spent in the harmony and happiness of all-absorbing work. Now she learns to live above worldly annoyances and what used to be hard cares. A happy face and manner becomes the result. This is why these teachers are always so interesting and of such charming personality, because they are forced by the very profession to learn how to live. Why is it that cities have been so slow to recognize the kindergarten as part of their public school system? Indeed it is not a part of it but the whole. Its tenants, thought, skill, integrity, sympathy and love embrace a university of living. Where is the education greater than that given by these? It raises towards the skies a lofty and symmetrical structure. Whenever its architecture is marred by work not in accord with it, distortion and ugliness ensue. May we soon see the state recognize this education and not by neglect stamp itself as unappreciative of the foundation upon which it is willing and compelled to build the new education.-ELLA L. GUPTILL in Northwest Journal of Education. <br><br> |
