Evening Star Newspaper, January 29, 1898, Page 17

SC-cNE IN THE WOOD WORKING SHOP. MIND OVER MATTE The Results of Manual Training in Our Public Schools. ALONG A GRADUATED PATH Remarkable Work Accomplished With Inadequate Facilities. A VISIT TO THE SHOPS Written for The Evening Star. ¥ DEAR,” SAID A gentleman to his wife last June, “they have opened a new store on F_ street, and there are beauti- ful specimens of tronwork in the win- cow.” ‘This “new was the Man- ‘raining School tore uw; exhibit, and the “beautiful specimens of ironwork” were made by the children of our pubiic schodls. Some have thought ft was a picked exhibit; others thet mature heads and hands aided in the work. Not so! A visit to the schools and the evidence of the children at work show “that that which they have done is but earnest of what they shall do.” Character buildmg, not simply informa- tion getting, is the object of public school teaching—to so train and discipline the aaind that when the scholar leaves the school he is ready to start on any of the avenues of life. The old method was to try and teach the child by the experience of others as evinced by symbols (books). The present method is to teach the child by his own experiences. to express these by own symbols words), and then to teach him the larger experie ces of others. He first learns the correlation of his experiences and his sym- bols, then ke the better learns the correla- tion of the symbols and experiences of others. ‘The public school system seeks to place the child in an environment distinct and different from that in which it has already been inclosed. This is so that the soul may be awakened snd sensations of delight at the novelty be aroused in the childish mind. The First Grade. Manua! training in reality begins in the first grade. The little tot who, with ex- quisite delight, molds a tiny jug from clay or medels a piece of fruit is insensi- bly educating his sense of touch in the tips of the fingers his sense of form in the his sense of proportion, &c. He is just as truly using skill, however feeble, as does the mature artisan. It is only a differen of degree. In the first six grades the children are prepared by work done in the school room fer the technical manual training, which begins in the seventh year. In the lower grades the mind is disciplined, its powers built up, its forces energized so that the child approa the seventh grade work d fully prepared. Training in the Grammar Schoo! A few days since I made the round of the manual training schools to see what the children were doing. At the Thompson building, or 12th near K, the initiative was taken. Here is a permanent exhibit of the results of manual training in the grammar schools and well worth a visit from par- ents. Also there are exhibits showing work fm the lower grades, the sequence running from the uncertain effort of the mind first e@wakening to the precision of the mind which has grappled with the problem and mastered it. In the higher grades the hand work is made from drawings executed by eye, Class of 1895. the pupils, and the work demonstrates that the pupils have correctly read the draw- ings and transferred the idea to the ma- terial, wood or plaster. The boys were engaged in “‘sloid” work, as it is termed. This is a Swedish term, and implies woodworking. In the grammar schools this is all that is tried, as experi- ence shows it is the best. It calls for and draws out the essential powers of the mind as well as any other work, and is simple, clean and pleasant. Hard at Work. But for the youthful faces and boyish forms I should have supposed myself in a carpenter shop, though there was a neat- ness and absence of trash which might in- struct most carpenters. While talking with the principal the peculiar technical sound of a saw was heard—a sound made only by an expert. I turned, and there was @ youngster of about thirteen sawing like a eyman carpenter. Another little chap ‘of twelve was fitting together a mitered frame, another was driving his jack plane— all busy; all happy! The first step in this work is to smooth and square a piece of wood. Material is furnished, instruction given and the youngster starts in. Some of the specimens showed early awakened spirit. Very little was cut from the piece of wood in shaping it. Others showed much cut off, indicating loss of time and material. Here the mind was taught ob- servation, attention, discrimination, appli- cation, care and skill. Although these are rudimentary, they are the “beginning of wisdom.” After learning principles, meth- ods and means of actions the pupil groups them, and we find the beautiful products which delighted all observers last summer. But when we gaze upon the product and are “lost in wonder and amaze” that chil- dren should turn out such splendid material Projects, Course IV. objects, let us not forget the tremendous impress made upon the youthful mind, pre- paring it for those longer and more’ sub- stantial efforts and struggles which are to come when school life is over. In the seventh and eighth grades the boys work with tools over. which they have control and which they guide according to their will. After having become skilled in the use of these, the pupil when he en- ters the High School is introduced to a new and more complex phase of manual train- ing. Here he handles machines which have @ motive of their own, and he cannot com- mand eccentric obendience, but he ts con- trolled by the law of the machine. This brings in a new factor in his mental train- ing. Heretofore he has had his own way and has progressed along voluntary lines. Now he must be governed by a certain and known quantity, the rationale cf his ma- chine. The thus learns to control aberra- tions and to concenter his thoughts upon a specisl mode of procedure. If he flinch or wander the work is spoiled. The Technical Course. At first, manual training in the High School was only a side affair taken by a pupil if he could spare an hour or so. Now known as the “Technical Course,” it 13 part of the curriculum of the school. From having been an intruder, it is now perfectly at home and has full standing. Only this year the four captaincies of the cadets are filled by students of the ‘‘Tech- mical Course.” Good Work Amid Difficulties. The “Manual Training School” is on O street northwest opposite the Central High School. It is in two miserable little two-story buildings and wh&t was a livery stable, and yet in these congested quarters have been turned out work and results ob- tained which have met with the approba- tion and admiration of cities wherein are found magnificent accommodations raised on munificent foundations. The people of Washington have reason to be proud, not enly of the work their children have done, but mote on account of the adverse en- vironment in which it has been done. In the Wood-Tarning Shop. As I entered the weod-turning shop, where the first year’s boys were at work, I saw two rows of lathes, gt each of which was a lad at work. Merrily spun the lathes and whirled the material arovnd. On the rest was the cutter, held by a small delicate hand, sometimes like a girl's. But watch the edge of the cutter as it bears on the wood. Up and Gown it goes, the chips fly, the shapeless piece of wood takes form, a true cylinder (try the callipers on it) 1s formed. Again the cutter is pressed, the wood takes another shape, a cone appears. You look at the slight lad and into his young face. “How long hes he been at this work?" “About two months, two hours, twice a week.” Now hurry down to the mills, near the mall, and see if you will find avy better work of the kind under the hand of a skilled workman. You will not. I have seen both. But how comes this youngster to be so skilled? Ah, his educa- tion began fii the first grade, where, as a tiny tot, he molded his jug and fruit. The foundation lakl there has been built upon, ard we are beginning to see the fruition. His machine is whirling under his hand. Steady, my lad! Dip that cutter too far ard it will be jerked from your hand, brok- en or your wood gouged beyond repair. Graduate ,your movement or you will not get your done. Here we see correlation of eye and hand, the mystericus union found in all real experts, but inexplicable. And do they like this work, this manual train- irg? I asked some of them. How the eye trightened and the cheek glowed. Yes, oh, yes. How could they help liking it? Here the human mind is learning its mastery over material force, and in guiding it the boy learns his own limitattors. He is find- ing out what he can do and what he may not do. It is making self reliant and yet not presumptuous. As I passed out of the lathe shop to the forge department my at- tention was called to an engine and dyna- mo, by which the shops are lighted. These are the products of the pupils’ skill, and the shops aro lighted by an electric ‘plant made by the boys themselves, Im the Smithy. And now I step into the “smithy.” In the lathe room the boys had to meet and assimilate themselves with the genius of the machine. But in tha forge department they have to meet and struggle with the genlus of fire. The capabilities and law of @ machine are fixed. Machines operate by immutable law, and the operator learns to regulate his movements by a fixed stand- ard, and correlates his own actions with the definitely ascertained law of the ma- chine. In the use cf fire in forging, weld- ing and tempering there is a capricious, inconstant element, which is always an un- known quantity. Although elusive and un- certain, still, like the genti of Aladdin’s lamp, it may be controlled and made to minister to its master if he have the se- cret. Hare, then, the pupil advances to more difficult mental problems. The fire must glow, the metal must be at the right heat or labor is lest. Either the metal carnot be forged or is so soft as to be spoiled. Her2 the pupil learns by actual practice what dum fovet opus means. He must strike ‘while the iron is hot.” Op- pertunity comes; it must be seized or it will be lost forever. Right there, in the grim2 of the smithy, with glowing coals and sparkling metal about him, the lad just entering upon the path of busy life learns that inestimable lesson. Im the Machine Shop. From the forge room I went into the ma- chine shop. Here are different kinds of machines for metal working: lathes, bor- ing and planing machines. Several of these machines the boys have made them- selves, and were at work on a new metal lathe. The bed stood in the floor, the head stock and cone pulley were completed and the boys were forming other parts. In this shop they receive instructions in the high- est type of manual training. Here are com- plex machines with interdependencies of parts. The machine fs started and the sev- eral different agencies coact to produce a common result. The boy iearns this, how to construct the intricate mech- anism and learns the law of the compli- cated device. Having acquired simple problems, he now acquires the faculty of combining and uniting. Along a Graduated Path. ‘Thus the boy is led along a graduated path. He is first taught the use of his hands, their functions, capabilities and limitations. Next simple tools are put into these hamds and. he learns, the control which these hands have over the tools. Then he works at machines. which have a law that he must respect. A law which he cannot control, but which subserves his purposes when he understands and can ap- ply such law. This manual training gives the boy the needed experience to enlarge the powers of his mind and to prepare him for the actualities of life. But along with it he is taught to express in his own sym- bols (words) the impress the experience makes upon him. Side by side with man- ual training goes symbol (book) training. As he learns by his ore experience, so he learns, and {s better able to learn, the ex- perience of others as contained in books. The Result. And what is the result? Are our chil- dren better educated? Are they better prepared for their entrance upon the threshold of actual life? As yet one class only has graduated. With the exception of one whose father is a wealthy farmer the graduates of this class in the technical course at once found positions for which their public school straining adapted them. One lad from the “manual training school obtained employment at the navy yard and in nine months was twice promoted. Needing a teacher for our manual train- ing school effort was made to procure a graduate from the manual training school Four Horse-Power Upright Engine, z Clnss of 1894. at St. Louls. Word was received that the graduates there went to work and received hetter pay as workmen than we could give them as teachers. Manual training is & recognized important factor in school edu- cation. In most cities liberality marks the day. With us, while our results are among the best, our facilities are the worst. This speaks well for our instructors and the high degree of intelligence which the boys bring to the work. But we should have more and better adjuncts. The “Central High School is the only one with an equip- ment. In the tarning department are 18 lathes and 5 benches in space 13x40 feet. The boys stand Ike the Highlanders, “shoulder to shoulder.” In the forge room, 20x45 feet, are 17 forges, a 20-horse-power boiler and a wash bench. And when the boys of one shift are washing up prepara- tory to returning to the school room they ere in the murk of tho smith$gand knock- ing against the second shift \t work at the forges. Acknowledged by modern an_essential and broadening factor in maunit; Ubkerality, W. H. SINGLETON. 2 His Leg Carried Off by a Train, From the Philadelphia Record. HH EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1898-24 PAGES. 3 IN THIE “CHURCHES i x The Centraf Union Mission of this olty bas been granted the use of a large, old stone churcly long since abandoned as ‘euch, at Laufél, Md., for the purpose of establishing h in that town. The edifice has a seating capacity of about 800, and the serviees held there thus far have attracted large crowds. 3 A branch of! the’ mission has also been established at Chevy Chase lake. “The Mission: Free Dispensary {s now in fu]l operation; an@ 1s open daily, except Sunday, from 2 to’3 p.m. Dr. G. W. N. Custis has géneral supervision of the de- partment. ° The following have been elected to the Desitions named in the Fifteenth Street M. B. Church: Trustees: Lee W. Funk, sec- retary; Harry Farmer, treasurer; Dr. P. H. Eaton, Messrs. A. B. Browne, George L. Wohifarth, John B. Daish, G. Rowzee and Thomas: Morris. Stewards: Dr. N. B. Shade, Messrs. W. H. Houghton, G. Row- gee, Harry Farmer, J. A. Winner, I. R. Croggan, M. G. Robertson, Miss R. V. Reeder, Mrs. J. J. Gillenwater and Mrs. Caroline Bickford. An organization has just been formed among the young men of the First Baptist Church, under the name of the Young Mon’s Union. The general objects of the Society will be tha study of moral and re- Ngious questions. The following named oMecers have been elected: President, E. Hilton Jackson; vice president, Walter C. Whito; secretary, John H. Gunnell. An ex- ecutive committee, consisting of the above named officers and Messrs. W. S. Hoge, dr, and EB. P. Dickinson, was also appoint. ed, Albert Spelden, W. A. Wilbur and W. 8, Hoge, jr., wore named as a committze to draft a constitution and by-laws. A inass meeting, the object of which !s to interest the public in the work of the Universalist Church, will be held at the Church of Our Father, 13th and L strests horthwest, Rev. Leslie Moore, pastor, to- morrow evening. Rev. Dr. Louis G. Wood, assistant rector of the Church of the Epiphany, this city, took occasion recently to pay The Star a compliment. He was in Philadelphia, at- tsnding a meeting of ministers. After sev- eral of the preachers had told their aud- itors that they did not believe the secular newspapers ¢ared anything for religious news, Dr. Wood arose and sald he wanted to say that it was his opinion that if tha complaining ministers took the degree of interest they should to furnish actual rews to the papers they would find the lat- ter sufficiently appreciative to publish the same. This, at l2ast, was his experience witty The Evening Star of Washington, Rev. Dr. B. B. Tyler of New York vill tomorrow evening begin a series of evan- gelistic meetings at the Vermont Avenue Christian Church, Rev. Dr. Power, pastor. Wednesday last was observed as a gen- eral birthday party by the members of the Luther League of St. John’s Lutheran Church, 4% street southwest, Rev. George Brodthage, pastor. Each member was re- quested to bring as a gift to the church one cent for each year of his or her life. The result was very gratifying. The banquet which is to be given Mon- day evening by the Chinese Sunday school of the Metropolitan M. E. Church to the re- tiring pastor, Rev, Dr. Johnston, . whose time expires {n March under the operations of the time limit, promises to be a very in- teresting event. The Girls’ Friengly Society of the Pro- Cathedral of St. Mark’s meets Monday evening at 7:80 a’clock, in the Parish Hall. The National Society, of which the local above mentiofied ig,a branch, is said to be a model in the matter of order of organiza- tion. Its methods and divistons are ar- ranged to concur in the most perfect man- ner with those, of the Protestant Episcopal Church. In the language of the church, it is diocesan, archdéaconal and parochial. The bishops and clergy are regarded as the final authorities whose advice and approval must be sought in 4ll important matters. The recently elected officers of Trinity Chapter, Epworth League, have been in- stalled as follows: “President, R. E. Copk; first vice president, H. F. Belt; second vice president, Mré,, Lilile Middleton; third v:ce president, Mrs. A. E. Huntley; fourth vice president, E. R. Berkeley; secretary, Cc. W. Trazzare; treasurer, M. Otterback; superintendent of junior league, Miss Clara V. Ober. Addresses at the meeting were made by Messrs. F. E. Woodward, H. I. Belt and R. B. Cook and Rev. Dr. Huntley, pastor of the church. Besides there were solos by Misses Margaret Storm and Nellie Hodges, and the impressive service of in- stallation asx conducted by the district officers of the league. Major and Mrs. Pebbles of the Salvation Army, the former of whom is the com- mander of all the forces in the southern states, including the District of Columbia, Maryland and Delaware, expect soon to make a tour of the principal cities under their jurisdiction. the members of the Congress Heights M. E. Church, Rev. J. R. Cannon, vastor, have presented Mrs. A. B. Randle with a hemdsome large Bible as @ mark of their appreciation of the repainting and reno- vation of their church building, which was done recently at her expense. The Sunday School of the First Spirit- valist Church has just been reorganized and the following officers chosen; Con- ductor, Francis Bailey Woodbury; assist- ant conductor, Mrs. George S. Clendanie guardian, Mrs. Annie L.. Woodbury; as- sistant guardian, Miss Jennie White; sec- rétary, George ‘S. Clendaniel; treasurer, Mrs. B. M. Willis; librarian, Vernon Bur- ine. aithe fourth in the course of six illustrat- ed lectures on “Church History From Ap- ostolic Times to the Reformation,” arrang- ed by Rev. Dr. McKim and his assistants at the Church of the Epiphany, will be de- livered Tuesday evening next in the Sun- day school room. The subject will be “Growth of Papal Despotism in Britain.” Rev. C. O. Rosenteel, pastor of St. Mary’s Cathohe Church, Rockville, and St. John’s Church, Forest Glen, who has been seri- ously ill of typhoid fever for several weeks, fe now believed to be convalescent. Officers for St. Patrick’s Catholic Sunday school have been elected, as follows: Su- Derintendent, Mr. Edward J. Hannan; as- sistant superintendents, Miss Mamie White Mr. Frank Jones; treasurer, Mr. Rob- ert McDonald; seczetary, Mrs. Nellie Feahy. Rev. Father McGee is spiritual di- Nector. The feast of the conyereion of St. Paul will be observed Sunday at St. Paul's Catholic Church. A 11 a.m. a solemn pon- tifical mass will be celebrated by Bishop Monaghen of Wilmington, Del. The ser- mon will be delivered by Rev. W. O'B. Pardow, 8. J. The chapel of St. Anthony of St. Mat- thew’s parish is nearly finished, and will shortly be dedicated. As heretofore stated in The Star, the chapel is the gift of Mrs. M. H. Robbins, daughter of John Lee Car- roll, former governor of Maryland. The chapel takes up the whole of a chamber of the church, 23 by feet, with a height of 84 feet in the cm ig The PresbytefiarkC. E. Missionary Union of Washington City will hold its annual meeting in West Street Presbyterian Church Tuesday jevening next at 7:45. annual election of apiicers will take place at this meeting. There-will be addresses by Rev. George N.{Luccock, D.D., of the Metropolitan Presbyterian Church’ and by Rev. James 8. Galé-of Corea. The present officers of the society are: Rev. Alexander, D.D. morn- jurch, oo . T. Gale, from Culbertson, an- missionary society of the same ‘ mi eee, Cae The has 17 POETS’ CORNER—LONGFELLOW’S BUST. KINSHIP OF NATION Vivid Impressions of a Visit to West- minster Abbey. AMERICA IS WELL REPRESENTED Memorials Have Been Erected to Many of Our Great Men. - ee AN HOUR IN POETS’ CORNER Special Correspondence of The Evening LONDON, England, January 5, 1898. ‘When you come to the exclusive study of Westminister Abbey you will be surprised to find how much America there is in it. It seems right odd in these days of in- teranglican scoldings to find, compara- tively speaking, such a large amount of America stored away in this most sacred treasure house of Britain. One sees Long- fellow’s bust in the poets’ corner, or may- hap takes a stroll along the grave-floored cloisters and turns into the chapel house, in the aisle of which stands the memorial to Lowell, and one may go away thinking this is sufficient recognition of America in Westminster; but these represent only a portion of this recognition, which, if yc@ go closer into the secrets of the abbey you, will indicated at many points. When you are tired from long wander- ing along the wonderful aisles, sit down on one of the benches and read over the time-stained card, so many of which you have seen as you haye wandered about. It is about a foot square and is covered with poetry. But you are not looking after poetry? All well and good, but just for the nonce be a little less prosaic in this place, where poetry buds of its own ac- cord, if the soil be ever so thin and shal- low, and see what the poets have said about Westminster. Whose poets? Naturally enough, the poets of England; but look a bit closer at the card and you will see on this closely- printed placard, which is supposed to rep- Tesent to the world some of the choicest and noblest thoughts this venerable and historic pile has invoked; look a bit closer and you will see something to interest you. First, you will read these lines by Words- worth: ‘They dreamed not of a perishable home ‘Who thus could baild. Be mine in hours of fear Or veling thought to seek a refuge here; And throt the aisles of Westminster ot roam; Where bubiiies burst and folly’s dancing foam Melts as it: crosses the threshold. Then you will be less than human if you do not feel:a throb of patriotic pride as you read the next poem—by an American: O’er England’s Abbey bends the sky As on its friends with kindred eye: For out of thought’s interlor sphere ‘These wonders rose to upper air; And nature gladly gave them place Amongst the glories of her race, ‘And granted them an equal date With Andes and the Ararat. The name which is attached is that of an American known the world round for the depth and cogency and insistence of his phiiosophic mind, but who would have been high up in the pantheon of the world’s poets had he turned his lines into thythm—Ralph Waldo Emerson. Lines From Scott. Just under him in this poetic sandwich are words from one who also won his greatest fame in prose, but who had a master’s hand in verse—Sir Walter Scott— ara it will do you no harm as you sit on the oaken bench to read what Sir Walter had to say about Westminster: Here where the end of earthly things Layg 8, patriots, bards and kings; Where ‘the hand and still the tongue: or ti Who fought and spoke and sung; Here Wapre the fretted asics prolong ‘The distant notes of holy song, As If some angel spoke again, “All peace on earth, good will to men;’* If ever from an English heart, © here let prejudice depart, Where—taming thought"to human ‘pride!— ‘The mighty eects sleep side by side, The solemn écho seems to cry,” es “Here let their discords with them die.” William Wragg, esq., used to live in North Carolina. This was some time ago, as you may see by the tablet on the wall: over your head and the bas relief of a ship in distress and wreck. In fact, William was in America when the Boston tea party was held, and about that time concluded it was a better thing for him to do to seek @ place of safety in England. At least, it would seem that he was in gearch of a place where Yankee bullets didn’t whistle, but the marble slab that has been placed to his memory doesn’t say anything about it. It does, however, set forth the follow- hg in plain, big letters: Sacred to the memory of Will- fam Wragg, Esq’e, who, when the American colonies revolted - q Ibly maintained bis loyaity to the Person and government of his sovereign, and was therefore 01 to leave his distrest and ample fortune, In his passage to by the ‘way of be was un- ‘on the coast of Hol- i you come to a tablet set in the wall Just below the medallions of John and Charles Wesley. These two men weren't Ameri- cans, but to an immense American denom- ination they seem, no doubt, almost as though they had been born on the Ameri- can side of the Atlantic, and the words which accompany their bas reliefs are of interest, “The best of all is, God is with us,” and these other sentiments: = “I look up the world us my parish.” “God buries his workman, but carries on ‘his work.” The tablet set in the wall below the remembrance of jhe two Wesleys is of ve === minster’s memorials in which America. bears part. There ts a faded bunch of American gold= enrod lying in the dust upon one tomb in Westminster, a tomb that has a peculiar and sad Interest to Al Ss. because the life of the one who 4s buried there was so closely interwoven in the warp and woof of the great fabric which the resistless shut- tles of war wove in the days of the revolus tion. The goldenrod has a card attached to. it and on it are the words: PARES ASSES a8 Lamented by Every American School Boy Who Reads the Sad Tale. Golden Rod for a Soldier's Grave, MAJOR JOHN ANDRE. Died October, 2nd, 1780. | o—_—__. = 4 At the bottom of the card are the words, in a delicate hand: “From an Englishwoman in Delaware, U.S. A” A bas relief upon the monument tells the story of Gen. Washington receiving the petition of the ill-fated young officer after his tapture, telling how hi nted death to come. There is the customary tablet, and on ft you may pead the English esti- mate of one of the best-known characters of the war of the revolution. It tells ‘of his being raised. by “his own merit at an early period of his life to the rank of adjutant general of the British forces in America, of his employment “in an impor- tant and hazardous enterprise, in which he fell, a sacrifice to his zeal for his king and his country,” of how universally he was beloved and esteemed by the army in which he served, and lamented even by his foes, and’ how his gracious sovereign, King George III, caused the monument to be erected. Andre was executed on the 24 day of October, 1780, and his remains were taken from their resting place at Tappan by James Buchanan, English consul at New York, and removed to England. An- dre lies a few feet from the monument in Westminster. His body was taken up on the 10th of August, 1821, and, under the slow sea time sailing of those days, did not reach its last resting place in England until the 28th of November. James Russell Lowell Through low-groined arches, along & dim Gothic clositer, the stone ceiling stain- ed with the grime and smcke of the cen= turles, over a pavement deep-worn by the feet of world-faring pilgrims, you come to the entrance of the Chapter House, tho work of King Henry III, the first home of the parliament of England. In a rather dark place, just before you enter the Chap- ter Hovse proper, your eye will catch sigh® e 7 y Heosesse, ENTRANCE TO CHAPTER HOUSE. white marble, with lettering in black. It shows the variety of the recognition of America in these words: o_o Colonel Joseph Lemuel Ches- ter, LL D, of Columbia College, New York’ city, as, also, DCL of the University of Oxford, born 30 of April, 1741, at Nor- Wich, Connecticut, U 8 A, Died 26 Muay, 1822. in London, where he Had Resided for many years the Learned Editor of Westminster Abbey Register. In Grateful Memory of the Disinterested Labour of an American Master of English Genealogical Learning this Tab- let Erected by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. o—__________ dg Away off in another corner there stands gne of the conventional abbey monuments. It is more than conventional, for it is com- monplace. In point of fact, there is a deal of funereal rubbish in the tombs of West- minster, and you will wonder the longer you look how it ever happened that so many distressingly plain and artistically ugly marbles ever were accepted for ex- Position in this place. But never mind the conventionality, the words on the tablet below the recumbent woman, who looks as though she were heartily tired of her situation, are what interest us. They read in this wise: o——________________, The Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New Engl By an Order of the Gre d_Gen- eral Court Bearing Date Feb 1, 1759, Caused this Monument to be Erected to the Memory of George Augustus, Lord Viscount Howe, Brigadier General of His Majesty’s Forces in America, Who Was Slain July the 6th, 1754, On the march to Ticon- deroga, in the 34th Year of his Age, In testimony of the Sense they have of his Services and Military Virtues and of the Af- fection their Officers and Sol- diers bore to His Command. : and Be- loved; the Public regretted His Loss:’ To bis Family it is Ir- reparable. a) In Poets’ Corner. The people are walking slowly, and with uncovered heads, for the most part, as we step away from the great arched nave and seek that celebrated nook, the little poets’ ccrner.«It is dim in this little nook, walled in by the great Gothic arches; and yet above the busts ard memorials, showing dusky in the half-light, the glow of the Lendon sun—for there is a London sun— comes softly in through 4 rich stained glass window, and illumines the figures of the window in colors deep and warm. So, through the centuries to come, shail the light shine through these windows, the gift of an American citizen to Westminster, There are busts to William Wordsworth in the corner, to Charles Kingsley and Matthew Arnold and others of the lesser— or, some day, shall they be the larger?— peets of Britain; but the most beautiful sight in the corner is the lofty windows aboye, where you may read the words under one window, “George William Childs,” and under the other, “Civis Amer- feanus, A. D. MDC! ‘The windows commemorate the graces and character of the lives and labors of the poets Herbert and Cowper, and thi: recognition of English worth by an Ameri- can is one of the interesting tokens of the close kinship between the two peoples. Hard by Westminster, indeed, to all in- 4 Childs here erected another neble memorial window to the memory of John Milton. In the year 1882 Sir Walter Raleigh’s memory was recognized by a uous portions of the church, there by American the left of the chancel ful people of the two nt aga men. combines memorial an American breadth of the two countries. | ‘i i Hi hi HE FES iH i i — | a half-bushel or more of small cards, r-ost English-speaking poets of his day. The inscription on the tablet below the visiting cards. They are resting on a tray. The helmeted guardian of the Chapter House, a genial and up-to-date policeman, Says a8 you look at the heap of dust-cover= ed cards, with here and there one untouch- ed by dust, which has evidently just been placed on the tray “Some of them, sir, put a card there, ard some of them don’t. It’s just owing to the way they look at it. But you will see a good many of them have wanted to do it, and they say down in that pile there are some of the best-known names in America. - ‘The treyload of cards was lying at the base of the memorial to James Russell Lowell, cards placed there by American tourists in the years eince the memorial was put in place, to show their apprecia- tion of one who stood among the fore- bas relief medallion of the poet notes that the tablet and the wincows above were pisced there “in memory of James Russell ell, United States minister to the court of St. James from 1880 to 1886, by his English friends.” It was first intended that the memorial should occupy a place in the poet’s corner, near the bust of Long- fellow, but it was not possible to place any stained glass at that point, so the hall or cloister leading up to the chapter house, and, in fact, a part of the chapter house itself, was selected. The light comes in but dimly on a dull London day through the beautiful win- dows of the memorial, but it is a tender Aisle Nave. and sympathetic light, and it falls love ingly on a dry and seared wreath of evergreen plucked in the garden of the dead poet at Cambridge, and coming across the sea to rest before this me- memorial. Memorial Windows. The windows show from the works of the poet scenes from “The Vision of Sir Launfal,” “St. Ambrose,” and “The Big- low Papers,” while the shield of the United States, the shield of Harvard Uni- versity, that of Great Britain and that of Westminister Abbey illuminate the bor- ders: Though it is an out-of-the-way cor- known places to the tourists from America, as the heap of visiting cards shows. One need not describe the memorial to Longfellow conspicuous among the me- morials of the poets’ corner; it is too well known, but it should not be overlooked in bringing to notice America’s place in a It stands in the —. ae o song. Dryden to e tt. Shakespeare's tomb at elbow’s touch, Chaucer, Browning ane Tennyson at the base of the bust of stone, this . 2!