400 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



only an evil, and unnecessarily feed the youngster, and that at a 

 very impressionable age, with unjust prejudices. The writer had 

 some curious experiences in that direction, especially when, for 

 the fun of the thing, he wanted to have Republicanism and De- 

 mocracy defined and limited by Republican and Democratic vot- 

 ers, graduates from public schools, and, he is sorry to say, gradu- 

 ates from apparently known colleges also. 



To sum up, more grammar and less grammatical instruction 

 would also be desirable. Mathematics more practically taught, 

 problems of actual use from elementary mechanics, would, for 

 instance, be found more useful than the traditional apple cut up 

 into -^^-i parts, and would equally well illustrate the principles 

 intended in arithmetic. 



Then, with a few dollars spent for plant and materials in in- 

 dustrial education with drawing, we should have our public 

 schools doing really a great work, because actually preparing men 

 for real life. 



Following the woman emancipation question we shall prob- 

 ably see a number of clerks gallantly leaving their places to so 

 many lady candidates, book-keepers, etc., and possibly shall we 

 chauvinize ourselves sufficiently to recognize and socially respect 

 (not politically) our new gentleman in overalls, but at large 

 society will have gained only by that ; and probably our hot ques- 

 tion now, that of labor and capital, will have lost considerably of 

 its disagreeable aspect. General smartness, and what we call gen- 

 eral literary information, have had their day ; they do not protect 

 us now from a very unhygienic and unsavory fare. Now, as to 

 the special course of manual training in higher preparatory 

 schools. A chemical laboratory, a physical laboratory, scales, 

 standards of measure, specific gravities, thermal, barometrical, 

 electrical units, more minute calculations, would represent the 

 variety necessary, covering the scientific parts more minutely, 

 but by no means dispensing with actual shop practice and thor- 

 ough work in it. Such training will be found very useful in a 

 professional career ; it will enable also the future leader of work 

 and labor to estimate it thoroughly, to understand its difficulties 

 and its actual value, and therefore its needs and rights. It may 

 do away with some of our typical social dilettanti, but most as- 

 suredly it will create the true social type of man, struggling for 

 his existence, and surviving because the fittest, but expecting 

 more profit from, and directing, therefore, more energy toward, 

 the struggle with Nature and her forces than toward a battle 

 with his fellow-men. 



