8 14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



can do show us where great successes lie, but what we most need at 

 l^resent are the common things showing us how and where the multi- 

 tudes of children walk, or rather stumble, along. And we would here 

 respectfully suggest the advisability of securing such lists from exhi- 

 bitions of this kind that may be held in different sections of the coun- 

 try, to be kept among the records of this Association for reference, 

 until we shall have obtained data sufficient to guide us in our work. 

 In such a collection there will doubtless be much worthless material 

 and many duplicates, but will not the suggestive facts be worth the 

 trouble of gathering them ? That a thing is many times duplicated 

 by children of the same age will indicate it as something suited to 

 that age ; that at certain other ages the work is below the average as 

 to number of articles, or unsuited to the growth of the children, will 

 indicate a want of proper occupation or true development of children 

 of that age. 



Among the specimens of the work of the first year in school, by 

 children five or six years old, we observed, in the girls' department, a 

 doll's muff of white fur ; dolls' aprons, one of silk trimmed with lace ; 

 dressed dolls ; a doll's bonnet, creditably made up of scraps of fur, 

 lace, and ribbon, and a tiny feather ; a doll's apron, with high neck, 

 long sleeves, and a yoke ; a cushion and a lamp-mat in colors ; coarse 

 lace-work of different kinds ; a child's apron, and a child's petticoat. 



Among the most noteworthy articles in the boys' department were 

 a boat hollowed out, with rudder and seats ; a bob-sled, made by con- 

 necting two tiny sleds by a strip of board, which w^as fastened with 

 two screws and nuts ; a cube of wood, with a number of squares en- 

 graved on each face ; bow and arrow ; a ladder of thirteen steps 

 evenly adjusted ; a rake, made of two pieces of other toys, with bits 

 of iron wire for teeth — the wood had split in the making, and was 

 mended with screws ; a screen window ; a chair and table, apparently 

 made from kindling-wood with a penknife ; a wagon, made of a rough 

 box, with ends of spools for wheels ; a toy pump, quite equal to those 

 of its kind that are sold in the shops, with spout and handle correctly 

 inserted. 



In the second school year, the children of which were six or seven 

 years old, the boys exhibited a rake, more laboriously made, but show- 

 ing less ingenuity than the rake previously mentioned ; several lad- 

 ders, of different patterns, but with steps of uniform length and spac- 

 ing correct in all ; an invention — a gun made from two triangular 

 pieces of unplaned board, a piece of old bucket-hoop, and the top of 

 an old pepper-box, with a little stick for a projectile ; a tip-cart — a 

 box with two old furniture-rollers for wheels, two screws, two small 

 strips of wood to hold the tongue, and two bits of twine serving as 

 hinges to the tail-board ; a shapely keel-boat, of sharp model, with 

 mast, sail, and pennant, standing in two supporting blocks, and the 

 whole easily held in a lady's hand ; a handsome bracket, made by a 



