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377 



every phase of country and country 

 life. He has somewhere cited the ex- 

 ample of a real love of country as illus- 

 trated by an Irish servant girl, who had 

 been in America for only a short time, 

 and who was found in the kitchen cry- 

 ing as she washed the potatoes, because 

 they reminded her of her home in good 

 old Ireland. The naturalist's real love 

 covers every rock and rill and templed 

 hill. The rocks speak, and music swells 

 the breeze. That spirit exemplifies 

 ])atriotism. 



A Head Master who is a Grand Master. 



An ideal head master of a private 

 school for boys is somewhat rare. I 

 say ideal because that includes a wide 

 range of capacities ; the same truth ap- 

 plies to the principal of a girl's school. 

 I have known a good many private 

 schools, but I have in mind especially 

 the boys' school. In the past ten years 

 I have known intimatelv at least four 

 boys' schools that are now things of the 

 past. A chain may have some good 

 links but in order to pull the load or to 

 hold the anchor securely every link 

 must be good. It is not enough to be a 

 good business man, a good classical 

 scholar, a good disciplinarian, a good 

 provider for the table, a good athlete, 

 a good preparer for college, a good in 

 spirer in outdoor life, a moral man, an 

 efficient man, a good executive, a good 

 sympathizer ; indeed, it would take a 

 long list of words to describe the qupl- 

 ities needed by the head master of a 

 private school for boys. 



I knew one man was a good athlete, 

 who won the boys, but he was not 

 successful. I knew another man who 

 prepared for college in an ideal manner 

 He was strictly moral but not more 

 than sixty per cent on business. There 

 is probably no occupation that re- 

 quires so wide a range of capacity as 

 that of the principal of a school for 

 young people, especially, as I believe, 

 for boys. The requirements for a girls' 

 school are not so severe as for a boys' 

 school, as any one who has any experi- 

 ence in both will surely vouch for, and 

 it is evident that this is true because 

 more boys' schools fail than do girls' 

 schools. It sometimes seems as if al- 



most any one can manage a girls' 

 school with at least fair sccess. 



The old-time type of head master, 

 unquestionably the best that I have 

 ever known, was the late Hiram U. 

 King, of the King's School of Stam- 

 ford. In his day and generation, Mr. 

 King met the ideal conditions about 

 as well as they could possibly be met. 

 The modern requirements of a head 

 master while perhaps no more and no 

 less rigorous still are different. In 

 these days when we hear so much of 

 the spontaneous development of the 

 child's will, the situation becomes more 

 trying for one who must deal with the 

 sons of wealthy parents. The problem 

 of discipline and of securing thorough, 

 energetic, efficient work that is not a 

 make-believe was never, in the whole 

 history of education, so difficult as it 

 is at present. It is not a difficult thing 

 to get a clientele for an easy road to 

 learning. Let the plan be mapped out 

 as to attract and encourage, then 

 sprinkle in fifteen or twenty sentences 

 filled with pedagogical and mystic 

 words and the whole thing is well 

 started toward financial success, but 

 sooner or later it will be observed that 

 something is lacking, and that that 

 something is the most important of all. 



The more I think of it, the more I do 

 not know how any one can ever be- 

 come thoroughly successful as head 

 master of a boy's school. The require- 

 ments are so absolutely diverse, and in 

 some cases so directly antagonostic. 



Looking over the field and carefully 

 considering all the boys' schools that I 

 have known, and some of them were 

 good, I would mark them carefully on 

 a percentage scale. The highest would 

 be John M. Furman's Irving School,. 

 Tarrytown-on-Hudson, New York. I 

 have known that school for almost two 

 decades and I have watched it care- 

 fully. It is only for the good of the 

 cause that I am mentioning this grand 

 master of a private school for boys. 

 He has not known that I have been 

 observing his work so carefully. He 

 will be astonished when he reads these 

 words. As he is a modest man he may 

 be indignant at my boldness in bring- 

 ing him out before the public. Fortu- 

 nate are the parents who have a son 

 in the Irving Schoc^l. 



