INTEREST 



3013 



INTERIOR DECORATION 



When the remote interest is determined it be- 

 comes the guiding motive of one's life, and all 

 the immediate interests are subservient to it. 



Interest and attention are inseparable. We 

 attend only to that which interests us. Inter- 

 est is also affected by knowledge. The child 

 takes no interest in those objects which have 

 no significance to him. New ideas must bear 

 some relation which he can recognize to those 

 already in his mind before his interest in them 

 can be awakened. But when the new idea is 

 thus related the new and the old blend and 

 strengthen each other and the interest in both 

 is increased. It is by this development of 

 interest through the association of ideas that 

 one's store of knowledge is acquired. Prof. 

 William James gives the following rule for 

 securing and retaining interest: 



An object not interesting in itself may become 

 interesting through becoming associated with an 

 object in which interest already exists. The two 

 associated objects grow, as it were, together : the 

 interesting portion sheds its quality over the 

 whole ; and thus things not interesting in their 

 own right borrow an interest which becomes as 

 real and as strong as that of any natively inter- 

 esting thing. 



Another important principle is that action 

 lends interest. A crow.d will watch a moving 

 sign when one without motion attracts little 

 or no attention. The teacher who is active, 

 who can make scissors and crayon talk, will 

 hold the interest of her pupils. Vocational 

 training prolongs school attendance because 

 the opportunity to do things holds the pupil's 

 interest in his work. 



A third principle is that the more senses the 

 child can use in obtaining a knowledge of an 

 object, the greater his interest in it. If he 

 can touch it, smell it, taste it as well as look 

 at it, his interest will last until he has experi- 

 enced each new sensation. Illustrations in- 

 crease the interest in a book because they 

 enable the reader to gain at a glance a com- 

 prehensive idea of the subject. Teachers and 

 parents who understand this principle supply 

 their children with books having good illus- 

 trations. 



Interest lies at the foundation of all our 

 studies and should lie at the foundation of our 

 occupation. Work in which we take no interest 

 is the merest drudgery, and that young per- 

 son who discovers that he has entered upon 

 an occupation for which he is acquiring a 

 growing dislike should make a change before 

 it is too late. W.F.R. 



Consult DeGarmo's Interest and Education, 



Related Subject*. The reader is urged to re- 

 fer to the following articles in these volumes In 

 the order named : ATTENTION ; APPERCEPTION ; 

 ASSOCIATION, LAW OF. 



INTERIOR, DEPARTMENT OF THE, the sev- 

 enth division of the Executive Department 

 of the United States, in order of organization. 

 It was created in 1849 by "An Act to Estab- 

 lish the Home Department," and was the first 

 of the new departments demanded as the 

 result of growth and expansion of the United 

 States. At its head was placed the Secretary 

 of the Interior, and he became a member of 

 the President's Cabinet. 



Its organization was perfected by transferring 

 from the Department of State the Patent 

 Office and Copyright Bureau and the Census 

 Bureau; from the Treasury Department the 

 Land Office (see LANDS, PUBLIC) ; from the War 

 Department the Bureau of Indian Affairs; and 

 jointly from the departments of War and the 

 Navy the Pension Bureau; the custody of cer- 

 tain public buildings was transferred from the 

 care of the President to the new department. 

 Besides the above the department was given 

 charge of the Geological Survey, the Bureau 

 of Mines and the increasingly important Rec- 

 lamation Service. In 1868 the Bureau of Edu- 

 cation, which had existed for a year without 

 being definitely assigned its permanent place, 

 was attached to the Department of the In- 

 terior. In 1912 the Bureau of Child Welfare 

 was organized and made a branch of this 

 Department. When the Department of Com- 

 merce and Labor was organized, in 1903, the 

 Bureau of the Census was transferred to it 

 from the Department of the Interior. 



The Secretary of the Interior is appointed 

 by the President, with the approval of the 

 Senate, and receives a salary of $12,000 per 

 year. Two assistant secretaries with salaries 

 of $5,000 and $4,500, respectively, receive ap- 

 pointment in like manner. The heads of the 

 various bureaus within the Department are 

 appointed by the President and the Secretary 

 of the Interior, subject to confirmation by the 

 Senate, and are under the direct control of the 

 Secretary. See CABINET. E.D.F. 



INTERIOR DECORATION. When Robin- 

 son Crusoe, shipwrecked and desolate, found 

 himself upon the shores of an unknown island, 

 his first thought was to find some kind of 

 shelter. He feared attacks from wild beasts, 

 and possibly from wild and savage men, and 

 he needed protection from the weather. The 

 story of his experiences in digging his cave, in 



