1 86 OBSERVATIONS OF A RANCHWOMAN 



evil, and in hundreds of cases the remedy is 

 worse than the disease. Not what shall they 

 read, but that they shall read, is the shib- 

 boleth best approved. 



The conspicuous dearth of good literary 

 taste, so often deplored where public-school 

 graduates are concerned ; the lack of desire for 

 the ' higher culture ' ; the fact that grammar 

 is taught by the yard in the schools, and yet 

 that the inability ' of the American youth 

 to write good English in his examination 

 papers,' has aroused an indignant query from 

 a well-known Professor at one of the great 

 Universities as to whether these establish- 

 ments of learning are expected to teach their 

 freshmen the use of their own language 

 both for pen and tongue these and other 

 hard facts are beginning to pierce the self- 

 satisfaction of the average American citizen. 

 To talk with a tried and competent public- 

 school teacher is in itself a liberal education ; 

 but what is one among so many ? The com- 

 petent teacher bewails the superficiality in 

 the teaching, the mass of subjects impossible 

 of assimilation even if suited to the needs of 

 the pupil, the number of children of all ages 



