sickness and even death was caused by bad sanitation, and especially contaminated water supply. "When the water pipe from the sink emptied directly upon the ground over the well, typhoid fever was the result." "We have not had sickness in our family in eighteen years as our locality is high, dry, and healthy." "Two cases of typhoid fever in the same house at the same time, one of which was fatal, were caused by throwing waste water near the kitchen door." We have been interested in answers to Questions 2 and 8 regarding the sanitary condition of the school property. All of the children in a school district may be drinking from the same well when they are in attendance at the school, and if this is in a rural district the water may be brought from a well at a neighboring farm home, or from a near-by spring. Much is dependent upon this water supply, for it affects every home in the district where there are school children. Should there be disease germs there is serious danger for all who are supplied with the water. It is of great importance, therefore, that the school water supply should be carefully tested, and guarded by health authorities. In many schools the pail holds the water for several hours, and dust which may con tain disease germs is allowed to collect on the surface of the water. The children all drink from the same cup, thus increasing the danger of contagion. Would it not be a wise and possible provision to supply each child, either at the expense of the school, or from the home of the pupil, with an individual drinking cup, and to keep the water-pail closed when not in use? Many school room floors are not scrubbed more than once a year and yet a home kitchen, where there are fewer persons, receives at least a weekly mopping. The danger from accumulated dust is great, as it forms a dangerous medium for bacteria. Schoolroom dust from the floor, from out of doors, from the clothing, from the crayon, and from the person should be removed very carefully each day. The result obtained not only for health, but also for the esthetic influence upon the children, will have a most salutary effect upon a community. Then there are the questions of a suitable site from a sanitary standpoint, and the proper condition of outbuildings, the ventilation and warming of the school-room, all of which when properly cared for will make stronger and healthier children. Are the results to be obtained not a sufficient recompense for all efforts in this regard? CHAUTAUQUA JUNIOR NATURALIST CLUBS. ANY references have been made in our Junior Naturalist work to the value of clubs in class room discipline. But one practical example is worth a score of precepts. Here is a case where tardiness was vanquished. The teacher was troubled much by straggling pupils and tried the plan of having ten-minute talks on club work immediately after the opening exercises. She had no more tardiness. In fact, the children were so anxious to attend that one morning Sammy rushed breathless into the class room, bareheaded and with his blouse in his hand, much to the chagrin of his mother who followed and finished his dressing. If any teacher doubts the efficacy of nature study in quieting that restlessness which attacks all of us at the coming of spring days, let her put aside her routine work for ten minutes, read the following leaflet to the children, and talk awhile of the green fields and their joyous inhabitants. TWO LITTLE PAPER MAKERS. The lesson this month is to be on paper making and paper makers. Now do not think that I am going to ask you to go into factories where you will see a great deal of machinery and many people at work. We want to be naturalists, you and I, and must go to the great out-of-doors for our information. Even on the subject of paper making we shall find much there to interest us. Of course this leaflet may reach you some day when Jack Frost has been up to his most mischievous pranks, one of the days, perhaps, when a single glance out of the window will make you shiver and turn gratefully to the fire. If so, snuggle down in front of the cheerful blaze and in fancy take a journey on the road to long ago. Back nearly four thousand years I shall ask you to travel, but you will not mind since I shall let you rest awhile in sunny Egypt. There you will learn how the people in that far-away country made paper hundreds and hundreds of years before its manufacture as we know it today was even thought of. The Egyptian paper was made from the pa-py'-rus plant. Perhaps the peculiar qualities of the plant were discovered by some naturalist, although, so far as we know, there was no Uncle John in those days nor were there any naturalist clubs. At any rate, these old Egyptians evidently kept their eyes open for they observed the pa-pyrus very closely. It is a tall reed that grows from twelve to fifteen feet high and has a triangular stalk. The paper makers of old took a piece of the stalk, removed the outside of the rind and unrolled the inner part with a sharp instrument. On this sheet another was placed crosswise, and the two were fastened together by means of gum, or the juice of the plant. The paper was increased in length by fastening the sheets together, end to end. Such was the paper made in ancient Egypt. You will be interested to learn, by consulting a cyclopedia, how centuries passed before anything better was found to take its place. You will then feel a great deal of respect for two groups of small insects that you will come to know this year, since they were the first manufacturers of paper. It may be that it was from them that their human brothers learned that paper could be made from vegetable fibre reduced to pulp. If I tell you that the more skilful of these two groups of paper makers is known by the name Ves'-pa, you may not remember at first that you have heard of them, but if I say that the little creatures are hornets or yellow jackets, then I am sure each face will take on a most knowing look. Many a boy will feel a stinging sensation over the right corner of his left eye as he recalls a past encounter with one of these same yellow jackets. Perhaps some revengeful spirit will wish that one of the brigands" would fly past his desk so that he might lay it low with his geography book. Such thoughts are not for a naturalist. Hornets are not brigands. They may be quick-tempered, but, if you convince them by cautious behavior that you mean no harm, they will not hurt you. 66 The Vespa wasps are social; that is, a great many live together. In each colony there are three forms, males, females, and workers. They all die at the end of the season with the exception of a few young females. You need not be afraid, therefore, to take down any old hornet's nest that you may find at this time of the year, for it is deserted. Examine it closely, taking it apart no matter how fine the specimen may be, while I tell you something of its history. All last winter a mother wasp lay sleeping in some secluded nook about your house or garden. In the spring she came out and commenced to make preparations to found a colony. She worked industriously, tearing off pieces of weather-worn wood with her mouth parts and chewing them into pulp. This she moulded into the neat little cells which you see in the nest that you are examining. As soon as a few of the cells could be used Mother Yellow Jacket laid an egg in each. In a short time the young wasps appeared each with its little head hanging down near the opening of the cell. Then by Po-lis'-tes. Some warm February day the mother had plenty of work for she must prepare food for them of well chewed insects, and sweets from the blossoms and fruit in your garden. Occasionally she went to the aphids, or plant-lice, for some honey-dew. Then flying from cell to cell she fed each hungry little creature, finding it very convenient, indeed, to have their heads hanging down at meal time. When the young wasps had grown as large as young wasps have any need to grow, they shut themselves up in cocoons, the ends of which completely covered the openings of the cells. There they remained in the pupa state until their wings were grown and their black and yellow jackets were as fine as their mother's. You will notice what short, stout bodies the Vespa wasps have and how they fold their wings back when at rest. The first brood was made up of workers. They immediately began to enlarge the home and to clean out their old cells so that they might be used again. Mother Yellow Jacket laid more eggs, one in each of the carefully prepared cradles, and from them there were hatched males, females, and workers. These were fed and cared for by the first brood until they shut themselves up in their cells in preparation for the time to come when they, too, should have wings and black and yellow jackets. Thus the colony grew, and each new brood doing its best for the good of the wasp community. The other group of paper makers, Po-lis ́tes by name, belongs to the same family as Vespa and the members lead similar lives. Their nest is usually suspended by means of a stalk. Sometimes these wasps are friendly enough to build a nest outside the schoolroom window. There is no envelope around their home such as the hornets make and we can watch them more easily. start out determined to find one of these abandoned homes. Look in the bushes or trees or on the roofs and eaves of buildings. Search carefully in the old corn shed in which Po-lis'-tes may have hidden a nest last year. If you are not successful in finding one you will learn some other interesting lesson in nature during your quest. Spring often sends some quiet little messenger even into this so-called dreary winter month. It may be a brave pussy-willow, or a mourning-cloak butterfly, or perhaps a gentle breeze that speaks of birds and flowers and sweet warm days. Let us hear the message. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY. The nest of Vespa has an envelope covering the cells. How many layers are there in it? Can you see any difference in the direction of the layers on top of the nest and those that are below? How many stories high is this paper castle? Note the difference in the size of the stories. Where are the smallest? How many cells are there in each? Compare the nest of Po-lis'-tes with that of Ves'-pa. In what way do they differ? You may forget it when morning comes, but see if the children do. MY DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS: When summer comes I wish you would become intiI know that some mately acquainted with the wasps. people are afraid of them and have trouble with them. As a rule this is unnecessary. If people will quietly mind their own business the wasps will mind theirs. I admit having been stung when I had no thought of harming them. That was due to the fact that they misunderstood my motives. The other day I saw a boy hit another with a snowball. The first boy meant it in fun, but the second boy took it in earnest and there Except in large cities it will not be very was a scrap" right on the spot. This is about the difficult to find a hornet's nest or one made way with wasps. They are too quick-tempered to take These wasps look something like muddaubers but are easily distinguished from them for they have not such long waists. In color they are either brownish or black, banded with yellow. a joke. If you go flailing the air with bushes and things trying to drive them away, they will strike back and there will be a hot spot wherever they may hit. They seldom sting cattle or horses, and they will not sting you if you approach them quietly. At my farm home last summer I formed an intimate acquaintance with several families of wasps. Each family had its particular way of preparing a home and “bringing up" the youngsters. After the day's work was done and supper eaten, I occupied a hammock on the back porch and there watched them coming in and going out of their homes about sunset time. I would be tired and glad to rest, but they seemed as fresh for work as they were in early morning. Sunset and sunrise were the same to them. During the middle of the day I met the same fellows out in my vineyard and fruit orchards. They seemed just as busy as at twilight. They are good judges of ripe fruit, too. When we are canning fruit they know what is being done in the kitchen. They come in large numbers and cling to the screen doors and wait to be asked to come in. They catch a large number of flies. I know a very wealthy man who rides to his office at 10 o'clock each morning in an automobile. People call him Mr. Midas. A number of years ago he went to his work with a dinner pail in his hand at 6:30 each morning. Then people called him Jake. He would be called Jake yet only he had an interest in a patent for making paper out of wood. The wasp made paper from wood with which he built himself a castle before Columbus discovered America. In some parts of the state I have Junior Naturalists who are very familiar with this industry. Near them are great mills which consume piles of wood as large as small mountains. The product is called pulp and from the pulp paper is made. People speak of the process as a recent discovery. The wasps know better. Some of my Junior Naturalists have sent me valentines of which I am very proud. I have no idea who sent them. I am very much puzzled to find out. You may not suspect the fact but spring is not far away. Have you made any plans for apartments for summer boarders? Cordially your uncle, JOHN W. SPENCER. A leaflet and letter is furnished to each member of a club each month. For information in regard to organizing Junior Naturalist Clubs, address Bureau of Nature Study, Caxton Building, Cleveland, Ohio. 1 COUNSELORS OF THE CHAUTAUQUA LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC CIRCLE. JESSE L. HURLBUT, D. D. LYMAN ABBOTT, D. D. HENRY W. WARREN, D. D. J. M. GIBSON, D. D. EDWARD EVERETT HALE, D. D. MISS KATE F. KIMBALL, Executive Secretary. THE CLASS OF 1902. Preparations for the graduation of the class of 1902 are receiving much thought from the officers and committees appointed last year. Dr. J. H. Barrows has been invited to deliver the Recognition Day address, this being the first time in the history of the C. L. S. C. that a class president has delivered the address to his own classmates. The class poem has also been provided by the 1902's themselves, and the secretary reports that she has had many letters from members who hope to graduate at Chautauqua. The Baccalaureate sermon will be preached by Chancellor Vincent, whose presence at Chautauqua will make the coming season a memorable one. Letters have also been received by the class secretary from "some who can never so much as hope to be there," and many of these breathe as strong a class spirit as if it had been fanned by frequent contact with fellow comrades. A glance at the foreign list of the class shows that among the probable graduates are members in Australia, the Hawaiian Islands, Japan, and Chile. Letters from some isolated members of 1902 appear in our " News from Circles and Readers" for this month, and show how faithfully Chautauqua ideals are being realized by these representatives of the class. Are you a semi-discouraged member of the Class of 1902, beginning to face the fact that this may not be your graduation year? If so, you need a few words of friendly advice. Make up your mind pretty definitely whether graduation is out of the question. If you are to be at Chautauqua or at another assembly to graduate, you will need to finish your reading before Recognition Day. If, however, you expect to take your diploma at home, you have until October 1st. You know, of course, that the filling of memoranda is not required. You can do this work after you have graduated and add the seals to your diploma. If careful consideration makes it evident that duties. will prevent your graduating in 1902, then adopt 1903 as your class and get all the inspiration possible from being associated with them. Many C. L. S. C. members have been obliged to drop back a year, or two years, and your case would be by no means exceptional. Whatever happens, press on, he conquers who wills." That was the motto of the Class of '84 and they conquered gloriously by means of it. 66 GOOD NEWS OF ALUMNI HALL. A recent letter from Mr. John A. Seaton, the treasurer of the Alumni Hall Association, reports encouraging progress with the building. His letter is in acknowledgment of funds from the Class of 1904, and incidentally mentions that the committee need all the money available from the classes so as to get the building in the best possible shape for this summer. He says: "The work that we are doing this winter will beautify |
