but the bringing about of this end is not to come through any illegitimate process of diplomatic pressure. By mingled firmness and regard for China's inalienable rights, we shall, in all this flood of duplicity, win her sincere and lasting esteem.

China knows, as all the world knows, that her future now depends more on our dictum than on that of any other nation. If we should consent to her division, or to the full consummation of spheres of influence, her integrity would immediately become a thing of the past. Legitimate material concessions and privileges, as well as the protection of the moral rights of our missionaries, will be ours if in this hour of trial we shall treat China fairly.

We have everything to gain and nothing to lose by the maintenance of Chinese sovereignty over all portions of the Empire, because now our rights are guaranteed by treaty, and with their protection we shall be able successfully to compete with all other nations in commerce and trade. On the other hand, with China divided we may get something or nothing. By recognizing a policy of division of the Empire, we shall give up a bird in the hand for one in the bush. It is a singular fact that every American merchant, exporter, and manufacturer doing business with China is strong in advocacy of the American policy which will preserve the integrity of the Empire. To my mind, if Russia, France, and Germany are approached in the right way, there is no reason why they should not act with the United States, Great Britain, and Japan in insuring that integrity which we so much desire; but there are many good merchants who fear that we may wake up some morning to find that the growing market for our cotton products in Manchuria and Shantung is restricted by new conditions which will either kill it outright or provide for its slow, but none the less certain, death.

At the present moment our relations with Russia are most friendly, and she probably is sincerely desirous of trading with us and of buying what she needs from our manufacturers as well as from the manufacturers of other countries; but we must remember that Russia is preparing for a great industrial future, and means herself to become a manufacturing power of the first class. She knows that it will be difficult for her to compete in the markets of western Europe and America, and therefore she looks to Asia. She cannot be blamed in this provision for the future; but we must consider her possibilities as a competitor in countries where now there are treaty rights which give no preference to her or any other nation over us, but which

may be ignored or overruled in the course of events if the present tendency toward the break-up of China is continued. We must build up our markets in Siberia and other parts of Russian Asia, but at the same time we must protect those that have already reached large dimensions.

I am more optimistic than pessimistic as to the future of China; but I believe in carefully considering the difficulties that may confront us, and in preparing against contingencies that may arise. What greater diplomatic achievement could do honor to America's foreign relations than leading in a policy which shall make both Russia and Great Britain work in harmony for the preservation of the best interests of all three? Japan would certainly give her support, because her interests are akin to ours, while Germany and France would be forced to accept, without question, the decrees of such diplomacy.

We are now stronger than ever before, not only at Pekin, but at St. Petersburg, London, and Tokio. Let us take advantage of the situation; and may no untoward event arise to lessen our influence or prevent the consummation of a policy which shall perpetually protect our interests in Pacific lands. JOHN BARRETT.

VACATION SCHOOLS.1

THE vacation school movement originated in the desire of citizens to provide other influences than those of the streets for children during July and August; popular observation, school reports, and statistics of juvenile arrests showing this interim in school occupation to be injurious mentally, morally, and physically. Other phases of this work are "fresh-air parties," "country weeks," summer camps and farms. Summer play-grounds also have developed into vacation schools, since it has become apparent that games have a strongly educative influence; and the play spirit carried into certain forms of instruction increases the attractiveness of play-grounds.

Within the last six years vacation schools have been opened by private initiative in over twenty cities. In Philadelphia and New York they are under municipal conduct the final object of this movement elsewhere. They are for children under sixteen years of age, and continue six weeks in July and August, with morning sessions only. The attendance is voluntary; therefore, to be successful, their methods must be popular. The best results do not follow training "across the grain," after artificial methods. Play is the way of living of all young animals - their natural method of preparing for existence later. Therefore, the spirit of play cunningly permeating vacation school curricula secures as regular attendance and faithful work as do truant laws; the work, however, being of a different character.

The design of the vacation school is to supplement the public school, and to give the children certain advantages which parents of intelligence and means supply, by their own preference, through home environment or travel. One of the chief functions of vacation schools is that of serving as experiment stations, so that these schools exert a positive influence upon regular school methods. No books are used. The instruction is, briefly, according to the laboratory method.

'Revised from a paper read at the twenty-fifth annual meeting of the American Academy of Medicine, Atlantic City, N. J., June 2-4, 1900.

To encourage muscular ability manual training is prominent in the form of wood-work, such as carpentering, whittling, fret-sawing, chip-carving; or of constructive work with cardboard or flexible bands of iron; or of household arts, as cooking, care of rooms and of the sick, sewing, mending, embroidering. The use of a score of different tools for working different kinds of wood and other materials is fascinating to practically all children, even when there exists a strong liking for books. The natural creative instinct of children, their delight in seeing and owning the results of their labor, and the enjoyment of occupations that permit of free movement are all utilized, in this way, for educational purposes.

To city children nature study is partial compensation for the circumstance that their childhood cannot be passed in the freedom, beauty, and wholesome simplicity of country living. As the summer season dictates, this is the chief feature of vacation schools. Indoors, flowers and other products of the vegetable kingdom are studied from samples in the children's hands. Aquaria, window boxes, pet animals, and museum specimens encourage habits of interested observation and develop the powers of description. A school garden out of doors gives every child the supreme joy of trowelling, planting, watering, and watching development under his own fostering This is knowledge at first hand, the most lasting kind. Acquaintance with vines, shrubs, and flowering plants, which make the home attractive, encourages the children to develop the possibilities of their own backyards and other little corners of earth. In Germany, Russia, France, and Switzerland school gardens are numerous, and they are increasing in America.

care.

Excursions take place at frequent intervals - a very efficient drawing card utilized to its full pedagogic possibilities. These peripatetic schools or classes, with special instructors, visit city parks, museums, art galleries, industrial establishments, and points of purely local historic or scientific interest. The excursions into the country are undertaken principally for the purpose of nature study and sketching, the event closing with free play and other forms of enjoyment. Tens of thousands of children have taken these journeys by boat or rail, and I have not yet heard of a single accident. The numerous little groups into which the school is divided, each with a teacher, go to their several study grounds—a river path, a wood road, a field hedge, or a hillside for their class work. "Bird day" is prepared for during the preceding week by handling and studying mounted specimens

of birds native to the locality. They learn of their songs and habits, and they understand why such an excursion must be made late in the afternoon, and why they must visit a place with running water, trees, and underbrush. They taste the hunter's intensity of enjoyment in the stealthy approach and quiet waiting, and in the irrepressible delight when the game is found. Sympathetic acquaintance with the habits and beauties of living creatures may, we trust, eventually supplant the primitive slaying instinct of the race. In corresponding fashion they have "insect," "rock," "beach" and "flower" days, when the objects studied in the class room are greeted in their habitat with the delight of welcoming old friends; or the day may be spent upon a well-equipped model farm.

Art and nature study are correlated in these summer programmes. Accuracy of observation is increased by a water-color sketch. Foliage and fruit, mounted birds and butterflies, human models, and landscapes are reproduced in color. Without seeing it, one can hardly believe how much a skilful teacher can accomplish in this direction with children from eight to fifteen years of age. It means more than the present event to call attention to objects of nature. To many children these excursions are, perhaps, the only opportunities they will ever have to pass a day in the country in the companionship of an educated, refined, and sympathetic friend. The novelty of the impressions renders them most vivid and lasting. I can only mention the fact that music also constitutes part of the programme.

The advantages of outdoor gymnasia do not need demonstration. Imagine a wide-spreading American elm, with leafy shadows flitting over groups of children from hot city streets who, under the guidance of an expert, are taking keen delight in their achievements on bars, ladders, and swings. This I saw in one of the very few schoolyards where the city fathers have preserved a beautiful tree. About the gymnastic games following the apparatus work I wish to say a word. It is almost appalling to think that the last stronghold of children their play is being invaded and utilized for pedagogic purposes. The truth is that play and play-grounds are being municipalized out of the world. With no place for play but ill-smelling streets and prison-like yards, with policemen and ordinances coercing active play chiefly into a dodging out of sight and even into criminal mischief, it has come to pass that city children are forgetting how to play, and are losing the vigor of body and character given by play. The recognition of this is behind the play-ground movement, and must