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Duruy.* The son of an artist whose family had been for many years connected with the establishment of the Gobelins, Duruy violated family tradition and after a classical and normal preparation began the teaching of history in the College Henri Quatre. At the age of forty-two he received the degree of Docteur des Lettres, the ultimate aim of every French "professeur." While Laboulaye was giving his thought to political problems, Duruy rose by successive steps to the office of minister of Public Instruction, a position which he held from 1863-69. Duruy brought to this office, which placed him at the head of the educational systems of France a profound scholarship and a thorough understanding of his people. In the world of letters he is known for a series of brilliantly written historical works: "Histoire des Romains," "Histoire de France," "Histoire Grecque," the last of which was crowned by the academy.

If in the works of the authors just discussed we have the viewpoint of the jurist and educator, the histories of Louis Blanc were the work of a journalist and social reformer. Beginning with editorial service on Le Bon Sens, he founded in 1838, a radical journal, La Revue du Progrès. Three years later appeared his "Histoire de Dix Ans" dealing with the events of 1830-40 and in 1847 his "Histoire de la Revolution Française." The brilliancy of style in which these works were written and the eloquent oratory of their author were not backed, however, by practical leadership and the unrest which his writings and speeches aroused among the working classes but which he could not or would not control, forced him into exile. He returned to France at the time of the Franco-Prussian War and later became a radical member of the new National Assembly in which he remained until his death in 1882.

Such are a few of the names which the year 1811 gave to French letters. Their works are a link uniting the literature of the Restoration with modern thought. They saw the overthrow of the Bourbons, a new republic, a new empire and final peace, while some of them at least, could say with truth,

"I am a part of all that I have met."

*Victor Duruy, b. Sept. 11, 1811; d. Nov. 25, 1894.

Vocational Training for Girls

BY ISABELLE MCGLAUFLIN, HIGH SCHOOL, DEnver, Colorado.

P

RIMARILY, man labored for food to sustain life, for clothing as a protection to the body and for a habitation as shelter from the elements. But civilization and his relation to his fellow men have brought to him many intricate and diversified tasks. His pampered appetite is no longer appeased by food that is mere sustenance, his fashionable clothing is not designed so much for protection as an adornment, while in his artistic, modern habitation he and his family enjoy the comforts and luxuries of the latest inventions, and through books, papers and magazines are in close touch with the world's progress. For all this and the education of his children, man willingly toils unceasingly.

In the natural division of labor, to woman's happy lot has fallen that of home-maker and home-keeper. Let us consider what this means in its far reaching importance and possibilities. Her lieutenants are in every walk and field of life bringing to the homebuilder's use the natural products of the earth. The great quarries yield their abundance of granite, stone and marble. Vast forests are razed to the ground to supply lumber. The base metals, iron, copper, zinc, are useful in construction, while the more refined metals, gold and silver, are made into ornaments and into implements for the table. Great factories produce fabrics for the embellishment as well as for utility in the home life. The great armies of miners, lumbermen, manufacturers, farmers and sailors are all bringing their toll to the home.

Manifestly, woman's chief vocation is the science and art of home keeping, and upon whether she does her work ill or well depend the health, happiness and achievement of her family, even unto the third and fourth generation. Do the schools of this country recognize this fact and educate the girls for this responsibility? Why should there not be a closer relation between the subjects studied and the real issues of life? Is a subject not more

educative as well as of more vital interest because it has some bearing upon the practical problems of human affairs? Just what these problems are will depend upon the community. Those of an agricultural district in the Mississippi Valley will differ materially from those of a mining town in the Rockies or a factory settlement of New England. It is the business of educators to determine by careful, painstaking investigation the local needs and supply the young with opportunities for meeting their necessities.

As much as we deprecate child labor, misfortune, illness or the inefficiency of the father of a family may force girls as well as boys to become wage earners early, too early, in life. Many states, recognizing the inalienable rights of the young to protection, have passed compulsory educational laws, and if the parents cannot educate their children the state must. They must go still farther and provide for these unfortunate children a vocational training that will enable them to enter some field of industry and become self-supporting at the end of the school age-limit. There is still another class who leave school between the ages of thirteen and sixteen years. They are the children of the middle classes whose parents are financially able to keep them in school but who have become dissatisfied with the inadequacy of the public schools.

The manual training high schools are too near the end of the term of school life to be of much assistance in the industrial training of the rank and file. This training must be provided in the grades from the fourth to the eighth inclusive. As the activities of men and women differ so widely, so must the training for boys and girls differ. Through the first four years of school life there need be little distinction, but after that period I believe that the best results can be obtained by the separation of the boys and girls, giving to each the training required to fit them for their different activities.

Underlying the varied conditions to be met for the girls are the fundamental principles of practical home life, because the girls who are competent, self-respecting wage earners today will be, happily, among the mothers and home keepers of a few years hence. I do not advocate training in the household arts to the exclusion of the academic subjects, but I do plead for the recognition of their importance in the education and development of

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a girl for the place that she will occupy in life. Why not include a household expense account in a girl's mathematical training? That she may know something of the purchasing value of money let her go to the market and ascertain the cost of eggs, butter, flour, etc. and keep her books with record of supposed money received and expended, balancing her books at the end of each month. Teach her music, literature, English, but also train her that she can prepare the cheap cuts of meat so that they may be palatable as well as wholesome; train her that she may know scientifically the food principles that should enter into a wellplanned meal and be able to compute the cost per capita. To do this an expensive, elaborate equipment is not needful, as, in point of fact, this but engenders extravagant ideas instead of instilling wise economy. Teach history and the progress of nations and jointly the real meaning and causes of the "high cost of living," the development of "cold storage," the use of refrigerator cars, the "tariff," and their effects upon the household. Physiology has its place, but the number of bones and their Latin names sink into insignificance beside the chemistry of foods and their effects upon the body, the fundamental laws of health, simple home remedies and how to care for the sick. At all hazards-and I use the term advisedly-teach art. Not art on paper, but domestic art— there is no other. All artists, regardless of their special lines, from the architect who plans the house through the long list of designers of carpets, wall paper and furniture to the painter of pictures, all are laboring to beautify man's environment.

The study of art should give to the girl such an appreciation of beauty in design, harmony of color, fitness and good taste that would enable her as a woman to so beautify her dwelling-place that it would be a joy to enter therein; and to dress herself artistically even in defiance, if necessary, of the latest fads and fancies. What would it profit her that she can make a beautiful and artistic design-or, to borrow the art teacher's expression, "fill the space" with graceful lines in adequate proportion, and color this in exquisite harmony, if she be content to array herself in some of the monstrosities of fashion; if color combinations mean nothing to her in personal attire and in the furnishing of her home. In a word, art training must be more concrete and dove-tail into industrial lines to be of the greatest benefit.

She should be trained until by the skill of her hands she could fashion her own garments and make the necessary articles for the home. May the public schools so educate, train and develop her, to the end that she may become to the human family that greatest of all blessings-a refined, cultured, womanly woman, capable of managing her household intelligently, competent to make her home attractive, skillful in the household arts that she may preserve the health of her family, and appreciative of the labor of those who serve her.

!

An Ode

TO THE ONE WHO FAILS.

BY WILLIAM A. MCKEEVER.

How art thou fallen, O Thou Downcast One!
Why broken-spirited, weighed down with care?
The day is not yet spent, thy strength not gone.
Thou thoughtst to win a laurel without blood?
To gain success through honors never won?
Escape the pangs that render patient souls
Immortal? Oh, vain hope! Oh, useless dream!
Mayhap some idle yokemate lured thee out
Upon the shifting sands and left thee there;
Mayhap thy timid nature chilled thy heart.
Arise! Assert thy might, and gather up
The fragments of thy better dreams and piece
Them out anew! Behold yon mountain height,
Forbidding, rough and steep. A priceless goal
Lies up that rugged way. Ne'er fear the stones
That bruise thy feet, nor storms that beat against
Thy face to turn thee back. But speed thou on!
For mightier than all thou hast believed
Thyself to be, and more sublime than all
That mortal mind has ever pictured thee,
Is thy pure soul. Thy spirit unrestrained
Set free to rise on faith to heav'nly heights,
Will serve to make thy earthly life divine.
Arise, and press with might forever on!

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