that ten miles can easily be covered in the first week of vacation life.

One must take his own, not his neighbor's, measure of endurance. Immoderation in exercise, then, is liable to be the first abuse of a vacation, particularly if this be a short one. The stimulating air of a high resort conduces to this, the example of others is a potent cause, added to a vague impression that one is hardly getting the worth of his money unless he is sampling every pleasure of the locality and working for his enjoyment.

"Know thyself," and "Make haste slowly," might well be written upon every trunk-tray of the traveler's outfit, from whence these maxims might preach their sermon at every opening.

Exercises have been sometimes classified as exercises of endurance, exercises of strength, and exercises of speed. Ordinary walking for a considerable distance is an exercise of endurance, running is of speed, while steep mountainclimbing may come under those of strength.

temperature of rivers, lakes, and of the sea is many degrees lower than that mentioned, and immersion in these constitutes a cold bath. The effect of a rapid cold bath is for many persons highly beneficial. The excretion of certain waste products of the body is increased, the absorp tion of oxygen by the tissues is increased. The production of heat by the internal organs is stimulated. The exhilaration and feeling of well-being that follow a cold bath are due to these effects. The contraction and subsequent dilation of the skin vessels which occurs after a properly limited cold bath leaves the skin in a condition in which it will react very quickly to abnormal conditions, such as draughts, damp clothing, etc., and thus prevents catching cold.

But all of these good effects are lost by unduly prolonged or too often repeated cold bathing. A sense of weariness and mental weakness is often noticeable. The internal organs are partially paralyzed by the prolonged exposure to cold. Waste products accumulate in them.

An exercise of endurance has a gradual, not a sudden, influence upon the circulation and respiration. While the pulse and respiration are neither of them markedly increased in rapidity, and breathlessness is, therefore, not induced as it is in exercises of strength or of speed, there is a gradual association of all parts of the body in the good effects of such exercise. The organs are spared, while the play of their functions is increased to a beneficial degree. "The most essential character of such exercises is to give to the system a power of repairing, even during the work, the greater number of the disturbances which occur in the machine." Yet although these exercises seem so moderate, it is found that they have a marked influence in increasing the absorption of oxygen by the body, the amount of oxygen taken in, for instance, in walking at a moderate pace (two miles per hour) being double that taken in while standing still.

Exercises of speed call for excessive activity on the part of heart and lungs, and are also a strain upon the nervous system, but the results of exercises of endurancé are accomplished without any nervous disturbance, and have the additional advantage that they can be taken in divided doses, which advantage does not belong to exercises of speed.

Most adults, and certainly all who have had no previous training, will find that exercises of endurance are what they can most profitably undertake in vacation, especially during the first part of the outing.

Cycling at a moderate pace, walking at the rate of a mile in twenty-five minutes, horseback riding, rowing with a slow stroke for gradually increasing periods-these are the preferable forms of exercise for the mature untrained person. Mountain-climbing should be postponed until one is "in condition," if undertaken at all.

Tennis, baseball, basket-ball, and similar games are exercises of speed and skill, and make considerable demands upon the nervous system. While admirable for young adults who are organically sound, they are best entered into with moderation by those over thirty, and not at all by persons over forty who are novices.

Children do not bear exercises of endurance well; therefore they should not be permitted to take long walks, or to attempt mountain-climbing. Exercises of speed, which are of short duration, suit them better, and they should be encouraged to play various active games.

One of the vacation privileges most liable to abuse is sea-bathing.

The physiological effect of water upon the body varies greatly with its temperature. A bath at a temperature of from 88° to 98° F. is so near that of the human being that it exerts practically no influence upon his functions, and has been called the indifferent bath. It would be quite consistent with health to remain in such a bath for a day or longer, so negative are its effects.

But any other form of bath may be soothing, stimulating, or depressing, according, first, to its temperature, and, second, according to the time that one remains in it. The

quently shows the effect of this abuse in eruptions.

Ten minutes for a swimmer, and five for one who cannot swim, is ample time allowance for the average bather. The sun-bath, which, under proper conditions, may follow, is a valuable addition to the exercise, and sun-baths should be introduced into the programme of a summer vacation wherever possible. Children can be gradually accustomed to running about in their bathing or similar costume for a certain period every day, which may be cautiously lengthened. They should also be allowed to go barefoot and barelegged whenever suitable opportunity occurs.

The increased exposure of large areas of the skin to the sun and air is most desirable, and adults should take advantage of every suitable opportunity.

The benefits of a seaside resort are, in the writer's opinion, largely associated with the greater intensity and prevalence of light than is found in many inland or mountain resorts. The light on the seashore has been calculated by certain photographic experiments to be eighteen hundred times stronger than that of shaded rooms. A photographic plate requires only one-tenth of a second's. exposure on the shore to fix it, while on an open landscape it requires one-third of a second. Bathing in such a flood of light must have a stimulating effect upon tissue change and good blood making. The question of suitable dress for the various forms of exercise and pleasure has been more or less successfully solved by the bicycle costume, which is in most respects satisfactory for walking, rowing, climbing, and the various games and sports.

The bicycle shoe, however, has by no means kept pace with the improvements in other parts of the costume. Even the new bicycle boot has the pointed French toe, a shape which has all argument, both as regards beauty and use, against it.

The mistake in the construction of most shoes, whether broad or pointed toed, is based upon the supposition that the two sides of the foot are alike. This is by no means the case. In a normal foot the line on the inner side is straight, from the heel to the end of the big toe, while the outer side describes a bold curve. The two sides have also different functions as well as structure. The two feet placed together can be seen to form a symmetrical whole. One is the complement of the other, like two divided halves, but neither is complete alone, and no foot-covering can possibly be beautiful or truly comfortable which attempts to make the two sides of the foot match. The big toe, which continues the straight inner line of the foot, has the important function of mainly supporting the weight of the body-it is a solid base from which the body is propelled onward. The shape which interferes with this straight line, therefore, as all pointed shoes do, lessens the solidity of the base on which we stand, as well as throws weight upon joints not intended to bear it.

The smaller toes are intended to seize the ground, and this power is crippled by the compression of a pointed boot, which gives them no space for their usefulness. Hence the "mincing," uneven, and inelastic step of the majority of women, and hence the inability of many otherwise qual

ified to take long walks, mountain climbs, or even to play games without discomfort.

A properly made shoe is indispensable to one who means to exercise freely in a vacation, and fortunately this can be obtained in several of our larger cities, although all too

rare.

Over-large shoes with broad toes are an improvement upon the pointed toe, but they are not to be recommended, as they do not strictly conform to the shape of the foot, which a good and easy shoe must do.

Light-weight woolen stockings will be found more comfortable than any others for long walks, their elasticity enabling them to fit more closely to the foot, thus preventing the evils due to rubbing, and their absorbent qualities being valuable.

On all long tramps, and particularly in mountain-climbing, some light-weight but warm woolen garment should be carried in the knapsack. The atmosphere of mountaintops is not only cooler than that in the plains, but, as is well known, sudden changes frequently occur in these heights which are fraught with danger to the overheated and generally fatigued body of the climber, and from such vicissitudes the wool garment is the best protection. Some light luncheon should also be carried even when only a short stay is planned, and a stimulant should be taken. when great heights are attempted, in case of accident.

In rowing for women we may notice the corset as the particularly objectionable article. As rowing particularly exercises the muscles about the waist and abdomen, it is manifestly irrational to wear a form of dress which specifically restrains these regions, and the use of which under such circumstances results unfavorably to the health as well as to the appearance of the wearer.

Athletic Vassar

By S. Scoville, Jr.

Slow, woefully slow, is this conservative old world of ours in realizing a forgotten truth. The fact that a woman possesses the same divine right to develop physically that man claims has been scarcely known since the days of Greece and the Olympic Games. Then it was accepted and realized as never before or since. There the body of every girl was trained and formed by the same outdoor exercise and practice in the Gymnasia that made her brother a world-model physically. What women were those hewn out of stone by the Grecian sculptors imperishable reminders of the days when a whole nation of men and women tried to make their bodies what God had intended them to be! No sculptor of to-day can approach the creations of Phidias and Praxiteles-not so much that the skill is lacking as that the models are yet to be. By degrees the world is remembering the precept of Lycurgus: "The fate of a nation's posterity depends upon the bodies of its women.' England has known this for centuries, and the English women who can ride to hounds or take a ten-mile constitutional have become famed as the mothers of strong men. On this side there has been a time when it was fashionable for women to be interesting invalids, when pallor was a sign of culture, when perfect health and rosy cheeks were considered a trifle hoidenish. But the present generation has outgrown this folly, and gymnasiums for girls, Delsarte classes, bowling, bicycle, and tennis clubs, are all doing yeoman's service in making the American girl of to-day a queen among women.

Even before this age of physical culture, however, some there were, in advance of their time, who recognized its importance. Such a one was Matthew Vassar, who in 1865 founded the college for women that bears his name. From the very first attention was paid to the benefiting of bodies as well as the storing of minds.

Gymnastic exercise in the somewhat primitive gymnasium was compulsory, and outdoor exercise provided for by a large riding-school, maintained by the college, so that every Vassar girl graduated a well-trained horsewoman. This riding-school was abolished in 1878 on the score of

expense, and various other out-of-door sports were substituted.

In 1890, however, a new era began for the lovers of athletics and exercise. In that year the Alumnæ Gymnasium, the funds for which were mostly supplied by public-spirited graduates, was completed. This gymnasium is far and away the best in any women's college, and compares favorably with any college gymnasium, with its modern apparatus, spacious battle-ball, tennis, and basketball courts, and a marble-floored swimming-tank, fed by an artesian well which is one of the largest in this country. Swimming lessons are given in connection with the gymnasium work, and few girls graduate from Vassar without some knowledge of this necessary art. The upper story is used as a tennis-court, while a regular stage at one end, lavishly furnished with marvelously painted scenery-a product of Vassar talent-enables it to be transformed at a moment's notice into a spacious theater, where the college plays are given before enthusiastic audiences.

Another feature, which might well be adopted in larger gymnasiums, is a system of fifty separate dressing-rooms, each provided with a shower or needle bath. This does away with the groups of shivering athletes awaiting their turn at the showers, which one may see even in such magnificently appointed gymnasiums as the one at Yale, in addition to preserving the innate modesty which our male athletes are so apt to lose. The advanced methods of such noted instructors as Sargent, Seaver, and Anderson are employed. Every student, soon after matriculation, takes the Sargent physical examination under the director of the gymnasium, and the work is laid out to meet each girl's especial deficiencies, every student being compelled to take three hours a week of gymnastic work. A new examination is made annually and the work modified to meet the changed conditions. Careful records and charts of each girl's physical measurements are kept, and in every case marked progress has been made.

All through the winter, besides the prescribed gymnastic work, basket and battle ball and indoor tennis are played in the gymnasium, but it is from her outdoor life and sports that the Vassar girl receives the greatest benefit. The fact is recognized that those exercises which are also pleasures produce infinitely better results than those which are monotonous and mechanical. For this reason out-ofdoor sports and recreations of many kinds are encouraged, and every day after recitations the majority of the girls are out under the sky, where fresh air and sunshine, the two great health-givers, can be obtained in unlimited quantities. Before breakfast, on clear frosty mornings, when the air is full of verve and sparkle, little groups of rosycheeked girls can be met speeding along the good roads which surround Poughkeepsie, on their wheels, out for an "appetizer "-returning ready to begin both breakfast and the day's work with redoubled energy.

The bicycling wave seems to have broken squarely over Vassar. The ground corridors of the various dormitories resemble the entrance to a prosperous riding academy in full blast, they are so crowded with wheels. Three girls out of every five at Vassar ride a wheel, be it begged, borrowed, hired, or owned, while the faculty have long ago joined the whirling majority.

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"Scorching" is frowned upon, and the " bicycle hump," "bicycle face," and other attendant evils are as a consequence unknown. With raised handle-bars and an easy, upright carriage the girls gain all the real benefit from their wheels that every rider should. The short skirt is the regulation costume, and bloomers are rarely used.

Another out-of-door recreation which seems to be peculiar to Vassar and Wellesley is "birding." "Birding (which, by the way, is used in a decidedly different sense at our male colleges) is usually indulged in at about sunrise, when the matin-song of the birds begins. Armed with opera-glasses, the "birdists" steal through swamps and thickets, and, by studying the singers in their native haunts, acquire a far greater knowledge of ornithology than can be learned from books. That lover of birds, John Burroughs, who lives not far from Poughkeepsie, was the originator of this recreation at Vassar. He, too, was the

founder of the "Wake-Robin Club," which is devoted to the acquiring of ornithological lore.

In the bright autumn days, and again in the spring, when the wild flowers are abloom, the girls don well-worn walking shoes and start off on long exploring trips through the woods and over the picturesque hills surrounding Poughkeepsie, botanizing or noting new specimens of rocks. Pleasant Valley, Cedar Ridge, Boardmans, Richmond Hill-innumerable are the romantic spots from two to five miles distant from the college. Vassar lacks the beautiful lakes that make rowing such a popular amusement at Wellesley and Cornell, and the decrepit state of the boats in use detracts vastly from the pleasure. Withal it is a pastime indulged in to some extent during summer afternoons and evenings.

On

In winter "bobbing " and skating are the two rival sports, though sleighing parties are always popular. Down snow-covered Sunset Hill and across the hard crust of the Meadow every winter's day, while the coasting is good, speed the "bobs" laden with laughing girls, while the "steerer," fur-gloved, with the steering-ropes wound around her arms, guides her load deftly as any man could. the frozen surface of the "Puddle," as the girls have irreverently christened a diminutive artificial lake, which, through the generosity of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, has been surrounded by a network of water-pipes, the ring of the skates is heard all winter long. Every day the pond is covered with different relays of skaters, and sometimes far into the night, by the light of huge bonfires, the sport continues. Nor is it ended by a fall of snow, as is the case on a natural lake, for the ice is flooded whenever it becomes incrusted or cut up, and a smooth, new surface frozen. An ice-rink from the same donor is kept for the use of beginners in the "art of gliding."

Turning from these recreations to athletic sports proper, Vassar rejoices in a large variety. Golf and battle-ball, although having their devotees, are at the foot of the scale in point of interest. The golf-links (a nine-hole course) have been recently renovated and are exceptionally good, the course including some fine hazards.

In battle-ball three play on a side, the object of the game being to pass the ball (an ordinary football) from the center of the court through the goal of the opposing side. It would be a more popular game if its place were not so usurped by basket-ball.

Lawn-tennis and field sports rank next above golf and battle-ball. There are three clay and six grass courts, and every day during the spring and fall the balls are flying. The courts are situated in the midst of the athletic field, which, surrounded by a thick circle of hemlocks, and only a stone's throw from the dormitories, makes an ideal spot for Vassar's athletic contests. Around the field runs a quarter-mile cinder-path. Here is held every spring the tennis tournament for the championship of the College, which arouses immense enthusiasm among the different classes. Miss Harriet Banks, '96, a prominent member of the Englewood Tennis Club, who ranks well up among the first six women players in this country, has won the College championship for the past three seasons.

Track and field athletics, although of recent introduction, bid fair to become very popular there having been thirtynine entries for the initial field-day which was held last fall. This field-day, which was in the nature of an experiment, proved a grand success. The contestants' knowledge of the canons of training was somewhat limited, but their enthusiasm unbounded. One girl, entered in the broad jump, heroically cut down her water-supply to a halfpint per diem, having read that that was the customary quantity imbibed by athletes in training; while all who had brothers or cousins on the different college athletic teams wrote to them for the most approved methods. Candy and pastry became dreams of the past, the delightful little suppers at Smith's were foregone, and it is safe to conclude that every girl went "on her mark trained to the minute," as they say on the cinder-path.

The day dawned cold and drizzly, but the contestants were undaunted. Men were contraband articles on that day, and the visiting list strictly suspended. A male mem

ber of the faculty, who is an enthusiastic follower of athletic sports, officiated as referee, but with this exception all the officials-judges, timekeepers, starter, and scorer-were girls. A banner was offered to the class scoring the greatest number of points, and when at 10:30 the starter sternly bade the competitors in the first trial heat of the hundredyard dash to "get set," there was a group of excited spectators, despite the rain, who cheered on the representatives of their respective classes. The two-hundred-and-twentyyard dash was the only event run off on the cinder-path, the short dash, hurdles, and high and broad jumps being held on turf. Taking into account the facts that the events were held in a cold rain and on slippery turf, and that none of the competitors wore spiked shoes or had ever received even the most elementary instruction in how to run or jump, the times and distances made were excellent. The hurdle race was run over the usual distance for the high hurdles-120 yards-but instead of being the regulation three feet six inches the hurdles were but two feet in height. The two girls who came together in the finals had each evolved in some unknown way a very fair "hurdle step," and the race resulted in a neck-and-neck finish that set the spectators wild with excitement. The performance in the high jump was much better than it appears on paper, for, owing to the fact that the competitors wear bloomers of the most ample kind, the bar has to be cleared some four inches to allow for the sweep of these nether garments. In the future some ingenious athlete will reduce her bloomer circumference by two or three inches and the Vassar record for the high jump will be broken. The programme was exceedingly well arranged, and carried off without a hitch or accident, save that one of the contestants in the high jump sprained her thumb-not by stepping on it, as chronicled by certain frivolous-minded reporters. The banner was won by the class of '97. Below is given a list of the winners of the various events and their performances:

Event. Winner. Second. Time or Distance. 100-yd. dash.. Miss Vassar. Miss Wilkinson.. 16 sec. (15% made in a trial heat). 220-yd. dash.. Miss Haight. Miss Thallon 364 sec. 120-yd. hurdle. Miss Thallon. Miss Johnson.... 25 sec. (2434 made in a trial heat).

High jump... Miss Brownell. Miss Baker...... 4 feet. Broad jump...Miss Baker. Miss Wilkinson.. 11 ft. 5 in. The Vassar records are as follows, accepting as records the best time or distance made in practice. With them are compared the Yale records for the same events, the two practically representing the best athletic performances. of our American men and women:

......

13 sec. 33 sec.

21 sec.

4 ft. 8 in. 15 ft.

YALE RECORDS

Time or Distance. 10 sec.

.......

Event. 100-yd. dash. 220-yd. dash. 120-yd. hurdle. High jump Broad jump...

22 sec.

15 4-5 sec.

5 ft. 10 in. 23 ft.

100-yd. dash. 220-yd. dash.. 120-yd. hurdle High jump.... Broad jump.. In the afternoon of this eventful field-day came the basket-ball contests for the championship of the College. This is the game par excellence at Vassar. Each class is represented by an eleven, and, counting substitutes and candidates for places, nearly seventy-five girls play the game and are in training for the class matches. Total absti nence from all indigestible dainties and early hours are insisted upon by the different feminine "coachers" who rule the fortunes of each team, for these important individuals are fully as stern as their male prototypes. The championship match is a most important affair, as the winners in the finals become the champions of the College for a year, and have the proud privilege of wearing a rose and gray 'varsity "V" on sweater and jersey front, an honor which is esteemed as highly at Vassar as the 'varsity “Y” at Yale or the "blue" at Oxford.

The basket-ball field, which is one hundred by fifty yards in extent, has at either end an eight-foot post, with a wire bottomless basket, two feet in diameter, attached. The ball is thrown into the middle of the field by the referee, and is passed back and forth until one side or the other throws the ball into the basket, which counts as a goal, and scores three points. No kicking, interference,

or running with the ball is allowed, but there is a great opportunity for team work and scientific playing, and some of the passing and catching displayed by the players is of a very high order. The forwards follow the ball, which is a round pig-skin affair one foot in diameter, like a flash, and some of the veteran elevens develop a code of signals and system of plays as elaborate as those displayed on the football field. In truth, the championship match this year forcibly recalled to the writer's mind vivid memories of class football games, though various femininities emphasized the sex of the players. Long before the game was called, the side lines were crowded with adherents of the different classes, each decked with streamers of class colors and well primed with class cheers, fearfully and wonderfully composed, after the fashion of all class cheers. "Hippity-Bus! Hippity-Bus! What-in-the-world-is-thematter-with-us?" vociferously question a group of '97 girls, and reassuringly answer their own question, as soon as they can recover breath, by "Nothing-at-all! Nothing-atall! We-are-the-girls-that-play-basket-ball! Ninety-Seven!!" While '96 chortles defiance from the other end of the field with "Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! V-A-S-S-A-R! Ninety-Six!!" Finally the two teams which have been drawn for the preliminary match file on the field, and the uproar becomes deafening. Various original basket-ball songs are chanted loudly from the side lines, which the singers fondly imagine will hearten their eleven and strike terror to the minds of their opponents. The teams are clothed in sweaters, blouses, bloomers, and tennis-shoes, and the full puffed sleeves of the former prove fashion to be all-powerful even on on a basket-ball field. Each girl wears her class colors attached to the dangling braids which adorn every head. A number of players on crutches fresh from the infirmary with sprained ankles, and the presence of the resident physician of the College with a roll of bandages and bottle of liniment, prepared for similar emergencies, lend a genuine football atmosphere to the scene. The teams line up. Each player takes her place as a link in the long, irregular double chain that stretches from goal to goal. The referee tosses the ball into the middle of the field to the six rival forwards who are grouped there. One active little figure leaps high in the air, seizes the ball with a cat-like motion, and has passed it to a back stationed behind her, almost before the spectators have realized that the ball is in play. A long double pass, a feint, a criss-cross pass, and the ball is in the hands of the "pitcher," one of whom is stationed beside each goal. Five seconds the pitcher has in which to essay a goal. Very deliberately she poises the ball in one hand, measures the distance with her eye-a quick motion, and the ball flies up beyond the outstretched hands of the opposing players, who leap to intercept it, and falls true in the basket-the first goal. What a storm of cheers goes up as the ball is brought back to the referee to be put in play again! And so the game continues, with varying fortunes. Each game consists of four ten-minute quarters, with five minutes' intermission between the quarters. During the game the remaining teams, who are to play next, lie around on the side lines well swathed in blankets, watching the play, eager to obtain a line upon the methods of their antagonists, while the captains and coaches move around giving their teams last words of advice and warning.

Last fall the juniors had a happy time with the untrained freshman team, defeating them by a score of 50-0. The sophomore eleven was unfortunate in having several of its best players laid up shortly before the game, and so defaulted to its senior opponents. This brought the senior and junior teams together in the finals. The game was the closest ever played at Vassar. The seniors at first led, but the careful training of the '97 team became apparent in their superior condition in the last quarter, and, just as it was becoming too dark to follow the ball, time was called with the score 48-36 in favor of the juniors.

A word, in closing, as to Vassar's athletic policy. First and foremost, the faculty desire, above all things, that the doctrine of "laissez-faire" be applied to the College, that Vassar be left alone to develop on the truest and broadest

lines. For years the first college for women has suffered the fate of all pioneers in a new line of progress, and has been made a target for cheap newspaper wit and ridicule. This prying spirit of misinterpretation is what more than all else has interfered with Vassar's progress.

As to the problem of athletic competition, Vassar has solved it satisfactorily to herself, and the solution is one that has many advocates among those who have most deeply studied the problem of athletics among our larger colleges. Vassar enters no intercollegiate contests, but in their place are instituted games between the classes. The contestants have their friends and acquaintances for opponents on the field, and come in daily contact with them in hall and class-room. The result is that a spirit of generous rivalry is developed, never rising to that blood-heat which is so apt to imbue the male college athlete with the true Roman spirit that regards every stranger rival as an enemy, and is responsible for most of our unfortunate intercollegiate dissensions.

As a result, the Vassar athlete displays that unselfishness which among men characterizes the truest sportsmanship. Little acts of courtesy, of helpfulness, of true womanliness, are everywhere apparent in the college competitions. A case in point occurred in the last basket-ball match, in which the writer saw a player warn an opponent against a mistake that would have cost her side several points.

As to the utility of athletics at Vassar, the results are an unanswerable argument in their favor. When definite statistics show that every girl graduates from Vassar stronger and better trained physically than when she entered, and better equipped for her life-work, it is impossible to inveigh against the system that brought this state of affairs to pass.

In the quaint and interesting old town of Port Deposit, Maryland, has arisen within the past two years an institution of learning suggested by, and in many points resembling, Pratt, Armour, and Drexel Institutes.

The founder, the Hon. Jacob Tome, like the founders of these older institutions, having gained great wealth from small beginnings, and wishing to assist others to acquire the education which was not possible to him in youth, has invested something over two million dollars in an institution of learning, and has bestowed upon it his own name.

The town of Port Deposit is not just like any other town on the face of the globe. Its one long street is bounded on the east by a high cliff which perceptibly lengthens the morning hours by keeping the sun at bay, and also precludes gardens and orchards in the rear of the houses. The western boundary consists of the railroad track and the Susquehanna River, the street, track, and river running on together in parallel friendly lines, except in the season of floods and ice-gorges, when the river quite exceeds its banks and becomes a distinctly hostile element. Five miles below, the river joins Chesapeake Bay.

Near the head of the long street, close by the river, stands the great building of Tome Institute, suggestively and prophetically named "Building Number One." It is solid, handsome, and inviting both within and without. All that modern skill can do for it in the way of equipment, and comfort generally, has been done. Spacious laboratories for the scientific department; workshops, sewing-rooms, studios, and lecture-rooms for the manual training department, and class-rooms and a gem of a wellcared-for library, are to be found here. The most casual visitor is compelled to notice that, with five hundred pupils and twenty-five teachers coming and going, the atmosphere of the building is quiet, scholarly, and restful.

The spirit and methods of Tome Institute are profoundly interesting. The Board of Instruction is warmly attached to all that pertains to the Institute, and the students are heartily responsive. At the head of the faculty stands Professor James R. Campbell, lately of Pratt Institute, a

scholarly young man, with unusual executive ability, a keen sense of responsibility, and an exalted idea of the training necessary to prepare young people for gracious, useful living. Associated with him are Miss Mary V. Houser, preceptress, and Mr. Charles B. Howe, recently of Pratt Institute, preceptor.

The departments of instruction, as administered in this the second year of the Institute's history, are the Academic and the Kindergarten. The principle underlying all methods in all parts of the school is stated as "investigation and generalization at first hand by the pupil within. the limits of his ability. It is more natural and easy to apply this principle where science, form, drawing, color, and manual training are made so prominent in the curriculum as at Tome Institute. . . . From the first the pupil is trained to graphic representation, both constructive and free-hand, and is encouraged to make his language-expression more effective through his drawing. By such means his interest and intellectual activity may be quickened at every stage of his school life.”

In the Academic course are included science, manual training, form study, and music, with the usual English studies of a high school. The first three enter, in some form, into every class-room in the building. The highschool student pursues his investigations in the large laboratory on the top floor and downstairs, little children study the habits and construction of plants and animals, the mysteries of the rocks, the motions of the heavenly bodies, and the rudiments of chemistry and physics.

The manual training course is developed here very much as at the Pratt Institute, with work in wood and metal, at bench and lathe, with pattern-making, foundry-work; for the girls, sewing, cooking, and the educative forms of mechanical study. Superior specimens of work already done in this department are exhibited.

The aims of Form Study, Drawing, and Color, as a part of the curriculum, are stated: "To cultivate the aesthetic sense; to aid in general mental development; to lay the foundation for technical industrial art courses. The work is carried on in Construction, Representation, and Decoration, throughout the course, beginning in the first primary grade with the study of type-forms through sense-impressions."

The conduct of the musical department awakens peculiar interest because of the underlying thought and energy which control it, and the high ideal of what music may be made to do for the physical, mental, and spiritual education of the young. The course of musical study is as logically arranged and as thoroughly carried out from the kindergarten onward as any course of the curriculum.

Perhaps more than any of these peculiar schools of the last decade-which are not wholly manual training schools, certainly not industrial or trade schools, nor yet wholly academic or polytechnic, though combining features of all these-Tome seems to fulfill its mission in reaching precisely the class for which it was intended. For Tome offers instruction in all grades, and has absolutely no tuition. fees.

The original plan provided only for white children between the ages of ten and eighteen; but, by the personal generosity of Mrs. Evalyn Tome, wife of the founder and President of the Board of Trustees, a kindergarten and primary school were added. Thus the advantages of Tome Institute, advantages of a very high order, are secured to every white scholar who can get to town in time for the sessions of the school. [The black brothers and sisters go to a public school at the opposite end of the street.]

From a radius of twenty miles around come the boys and girls every school morning. Some live on farms so far away that in order to reach the station, perhaps two or three miles from home, it has been necessary that they should rise at four or five o'clock and do the farm or household work by early morning light. Coming to the Institute means a sacrifice to many of them, and this fact greatly affects the responsiveness of the students to the efforts of teachers.

Tome Institute is still in its infancy. Its constituency will always be limited on account of the sparsely settled

district in which it is located, but its endowment is princely, its spirit and methods prophetic of the highest attainment; its founder, Mr. Tome, and also his wife, Mrs. Evalyn Tome, are deeply interested in the plan which has so rapidly grown under their hands.

The Duty of Rest'

A Sermon by Lyman Abbott

Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.Psalms lv., 6.

I am sure we have all sometimes felt an experience which these words interpret. Our life-activities have ebbed away; we are weary; the grasshopper has become a burden to us, although we are not old; things that would scarcely bring any serious concern to our minds now bring tears to our eyes; we wish we had wings and could fly away and make our nest in the wilderness and be forever at rest. These experiences are themselves the communications of God that we need rest. He summons us to rest as truly as he summons us to activity. Rest is as sacred a duty as work. The Scripture bears its witness to this. In one clause of a sentence the Almighty says, Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work;" in the same sentence he says, "But on the seventh thou shalt do no work." The duty of doing no work is as sacred as the duty of working. He who awakens us in the morning full of fervid activity, eager for toil, lulls us to sleep at night, weary with our exertions and longing to stop. Every night He says, "Come to me and rest," and every recurring period of exhaustion repeats the invitation.

We know that vegetation needs rest. The winter is its sleeping-time; there could be no awakening buds in spring, no efflorescent beauty in summer, no ripened fruits in harvest, if there were no sleep in winter. The snow is God's coverlet that keeps nature warm. "He giveth His snow like wool." God tucks his little vegetable children in and gives them resting-place that they may be ready for life in the spring, which is the morrow.

We need these resting-times for our own best growth and activity-resting-times, not merely times of recreation, though we need those too. Americans know how to do everything better than they know how to rest. We grow weary with our work, and need a little frolic at night; and we dance until we can no longer stand. We grow weary with our work, and will have a little recreation in the country; and we get on our bicycles and ride a hundred miles for rest.

We may divide the activities of the mind into three general categories. First, acquisition; second, meditation; third, production. We must acquire in order that we may produce-every one knows that; but it is not enough merely to acquire. Between acquisition and production comes the intermediary, the meditation, and that is almost a lost art in America. Some one has finely defined the difference between active thought and meditation. In active thought we are pursuing new truth; in meditation we are dwelling upon familiar truth, digesting it, assimilating and making it a part of our very being. We know how to search for truth, we know how to communicate truth, but we do not allow ourselves time to meditate truth. We ministers need to take more time for meditation. The minister who spends all his mornings in acquiring truth and brings Sunday what he has gathered the six days before, gives a crude, raw, unripened sermon. He is really giving you other people's thoughts, not his own; he is the mere retailer of the life of others; he communicates no life of his own. What is true of the minister is true of the author. One difficulty with our newspaper writing is, not that it is not brilliant, not that there has not been thought upon it, but there has been no meditation; it contains no vital element, nothing of the writer's own personality. Our literature is often unripe for want of previous meditation. Business men need this meditative quality, and mothers need it no less.

Not only do we do our best thinking when we do not

I Preached at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., Sunday, June 7, 1896. Reported by Henry Winans and revised by the author.