EULOGY ON GARFIELD.

We give the following extracts from the Hon. James G. Blaine's eulogy on President Garfield, delivered in the Hall of the House of Representatives in Washington, February 27. The first extract is what the eloquent speaker said in reference to Mr. Garfield's early opportunities for securing an education, and the use he made of them. There is a lesson in these words that every teacher, and, indeed, every youth in the land would do well to learn and imi

tate:

"Garfield's early opportunities for securing an education were extremely limited, and yet were sufficient to develop in him an intense desire to learn. He could read at three years of age, and each winter he had the advantage of the district school. He read all the books to be found within the circle of his acquaintance; some of them he got by heart. While yet in childhood he was a constant student of the Bible, and became familiar with its literature. The dignity and earnestness of his speech in his mature life gave evidence of this early training. At eighteen years of age he was able to teach school, and thenceforward his ambition was to obtain a college education. To this end he bent all his efforts, working in the harvest field, at the carpenter's bench, and in the winter season, teaching the common schools of the neighborhood. While thus laboriously occupied he found time to prosecute his studies, and was so successful that at twenty-two years of age he was able to enter the junior class at Williams College, then under the presidency of the venerable and honorable Mark Hopkins, who, in the fullness of his powers, survives the eminent pupil to whom he was of inestimable service.

"The history of Garfield's life to this period presents no novel features. He had undoubtedly shown perseverence, self-reliance, self sacrifice and ambition-qualities which, be it said for the honor of our country, are everywhere to be found among the young men of America. But from his gradution at Williams onward, to the hour of his tragical death, Garfield's career was eminent and exceptional. Slowly working through his educational period, receiv ing his diploma when twenty-four years of age, he seemed at one bound to spring into conspicuous and brilliant success. Within six years he was successively President of a college, State Senator of Ohio, Major General of the Army of the United Statesand Representative-elect to the National Congress. A combination of

honors so varied, so elevated, within a period so brief and to a man so young, is without precedent or parallel in the history of the country."

The following is a specimen of the most simple, touching and eloquent words to be found in the annals of our literature. It is the close of this most eloquent eulogy. We commend it to the attention of teachers for its perfection of language and pathos. Reading it you will feel that the genius of language comes full-fledged to express the saddest emotions of the soul:

"On the morning of Saturday, July 2, the President was a contented and happy man-not in an ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly happy. On his way to the railroad station, to which he drove slowly, in conscious enjoyment of the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of leisure and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his talk was all in the grateful and gratulatory vein. He felt that after four months of trial his Administration was strong in its grasp of affairs, strong in popular favor and destined to grow stronger; that grave difficulties confronting him at his inauguration had been safely passed; that trouble lay behind. him and not before him; that he was soon to meet the wife whom he loved, now recovering from an illness which had but lately disquieted and at times almost unnerved him; that he was going to his Alma Mater to renew the most cherished associations of his young manhood, and to exchange greetings with those whose deepening interest had followed every step of his upward progress from the day he entered upon his college course until he had attained the loftiest elevation in the gift of his countrymen.

"Surely, if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs of this world, on that quiet July morning James A. Garfield may well have been a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him; no slightest premonition of danger clouded his sky. His terrible. fate was upon him in anstant. One moment he stood erect, strong, confident in the years stretching out peacefully before him. The next he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence, and the grave.

"Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into the visible presence of death-and he did not quail. Not alone for the one short

moment in which, stuuned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony, that was not less agony because silently borne, with clear sight and calm courage, he looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell,-what brilliant, broken plans, what baffled, high ambitions, what sundering of strong, warm, manhood's friend ships, what bitter rending of sweet household ties! Behind him a proud, expectant Nation, a great host of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy mother, wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil and tears; the wife of his youth, whose whole life lay in his; the little boys not yet emerged from childhood's day of frolic; the fair, young daughter; the sturdy sons just springing into closest companionship, claiming every day and every day rewarding a father's love and care; and in his heart the eager, rejoicing power to meet all demand. Before him, desolation and great dark ness! And his soul was not shaken. His countrymen were thrilled with instant, profound and universal sympathy. Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the center of a Nation's love, enshrined in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all the sympathy could not share with him his suffering. He trod the wine-press alone. With unfaltering front he faced death. With unfailing tenderness he took leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the assassin's bullet he heard the voice of God. With simple resignation he bowed to the Divine decree.

"As the end drew near, his early craving for the sea returned. The stately mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and he begged to be taken from its prison walls, from its oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness and its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as God should will, within sight of its heaving billows, within sound of its manifold voices. With wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully upon the ocean's changing wonders; on its fair sails, whitening in the morning light; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward to break and die beneath the noon day sun; on the red clouds of the evening, arching low to the horizon; on the serene and shining pathway of the stars. Let us think that his dying eyes read a mystic meaning which only the rapt and parting soul may know. Let us believe that in the silence of the

receding world he heard the great waves breaking on a further shore, and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eter nal morning."

THE NEED OF AN EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL. T. W. FIELDS, Ridgeville, Ind.

There are many subjects in which it is difficult to awaken a proper feeling, and for which there seems to be a great need of a better supported sentiment among the masses, than already exists. Out of many subjects that should claim our thought and attention, I select the one of education and schools. In spite of our school legislation, our public and private provisions, our army of teach ers, our richly endowed institututions of learning, and our training schools, there is not that un versal sentiment and support given to the interests of education that the development of society and the age of advancement demand. Too many persons are indifferent to educational needs. They expect schools, in fact want them could not do without them-but they withhold the support necessary to give them life and efficiency. They calculate on hiring incompetent teachers, because of their cheapness, and when such teachers are duly installed in their duties, they give school interests no further thought. But few of our citizens in the ordinary walks of life fully understand our school system. They could not give you any account of our sources of school revenues; perhaps could not name a half-dozen men in the United States who are devoting their life energies to the cause of education. I doubt most seriously whether one-third of the people could give the name of their State Superintendent of Instruction, or the duties he performs. Yet these same men are pretty well acquainted with the histories of our leading politicians When they meet each other at the stores, bar rooms and other evening resorts, they engage with great ease in political discussions, and charm you with their abundance of political lore and their facility of expression. They are not men devoid of intelligence. The time has come when our farming communities are almost as well versed in the events of the

day, as those engaged in other affairs. What we now need to create is a better sentiment-an educational revival. The American people are easily moved to act when there seems to be an uprising in favor of any measure of reform.

It occurs to our mind that there could be set on foot a systema. tized movement in favor of popular education, that would revive the cause, enlist the services of able workers, both in the ranks of teaching and outside of it, and that would render incalculable good to society and State.

3. Then the trustees take immediate control of the township movement. Of his best teachers, let him select one to address a meeting in some other district. There should be a meeting somewhere in the township one evening of every week. The teachers will be improved in their powers of oratory by every such effort. Then let the teacher himself talk to the people. Get the citizens to express themselves. Ministers, lawyers, physicians and others. can be occasionally worked into filling appointments. Organize a township association in addition to the institute. Have a county organization, and let its sessions be held at different points in the county. Organize debating clubs in every district, writing schools, singing schools, etc., and talk education, work for it until the people are thoroughly aroused. Grade the schools, graduate in the common branches. Have a library for the people in every dis

trict.

4. Let there be an educational column in every paper, containing suitable articles on the subject, reports of meetings, etc. We feel confident that a plan like this would do much good.

This movement, to give it intelligence and a spirit of deep earnestness, should be headed and encouraged by our educational officials. The Superintendent of Public Instruction, the State Board, could devise a plan which would set to work every teacher in the State. Every district, every family, would be made to feel this influence. Without stating a definite or specific modus operandi, we might make a few suggestions:

1. Let the State Superintendent speak and lecture on the subject of education as he does, in as many places as he can. Let him urge,

by circular letter, the same work on county superintendents.

2. Let the county superintendent visit every school in the county, and endeavor to meet the people at least in every other district at night and talk directly to the people. Let him talk on the sub