Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1894 — FOR THE YOUNG FOLKS. [ARTICLE]

FOR THE YOUNG FOLKS.

THE FIRST SNOWSTORM. “Oh! what shall we do?” cried a bird to her mate — “Oh! what shall we do?” eried she; “For the fields lie white In the morning light, And there’s never a leaf on a tree — Tree tree — And there’s never a leaf on a tree.” “Oh! let us be off to the fair sunny south— Ob! let us be off,” said he, “For they tell me down there they’ve enough and to spare For my dear, tiny wifey and me—• Me, me— For my dear tiny wifey and me.” L - ----- —[Detroit Free Press. , ABOUT THE PIGTAIL. When the Manchoos conquered China in 1627, or thereabouts, they compelled Chinamen to wear the pigtail as a mark of subjection. What was meant to be a sign of disgrace, however, has long ceased to be so regarded, and a Chinaman would as soon have you kill him almost as cut off his pigtail. Nearly every one wears it, and when the hair is scanty they make it go further by using silk or false hair. To tie two criminalstogether by their pigtails is to inflict upon them a degrading punishment. In the presence of a superior it is always let down.—[New York Mail and Express. ONLY A SMILE. I was seated in the summer housewith my afternoon’s sewing, leaving the two children playing happily in the garden. Suddenly the pleasant babble and merry laughter changed into angry words, culminating in a piteous wail, and little Robbie came running into the summer house, throwing himself into my lap with convulsive sobs. His older sister Ruth, who had followed, stood a little apart with a sullen, hard expression on her young face. “Children, what Is it?” I asked, looking from one to the other. “She—she won’t laugh!” faltered Robbie, between his sobs. “He’s such a silly little fellow,” explained Ruth, scornfully. “How can I laugh every time he wants me to?” “Well, if she can’t laugh,” she can smile, can’t she, mamma? said the child with a wisdom of which he did not dream. As I soothed the little one, and tried to teach liis sister the evil of wounding this loving little heart, I thought how many of us might well learn the lesson of brightening the lives of those about us with a smile, even when we feel that we cannot? laugh.—[New York Observer.

THE LIME OR LINDEN. The lime or linden trees are native® of Europe, the North of Asia and North America. They are graceful, umbrageous trees, with deciduous, heart-shaped, serrated leaves, and cymes or panicks of rather small yellowish flowers. The wood is light and soft, but tough, durable, and particularly suited to carved work. It is much used by turners and for making pill-boxes. The charcoal made of it is often used for toothpowder, for medicinal purposes, for crayon, and for the manufacture of gunpowder. The fibrous inner bark, called bast, is employed for making a coarse kind of robes, mats, wellknown as bast-mats, and shoes much worn by the Russian peasantry. The trees are cut when full of sap in spring. For bast to be plaited into shoes, young stems of about three years old are preferred, and it is said that two or three are required to snake a single pair of shoes. The leaves of the lime or linden are in some countries used as food for cattle, but cows fed on them produce bad butter. The flowers have art 5 agreeable odor, and abound in honey, much sought after by bees. The seeds abound in a fixed, sweet oil. The American lime, commonly called basswood in America, has larger leaves than the European species. It> grows abundantly on the shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario.—[Detroit Free Press.

SCHOOLS WITHOUT DISCIPLINE. An American girl who went to Japan to teach in the schools says that Japanese children are never noisy in the presence of their elders. To the same effect is the testimony of Miss Bacon, who, in her book, “A Japanese Interior,” thus describes her first introduction to the school customs of the country: After a while the principal comes forward and bows, and all the children bend themselves nearly double in return; then he makes a very short speech and bows again, and once more the whole 850 bow simultaneously. It is a very pretty custom* and I do not see why, when a speaker bows to his audience, the audience should not return the compliment. It seems quite the natural and polite thing to do. The first thing that one notices in a Japanese school, after an experience with American schools, is the absolute absence of discipline, or of any necessity for it. The pupils are all so perfectly ladylike that politeness restrains them from doing anything that is not exactly what their teachers or superiors would wish them to do. There is no noise in the corridors, no whispering in the classes, nothing but the most perfect attention to what the teacher says, and the most earnest desire to be careful and thoughtful always of others, especially of the teachers. Mine says that in addition to this there is in the Peeresses’ School a most remarKably high sense of honor, so that the teacher can be quite sure that her pupils will never be guilty of cheating or shamming, or trying to improve their, standing by any false methods. It is very interesting to me, in reading over the names on my class list, to notice that some of them were famous in Japanese history long before Columbus discovered America. ' . Dryden always trembled violently for some time aiter concluding an interesting poem.