Some may say that these are plans for the millenium. That may be, but if only a few States, small though they be, carry these plans into execution, their results will give a standard measure for other schools and countries. The German nation has at all times had the duty of performing mental work to a higher degree than others, being, as it were, placed in the geographical centre of a continent and endangered from all sides, and having to undergo a competitive struggle with all the nations of the civilized world. Without great effort in mental labor youth cannot be instructed successfully, and certainly cannot be accustomed to prolonged effort unless it is done while the natural powers are still plastic. By lowering the demands and yielding to the complaints of weaklings the process of degeneration will be accelerated and the whole nation will gradually sink to a lower level of culture. One thing is plain without any statistics. The more readily the life of the nation and the customs of the people return to simplicity, modesty, and inner health the easier it will be for the school to train a healthy race. And again, only when the trainers of the youth are what the young generation is to be will their work be successful. Now, the trainers of youth, however, are not merely the teachers in school, but every one whose example is before the youthful eye, and chief among them that of the parents. Hence every one must begin with himself. Self-control and self education of the adult are the best discipline of youth. If we only preach and leave to others to do the work, we shall not succeed in warding off the beginning of degeneration, unless frightful catastrophes come to our aid. CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE.-He put on the shoes and he wore the shoes on purpose; that is what Freeman O. Smith, of Baltimore, did. Anything that is done on purpose is done designedly, and whatever is done with design is not done accidentally. The logic is inevitable; any justice of the peace ought to see that. Freeman's sore toe was the result of design and not of accident. Then the matter of contributory negligence comes up for consideration. When Smith's toe began to be sore why did not he put off the tight shoes? Why persist in doing that which finally resulted in death? But he did persist, and the fatality was started by him with deliberate design and persisted in through his own negligence to an extent that made him the cause of his own disaster. We trust the company will appeal from the Ohio decision.—“Insurance Monitor.” A MAID'S A MAID FOR A' THAT.* BY MOTELL WHITNEY. Is there for honest womanhood, Her toils obscure and a' that; What tho' on frugal fare she dine, Wear simple garb and a' that— Give fools their silks and knaves their wine: The maid's a maid for a' that. For a' that, and a' that, Her lowly birth and a' that; The honest maid, though e'er so poor, Her lips are like the crimson rose, Her sparkling eye, and a' that; See vonder frail and slender maid, For a' that, and a' that, Her tinsel show, and a' that; The man on health and vigor bent, *A new version of "A Man's a Man for a' That," suggested by the too prevalent notion among young women that physical frailty is a thing to be proud of. Her puny form and feeble limbs, A putty face and a' that, Though gaily frilled and furbelowed, Then let us pray that come it may, That health and worth o'er all the earth And a' that, and a' that, It's coming yet for a' that; That health and strength the world o'er, THE LONGEVITY OF THE QUAKERS has been well known and frequently commented upon, but we have never, until recently, seen figures which appear to demonstrate that they live about twice as long as ordinary men! We give the figures below just as they are printed in the "Policyholder," Manchester, England, but it seems incredible that they should be correct. Heretofore "a generation" has been estimated at about thirty-three years, while under modern sanitary influences it is now perhaps thirty-five years, but the Quaker, according to these figures, lives about sixty years in Great Britain and Ireland, and he is so good a citizen that we wish the same might be true of him in America, and we will be greatly pleased to publish figures demonstrative of that fact. Our contemporary's remarks are as follows: "The proverbial longevity of the Society of Friends seems to be fully established, to judge by the return for the last three years issued by the 'Annual Monitor.' The average age at death of all members who died in Great Britain and Ireland between the ages of 1 and IOI was, in 1893-4, 61 years, 5 months and 22 days. During the succeeding twelve months the mean age at death had fallen to 57 years, II months and 18 days, and in 1895-6 it rose again to 60 years, 6 months and 19 days. This may be but a short statement of fact, yet it signifies a long list of virtues."-"Insurance Monitor," Feb., 1897. TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATE AND MINERAL SPRINGS OF MISSISSIPPI. By A. N. BELL, A.M., M.D. MISSISSIPPI, a southwestern state, lying in the Mississippi valley, is bounded on the west by the Mississippi and Pearl rivers, the former separating it from Arkansas and Louisiana, and the latter from eastern Louisiana; on the east the boundary is, for a short distance, the Tennessee river, and thence a line extending from the point of junction of Bear Creek with the Tennessee river to about 31° 51' north latitude, and thence due south to the Gulf of Mexico. The 35th parallel of north latitude separates it from Tennessee; and for 108 miles the 31st degree forms the boundary on the south, leaving to the eastward a strip of territory 78 miles broad, stretching down to the Gulf and Mississippi Sound and including all the islands within six leagues of the shore line. Thus bounded and embraced between 30° 10′ and 35o north latitude and the meridians of 88° 06′ and 91° 40′ west of Greenwich, with an extreme length of 330 miles from north to south, and of greatest width from east to west of 186 miles, Mississippi has an area of 47,156 square miles. From the northeast corner, where there is a marked limestone formation with a rugged country, the surface slopes gradually, with many undulations toward the Mississippi river, and southward to the Gulf of Mexico, leaving a broad and slightly elevated central region extending nearly north and south through the state, which divides the waters which fall into the Mississippi from the affluents of the Tombigbee, Pearl and Pascagoula rivers. On the west this broad ridge extends at Vicksburg to the Mississippi, terminating in bold high bluffs. To the east of this watershed are broad tracts of gently-rolling prairies of exceeding fertility, yielding large crops of cotton and corn, while to the west the surface is broken by valleys and low, narrow ridges that start at right angles from the spinal ridge and terminate at the basin of the Yazoo delta-a basin embracing about 4,000,000 acres, the heart of the cotton zone. The central ridge is composed of large tracts of rolling, arable land, either in cultivation or covered by heavy forests, the soil, for the most part, a rich, light loam, where not denuded, as it is to some extent, down to the clay, in which case the soil is sterile. About Pontotoc there is considerable fair upland. In the south stretches a rolling region of open pine woods down to the Gulf shore-a sparsely settled tract, the soil poor but favorable for pasturage, with abundant timber and turpentine-yielding forest. Thus the larger part of the state has a broken, rolling surface, but nowhere mountainous, or with ridges at the highest of more than 800 feet-none of which are due to upheaval, but all to denudation by the action of water-nowhere other than mere hillocks of sand, clay and drift, whose elevations for the most part range between 30 and 120 feet, with only occasional instances of 300 to 400 feet. Some of these higher hills skirt the Mississippi river in the southwest and some are above the head-waters of the Pearl river. The Yazoo basin is subject to overflow at times of extreme high water, with the exception of about 200,000 acres in flat ridges, which rise here and there slightly above the general level of the delta that was once the bed of the Mississippi. The northern upland section is diversified by small valley-areas of highly productive soil. In the south the soil for the greater part is indifferent. The drainage of the state is mainly effected by the Mississippi river and its affluents-the Homochitto, Big Black, Yazoo and its tributaries, the Sunflower and Tallahatchie; the Pearl river, with its principal branch, the Bogue Chitto, and the Pascagoula, with the Chickasawha and other tributaries drain the southeastern portion, and the Tombigbee and its affluents drain the eastern. In the extreme northeast the Tennessee river forms the boundary for fifteen miles, and several small streams falling into it serve to drain that section. The State has a coast line of 88 miles on the Gulf, and including the islands which help to form Mississippi sound, about 280 miles. THE CLIMATE in the summer is long and hot, but away from the low, dank bottom lands of the water-courses is generally healthful. The winters are comparatively short, damp and somewhat colder than in the same latitude on the Atlantic coast. But except in the lowlands designated, from October to June the climate is exceptionally equable, temperate and agreeable. The state is rarely subject to the drenching rains common to lower Louisiana and Florida. The rainfall at and near the coast averages 64 inches, in other sections about 44 inches, and is so distributed throughout the year as to be most favorable to agri |