lly wrong and detrimental
to the best interests of the country; and we protest against it, just
as some of us protest against imperialism, high tariff and
monometalism. It is wrong, bad, therefore un-American.

We also claim that the Protestant propaganda that is being carried on
under the guise of non-sectarian education is unspeakably unjust and
outrageous. Protestantism is not a State institution in this country. A
stranger might think so by the way public shekels are made to serve the
purposes of proselytism; but to make the claim, in theory, or in
practise, is to go counter to the laws of this land, and is un-American
to a degree. That is another un-Americanism we protest against.

We teach truth, not creed prejudices; we train our children to have and
always maintain a strong prejudice for religious truth, and that kind
of prejudice is the rock-bed of all that is good and holy and worth
living for. We teach dogma. We do not believe in religion without
dogma, any more than religion without truth. "That kind of religion has
not been invented, but it will come in when we have good men without
convictions, parties without principles and geometry without theories."

If there is anything un-American in all this, it is because the term is
misunderstood and misapplied. We are sorry if others find us at odds on
religious grounds. The fact of our existence will always be a reminder
of our differences with them in the past. But we are not willing to
cease to exist on that account.

CHAPTER LXVI.
CORRECTION.

AMONG the many things that are good for children and that parents are
in duty bound to supply is--the rod! This may sound old-fashioned, and
it unfortunately is; there is a new school of home discipline in vogue
nowadays.

Slippers have outgrown their usefulness as implements of persuasion,
being now employed exclusively as foot-gear. The lissom birch thrives
ungarnered in the thicket, where grace and gentleness supply the whilom
vigor of its sway. The unyielding barrel-stave, that formerly occupied
a place of honor and convenience in the household, is now relegated, a
harmless thing, to a forgotten corner of the cellar, and no longer
points a moral but adorns a wood-pile. Disciplinary applications of the
old type have fallen into innocuous desuetude; the penny now tempts,
the sugar candy soothes and sugar-coated promises entice when the rod
should quell and blister. Meanwhile the refractory urchin, with no fe