g at any time as on the date of publication. Therefore,
many members wish to own a complete file of back numbers.

For those who own a complete set and desire to use The Mentor as a
reference library, we have provided a simple and convenient method of
filing and cataloguing The Mentor. In a booklet which we have especially
provided for our members, the various Mentors are grouped under headings
which link similar numbers together in sets. Attached to the name of
each Mentor is a list of the gravure pictures accompanying it, together
with a short synopsis of the contents. This gives immediate information
as to what each Mentor contains. We will be glad to send this booklet
free of charge.

We also provide for our members file boxes the size of The Mentor. These
are furnished stamped in gold lettering for forty cents apiece. In these
The Mentors may be grouped according to sets.

We also supply a binder which holds twelve or thirteen Mentors and has
proved satisfactory in every way. This binder has been arranged so as to
hold The Mentor complete, and it has tie-pins to which the pictures are
attached, so that they swing freely in their place and the pictures can
be enjoyed as well as the text on the back. The price of these binders
is one dollar each.

When our members desire to refer to a picture or look up a fact, it is
only necessary for them to consult the booklet, finding there in which
Mentor the information may be sought.

The price of all back numbers of The Mentor is fifteen cents each.

Write and let us explain the plan more fully.

THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, Inc.

52 East Nineteenth Street-New York City, N.Y.

[Illustration: IN THE POSSESSION OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY

COMMODORE STEPHEN DECATUR

FROM THE PAINTING BY REMBRANDT PEALE]

The War of 1812

STEPHEN DECATUR

Monograph Number Three in The Mentor Reading Course

The father of Stephen Decatur, also named Stephen, was a native of
Newport, Rhode Island, and a captain in the United States navy. Stephen
Decatur, Jr., was born at Sinnepuxent, Maryland, on January 5, 1779. He
entered the American navy as a midshipman in 1798 on board the frigate
_United States_. A year later he was promoted to lieutenant and in that
rank saw a little service in the short war with France.

In 1801 Decatur sailed as first lieutenant of the _Essex_, one of
Commodore Dale's squadron, to the Mediterranean. As a result of a duel
with a British Offi