lled "The International Correspondence Schools." It
opened up before one a marvellous vista of business energy and splendid
results. A circular, which we brought away with us, stated that
instruction was given by this method in 42 courses, to some 40,000
students in 137 States and countries. The inside of the circular
contained ten headings, and each heading had four lines of detailed
information, looking like quatrains of poetry. I take at random one of
them, as a sample, under the heading

SUPERIORITY

Students can be taught wherever the mails can go.
Each student regulates his own hours of study.
Written lessons qualify for written examinations.
The method cultivates memory, brevity, accuracy and independence.

It really did seem all like poetry, full of resplendent possibilities,
to see the specimen books produced by the students; and, above all, it
was poetical to see those young men in charge, so very young and yet so
full of confidence, so intelligent, and so keen. They were at once at
their ease with our party, and ere we left St. Louis, at ten o'clock at
night, they visited us, and with mandolin music, and college songs, we
wiled away a pleasant hour.

At ten o'clock we departed from St. Louis, passing through the tunnel,
and out on the great bridge, from whence we looked at the mighty flood
of the Father of Waters, far beneath us, reflecting in its turbid
depths the lights of St. Louis, which were soon hidden from our sight,
as we rolled out into the darkness, over the prairies of Illinois.

XXIV

Through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio.--Columbus.--The Beautiful Station.
--Church Service.--Nearing Home.--Parting Thoughts.--Our Amusements.
--To Ethel Asleep.--A Parting Wish.--Pilgrimages of Patriotism.

It was well on in Sunday morning when we reached our next
stopping-place, Columbus, Ohio, where we stayed until Monday forenoon.

The morning light, as we journeyed on in the early hours, showed us the
smiling country in its Sabbath rest. It was all such a contrast to the
far West, and the Pacific Slope, and not an ungrateful one.

We were passing through Ohio, which, one might say, is no longer the
West, but the centre of our land. It is a glorious country, rich,
fertile, and prosperous-looking.

Columbus quite pleased us, by the evidences of its bustling activities
and improvements; as well as by a certain old-fashioned dignity and
state. It is the governmental seat of Ohio, an