dared look at them.

Then the mistress asked me to go to the gymnasium. There the girls
arrived and, as solemnly as before, went through all kinds of muscular
exercises. They are never allowed to sit down in the class rooms more
than two hours at a time. They have to go down to the gymnasium every
two hours.

I was perfectly amazed to see such discipline. These young girls are the
true daughters of a great Republic: self-possessed, self-confident,
dignified, respectful, law-abiding.

I also visited the junior departments of those schools. In one of them,
eight hundred little girls from five to ten years of age were gathered
together, and, as in the other departments, sang and recited to me.
These young children are taught by the girls of the Normal School, under
the supervision of mistresses. Here teaching is learned by teaching. A
good method. Doctors are not allowed to practice before they have
attended patients in hospitals. Why should people be allowed to teach
before they have attended schools as apprentice teachers?

I had to give a speech to these dear little ones. I wish I had been able
to give them a kiss instead.

In my little speech I had occasion to remark that I had arrived in
America only a week before. After I left, it appears that a little girl,
aged about six, went to her mistress and said to her:

"He's only been here a week! And how beautifully he speaks English
already!"

* * * * *

I have been "put up" at the Players' Club by Mr. Edmund Clarence
Stedman, and dined with him there to-night.

[Illustration: "HOW BEAUTIFULLY HE SPEAKS ENGLISH."]

This club is the snuggest house I know in New York. Only a few months
old, it possesses treasures such as few clubs a hundred years old
possess. It was a present from Mr. Edwin Booth, the greatest actor
America has produced. He bought the house in Twentieth Street, facing
Gramercy Park, furnished it handsomely and with the greatest taste, and
filled it with all the artistic treasures that he has collected during
his life: portraits of celebrated actors, most valuable old engravings,
photographs with the originals' autographs, china, curios of all sorts,
stage properties, such as the sword used by Macready in _Macbeth_, and
hundreds of such beautiful and interesting souvenirs. On the second
floor is the library, mostly composed of works connected with the drama.

This club is a perfect gem.

When in New York, Mr. Boo