The Housekeepers League, an organization of Madison ladies, has succeeded in establishing a cooking school to which pupils of the city schools are admitted free of charge. The city hall has been put in excellent order by the city for the use of classes, and fitted with necessary counters; merchants of the city have vied with each other in furnishing the necessary utensils and materials; several organizations have loaned chairs and furniture, and the gas company has put in the gas stoves. Girls of the seventh and eighth grades and of the high school spend two hours in the school once in two weeks, and it has been found possible so to arrange the classes as not to interfere with their regular school work. There are between four and five hundred of them in the classes, so that instruction is going on every school day. They either come from the schools together in companies of from twenty to thirty, or go in this way from the city hall to their school rooms. The counters, with shelves below, are arranged in an open square, and the gas stoves are put on them. The pupils take their places, after putting on the calico aprons and caps, and enter in their note books the instructions and receipts which are dictated to them. They are then divided into groups of from three to six, and special work assigned to each group. They bring their own materials from the storeroom and their utensils from the shelves and go to work. The greatest care is exercised to secure order, neatness and correct habits in all the work, and the principles underlying what they do and the qualities of the materials used are carefully indicated to them, It is a pleasing sight to witness the evident interest and enthusiasm with which all, but especially the younger girls, enter into this novel kind of school work. While evidently much enjoyed, the work is looked upon seriously and with a sense of its practical value. One can not observe the work for an hour without being deeply impressed with its great educational value in the promotion of thoughtfulness, right habits, knowledge of things and ability to deal intelligently with them, and a sense of personal relation to the practical, every-day work of the world. The work was made voluntary for the pupils but the difficulty has been rather to keep the numbers within manageable limits than to secure attendance. The popularity of the enterprise with the families has steadily increased ever since the classes began. At the class roll call every girl reports cooking done at home in the interval since the last exercise, and the mothers recognize with gratification the increasing interest and intelligence in household matters growing out of this training. It is indicative of the interest awakened that more than a dozen boys have asked to be allowed to take the lessons, doubtless with a view to their value in camping, and probably a class will be formed for them.. MANUAL TRAINING IN THE JANESVILLE HIGH SCHOOL. Cooking and Sewing Occupy the Attention of Girls During Forty Minutes of Each Day-Boys Trained in Drafting and Wood and Metal-Working. Sixty girls study cooking and sewing. Forty boys work their way from saw to mortise joints and dove-tails-from three eighth drills to engine planers. All these in the new high school. The manual training department is in full swing. It occupies the entire lower floor of the building and has become recognized as one of the most important branches of high school work. What this work is can be told best by following a class through their days' routine. There are five periods a day devoted to manual training work. Fifteen girls file out of the assembly room at II o'clock every morning and troop down to the basement. Miss Ida McLouth lines them up in front of four gas stoves that testify to the generosity of the New Gas Light Co. Cupboards full of dishes and utensils against the wall show the interest of the Lowell Hardware Co. Their Work all Practical. What little theory there is about the cooking, school work has practice directly in view. For example the theme for the day may be spice cake. Miss McLouth talks practically and plainly upon the difference between spice cake and other cakes, what special details need to be looked after to insure its excellence and illustrates her talk with practical demonstrations. The next day her class review her teaching and go into the spice cake business. for themselves. The table 'round which the cooking class work is ingeniously arranged to offer accommodation for sixteen pupils. The top is divided into sixteen spaces and there are six teen drawers, each its outfit of kitchen utensils. Supplies are kept in the pantry close at hand, a new flour bin just installed being the work of the boys' manual training department. Miss McLouth's sewing class comes in the afternoon. Her pupils are put through a graded exercise that runs from hemming and button hole making up to doiley work. Two Wheeler & Wilson No. 9 sewing machines give the pupils training in this important detail. Each girl has a box in a rack at the side of the room in which her work is kept. A set of graded samples has just been finished. by the class and sent to the Fond du Lac school for use in the manual training department. If four classes of girls came down stairs at once they would not make the noise of the one class of ten boys who make their way to the drafting room for the last period of the forenoon. All the boys begin in the drafting room, for the rule of manual training departments is "first plan, then draw what you plan, then make what you draw." In the drafting room the boys are put through a graded course in mechanical and geometrical drawing, running from the simplest angles to working designs of bookcases, desks, and machinery. L. D. Brode, formerly in charge of the manual training department of the University of Illinois, looks after them in spite of the pressure of the other work as teacher of mathemathics. Boys in a Carpenter Shop. The wood working room where the boys get their first of the practical side of the manual training department is a haven of joy for pupils of mechanical bent. There are three big work benches in the center of the room made by the pupils. A handsome mechanic's bench made by Henry F. Heuer of Chicago, is an important part of the equipment. Each pupil has a station at one of the work benches and has a set of planes, saws, chisel, squares, etc., while a big wood lathe made by W. H. Vandervoort of Urbana, Ill., will give opportunity for practice in more elaborate work. Covered from shoulder to toe with brown aprons the boys are put at work squaring a rough block. The next day they learn to make that square block into an octagon; then with a plane into a cylinder. Chisel work follows, fitting them for the succeeding lessons in simple and more elaborate joining. The machine shop in the next room has an equipment that would put to blush many of the established institutions. Two machine lathes and a power planer presented by Victor P. Richardson, occupy the center of the floor, and a full equipped forge from B. F. Sturtevant Machine Co., Boston, is in one corner of the machine shop. Machine shop work is the last branch taken up in the boy's department, and the class that goes in there this year was at work in the carpenter shop last year. At the beginning of the present school year James Harris, feeling that the work of manual training in the high school should be encouraged and should be placed on a practical working basis, made a proposition to the board which the board accepted unanimously. He guaranteed to the board that $500 in material and. equipment would be forthcoming, provided that the board would expend a like sum for this work. Aided by Liberal Friends. This means an actual expenditure to the city of $250. As the state aid this year for the department will be $250, Mr. Harris very wisely determined it was best to ask public-spirited citizens to aid him in this work. No one who has been approached on the subject has had anything but words of approval for this work, and many others have promised to aid it in the future. It has been impossible to see but a very few of our citizens, but the hearty accord of all who know of the work and its purposes is cause for congratulation. The work as carried on at present includes sewing and cooking for girls, and drafting, wood working, and iron working for boys. Janesville Gazette. THE SCHOOL ROOM. WASHINGTON IRVING. 1783-1859. HIS LIFE. His father was a Scotchman from the Orkneys, his mother English. Washington was the youngest son of eleven children, and of delicate constitution, with a tendency to pulmonary disease. This prevented his taking a college course, as his brothers did. He was a great reader in his youth, but an indifferent and heedless student of law to which he was early destined. In 1804 he was sent to Europe by his brothers, and meeting Washington Allston was almost pursuaded to devote himself to painting. In 1809 Miss Hoffman, the lady to whom he was engaged, died. Her picture and a lock of her hair were found among his papers after his death. His first book was Knickerbocker's History of New York, which Scott pronounced "a most excellent jocose history," and which proved a great success. During a second trip to Europe in 1815 he wrote most of the papers afterwards gathered in The Sketch Book. Literature of course was his vocation, and law was not thought of after his first success as a writer. In 1832 he bought "Sunnyside," a Dutch stone cottage on the Hudson at Tarrytown, now Irvington, and was here visited by many distinguished persons, and here he died suddenly of heart disease, in the same year in which Prescott and Macaulay died. HIS GENIUS.-"Irving possessed the rare and valuable endowment of a thoroughly healthy nature; nothing bitter, morbid or sensational ever came from him. He was a spontaneous optimist; he declined to look upon the gloomy and sinister side of life. His intellectual ship was not a vessal of deep draft; but her lines were graceful, her sails white, her movement lightsome and she sailed on summer seas; the hand upon her helm ever steered her towards the Happy Isles. His success as a writer surprised and almost intimidated him; he could not believe that his work was so excellent as the public declared it to be. This, no doubt, was because the work was the genuine and unforced product of his temperament, which was normally literary; he could not guage a quality so intimate to himself. Humor ranging from playful to broad was a prominent feature of his writings; and allied with it was a sincere and refined vein of pathos. His observation was accurate and graphic, his perception of character picturesque and sympathetic, his judgment sane and serene. His mind was creative, tho not on a profound scale; he was wanting in the constructive faculty; and there were regions of human nature which he made no attempt to explore. But in his own gentle and charming sphere he was altogether admirable."-Hawthorne and Lemmon. HIS SERVICE. "No later American writer has surpassed him in charm. Before Irving had discovered the beauty of the Hudson the river was as lovely as it is to-day, but its legends were little known. He it was who peopled the green nooks of Sleepy Hollow and the rocky crags of the Catskills. His genius was not stalwart or rugged, and it did not conquer admiration; it won its way softly, by the aid of sentiment and of humor. "Knickerkocker's History," and the "Sketch Book," and the "Alhambra" are his titles to fame; not the "Columbus" or the "Washington." He had the conscience of the historian, and he could color his narrative artistically and give it movement; but others could do this as well as he. But to call into being a civilization, to give to a legend the substance of truth, to present a fiction so that it passes for fact and is ac cepted by the people and gets into common. speech-this is a feat very few authors have ever accomplished. Irving did it, and his greatest work is not any one of his booksit is the Knickerbocker legend."-Mathews, Introd. to American Literature. In the Churchyard at Tarrytown. Here lies the gentle humorist, who died Here in the autumn of his days he came, Governor Van Twiller. His He was exactly five feet six inches in height and six feet five inches in circumference. head was a perfect sphere and of such stupendous dimensions that dame nature, with all her. sex's ingenuity, would have been puzzled to construct a neck capable of sustaining it, wherefore she wisely declined the attempt and settled it firmly on the top of his backbone, just between the shoulders. His body was oblong, and particularly capacious at bottom, which was wisely ordained by Providence, seeing that he was a man of sedentary habits, and very averse to the idle labor of walking. His legs were short, but sturdy in proportion to the weight they had to sustain; so that, when erect, he had not a little the appearance of a beer barrel on skids. His face, that infallible index of the mind, presented a vast expanse, unfurrowed by any of those lines and angles which disfigure the human countenance with what is called expression. Two small grey eyes twinkled feebly in the midst, like two stars of lesser magnitude in a hazy firmament, and his full-fed cheeks, which seemed to have taken toll of everything that went into his mouth, were curiously mottled and streaked with dusky red, like a Spitzenburg apple.——— History of New York. [The following extract from The Alhambra illustrates well Washington Irving's manner, its easy narrative, playful and sympathetic humor, fondness for legend and anecdote, graphic description and wealth of materials. Some unfamiliar words in this selection may well be made use of for increasing the reader's vocabulary and range of information.] In the Alhambra. At the gate were two or three ragged superannuated soldiers, dozing on a stone bench, the successors of the Zegris and the Abencer rages; while a tall, meagre varlet, whose rustybrown cloak was evidently intended to conceal the ragged state of his nether garments, was lounging in the sunshine and gossiping with an ancient sentinel on duty. He joined us as we entered the gate, and offered his services to show us the fortress. I have a traveller's dislike to officious ciceroni, and did not altogether like the garb of the applicant. kind of barbican, through which passed the main entrance to the fortress. Within the barbican was another group of veteran invalids, one mounting guard at the portal, while the rest, wrapped in their tattered cloaks, slept on the stone benches. This portal is called the Gate of Justice, from the tribunal held within its porch during the Moslem domination, for the immediate trial of petty causes: a custom common to the Oriental nations, and occasion "You are well acquainted with the place, I ally alluded to in the Sacred Scriptures. presume?" "Ninguno mas; pues señor, soy hijo de la Alhambra." (Nobody better; in fact, sir, I am a son of the Alhambra!) The common Spaniards have certainly a most poetical way of expressing themselves. "A son of the Alhambra!" the appellation caught me at once; the very tattered garb of my new acquaintance assumed a dignity in my eyes. It was emblematic of the fortunes of the place, and befitted the progeny of a ruin. We are I put some further questions to him, and found that his title was legitimate. His family had lived in the fortress from generation to generation ever since the time of the Conquest. His name was Mateo Ximenes. "Then, perhaps," said I, "you may be a descendant from the great Cardinal Ximenes?"-"Dios Sabe! God knows, Señor! It may be so. the oldest family in the Alhambra,-Christianos Viejos, old Christians, without any taint of Moor or Jew. I know we belong to some great family or other, but I forget whom. My father knows all about it; he has the coat of arms hanging up in his cottage, up in the fortress." There is not any Spaniard, however poor, but has some claim to high pedigree. The first title of this ragged worthy, however, had completely captivated me; so I gladly accepted the services of the "son of the Alhambra." We now found ourselves in a deep, narrow ravine, filled with beautiful groves, with a steep avenue, and various footpaths winding through it, bordered with stone seats and ornamented with fountains. To our left we beheld the towers of the Alhambra beetling above us; to our right, on the opposite side of the ravine, we were equally dominated by rival towers on a rocky eminence. These, we were told, were the Torres Vermejos, or vermillion towers, so called from their ruddy hue. No one knows their origin. They are of a date much anterior to the Alhambra: some suppose them to have been built by the Romans; others, by some wandering colony of Phoenicians. Ascending the steep and shady avenue, we arrived at the foot of a huge square Moorish tower, forming a "Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. The great vestibule, or porch of the gate, is formed by an immense Arabian arch, of the horseshoe form, which springs to half the height of the tower. On the keystone of this arch is engraven a gigantic hand. Within the vestibule, on the keystone of the portal, is sculptured, in like manner, a gigantic key. Those who pretend to some knowledge of Mohammedan symbols, affirm that the hand is the emblem of doctrine; the five fingers designating the five principal commandments of the creed of Islam, fasting, pilgrimage, alms-giving, ablution, and war against infidels. The key, say they, is the emblem of the faith or of power; the key of Daoud, or David, transmitted to the prophet. "And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open." (Isaiah xxii 22.) The key we are told was emblazoned on the standard of the Moslems in opposition to the Christian emblem of the cross, when they subdued Spain or Andalusia. It betokened the conquering power invested in the prophet. "He that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth; and shutteth and no man openeth." (Rev. iii. 7.) A different explanation of these emblems, however, was given by the legitimate son of the Alhambra, and one more in unison with the notions of the common people, who attach something of mystery and magic to everything Moorish, and have all kinds of superstitions connected with this old Moslem fortress. According to Mateo, it was a tradition handed down from the oldest inhabitants, and which he had from his father and grandfather, that the hand and key were magical devices on which the fate of the Alhambra depended. The Moorish king who built it was a great magician, or, as some believed, had sold himself to the devil, and had laid the whole fortress under a magic spell. By this means it had remained standing for several years, in defiance of storms and earthquakes, while almost all other buildings of the Moors had fallen to ruin and disappeared. This spell, the tradition went on to say, would last until the hand on the outer arch should reach down and grasp the key, when the whole pile would tumble to pieces, and all the treasures buried beneath it by the Moors would be revealed. Notwithstanding this ominous prediction, we ventured to pass through the spell-bound gateway, feeling some little assurance against magic art in the protection of the Virgin, a statue of whom we observed above the portal. After passing through the barbican, we ascended a narrow lane, winding between walls, and came on an open esplanade within the fortress called the Plaza de los Algibes, or Place of the Cisterns, from great reservoirs which undermine it, cut in the living rock by the Moors to receive the water brought by conduits from the Darro, for the supply of the fortress. Here, also, is a well of immense depth, furnishing the purest and coldest of water,-another monument of the delicate taste of the Moors, who were indefatigable in their exertions to obtain that element in its crystal purity. In front of this esplanade is the splendid pile commenced by Charles V., and intended, it is said, to eclipse the residence of the Moorish kings. Much of the Oriental edifice intended for the winter season was demolished to make way for this massive pile. The grand entrance was blocked up; so that the present entrance to the Moorish palace is through a simple and almost humble portal in a corner. With all the massive grandeur and architectural merit of the palace of Charles V., we regarded it as an arrogant intruder, and passing by it with a feeling almost of scorn, rang at the Moslem portal. While waiting for admittance, our self-imposed cicerone, Mateo Ximenes, informed us. that the royal palace was intrusted to the care of a worthy old maiden dame called Doña Antonio-Molina, but who, according to Spanish custom, went by the more neighborly appellation of Tia Antonia (Aunt Antonia), who maintained the Moorish halls and gardens in order and showed them to strangers. While we were talking, the door was opened by a plump little black-eyed Andalusian damsel, whom Mateo, addressed as Dolores, but who from her bright looks and cheerful disposition evidently merited a merrier name. Mateo informed me in a whisper that she was the niece of Tia Antonia, and I found she was the good fairy who was to conduct us through the enchanted palace. Under her guidance we crossed the threshold, and were at once transported, as if by magic wand, into other times and an oriental realm, and were treading the scenes of Arabian story. Nothing could be in greater contrast than the unpromising exterior of the pile with the scene now before us. We found ourselves in a vast patio or court, one hundred and fifty feet in length, and upwards of eighty feet in breadth, paved with white marble, and decorated at each end with light Moorish peristyles, one of which supported an elegant gallery of fretted architecture. Along the mouldings of the cornices and on various parts of the walls were escutcheons and ciphers, and cufic and Arabic characters in high relief, repeating the pious mottoes of the Moslem monarchs, the builders of the Alhambra, or extolling their grandeur and munificence. Along the centre of the court extended an immense basin or tank (estanque), a hundred and twentyfour feet in length, twenty-seven in breadth, and five in depth, receiving its water from two marble vases. Hence it is called the Court of the Alberca (from al Beerkah, the Arabic for a pond or tank). Great numbers of gold-fish were to be seen gleaming through the waters of the basin, and it was bordered by hedges of roses, Passing from the court of the Alberca under a Moorish archway, we entered the renowned court of Lions. No part of the edifice gives a more complete idea of its original beauty than this, for none has suffered so little from the ravages of time. In the center stands the fountain famous in song and story. The alabaster basins still shed their diamond drops; the twelve lions which support them and give the court its name, still cast forth crystal streams as in the days of Boabdil. The lions, however, are unworthy of their fame, being of miserable sculpture, the work probably of some Christian captive. The court is laid out in flower beds, instead of its ancient and appropriate pavement of tiles or marble; the alteration, an instance of bad taste, was made by the French when in possession of Granada. Round the four sides of the court are light Arabian arcades of open filigree work, supported by slender pillars of white marble, which it is supposed were originally gilded. architecture, like that in most parts of the interior of the palace, is characterized by elegance rather than grandeur, bespeaking a delicate and graceful taste, and a disposition to indolent enjoyment. When one looks upon the fairy traces of the peristyles, and the apparently fragile fretwork of the walls, it is difficult to believe that so much has survived the wear and tear of centuries, the shocks of earthquakes, the violence of war, and the quiet, The |