It is held that when the efficiency of the new scientific method is demonstrated in practice, the "unit system" will be applied to the Charities Department, the Police Department, and various other departments of the city service, and to school systems and public departments of other American cities.

Considering, then, the enormous interests involved, every parent, every teacher, every taxpayer, and, indeed, every good citizen, should await the findings of the Board of Education's committee of five with the keenest attention. It is peculiarly appropriate that what promises to be one of the most significant reforms in the entire history of our school system should be inaugurated on the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the New York public schools.-Harper's Weckly.

There was, he said, too much of this cat-chasing-its-tail at the present time in England. There was too much worship of athletics. In America, continued the professor, it was otherwise. It was a country of pioneers, and its blood was infused with the pioneer spirit. We, on the other hand, were a slow-going, old-fashioned, behind-the-times country. Energy was ever alive in America; here it plodded half-asleep.

England was the country in the world to make a tube electric railway-the City and South London. But where was England now in urban railway matters? Hopelessly behind our cousins over the Atlantic. Yet, when England did wake. up-alas! that it was so seldom-she mostly overtook her competitors. One instance of this was the high-speed tool steel, first made in America and sent here. For a time England slept on the

matter. Then she got up, and to-day she was beating the world in making high-speed tool steel. Perhaps, after all, our climate was much to blame.

Another vital matter was the willingness to receive new ideas. It was a known fact the world over that Great Britain was like a parochial meeting in the matter of new ideas. America "scrapped" antiquated ideas, methods, and machinery, and was bearing down on us from the West. Japan had "scrapped" her worn-out civilization and other features, and would bear down on

us from the East.

THE USE AND ABUSES OF WATER.

To prevent the dropping of the subcutaneous fat and its various disfiguring effects, the face should always be washed and dried in an upward direction.

The beauty of color and texture of the skin depends on the general health, and the cleanliness and freedom of its myriad

pores, but the repeated washing of the face in a large quantity of water is a mistake. The face requires thorough cleansing morning and night. During the day the most that is required is wiping it with a little water, in which is a little good toilet water, or the latter by itself only.

No water should be used without hav

ing been previously boiled, and, if required cold, left to become so. It is then equivalent in softness to rain water. In ordinary cases the water should be of much the same temperature as the air of the room, but if the skin is becoming flabby, and requires tone and strength, the face should be washed in hot water, using the purest soap-if any-and this only once a day, and at night in preference then well rinsed in tepid water, and finally in cold. This gradation of temperature gives vitality to the skin, and preserves it from injury by the sudden variations of this changeable climate.

If the cheeks are hollow, or becoming so, they should, while wet with the cold water, be rubbed with a soft curly towel, round and round in the hollow part, and deeply, so as to affect the muscles, not the skin only. This brings fresh red blood to feed the muscles, and by strengthening and rendering them firm causes them to fill out the sunken cheeks.

plined constituency. Not only that, but at the first timid blink of the sun the true Scotsman, remarks smilingly, "I think now we shall be having settled weather!" It is a pathetic optimism, beautiful but quite groundless.

But what loyal son of Edinburgh cares for these transatlantic gibes, and where is the dweller within her royal gates who fails to succumb to the sombre beauty of that old gray town of the North? "Gray! why, it is gray, or gray and gold, or gray and gold and blue, or gray and gold and blue and green, or gray and gold and blue and green and purple, according as the heaven pleases and you choose your ground! But take it when it is most sombrely gray, where is another such gray city?"

We ate a hearty breakfast that first morning, and prepared to go out for a walk into the great unknown, perhaps the most pleasurable sensation in the world. Francesca was ready first, and, having mentioned the fact several times ostentatiously, she went into the drawing-room to wait and read "The Scotsman." When we went thither a few minutes later we found that she had disappeared.

Mrs. M'Collop appeared from the basement, and vouchsafed the information that she had seen "the young leddy rinnin' after the regiment."

"Running after the regiment!" repeated Salemina automatically. "What a reversal of the laws of nature! Why, in Berlin, it was always the regiment that used to run after her!"

We learned in what direction the soldiers had gone, and pursuing the same path found the young lady on the corner of a street near by. She was quite unabashed. "You don't know what you have missed!" she said excitedly. "Let us get into this tram, and possibly we can head them off somewhere. They may be going into battle, and if so my heart's blood is at their service. It is one of those experiences that come only once in a lifetime. There were pipes and there were kilts! I didn't suppose they ever really wore them outside of the theatre! When you have seen the kilts swinging, Salemina, you will never be the same woman afterwards! You never expected

to see the Olympian gods walking, did you? Well, these gods walked, if you can call the inspired gait a walk! If there is a single spinster left in Scotland, it is because none of these ever asked her to marry him. Ah, how grateful I ought to be that I am free to say 'Yes' if a Kilt ever asks me to be his! I wish the tram would go faster! There they are, there they are there somewhere; don't you hear them?”

There they were, indeed, filing down the grassy slopes of the Gardens, swinging across one of the stone bridges, and winding up the Castle Hill to the Esplanade like a long, glittering snake; the streamers of their Highland bonnets waving, their arms glistening in the sun, and the bagpipes playing "The March of the Cameron Men.' The pipers themselves were mercifully hidden from us on that first occasion, and it was well, for we could never have borne another feather's weight of ecstasy.

We looked down over the grassy chasm that separates the New from the Old Town; looked our first on Arthur's Seat, that crouching lion of a mountain; saw the Corstorphine Hills, and Calton Heights, and Salisbury Crags, and finally that stupendous bluff of rock that culminates so majestically in Edinburgh Castle. The men who would have the courage to build such a castle in such a spot are all dead, and no more like unto them will ever be born. The castle was too much for my imagination. I was mounted and off and away from the first moment that I gazed upon its embattled towers. The spell is upon me. "Come on, Macduff!" I am the son of a Gael! My dagger is in my belt, and with the guid broadsword at my side I can with one blow cut a man in twain! My bow is cut from the wood of the yews of Glenure; the shaft is from the wood of Lochetine, the feathers from the great golden eagles of Lochtreigside! My arrowhead was made by the smiths of the race of Macphedran! "Come on, Macduff!"

If a man really iz anxious tew make munny on a pharm, the less theory he lays in the better.

Let us conduct you first to Ireland, the Emerald Isle. It is quite a common habit among us to regard Ireland as being far behind other nations in the march of reform; and that for the progress she has made she is indebted to her more fortunate neighbors on the other side of the Channel. Whatever may be said of Ireland as far as progress in other matters is concerned, she has a noble past at least in connection with Christianity. For Ireland's Christianity is about the oldest thing that is known, and the Irish Church is the oldest of all the Protestant Churches which are to-day represented in modern Christendom.

That Ireland is to-day not so prosperous as she might be, no one who knows her state will deny. To-day Ireland is the bane of England, a burden to herself, and a wonder to the world. And those who know her sad history, and her struggles now for political and anon for religious freedom, do not wonder much at this. Ireland's trouble to-day is not that she is allied to England, but that she is allied to Rome; for her Protestants are peaceful and prosperous, while her Catholics are disaffected and disloyal.

Whatever her future may be, and in whatever way her present quarrel may be settled, no Irishman, and certainly no Presbyterian Irishman, need ever be ashamed of his country's past. Ireland's past is no inglorious one. She had a free Gospel when the rest of the world had none. She was bathed in spiritual light

when other nations, which now boast of their superiority, were pining in midnight darkness. Irish Presbyterians can trace their Church's history back to the remote past, and can link themselves to those simple-minded Christians who lived and died long before Roman Catholicism came to blight their beautiful Isle with its dark shadow.

Early in the fifth century there were from four to seven hundred ministers in the Irish Church. These were in no sense of the term prelates, but ministers of separate Presbyterian Churches. In all its primitive purity they preached a simple Gospel, and met, with their congregations, to worship God according to the polity of their Church. This happy state of Church life continued at least for three centuries. Missionaries were sent during that time to Scotland, Germany, and Switzerland, while schools and colleges of learning were established in many of the surrounding countries.

ST. PATRICK.

The name of St. Patrick (Sukkat or Patricius) stands out prominently during this period. He was born at Kilpatrick, in Scotland, somewhere in the end of the fourth century. At the age of sixteen years a party of roving freebooters carried him a prisoner to Ballymena in Ireland. Patrick's captivity brought him the greatest blessing of his life-his conversion. Like his Master he became a man of prayer, and often spent entire nights in prayer among the woods or on the hillside. After spending six years as a slave he was permitted to return to his parents in Scotland. One night not long after his return he had a dream, in which he thought a messenger brought him a number of letters from Ireland. One letter was styled, "The Voice of the Irish." Patrick thought at once of Ireland's needs, and at once resolved to return as a missionary to the country of his former captivity. He carried out his resolve and became one of the greatest benefactors Ireland ever had. Once in Tara he preached to the King of Meath and illustrated the doc

trine of the Trinity-Three in One and One in Three-by the three-leaved shamrock, which has since become Ireland's favorite flower.

Presbyterianism, as it now exists in Ireland, was carried over in the beginning of the seventeenth century, when bands of Presbyterians crossed over from Scotland and settled down in Ulster,

Chosen leaf of bard and chief: Old Erin's favorite shamrock."

The following is the prayer uttered at Tara on the occasion referred to:

"At Tara to-day may the power of God guide me; the might of God uphold me; the wisdom of God teach me; the eye of God watch over me; the Son of God hear me. May the Word of God give me speed; the hand of God protect me; the shield of God shelter me; and the host of God defend me. May Christ protect me to-day against poisoning burning, drowning, wounds. Let Christ be with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ at my right hand, Christ at my left hand, Christ in every eye that sees me, and Christ in every ear that hears me. Amen."

On March 17th, now known as St. Patrick's Day, in the year 490, Patrick fell asleep, and was buried at Downpatrick, where is tomb is pointed out to this day.

But why dwell on St. Patrick here, was he not a Roman Catholic? and has that Church not canonized him as one of its saints? It certainly has. And yet it is just as certain that Patrick was not a Roman Catholic. There is not one single trace of Romish doctrine in his writings. Mariolatry, auricular confession, and clerical celibacy, he never once mentions. With him Christ is all and in all. The Bible is his supreme standard of truth, and all his teaching in every particular is Presbyterian. And hence when St. Patrick's Day comes around Presbyterians can with gratitude call to memory the labors of this earnest and devoted man.

we

For centuries after St. Patrick's death there was a pure and prosperous Presbyterian Church in Ireland. But in course of time Romanism gained an entrance, spread rapidly all over the country, and a dark night settled down on Ireland.

flourished ever since.

SIEGE OF DERRY.

One of the most thrilling episodes in connection with the British Isles refers to this time, and was transacted in .Ireland. This is the siege and relief of Derry, or Londonderry, a beautiful town on Lough Foyle, in the north of Ireland. We would advise our readers to read the history of this siege as related by Lord Macaulay in his History of England.

Charles II. died in 1685, and was succeeded by his brother, James II., of unhappy memory. James was a bigoted Catholic, and at once set about making Romanism the national religion. In Ireland he acted promptly and without disguise. Tyrconnel, a zealous and narrowminded Catholic, was appointed Lord Deputy. "Lying Dick Talbot" was his usual and fully-merited name. Protestants in public office were superseded by Catholics, and the complete ascendancy of Romanism was aimed at in the country. This, happily for Ireland, was frustrated in a rather singular man

ner.

ter.

All

On a December day, in 1688, a letter was found lying in one of the streets of a little village called Comber, situated a few miles from Belfast. This letter was addressed to Earl Mount-Alexander; and it stated that a general massacre of Protestants by Protestants by Catholics had been planned for December 9th, which was only six days after the writing of the letCopies of this letter were freely distributed all around. One of these reached Derry on December 7th. By a curious coincidence on the same day another letter reached the town, stating that a regiment of Roman Catholic soldiers commanded by Lord Antrim was marching towards Derry. These letters arriving at the same time caused great consternation. December 9th was near, and it was generally believed that Antrim's regiment was coming to take part in the general massacre.