COOKED AND ROASTED

When Lamb's young Ho-bo destroyed his father's house and incidentally cooked the pigs, the news spread about the neighborhood and a general conflagration was the result. It was soon discovered, however, that burning the family homestead was a costly and round-about method of securing a few pork chops and as a result improved methods were brought into practice, as every one knows.

It may seem a long step from "burnt pig" to education, but there is a certain analogy in the fact that modern education like modern pork is practically laid before us cooked and ready to be eaten.

One hears, these days, of individuals spending days, or weeks in a convict prison, involving a considerable amount of hardship, to receive, at the end of the period, a certain pecuniary' reward. In the past education could be compared to effort of this sort, but its modern version is more like a ride in a Pullman car, with only the fare to pay and a tip for the porter at the end of the journey. Of course, paying the fare is sometimes an inconvenience, but most things have to be paid for, even the unreturned shirts in last week's laundry. Education still requires a certain amount of study, but that is almost negligible when put beside that of the days before text books were written, before translations were made, before "prep" schools were allowed, and before electric lights, Waldorfs, and hot showers were discovered.

But a Pullman trip is deceptive. The seats are too soft, the head rest too comfortable, and the porters, when properly encouraged, too obliging. It is altogether dangerously easy to doze off and miss the best part of the journey.