PRINCIPLES, MASTERING
Learning must be transformed into life. One would not expect to find the yeast if he made a cross-section of a loaf of bread. A cow eats grass all day, but we do not expect the cow to give grass. She is expected to give milk. A boy may study arithmetic and learn to do a few examples correctly. He can tell if each shoe is to have five nails, how many it will take to shoe a horse. But suppose the horse’s shoes needed six nails? He is baffled because he has found a case which was not met by his example; but when he masters the principle of which his sum is but an illustration, he can address himself to the problems of life as they come.—Everett D. Burr, “Proceedings of the Religious Education Association,” 1905.
(2511)
PRISON LIFE, EASY
French prisons, it is said, are such pleasant places of confinement that at the approach of every winter they are besieged by requests from vagrants for shelter.
Fresnes is notorious for its “hospitality,” and so agreeable is a sojourn there that many criminals, at the approach of winter, regularly arrange to get locked up until it is time to come out into the balmy air of springtime and the genial sunshine.
A short time since, the story goes, a new prison in France was opened to receive its first prisoner, sentenced to six months’ detention. The new establishment had cost nearly $20,000 to build and equip, but unfortunately the prison budget made no allowance for the warders and their “guests.”
The governor finally solved the dilemma by deciding that a policeman, who was married, should take up his quarters in the prison and serve the prisoner with his meals. But after a few days the policeman got tired of this. The profit made on the arrangement was very small, and in a confidential tone he confided to the prisoner that, if he cared to take “French leave,” he would see that every facility was given him to do so. But his charge quickly reassured him on the point.
“I’m all right here,” he said. “Your wife is an excellent cook. You are all very kind to me. This is a nice, new prison. I haven’t been so well off for a long time. You don’t catch me running away. What’s more, if you discharge me, I’ll jolly soon be back.”