| Children of | ||
| States. | school age. | Enrollment. |
| California | 215,978 | 158,765 |
| Connecticut | 140,235 | 119,694 |
| Massachusetts | 307,321 | 309,777 |
| Michigan | 506,221 | 362,556 |
| New Jersey | 330,685 | 204,961 |
| New York | 1,641,173 | 1,031,593 |
| Ohio | 1,043,320 | 747,138 |
The table below gives the corresponding statistics for an equal number of States not having such laws, as nearly adjacent as possible:
| Children of | ||
| States. | school age. | Enrollment. |
| Oregon | 59,615 | 37,533 |
| Maine | 214,656 | 149,827 |
| Rhode Island | 52,273 | 44,780 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,370,000 | 937,310 |
| Delaware | 35,459 | 27,823 |
| Indiana | 703,558 | 511,283 |
| Iowa | 586,556 | 426,057 |
This comparison sheds very uncertain light upon the question as to the effect of compulsory attendance laws, because the school age period is different in different States, and it does not show the number of pupils in private schools. It would be far more interesting in this connection if it included only all children of the ages within the compulsory period in each State, and gave the number of such children enrolled in schools of any sort before and after the passage of the law. Nevertheless, these tables do indicate plainly enough that such laws are not strictly enforced in any State, and are, comparatively speaking, a dead letter in others.
BASHFULNESS WORSE THAN FEAR.
Oregon, Ill.
What brave man was it that said he had suffered far more from bashfulness than from fear?
Subscriber.
Answer.—It was “John Brown, of Ossawatomie,” the hero of the Harper’s Ferry plot to emancipate as many as possible of the slaves of Virginia and Maryland, and lead them on an exodus into Canada. Being asked, on the way to the scaffold, if he felt any fear, he replied: “It has been a characteristic of me from infancy not to suffer from physical fear. I have suffered a thousand times more from bashfulness than from fear.”