arying sounds of consonants, and
so on endlessly--spelling becoming a perfect amusement, and, at the same
time, training the pupil in many delicate shades of sound, and in
analyzing and remembering words.

Grammar is conveyed, not by that farce in teaching, and that cross to
all children, grammatical rules, which are, in fact, the expressions of
the final fruit of knowledge, but the teacher writes incorrectly on the
blackboard, both in spelling, punctuation, and grammar, and the children
must correct this; thus learning from the senses and usage, instead of
from abstract rules. Reading is given as nearly as possible in
conversational tones, and the old loud, mechanical sing-song is
forbidden.

The principle most insisted on in all this system is, that the child
should teach himself as far as possible; that his faculties should do
the work, and not the teacher's; and the dull and slow pupil is
especially to be led on and encouraged. But, as might be supposed, the
teacher's task, under the object method, is no sinecure. She can no
longer slip along the groove of mechanical teaching. She must be
wide-awake, inventive, constantly on the _qui vive_ to stir up her
pupils' minds. The droning over lessons, and letting children repeat,
parrot-like, long lists of words, is not for her. She must be always
seeking out some new thing and making her pupils observe and think for
themselves. Her duty is a hard one. But this is the only true teaching;
and we trust that no Primary School in New York will be without a
well-trained "Object-teacher."

CHAPTER XVII.

THE LITTLE ITALIAN ORGAN-GRINDERS.

Among the various rounds I was in the habit of making in the poorest
quarters, was one through the Italian quarter of the "Five Points."
Here, in large tenement-houses, were packed hundreds of poor Italians,
mostly engaged in carrying through the city and country "the everlasting
hand-organ," or selling statuettes. In the same room I would find
monkeys, children, men and women, with organs and plaster-casts, all
huddled together; but the women contriving still, in the crowded rooms,
to roll their dirty macaroni, and all talking excitedly; a bedlam of
sounds, and a combination of odors from garlic, monkeys, and most dirty
human persons. They were, without exception, the dirtiest population I
had met with. The children I saw every day in the streets, following
organs, blackening boots, se