attained. My fair
Americans were undoubtedly intelligent, and even spasmodically
hard-working, but their impatience of sustained, systematic work,
combined with--or rather caused by--their devotion to social pleasures,
not one of which they would forego on any consideration, prevented them
from reaping any appreciable benefit. I instance their case, not because
it was the first or the only one of the kind that fell into my hands,
but because it revealed to me at the outset a trait of the American
character--especially of the women--which confronted me at every turn of
the road afterward; namely, _a want of repose_--a defect which would
seem to be largely accountable for the insensibility manifested by a
great portion of the American young women of the middle classes to the
fact that they have advantages at school such as their sisters in
England would accept in an ecstasy of gratitude.

About the middle of my first summer I was advised to try one of the
school "agencies" that abound in the larger cities, especially in New
York; and I accordingly registered myself in the best-known and most
widely-recommended office. Perhaps it may be of interest to the reader
unversed in such matters to learn what are the conditions on which an
agent undertakes to introduce an applicant to persons wishing a teacher.
To begin, the teacher fills up a "form of application" by naming his
qualifications and references, and affixing his signature to the
contract between him and the agent, the terms of which are as follows:
"Registration for one year, two dollars in advance; commission, four and
a half per cent. of salary or income for one year only--board, when
included in compensation, to be rated at two hundred dollars for the
school-year. This commission is due as soon as the engagement is made."
In the printed receipt which is handed the applicant there is a curt,
business-like recapitulation of all the conditions, in which occurs the
following memorandum: "I shall give you notice of vacancies as they
occur which, _in my judgment_, seem suited to your wishes and
qualifications." The italics are my own. An admirable loophole of
retreat, truly: "in my judgment"! When a despondent candidate wakes up
morning after morning for months to read in the newspapers over the
signature of his agent such an advertisement as this: "Engagements for
the fall term now being made. Many teachers wanted. Capable persons
should not delay in coming forward,"--i