t is no doubt consoling to him to
infer that had the "judgment" perceived him to be suited for any of
these presumably numerous vacancies, he would certainly have had the
judgment's dictum to that effect.

In the course of a year I received notices of two vacancies. One was the
principalship of a boarding-school somewhere in West Virginia, in which
I should have to realize what income I might from the payments for board
at a rate prescribed by the patrons of the establishment. The difficulty
with me in this case was that before I came near the question, "What are
the chances of success in such an undertaking?" the previous question
presented itself as even more difficult: "Where am I to get the money
with which to make the attempt?" The other vacancy was a mastership in a
school in Portland, Oregon. My health has always been robust, especially
since my deliverance from the Centennial and solar fervors of 1875 and
1876, and therefore I had no desire to try the paradisiacal climate of
the uttermost West; but, nevertheless, I wrote twice, at an interval of
a month, to the address with which I had been furnished, and at last
received a letter from a bishop's wife, intimating that "there must be
some mistake: no vacancy had occurred in that institution for many
months." _Quis declarabit?_ A mistake or a myth?

Now, as no American will deny that there are a few things which are
better managed in England than in the United States, I submit that the
method of bringing teacher and employer into communication by means of a
professional agent is one of these things. At all events, there is
nothing equivocal about the English method. Let the reader judge for
himself from the following details: (1) The registration-fee is one
shilling, not eight (two dollars). (2) The commission--generally five
per cent.--is payable, not as soon as an engagement is made, but at the
end of the first half year of service, and _provided only that there is
to be a continuance of the engagement_: surely a beneficent provision
for the poor teacher. (3) One cannot travel very far in Britain: for ten
dollars one can go from London to John O'Groat's. (4) Vacancies are
announced by bulletin in the office as they occur, and a notification is
sent by post to distant registered candidates: secrecy in regard to the
whereabouts and emoluments of a position is quite unnecessary, because
the principals who patronize--or, rather, hire--the agent will employ
teachers